Becka's Hen Do

With the days counting down until the wedding of the century, I made my way through the gorgeous countryside to the village of Nassington for Becka's hen do!

I arrived early in the morning, on our way to our Norfolk holiday and made myself comfortable in the cottage that had been hired for the event. During the morning, we explored the area, taking a little countryside walk down the nearby byway. Then we managed to get Becka out of the way whilst we set up for the afternoon tea party!

Just how beautiful is this! Becka's Mum and sister did a wonderful job making all of the delicious food, all laid out on the gorgeous china. It was a lovely do for the wonderful bride to be and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had a train to catch to take me to our holiday.

Christmas Day 2015

Christmas Day started at 3:30am in our buzzy household. At 3:45am I heard a rustling noise, I went into Louie's bedroom to find him wide awake surrounded by the gifts from his stocking!! Bless him, he was just too excited. We gathered up the gifts and tucked him back up into bed and he promised to go back to sleep! At about 6, I woke again and went in to him and the gifts were out again! Lego built, meccano built, books read - the little bee was incredibly excited and he couldn't contain himself! Santa even brought him a horse stable for the horses he had in his advent calendar, isn't Santa clever!

At about 7:30, we went down to do the presents. My first gift was the Hornsea pottery, genuine 1970's tea cup, which was absolutely perfect! We all had a selection of gifts but the main event was a very special present from Santa, but not from the North Pole, from somewhere in the South Pacific...

There was only one gift that Louie had asked Santa for this year, Tracy Island. And as Dan and I had both wanted it as a child and we were painfully denied (!), we both agreed that it was only fair to get one for Louie (so that we could relive our childhoods and play with it too...). We hunted down the original Matchbox Tracy Island from 1993 and the Weetabix figures to match too. Everyone was so excited!

After lunch, Nana and Grandad arrived. Louie changed into his adorable Christmas outfit and we all had some more gorgeous gifts including the Lego racing truck Louie has wanted for months (and subsequently forgotten about) and some deckchairs for the summer! Just what I had wanted! We were all very grateful :)

Then it was time for Christmas dinner.

We started with Paté, then for the main event we had roast ham with piggies and so much veg. Pudding was a little funny! As I don't like Christmas Pud, I made a Chocolate Tart for Louie and I but bought a little pud for everyone else, however I didn't look at the instructions! 2 hours to steam, oops! So we did have to make an emergency plea to our next door neighbour, they popped it in their microwave and saved the day!

By the time we had finished dinner, it was bedtime for a little bee. He was asleep in minutes (oh man, he was tired!) and then after Nana and Grandad took off home, Dan sat and played on his playstation for a little while, which is a treat for him, and I had a lovely look through my lovely gifts.

What a perfect Christmas.

#heidishen

For weeks and weeks, my bridesmaids and Mother Hen have been plotting behind my back, a secret Hen Party. All I have known is the date, I didn't even know who was going to attend. This morning, I got all ready and waited for my chauffeur to arrive (also known as my sister...), I donned my blindfold and off we went.
Even though I guessed the direction we were going on (I seriously think that my super power would be navigation!) I had no idea as to where we would be going or what we would be doing.

We arrived at Stapleford Park hotel. A beautiful 4 star country house deep in the Leicestershire countryside. We were escorted through the house to the billiard room which had been decorated beautifully by my little team of hens! Photographs covered the walls, canapés made by Becka decorated the table and two hair stylists were waiting to give us all vintage makeovers!

I was so pleased to see this friendly face! Helen, my friend from school who now lives in Edinburgh made it back to spend the day with us, it couldn't have been any more special! 

 In total there were 8 of us, Laura and Nicola from work, Hellie from school, Anna and myself, Mother Hen, Teresa my sister and my lovely Becka!!

After we had all been beautified, it was time for our afternoon tea. Most of us chose to sample the extensive tea menu. Coffee and Ameretto, Mango, Passionfruit and Hibiscus and Rose were just some of the delights that we chose. 

We had a traditional afternoon tea, with neat finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam and a selection of petit fours.  

Thankfully we were indoors all day as the weather was frightful. The view from our window was of beautiful yellow rape fields and incredibly moody skies. Most of the day we watched the rain move in sheets over the golf course in the distance. We would have enjoyed a stroll through the gardens but unfortunately, I was the only one who came prepared, I was 'put off the scent' by being told to bring wellies and a raincoat.

On our way out I was able to see the beautiful surroundings, thankfully no longer blindfolded. We were escorted out by this little pheasant. 

It was a beautiful day, the girls went to so much effort creating a scrapbook, orchestrating a 'Mr and Mrs' quiz (we both got most of the questions right!) and baking so many different things! I had a truly wonderful day.

19 days to go!!!

If you happen to be on instagram, search #heidishen for more photos from the day!

Charlecote Park

A long, lazy day spent at Charlecote Park with Anna and Isaac. It was a  first cream tea of the year, flower spotting, plant buying, long walking kind of day.