May Bank Holiday weekend

We have had a lovely bank holiday weekend ... this is what we have been up to....

On Friday night I went out for dinner followed by cocktails with the mums from school who have children are going up to big school in September, it was lovely catching up with the mums I know and also meeting a few new ones!

Saturday as it was such a lovely day we decided we would go to Barleylands in Billericay to the farmers market - to be honest it was a bit of a disappointment as there was only about 6 stalls there - although we did pick up some delicious sausages from the Giggly Pig Company stall to bbq that evening.

Whilst we were at Barleylands we decided to take the boys to the farm park which is also onsite. This is a great place to visit if you have young kids with plenty to do - tractor rides, little ride on tractors which the kids can ride around the park on, feeding the goats and sheep,  Reptile house with snakes, reptiles and mini beasts,  lamb national racing and a great indoor play centre. I am thinking of purchasing an annual ticket for us all.

On Sunday we went to the Lazybones car boot sale in Rettendon, I wasn't sure what to expect but it was huge with plenty of people selling and buying.

I managed to pick up a few bargains -

• 2 murder mystery games which I am looking forward to having some friends over to play one evening - £5
• white serving platter which I am thinking would be really nice filled with fruit or veggies with a dip - £1
• A cute little glass jar with christmas trees on it - which I am going to fill with sweets over the festive period - £1
• Mediterranean terracotta dish which matches a lasagne and salad dish I brought years ago from debenhams - 50p  

The weather turned windy and cold on Monday so we decided to have a quite day indoors, chilling out and watching movies and thats a wrap on our Bank Holiday weekend and we are back to work tomorrow.

Kelly x

Five on a Friday

Another addition of Five on a Friday

ONE: On Saturday Zack went to one of his pre-school friends Evy's Scooby Doo themed swimming pool party.  The kids had a brilliant time playing about in the pool and after had a lovely lunch in the hall.  Evy's mum Vicky made an amazing Scooby Doo cake and dog tag biscuits for the kids to decorate.

TWO: With the kids tucked up in bed, Danny and I ordered takeaway pizza and settled down with a glass of wine to watch the Eurovision Song Contest - I love Eurovision even though the UK will never win its still so much fun to watch! This year they changed the voting system by separating the professional jury and the viewers votes - oh my this new voting system was so exciting and when the views phone votes came in it really shook things up - those countries at the bottom of the board suddenly jumped into the top 10 and made it a real nail biting final! - Ukraine won in the end and I am looking forward to next years contest in Kiev

THREE: We are lucky to live in the country in a riverside setting, so this morning I took the kids down to the river to feed the swans.

FOUR: Since we moved into our house nearly six years ago we have done a lot of work on our garden - decking, raised bedding etc  - at the weekend we took a trip to the garden centre to purchase some pots and plants to give our backyard a bit of colour - lets see how they turn out!  Also going to be making some hanging baskets in the next month or so to hang from our shed.

FIVE:  This week one of our neighbours has organised for 5 couples on our street to have a Christmas night out at the Three Rivers Country Club, such a fantastic idea and I am so looking forward to having all these fun things to do over the festive period!

via

Kelly x

Fun in the Sun - Backyard BBQ

OMG wasn't the weather amazing at the weekend!

With the sun out we spent the whole weekend out in the garden and as I am married to a South African this was perfect opportunity for our first bbq (or braai!) of the year - so on Sunday we invited our good friends Steve (who is also South African) his wife Alison and their son over for a few drinks and a bbq, whilst the boys playing with their water guns and in the paddling pool.

Frozen Movie Night

Over the weekend I gave the boys a Frozen themed movie night and dinner.

I have two boys who love their cars, fire engines, playing outside, buzz lightyear and superheros - so imagine my surprise when my 4 year old came home from pre school and wanted to watch Olaf. The boys now love the movie and they actually call it Let it Go rather than Frozen!

As it was a bank holiday weekend I wanted to something fun, I wasn't looking to throw a party or decorate the whole house,  I just wanted to plan a dinner that tied into the movie.

Here is what I planned - 

The kitchen table was decorated in a plain white table cloth and I put a runner of blue wrapping paper down then centre, I have a snowflake punch in my craft cupboard so punched snowflakes out of silver and white wrapping paper and dotted them around the table along with some Christmas snowflake coasters I have.

Our menu consisted of

• Troll Stones - Swedish Meatballs
• Elsa's Snow - Mashed Potato
• Olaf's Noses - Baby Carrots
• Christoff's Ice Blocks - Blue Jelly Cubes
• Frost Bites - Vanilla Ice Cream, Marshmallows and Blue Smarties
• Frozen Waters - Water with ice cubes.

After dinner the boys bathed, put on their pyjamas and we snuggled up on the sofa with blankets to watch the movie - I even had some more frozen themed snacks to pass around - Frozen themed juice cartons and biscuits I found in my local supermarket!

I had so much fun planning this evening, I can't wait for us to have another family movie night.

Five on a Friday

Another addition of Five on a Friday


ONE
My colleague at work has come over to the UK from the US office and brought over this amazing haul of Bath and Body works goodies for me!

TWO
Loving my new monogrammed mug from Anthropologie.

THREE
To early to be thinking about Christmas? Never! Just booked to take the kids to the Robinson Crusoe Pantomine at the Cliffs Pavillion at Southend  - I can't wait to start this wonderful Christmas tradition.

FOUR
After we got back from Liverpool I took Monday off work, I took the opportunity to catch up with a friend for a cuppa at our local indoor play centre.  I was great having a catch up whilst my eldest was a pre school and my youngest could explore the soft play.

FIVE
Woo hoo! its a 3 day weekend so I am going to be enjoying spending the extra time with the boys and family and celebrating my brothers birthday on Saturday.

via

Liverpool

On Friday we travelled to Liverpool to catch up with our good friends Elaine and Cam.  Elaine is one of the girls I met whilst backpacking around Australia in 2004, she met Cam whilst travelling and set up home in Perth and was back home visiting family in Scotland so we decided to have a weekend break half way between Scotland and Essex - we haven't seen them since Summer 2012 so I was so excited to see them!

We arrived in Liverpool on Friday afternoon, checked into the Marriott City Centre which was our base of the next 2 nights and made our way down to the historic Albert Docks to soak up the great waterfront atmosphere, we then walked along the Mersey to Pier Head to the Liver Building and Beatles statue.

Elaine and Cam arrived late afternoon so we made our way back to the hotel to meet with them and get ready to go our for dinner.  We had the most amazing meal and at What's Cooking located in the Albert Dock and had lots of fun catching catching up over cocktails.

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning, first stop was breakfast at Bills

Veggie Breakfast & Eggs Benedict

We then hopped onto Magical Mystery Tour which took us on a 2 hour journey introducing the lives of the Fab Four,  their homes, schools, birth places, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields plus many other landmarks which inspired their music.

"Roll up the Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away"

George Harrison,  John Lennon & Paul McCartney's childhood homes

Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields Forever

The tour finished with a visit to the famous Cavern Club where we had a few beers and listen to the live bands playing.

 We finished our evening with dinner and at Jamie's Italian.

Meatball Bruchetta/Crab & Avocado Bruchetta/Italian Lamb/Wild Mushroom Risotto

The next morning we had fun reminiscing on our fun weekend over coffee and breakfast at Carluccios.  

Final group photo - sigh!

And thats a wrap on a super fun weekend with Elaine and Cam - I can't wait until these guys are back in the UK again!