Happy 60th Sis

I know it's late on my blog but I've spoken to you and I'm glad you had a great day Sis. Love ya lots xx

Visiting Sunderland

A 2 week visit to see my family in the Sunderland was great. It was lovely to see mam doing so well, she'll be 86 this year. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family and I miss them all very much, especially li'l sis in Texas as we don't get to see her very much but she has a fab blog that I follow so I feel as if I'm a part of what's happening in her life.
School holidays for me were later this year so I missed the Sunderland Air Show and arrived the day it was on but didn't get to go down as there would have been no parking spaces.
It was a beautiful first week, warm and sunny but we didn't do too much just sat in the garden and relaxes.
I went for a chinese meal on the Monday with Mam, my sister Brenda, and niece Joanne. It was lovely but unfortunately they ran out of spring rolls which were the best on the menu.
I thought the food was lovely until we went the Metro Centre later in the week. We did a bit of shopping and then went to Buffet King (we like chinese food) where you could eat as much as you wanted for a set price. There must have been a range of over 50 dishes to choose from and each one was yummy. My mam doesn't eat much normally but she just loved the chicken, unfortunately I can't remember what it was called but it was slices of chicken in a beautiful sauce and the chicken just melted in your mouth. She went back for seconds which is a first for mam.

Livvy, Tom and Ben in mam's garden just after they arrived for a few days.

Marc, Sam and the children came up for a few days the following week and we went to Brendas where all the family met up and we had a great time. It was probably the best day weather wise as we were able to put the bouncy castle up in the garden and the kids loved it.

Deborah, Brenda and JoanneGeorge, Marc and Michelle having a cup of tea and a bite to eat

Brenda, Joanne, Deborah and Michelle savouring the pizza

Bouncy Castle Fun - the kids just enjoying themselves

We ate, talked and just simply had fun.

It's not a visit to the North East without going to take a look at Marc's brick in the wall at the Sunderland Stadium. I bought the brick as part of his 18th birthday present when the football stadium was first being built and ofcourse the boys wanted to see where it was - unfortunately I didn't manage to get a close up.The rest of the week it rained but we went to the beach one of the days and just took the children to the arcades where there were rides and they loved it.

This next picture has to be one of my all time favourites. I have never seen two children laugh so much in all my life and their faces say it all. It was the best £2 spent that day. They were on two seats looking at a huge screen that showed them going through an underground tunnel - every now and again as they got to a certain part of the tunnel the chairs vibrated and Ben and Tom just screeched with delight. If I'd given them enough money I'm sure they would have spent all day on it but it was a joy to see and and hear their delight

I can't quite believe it but the batty died on my camera half way through taking photographs so I haven't any of mam and some of the other members of the family. I'm hoping some of the others managed to get some and will maybe email them to me so I can put them on my blog.

Rest and relaxation

School's out for summer - yeah. Looking forward to 5 weeks of rest and relaxation. Well maybe not if this week was anything to go by. It sure was busy, Sam and Marc on cross over shifts so I was up at 5 a.m. Monday and off to babysit and take my grandchildren to childminders then off to work for the day. Back to pick up three noisy grandchildren and we had a MacDonalds then it was home until Sam came in. Tuesday was the same but I also did a sleep over that night and then off to work. I was feeling a little tired. Caught my leg on the side of the car and grazed it and had a nasty bruise but its going now. Sleep over last night but Livvy decided she didn't want to sleep and woke at around 11 p.m. and then she just smiled sweetly and said 'no like bed nana'. It was near 1 a.m. when she finally went to sleep but I do adore them all and I love seeing them.
I'm off to the North East on Sunday for a 2 week visit so I might just get that rest and relaxation after all!!.

Grandchildren day

I had a lovely day with my grandchildren last Sunday. Marc and Sam had both been on nights so I took my three adorable grandchildren up to my little craft studio where they spent several hours painting and playing. I bought some ceramic pieces for them to paint from the chap in the next unit and they loved it.
Livvy painted a little pink elephant but unfortunately there was more paint on Livvy than there was on on the elephant but she enjoyed it.
Tom wanted to do a green dinosaur and must have used a whole pot full of green paint but he was happy and did a lovely job. We then added shades of a lighter green and he wanted to add red paint to the dinosaurs nails and eyes.
Ben was in his element painting a dragon he had named Merlin. He did it in shades of green and then painted silver on the dragons wings and gave him red eyes too.
They were so well behaved. We did a drive through MacDonalds for lunch and took it back to the studio.
Unfortunately I can't seem to get the photos off my mobile for some reason but I'll post them up as soon as I can sort out why.

Take a look over at my Honeycomb Crafts section and see the piece I enamelled today at a workshop in Shrewsbury it was mam and me and I like the way it turned out.

Marsden Rock

After a day of torrential rain it was nice to see this picture of Marsden Rock and it brought back memories of warm summer days spent at the beach. This impressive structure was a favourite place to visit when I was younger. At one time it had an archway that connected to another piece of rock but erosion took it's toll and it collapsed a few years ago and then the remaining rock stack had to be demolished for safety reasons so this is all that is left of the rock. When the weather is nice it is a sun trap on the sands. It is some years now since I've been to Marsden, the climb down to the rock doesn't seem too bad but there's a lot of steps to climb back up. I'm not so sure that I'd manage it these days. I'm visiting mam in a few weeks times so maybe I'll take a trip out there.

Here's Livvy li'l sis

There is only one word for her ... cute, oo and beautiful, gorgeous, adorable - OK I used more than one word but she really is a cutey. This is Livvy just before her 2nd birthday trying on a bracelet. With 2 brothers around she seems at times to be turning into a tom boy but at others she is just a sweet little girl playing with her dolls and trying on some jewellery.
I'm not quite getting into this one photo every day but I am trying ... yes some will say very trying ... but when I get a new camera that I can download pics from easily it will be a lot better and I'm certainly putting it on the birthday list.
It's been really warm this last week but the rain came today and it has cooled down somewhat - I think we can expect more rain at the weekend and possibly thunder storms tomorrow so I'm not looking forward to that.

Another pic

I used to be able to email pics from my phone but for some reason it is not working so I'm forced to look for old ones on my computer as already I've missed the one a day pic challenge I gave myself but hey ho I'll just have to buy myself a new camera and get some up to date pics goings. Here's a one of my cute grandson Tom. I have to say it was taken a couple of years ago, he's 4 now but it's the only one on my pc. He's just been in hospital recently as he has asthma quite bad and needs to be on a nebulizer but we're praying he grows out of it as he managed to get through the winter quite well. He'd been eating cake in this photo and yes still eats cake these day, I think he is probably a cake-aholic.