52 weeks of Vicki - weeks 7 & 8 - oops

Morning

Whoops - forgot completely to blog last week and even worse I'm a week behind on my reading! It's been half term here and whilst the boys no longer need entertaining what little routine we have to our lives goes completely out of the window! Late nights, lie-ins, meals all over the place and we're never quite sure who is here for dinner/lunch etc.

So pics from the last 2 weeks - all snapped on something made by Apple - just so easy to snap away on my phone these days;

 Flowers for me - sent to cheer me up when I was having a particularly rough time the other weekend. Still typing up loose ends from my old life - almost there - just one big one to sort.

 Lovely sunny days mean I've dragged my bike out a few times - once on a much needed trip to the bottle bank!! Not all the empties are mine - those boys of mine love their cider and ginger beer too.

 A walk along the prom at Aldeburgh the other day - the sun was shining and reflecting off the sea - reminding me that spring is just round the corner.

 Crochet and rugby watching - a pretty good way to spend a Saturday afternoon - especially as England won :)

 Beer and catching up with the Folk Show on Iplayer - very happy Vicki

 A sunrise - always beautiful to see.

And lastly something that cheers me no end - washing drying outside in the sunshine - meaning for a few hours my house no longer resembles a laundry!!

Right that's all for this week - mostly quite simple things but all make me happy/smile for there own reasons. 

Back to school for the boys tomorrow - a last minute homework panic is happening as I type.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx

52 weeks of Vicki - week 6 - more birthdays

Good morning

Well least I am sticking to writing these posts so far!! The other posts don't quite happen yet but they will eventually - when time allows. Seems weekends have been rather busy.

Today is a very special day here in the VV household - Big Son is 18 years old today. Yep my biggest baby is now an adult!! 

We had a get together yesterday afternoon for him - lots of Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles and Little Cousins - the most people this little house has ever held I think!!

One cake - designed by me and made by a very clever lady who has made so many cakes for us over the years. Of course all 18 year olds need a Toy Story balloon!!

Slightly embarrassed whilst we all sung Happy Birthday to him

Of course all birthday blog posts have to include a few baby photos -

Here's his birthday card - I chose some of my favourite pics and with some technical help they were scanned and turned into a big A4 card via one of those card companies that advertise all over the place.

Whilst all 6 cousins were together, we tried again to get a photo - still impossible to get them all looking at the camera at once!!

Last weekend it was baby nephews christening - as well as getting up early on a Sunday morning for church, my boys made lots of effort and smartened themselves up;

One normal pic - followed by a much more typical one of them;

Right - I'd best be off - have shopping for a steak dinner to do and an appointment at the Opticians for me - I know I need stronger specs and probably need to wear them all the while now.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx

52 weeks of Vicki - week 5 - A hot date with Harry

Good evening

Almost the end of a very busy weekend - the lack of lie-ins is hitting me hard. No time for them this weekend - 2 early mornings for 2 very different reasons. Today the christening of my littlest nephew - pics from that another time. 

Yesterday was a very special day - a belated 16th birthday treat for Little Son - a trip to The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour. Something he's wanted to do for ages and ages - he's been a Potter fan since he was bought the story tapes to try help him travel better when he was just 3 years old. He feel in love immediately and by the time the first film came out in late 2001, he knew the story almost word for word. Hence at the end of the film, a little voice belonging to a cute blonde boy in wizard robes and armed with a wand was commenting loudly about what bits had been missed out - he gained lots of looks from people who thought perhaps he was some sort of early reading child genius!! We didn't spoil it for them !!

Here's just a few pics from a brilliant day out - if you haven't been I would recommend it - it is really good fun - the boys loved it and so do I.

The last part of the Tour takes you to this amazing model of Hogwarts Castle - the detail is stunning.

There are loads of room sets from the films - this is the Gryffindor common room - I could have happily snuggled up in front of the fire on one of those squashy chairs and sofas.

Ollivanders Wand Shop in Diagon Alley - again amazing detail. You just wanted to be able to go inside and choose your first wand.

All Potter fans will know there is one thing that the students love when they have time to go into Hogsmeade on their time out of school - Butterbeer - very expensive - 4 drinks in special beakers/tankards cost over £20 - luckily the boys Dad was paying!!

They managed to drink theirs without getting a Butterbeer moustache - I didn't ;)

The boys also went flying on broomsticks - I bought a picture of each of them doing that - and after a trip to the gift shop my purse felt rather light!! Luckily special birthdays don't happen to often - oh wait - its Big Sons 18th next week! Not sure what we're doing for that - am waiting for him to tell me!!!

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx