back from holiday

Hello there :-)

We're back from a wonderful week's holiday at in Bristol at my mum and dad's house.

We had such a  lovely time and had so many adventures. My mum looked after us so well and I got to spend time with my three wonderful brothers :-) and I did get to to see my dad much to my relief who sadly spent most of our time there in hospital :-(

However I have practically no pictures of the trip to share with you as I gave my camera to a certain wee man on the plane over to keep him busy...

 and my camera filled up with pictures of his feet as the battery emptied (shrug), but I had just enough charge to capture this moment of a very loved uncle with his niece and nephews :-)

Now we are safely home, washing done and daddy cuddled and ready for a glorious 8 weeks of school holidays :-)

Birthday Buttons

 It seems that the boys' birthday presents from us this year consisted of gorgeous buttons...with things to go under them.
A few months ago I got my favorite button maker to make us some special buttons for each child. While I was ordering them I also found these wonderful fishing buttons,

 perfect for a fisherman's jumper.

The buttons I ordered for Benny were of course cowboys

 I made him a cowboy waistcoats out of upcycled fleece to go under them,

 complete with a sheriff's badge.

 He was pleased and wore his new cowboy clothes all day

Joa got Dogger buttons. His special wee toy is a little plush dog that looks like this.

 I made Joa's waistcoat out of a felted upcycled jumper.

Oh how I love buttons :-) and how I love these little boys (as I type this Joa is sitting on my knee pointing to the above picture of him saying 'nohnah' which means snotter ;-P)

rodent rescue number 2

Do you remember last June Rebe rescued a mouse from the clutches of our cat? 

Well, this year it was Benny's turn. We saw Tiny playing with something in the garden and all raced out to see what she had. At first we thought there was nothing there, then we saw the grass (which was not long only 2 inches or so) move and Benny knelt down and rescued a tiny, tiny pygmy shrew.

Oh my goodness, it was the sweetest little thing ever like a wee tiny elephant with it's funny long nose.
We had a little turn at holding it each (and Rebe tried to persuade it to accidentally climb up here sleeve the way the mouse did).

But after a wee while Benny carefully took him back outside to where we found him and released him back into the wild of our back garden...
Good old rodent rescue team :-)

Benny is 4

Our dear Benny has turned 4!

His Birthday yesterday was such a special, lovely day. Turning 4 has been especially important to him. It seems to be quite a milestone. I remember Rebe feeling like this too.

He awoke so full of joy and excitement,

After opening presents and getting dressed he had the treat of being invited into Rebe's classroom at school. She had told us about her class playing with magnets and had asked her teacher if she could bring Benny in to show him. It was very exciting :-)

When we got home we hijacked the Buddies meeting for the week and turned it into a birthday bash (we hadn't planned anything anyway so everyone was happy with that)

We played some party games like pin the tail on the donkey

and Greg showed us a great guessing game

that was so much fun :-)

We decorated biscuits with coloured icing and smarties

They looked so jolly when finished,

we sat in the garden and had a picnic of fruit and bread

while I put the candles on the spam cake :-)

The festivities continued through out the day and ended with another cake and jelly and ice cream with our neighbour. We also opened the last of the presents including an amazing builders outfit complete with real hammer and nails from Bubs and Man...I hear hammering as I type this now.

It was such a happy day and so many times did I hear the Angel family phrase:

'4 people can do just about anything!'

farm boys

We gave the boys their farm today...they really love it!

Happy Birthdays our dear, sweet boys x x x

Joa is 2

My dear sweet darling Joa is 2!!

We had a lovely day. It started early, the kids were so excited and were up earlier than usual. We opened presents upon waking.

 A 'Where the Wild Things Are' crown from Rebe and  Max doll from me.

A duplo tractor and animals from my mum and dad that he is so thrilled with and has played with non stop.

We went for an ice cream in the late morning at our very favorite cafe in the world

and played on the beach on the way home.

We had a tea party in the afternoon with our neighbours. It was simple and joyful and lovely. I am so happy that Joa is here, in this world, he brings us so much joy. He is so happy and funny and very cuddly.
Happy Birthday dear sweet boy x x