Back to school

The end of the summer holidays is always bitter sweet. Fresh new school uniforms, alarms set after being off for six weeks, shiny new black shoes waiting by the door. There is a certain excitement crossed with nervousness when you start a new school year. This year, in our family, it’s a little more as Alexander is headed to senior school! I can’t quite believe that he is as old as he is.

We have had a laid back, relaxing summer hols. Unfortunately, we were unable to get away for a vacation, but we enjoyed it none the less. The final main event was the LLanwrst Show. It was reminiscent of the Harvest Home show that we enjoyed so much in our old village in England. We all had a fabulous time, but Millie was the star of the show!

We entered Millie into the dog show and she was a smash hit! First, she won third place as child’s best friend. The boys took her around the show ring and had to answer questions about her and show how well they could handle her. As little Mil is so laid back she just took it all in her stride. Second, I entered her into the best cross breed category and she won first place! No one had even heard of a Norfapoo! I think that’s part of what makes her so special. Finally, the manged to win the main prize over all, best in show. She came away with three big rosettes and a silver cup to display for the year!

So, as we savour the last weekend of the holidays, we will look back fondly at the memories we made over the past six weeks. We have been blessed with an incredibly sunny day today and we intend to make the most of it. One last swim in the pool, a BBQ and sleeping in the tent in the garden!

We have loads of exciting things coming up in the months ahead! My family are travelling across the pond to come and stay, I have a mooting final to take part in, Alexander turns 12, and James graduates University with a first-class honours degree!

London's Calling

Our two amazing friends got married this weekend. We had a wonderful time travelling to London via first class train, thanks to Greg. We stayed in a beautiful hotel chosen by the couple, who's attention to detail for their wedding was second to none. Including handwritten notes for guests in their hotel rooms, to entire bottles of gin on every table. I also got a chance to snoop around their gorgeous London flat... oh to live without children, it would be nice to have pretty things. (Stewart- don't worry Rich didn't take anything.)
The wedding was beautiful; the ceremony was full of love and the day full of fun. I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house during the speeches, and we partied till the next day. It was a wedding of two people who are so clearly in love and bring about happiness and smiles wherever they go. We wish them the utmost wonderful life together, and can't wait to see them again! Have a wonderful honeymoon guys!

Beautiful Fuchsias

Starting of with some Yummy homemade goodness. I take comforting in knowing that when I make the boys treats at home I know exactly what is in them. I don't have to worry about all these bad preservatives and sugar substitutes. Simple Butter, flour, sugar. :) I made these cute biscuits. I couldn't be bothered with all the frosting so I made half with holes and half without, filled them with my homemade plum jam and voila! I can't tell you if they were nice because they were all gone before I had a chance to grab one! I think that answered the question.

I am absolutely loving having a garden. Since moving in we have had lots of work to do. They whole back half of the garden was weeds from where the previous owner had her vegetable garden. Far to big for what we need and much to much hard work. So we (I say we, I mean Richard) dug it all up and turned the soil and planted some lovely grass for the boys to play. It's coming along nicely. Can't wait for summer picnics out there. The best bit is we still have plenty of room for raised beds and hens! Not to mention we have a green house. My last few tomatoes from this year are ripening in the window. Nothing better than eating homemade, homegrown food. There is still plenty more work to do in the garden, and I am looking forward to it all. These Beautiful Fuchsias are still blooming now, well into October. I hope to see it for years to come.

Camping in Exmoor

 

We had a lovely Family Camping trip last weekend. The sun has been out and it's been glorious. We decided last minuet that we just had to get away. We decided to go to a cute little camp site in Exmoor forest. It was a great little place not too busy. Right next to the river and best bit was they allowed Campfires. A lot of campsite in the UK don't allow them. Which has always been surprising to me as we even had them in Arizona, driest of dry. (except for high fire risk times) but here where it's mostly green and lush? Perhaps we just can't be trusted. however I will just say they didn't give much instruction towards fire safety. It was great though, made they whole camping experience great. We even ordered some lovely Jet Puffed marsh mallows, my favorite! 

We took a day trip to Minehead beach. It was lovely and hot. The boys had a good play in the sand. I got to enjoy the sun and have a little nap, mind you I got a bit burnt. They got covered in sand and enjoyed some 'sand'wiches. We had a nice walk around, and enjoyed ice creams and cream teas. Looking forward to more family trips over the summer.

Strike!

We had a lovely Family trip to the bowling ally the other day. It was so nice to get out and do something different. turns out I really stink at bowling as my Two year old even beat me :) Alexander won! Richard was second and Luke third. We had a really nice time. We played one game and then had some games in the arcade. Luke really loved the motorbike. 

I've had a nasty cols since last weekend so we haven't done much else. Also the weather this week as been really unpleasant. really ready for the sunshine and paddling pool days to come. Richard and I went on our date night on the weekend. We had a really nice meal out. We also got free drinks as it took so long for our food to arrive. we were planning to go to the cinema to see World War Z, but it would have ended at 1am and that was rather late. We had a great time and are trying to have more date nights together. 

I have been driving again. Back behind the wheel at last. I still have confidence and think I would be much better in an automatic. Richards says I'm doing fine though and with more practice It will become second nature. We will see. I have to take my test again soon though. 

Royal Bath and West Show

Been a little hectic/lazy the past month! I've started selling Avon again (check out my website www.sarahcouling.co.uk) so other things have slipped a bit. Need to get a good balance of things, and keep on top of it. Anyway here we.

Bath and West Show this year was wonderful. The best weekend we've had as a family in ages. What a great day it was. We haven't been since Luke was born. The weather was scrummie. Sunny and Warm. We had a fab time looking at all the stalls. Luke loved the steam train ride. Alexander loved the Army section and the imagination area with the bloodhound. My favorite was the livestock and the food. It's so awesome to see all those massive animals. The bulls were Gigantic. Luke was terrified of the pigs. We all enjoyed feeding the goats. (Thanks Meg.) Can't wait till next year to do it all again.

Luke Love's Muffins.

Nothing cheers little monkey up like baking some banana muffins with mummy. Many would see those brown soft bananas as food for the compost. In our house I love it when there are enough brown bananas for bread. Even Richard was begging to eat some and he hates bananas. I tried I new recipe today. That you can find HERE. They are scrummy. 

The weather has been marvelous. The boys and I rode our bikes to the lake today after school for an ice cream. We are so fortunate to live in the country, right next to a lovely lake. However the fun in the sun maybe cut short for Luke as it looks like he might be coming down with Chicken Nuggets (that's what we call Chicken Pox in our house.) At least it will be out the way though. I haven't yet had it either so here's to hoping if i do it's mild.