Happy birthday ...

Hope you have a lovely birthday and great year ahead!   Lots of love from all of us in Norfolk xxxx

Cat vs. Dog

Here is my entry into the world of lol cats and lol dogs...

Hayzel Knettishall Heath

Hello, my name is Hayzel, here are the photos I took.

Ewan Beaver Investiture

Here is Ewan being invested into the worldwide Beaver Clan...

Faye France Trip Interview

See the videos of Faye talking about her school trip to France.

Split into five sections to make it easier to watch.

Part 1: Bus Drive, Euro Tunnel and Nausicca

Part 2: The Chateau, Food, Frogs Legs and Rouen

Part 3: Rouen continued and Dieppe

Part 4: WW 1 Battlefields and Memorials

Part 5: WW 1 Battlefields continued and the journey home

Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve visit

Knettishall Heath is just past Diss and in Suffolk.   The area's history goes back to the Bronze Age, it is a woodland habitat, with riverside meadows and grasslands, as well as heath.  It's a lovely place to have a picnic, spend a few hours rambling with the kids and today the weather was perfect.   We walked for about 2 and a half hours and finished off the walkies with ice-creams from the mobile de rigeur ice-cream seller.  

There are no touristy things there, just clean toilets and plenty of places to sit and have a picnic.   Suffolk Wildlife Trust had a chap set up opposite the toilet block, selling membership to the Wildlife Trust and a display of things to buy - so naturally I obliged and purchased two books - both 8 quid each - one on British Birds and the other on British wildflowers. They are great books, packed with photos (not drawings), so makes it easy to identify flora and fauna.  

We took Laila and she was well and truly pooped by the time we came home (fell asleep on the back window ledge in Kevin's car).   There were loads of people there today when we left and some of the kiddies were splashing in the river by the weir (it forms a natural bay and pond) - so I'm defiitely bringing the kids back in the summer holidays.  Kevin took a video and Hayzel also took some photos - she was lucky enough to get a shot of the little deer that was wandering around on the opposite river bank to us (I couldn't get a clear shot of it on telephoto, so didn't bother).  

Happy birthday ...

We hope you have a lovely day today and a great weekend!  Lots of love from us all here in Norfolk!

Faye's School Trip to France

Faye arrive back from her school trip to France late on Friday afternoon.

It sounds like they had a lot of fun and she couldn't stop talking about all the things they had done and seen.

She even tried eating snails and frogs legs!

Here are her photos put in a slide show and her videos. Unfortunately the camera dies on the second day.

I have video'd an interview with her explaining what they did and saw while in France. This will be posted up later...

Up and at 'em

A while ago, Ewan got pulled up at school because he didn't get dressed in time after swimming lesson and so his class missed out on a reward.   Since then we've been working on his speed-dressing skills.  This started out just being bribes basically but then his mum hit upon a great idea.   She plays him a snippet from the soundtrack or song that he's into at the time (on her cell phone) and he must be dressed before the song ends.  This works really well - he's got it down to 1 min and a few seconds (if he really goes for it).    I never know on any given morning what song she's going to play.  It could be , 'You've got to move it, move it' ; 'Scooby, Scooby Doo where are you?'  or a selection from these:

The James Bond theme
The Indiana Jones theme
Everything is Awesome
Star Wars - various themes, depending on how Luke or Darth he's feeling on the morning
Mission Impossible
Ghostbusters
Gangnam Style

I think it's so cute and really makes my day :)


And of course, today Faye comes home from her France trip - I'm sure she's going to be exhausted, can't wait to hear how it all went.  I'm going to ask her to do a blog post here to give you all her opinion of it. Her brother has missed her a lot.

Please check out the great Star Wars video below, it's awesome.

Star Wars

Here is Ewans Star Wars movie we made...

Ewan and his Harry Potter scar ...

Bon Voyage!

Faye boarded the bus this morning at around 6.30 for the start of her trip to France.    Her itinerary is:

Today - 7th March
Boarding 11.50am Folkestone to Calais Euro Tunnel (crossing takes about 45 minutes)
After lunch - stop off at Nausicaa, the French National Sea Life Centre.
Arrivaal at Château around 6pm

Château De Chantereine

Kingswood - Château De Chantereine, Rue de Chantereine, 76910 Cruiel-sur-Mer, France 
Here is the website
 
Tour of the site, allocation of rooms.
Dinner
8.30 to 9.30pm - mini Olympics organised by the Kingswood staff.

Tuesday - 8th March 
Morning visit to Dieppe - stop off at a Creperie

Dieppe

Packed lunch
Visit Hypermarket
Carousel of climbing, archery and fencing.
Dinner
8.30 to 9.30pm Mystery trail organised by the Kingswood staff.

Wednesday - 9th March
Guided tour of Rouen, the capial of Normandy, to learn about the history and culture that shaped the city.

Rouen

Packed lunch
French games back at the Château
Dinner 
8.30 to 9.30pm Scrapheap challenge organised by the Kingswood staff.

Thursday - 10th March
Guided tour of the WW1 Somme battlefields, including the Albert Trenches museum, Mansel Copse, Lochnagar Crater, La Boiselle, the impressive Thiepval monument and Beaumont Hamel.

Lochnagar Crater

Packed lunch
Dinner
8.30 to 9.30pm Disco supervised by school staff and run by the Kingswood staff.

Friday  - 11th March
A visit to the Chocolaterie in Beussant

Packed lunch
Journey home, taking the 1.50pm shuttle from Calais.

Faye has taken a camera with her, so she will be taking her own pictures.  I'm sure she is going to have a fantastic time in France!

This morning we woke up to snow - although it seems to have all gone to water now - it was still snowing when I took Ewan to school:

Pics taken with my old Finepix that I keep in my car - can't believe it still works!

Bits of news

Big ups to Andrew who phoned me today and told me he's got a good raise and a bonus  - nice going love.
Well done to David and Mags for signing the agreement to purchase for their new home - this is wonderful, can't wait to see it!  Keep us posted on your moving dates etc.
Faye and Ewan both had activites at their schools today, as it was World Book Day.
Faye went as a character from a book and Ewan had to turn a vegetable into a character from a book.

Red Riding Hood

Superman Potato in his customised phone booth

I've been getting a fair bit of typing to do, which is nice and will help towards my earnings for May /June, as I won't be working for two weeks over that period.  (You damn right!)

Allyson seems to be enjoying her new job - but one never can tell these days with her, hey? :) Don't worry Ally, just making a joke.  Her relationship with Baz seems to be going from strength to strength, I'm very happy for them both.

We had snow yesterday but it didn't stick - although the temperature really dropped a lot, it's warmer today. 

This Sunday is UK Mother's Day ... you were warned.