Crystal, The Royal Wedding and happy memories

Hi, I'd like you to meet Crystal-tips, on the 21st June 1982 she married Jimmy boy, a toy monkey. This date was also the wedding day of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. I have such happy memories of that day, the window decorated in red, white and blue, cake decorated with silver balls and watching the wedding on TV with our neighbour. I was seven years old.
Well, Crystal has lost an arm along the way and Jimmy boy is long gone, yet the memories of that special day remain clear.

 Our wedding preparations started this week with cards been sent to Clarence house for Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Imogen's Hello Kitty card.

 Jemima's 3D card

 Reuben & Rosanna's colourful cards

 I then did an internet search for kids activities linked to the royal wedding. We've had a busy week doing invitations, a royal family tree and a fantastic time line, you had to sort events from the birth of Kate and William, through their lives to their wedding day. The maths activities involved helping the Lord Chamberlain plan the Royal wedding, the problems involved, costings for the meal, size of the dance floor, staff numbers etc.

Here's our royal wedding wall.

 On the day Imogen and Jemima were in their bedroom, giggling happily and singing the wedding march. They had prepared Barbie and Ken for the Royal wedding, and in front of millions they got hitched!

 Doesn't Kate look stunning

After watching the wedding service, we had a wedding cake cut by Geoff & Mima, and sealed with a kiss!

 And toasted with Ribena

 We then needed to get out and do something and a walk around Wentworth castle gardens was ideal.  It even looks a little bit like Buckingham Palace!  Well it's a big house anyway.

 The collection of Rhododendrons is spectacular. The girls love to eat to the nectar, I can't recommend it as safe, but the girls have never been ill and they love the sweet taste.

 Deep pink is my favourite.

 View across Barnsley

Lady Lucy walk, what a great natural aisle.
Lady Lucy lived in the castle and fell in love with a gardener, she couldn't marry him and died of a broken heart :(

The garden air was heavy with floral scents.

 Later I dug out our wedding photos from the attic.  We've been married almost 12 years and they have never been put in an album. I found them in various envelopes and boxes. The girls loved hearing about our day.

 And here we are almost 12 years ago

Hope you had a great day yesterday and have created many beautiful memories to last a life time.

Easter Fun

We've had a few Easter egg hunts in the garden

I'm looking forward to my next weeding session and the little chocolate treats left behind.

The school holidays are great there are so many activities for the kids to do locally. The weather has been great and we've managed to get out and have lots of fun.

Immy having a go at the bungee run.

walks to look at the blossom and bluebells.

fun at a friends party

Yearly visit from cousins who live in Nigeria

Craft sessions

Play sessions in the park

Fun day at Wigfield farm

Tractor ride at the farm

And finally Reuben managed to have an ice-cream under an umbrella!

Pond dipping, Playmobil & Ladybirds

We love to do lots of pond dipping at Springtime. It's such a fascinating habitat. With each scoop of the net a different selection of plants and animals appear, ranging from tiny wriggly worms to baby fish and dragonfly nymphs.
Our first pond dipping session was at Worsbrough reservoir.
The Country Park covers over 240 acres and holds local nature reserve status, it incorporates a 17th century working water powered corn mill and a 60 acre reservoir which is open to anglers and birdwatchers. The Country Park has well maintained footpaths that meander through Willow Carr and around the whole circumference of the reservoir passing meadowlands that are rich in wild flowers and where industrial heritage sites have now given over to nature.

 First a quick chippy picnic before we get started.

 Wadding in the stream.

 The girls waded off upstream to find a deep place to pond dip.

We stayed on the bank and 'fished' from the edge.

 The girls spent ages examining the creatures, they were especially pleased with the nymphs they found.

 Next we went to the mill pond, but it had been drained for maintenance work. This didn't put us off. The kids spent ages finding water snails that were left on the bottom.  There were huge fresh water mussels too. We've not seen the mill pond drained before, so although we couldn't do the pond dipping, the children adapted to what was there and still learnt so much.

 Onto a bug hunt.

 We found loads of Ladybirds. The girls collected some to take home.

 The reservoir is such a beautiful place, even a short walk leaves you calm, relaxed and feeling so alive.

Immy investigating a burrow.

Our next pond dipping session was at the local RSPB reserve.

Caddis fly larvae, amazing little creatures collecting odds and ends from the water to create wonderful little homes.

 At the end of the session, An expert talked to the children about all the creatures that had been found in the pond.

Then off for some bird watching, bug hunting and enjoying all that Spring has to offer.

 The playground at the RSPB reserve is lots of fun, and the kids really enjoyed it!

On the way home I needed to call in at a Dunelm mill. We just had to try Rosanna in the cot. This is the first time she has ever been in one - she has always slept in bed with Mummy and Daddy.
She really enjoyed it for about five minutes.

 Back at home all the playmobil has come down from the attic and the little families are having wonderful adventures.  With fun at the RSPB playground fresh in their minds they children gave the toys a taste of the same.

But Rosanna is just a little bit too rough with the roundabout and the poor children fly out of the seats!

 Isn't this a cute family?

Mima's pride and joy, the playmobil camper van.

Here are the ladybirds that we collected from Worsbrough reservoir. They are fed on sultanas sprayed with water and also have fresh leaves. We think we have ladybird eggs, so hopefully they will hatch soon. Internet research says they should hatch in a week.