Cake and a slice of tea

Huffle and Smallest got up early and went to a 9am football practice. It was held in the freezing cold fridge of a dome and Huffle forgot his coat. Brrrrrrrr. Small and I stayed at home and breakfasted, played on tablet and watched TV. The other two came back around 10:45am. Smallest has hurt his groin and so had a lovely soothing hot bath.

Small made a Lemon cake with icing and the rest of us pricked out seeds and planted some new ones. We made an awful mess on the kitchen table but Smallest hoovered up for us afterwards. There is plenty to get in the vegetable garden once they've grown a bit more.

It was a cold, miserable wet day today and after football we spent the rest of the day indoors. We had lunch. Smallest and I played many games of Guess Who and we all played an extended game of Carcassonne.

With Small's cake we watched Britains Got Talent before we then FaceTimed Grandma and Grandad. The boys played some piano and Smallest and I made meatballs for dinner.

 

 

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Fake Grass in a Pot!

Why am I not sleeping well at the moment? It's driving me crazy! We all had breakfast and then the Stoke supporters watched their team draw with no goals downstairs and I watched my team win 1-0 upstairs. We only managed to watch until half time though as we went off to Downtown Toronto on the train. Huffle bought us tickets for the baseball today.

We caught the train and arrived in Toronto around midday. We couldn't find the Skywalk so we had to walk along the streets following the crowds to the stadium. The Blue Jays were playing The Tampa Bay Rays. We have seen this team the most out of all of the other teams. We had seats in the 500's but near the front so we had a great view. Also we had no one in front us until the very end so we could put our feet up, not have anyone in our line of vision and not have to listen to the normal rubbish they all say (though we did still have a couple of swearing people behind us).

Huffle packed his bag full of lovely treats so we had something to nibble pn through the game as we missed lunch. It wasn't a bad game and The Blue Jays won in the end which is always good. As it was Junior Jays Saturday, the kids got to play on some games. There were too many kids and Smallest couldn't be bothered to queue but they both had a go on the Plinko where Small won a bookmark and Smallest won a LunchBag.

After the game Huffle took us a different route through the City, away from the hoards of fans leaving the stadium and away from the cigarette smokers. It was long but eventually we got to G for Gelato where we shared pizza and had lovely Gelatos of course. Today's flavours eaten were Salted Caramel, Raspberry, White Chocolate Nougat, lemon, vanilla bean, kit Kat. Yum yum.

We have no idea what this naked pink bear was doing here

A new dog park has been created with a weird fountain. Very strange

We walked back to the train station, sat for a while waiting for the train to come listening to scooby Doo man on the phone and then played Chinese Lip Reading and Don't Show Keith your teeth on the journey home.

Great day, very tiring.

 

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Why do mosquitoes love me so?

It was a lovely warm sunny day today. Not too hot like yesterday, but nicely warm, like a good Spring day. The boys went to school. Smallest did shotput and managed an excellent 17 somethings. Metres? Feet? cm's? Who knows. He certainly didn't. Small almost came third in plastic javelin but we don't know what the distance was because only the best three were measured.

The garden is starting to bloom

Huffle worked in the loft and cut me a new piece of wood for my second blind (now just hold on, the next one may take me some time, hopefully not as long as the first one) and finished cutting the trees.

I went off to knitting and crocheted. In fact there were only three of us today and we were all crocheting. They have all got the bug now! Afterwards I drove to meet Suffolk who has now got herself a job. We had a very nice long slow lunch with an extra cup of tea. We haven't seen much of each other lately so it was nice to catch up. She is still going to teach me sewing but we have to find some time one afternoon. I also have to try and find some time to fit in weekly gardening for her and MrsRoyal.

The boys were let out of school early again and arrived home well before I did. They put their clothes away, played basketball and played on the computer and tablets. Huffle decided we were going out for dinner and we eventually decided to go to the nearby Italian. We haven't been there for a while.

We got dippy bread Grandma......

Smallest said something in Italian to our waiter who couldn't understand and had to admit he wasn't Italian. Tut tut! We all had lovely pasta meals.

Back home we all played on the trampoline. Not something you should do when you are full of pasta so we came in and watched the baseball.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Fox and the Limo

It was a boilingly hot and humid day today. By 6:30pm we had storms and lots of rain. It didn't cool it down much but the temperatures are supposed to be going down considerably over the next couple of days. Today it was like mid Summer which is crazy as it was snowing only two weeks ago!

The boys went to school. They didn't practice track and field today as scheduled.

I decided to stay in all day and concentrate on my blinds, or should I say blind. I just wanted to get one of them up and running. It took me all day (with breaks in between for lunch, FaceTiming Moo, cups of tea, watering the garden and a short walk) and part of the evening (with Huffle's help).

I hardly saw Huffle today. He had several really long calls and only popped down briefly in between them. He didn't sleep well last night due to a trapped nerve in his elbow (probably from chopping down tops of trees yesterday) so it was good for him to not be busy in the garden today. It is okay now.

Mid afternoon I walked with ClownRose and LittleFin. On the way home she popped to the Beer Store and I ran to get MissMoll off the bus. Unfortunately it came early again (why can't they tell us?). Luckily MissMolls Dad was there and the driver honked until he came out. He wasn't pleased as he was supposed to be working. ClownRose brought me a can of beer. Then the bus for next door's daughter came and Otto was nowhere to be seen. The driver wouldn't let her off the bus with me (which I suppose it good) so I ran to his house, put my beer down first, much to the amusement of a passer by, and knocked on his door. When he came out he smelled so bad of BO and weed. Dirty bugger!

This afternoon I had a visit from next door (other side) to tell me that our resident fox had probably got Mange and to be careful in case it had scabies as it might bite the kids! She said it had been feeding in her garden and hiding food and that it was in our garden the other night. Much later we were watching First Dates and one of the waiters mentioned a fox with mange and they fed it Jamsandwiches and their fur came back really nicely. Huffle said I was not to feed our fox with our organic homemade strawberry jam! Also this afternoon a Stretch Limo stopped outside our house and picked up some saucepans left out by Otto. Not the kind of car I would expect to see picking up other people's junk! Takes all sorts.

After dinner, We all sat on the porch in sunshine before the storm came. Smallest and Huffle played FIFA. Huffle and I finished putting the blinds up.

Smallest's eyes have been really bad today. Mine haven't. We ar obviously allergic to different pollens. This evening he sat with a warm wet flannel over his eyes to soothe them. They are a little bit gunky. Hoping he doesn't get conjunctivitis too.

 

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Bloomin' Birch!

The Tree Pollen is so bad at the moment that even I suffered. Smallest's eyes weren't puffy this morning but mine were. Plus one of my eyes ran all day despite me having an antihistamine. Smallest says his weren't too bad today. I think the high Pollen is Birch and Ash. I still dosed him up this morning and when he came home from school I gave him more eye drops so he wouldn't suffer during football.

The boys went to school. Now that basketball is over, the Track and Field begins. Small practiced javelin but was told that because they don't use the real thing, they had to hold it differently. That makes no sense to me. At least practice it correctly in case they ever get to hold a proper javelin! No wonder Canada don't do so well in the Summer Olympics if that's what they are teaching their young hopefuls. Also the Track and Field is not being held on the school field this year because of the construction of the school and is being held on the local park. I had to sign forms for both boys to be able to walk from the school to the park (less than 1/2km away).

I left Huffle working and went off to aerobics where we did more weights, arm work and lots of legs and abs. Ouch!!!! When I got back Huffle had been cutting down trees between us and Otto. Otto just sat around in his stinky corner smoking more stinky stuff and Huffle took down all the tops off the trees. I had my shower and then we had lunch together.

This afternoon I went shopping for shorts for Small and food. All the shorts I bought him fit thank goodness. He is now in Men's Medium because of his humungus height! I also stopped at the wood place to see if I could get some pieces for the blinds. They didn't have exactly the right measurement but at least I know what they do have if I need to go back.

Washing was put on and dried, a bit of tidying up and then when the boys come home I made dinner. Smallesr cooked the chicken for me and I made a Macaroni Cheese. Smallest and Huffle went off to football practice and Small and I had an hour at home before we went to basketball.

 

 

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Hickerly pickerly

Everyday that we worked at the Nursery last year (and the year before) was bad weather. Mainly rainy but sometimes snowy. That just happened to fall on a Tuesday. So far it seems to be the same this year. Obviously we don't work there in the depths of winter. We normally start in February and work through to October. Once again, today, it rained all day. Jan and I worked in the vegetable garden planting peas, lettuce and violas. Huffle's favourite lettuce is called Flashy Troutback, a lovely tasty speckly lettuce. Jeff sewed extra seeds so Huffle could have some and today I got to bring some home for him, plus a few other varieties. We got soaked but it was good to be in the garden and planting lettuce made me feel that Summer was on its way.

Lovely hoots from the Nursery garden today

Flashy Troutback Lettuce

I had to get home earlier than normal so I could fit my lunch in with Huffle before I drove to school, picked up Smallest and two other boys and took them to their Basketball Tournament. They had two games and Smallest was played in the last five minutes of both games. Whether the teacher played him and the other younger ones to make a point, I don't know but Smallest was happy he had played. I'm not sure the other boys Mums were particularly happy with the amount of time their kids played though. They lost both games but certainly did not disgrace themselves! When we came out to collect the boys to take them back home or school, the teacher made a comment about me going in to speak to the Principal about parent responsibity. He took the kids back to school whose parents couldn't be contacted and I took the ones home that were to be dropped at home. At least my talk has had some impact.

Small came home (I had Smallest with me). Small and I made pizza for dinner. I make the pizza dough in the bread machine which I dropped on my foot. Luckily my foot wasn't damaged but I think I did damage the machine slightly. However, it made the dough okay. We ate pizza whilst watching Robot Wars.

We watched a bit more of Harry Potter but I kept falling asleep (I didn't sleep well last night) so we turned it off, messed about a bit and then the boys went to bed.

Huffle and I watched The Bake Off Creme de la Creme and were entertained by Bodgit Scarper and No Thumb. How did they get they even get through to the next round?

 

 

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Fickle Fans and half a gaggle

Oh it was another struggle getting up this morning. I could hardly open my eyes. Poor Smallest really couldn't open his eyes properly due to his tree pollen allergies. I dosed him up on eye drops, nose spray and antihistamines. He said his eyes were running but overall it helped. I also gave him a second dose before he went to bed. I had itchy runny eyes too but I forgot to take anything so I suppose that's my fault.

The boys went to school. Huffle worked and in his breaks cut down some of the trees between us and Otto and planted the soaked peas in the vegetable garden. I went to DiDi's house and did a crochet lesson. Just three of us today as one of the ladies was enjoying a week in the Capital. Today we made a bootie, looked at picot edging and talked a lot. I also gave some gardening advice. I am on a mission to get everyone bulbing and planting.

I wasn't home long before I had to go out again for my exercise class where it is just me. We worked extremely hard with weights and ab work. No legs as we concentrate on those on Wednesday. I lost my phone and it was in my car all the time but I spent a considerable amount of time looking for ExerciseNic walking her dog so by the time I got home, I only had just under an hour before the kids came home. I took full advantage and sat on the porch, had a tiny late lunch and watched Line of Duty. It was another beautiful day. Sunshiny and warm and perfect for sitting on the porch.

The boys came home and we played basketball until MrsPiano came for their lessons. Old tunes were played and new tunes learned. We also agreed a date for the piano recital.

After dinner, we took the boys to Cubs. Small should have been doing an evening hike in the forest but he chose not to go as he doesn't like the other Scouts (all much younger than him and quite silly) and he has no respect for the Leaders (can't say I blame him really). Instead he chose to help out with the Cubs as they were talking about their upcoming camp and Small is going along with them to help.

Huffle and I walked long and hard for an hour. I clocked up over 16,000 steps today. It was a good walk and the perfect temperature. Not too warm and not too cool!

The road we travelled

Half a geese formation

Local dinosaur

 

 

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Badminton, Bulbs and Bangers

The boys were happy about their evening in HomeAlone. Thy watched Britains Got Talent and then Smallest went to bed 8:30ish and Small went up to his room and watched tv until 10pm. We got home at 10:30pm and they were both fast asleep. They didn't mind being home at all. We paid Small for babysitting as Smallest asked that Small be in charge.

What a stunningly beautiful day. With temperatures in the sunroom hitting 30* before we even had breakfast. Outside the temperature was 21* with bright, hot sunshine all day.

Pancakes for breakfast, followed by sitting out on the patio finishing my coffee while Smallest attempted to find the badminton net and we dragged out the swingball set which Small filled with water to keep it stable. By the time he found the net, it was tied up in knots. Huffle and I managed to untangle it, put it up and then we all had a long doubles game. It was almost perfect as the wind was very slight but I do think we might need to invest in a new net. The boys continued with football while I planted my everbearing strawberry plants and chatted with J next door. Huffle joined me and the boys disappeared inside for some tablet time.

We planted some more plants that we bought yesterday and then came in for lunch which we ended up taking outside. I think our Winter has been too long and we spent as much time outside today as possible, mainly under the parasol but still nice to be outside.

More plants were planted, more football, a bit of basketball and then Smallest and Huffle went off to football practice and Small and I played Fish and StripJackNaked on the patio and BUMP Basketball which I started off easily winning but Small soon overtook me. We peeled potatoes for dinner and I sewed (machine sewed) a pocketrod on one of the blinds and sewed (seedy sewed) some spinach.

Huffle and Smallest had been shopping on the way home and got some wood for the blinds which the shop messed up by cutting wrong and also got some sausages for tea.

This evening we watched a bit of Harry Potter (no6 can't remember what it's called). Boys went to bed and Huffle and I watched The Durrell. Lovely Sunday night entertainment. Later we looked at bathrooms as we need to choose our floor, tiles, bath and taps plus a colour for the walls!

 

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The fox weed on my football*

A nice lie-in and a dream from me about Uncle Tuc and YoungTom playing in an indoor water park that was somehow attached to the sea. It was a great place though it made no real sense. I also bumped into MrsRumbleskins who was drawing really quickly while we were in a waiting room. She drew some fabulous pictures in no time at all. It was nice to see them all. Shame it wasn't real.

We all had breakfast and the all the boys watched the Stoke game while I pottered around, tidying the kitchen, sorting clothes and attempting to sew (I had the wrong thread so abondoned it).

At midday, Huffle and I left the boys playing Pokemon battle and gadgeting and went out to get some plants in the Spring sale, pick up an allergy prescription for Smallest, get the kids their school Springfest basket gift and some thread. We did really well and got home about 90 minutes later. The boys were fine and had a good time playing and not arguing. We went out for calzone mid afternoon ad played a game of Top Trumps whilst there. Dinner was lovely as usual and as the weather was equally lovely, we decided to have a quick walk by the lake. Small wasn't too keen but we promised him it would be a very short walk due to the fact that I didn't have sufficient shoes.

Next to the lake there were swarms of tiny annoying flies that you just couldn't get away from so our walk was cut even shorter than originally anticipated. We got to walk along the beach a bit though and find some interesting bits of wood.

Bit big but would lovely in our garden

On the way home we popped to the supermarket for some essentials and ice cream bars which we ate on the porch when we got home. What a super day. There are so many daffodils out at the moment and our urns on the porch are looking spectacular.

Beautiful Scilla that Grandad procured for us

Spring urns

All the boys played football together while I enjoyed the peace and quiet and had a visit from MissMoll, LittleFin and ClownRose. LittleFin now talks about us all constantly and can say Huffle's name. He still calls Small and Smallest Addie which is funny as he mixes up both their names into one. *MissMoll came over to tell us the fox had wee'd on her new football that we bought her for her birthday. She was quite upset about it but I told her it made it even more special. We saw the fox go past not long after. It looked quite pleased with itself.

This evening Huffle and I went out again by ourselves for an evening of Jazz at the local church. So nice and close but still the first time we have left the kids in the evening. We asked them if they wanted a babysitter but they said no. I asked them if they wanted to have joint responsibility but Smallest asked that Small be in charge. Small was happy with that and spent the day telling Smallest that he would have to go to bed earlier every time he said or did something he wasn't happy with. They are a funny pair. I also let ClownRose know they were home alone and gave Small her phone number just in case. When we got home at 10:30, they were both fast asleep. I'm sure we will hear all about it tomorrow. I'm pleased they didn't need to call us or ClownRose and I'm pleased they got to sleep. I'm very panicky when I'm in the house by myself and I wouldn't be able to sleep or do much at all. Glad they don't have my silliness.

The Jazz was fabulous. It was the Mike Murley Trio who we saw last year but this time there was a special guest Guido Basso. Apparently some huge Montreal star. He played the trumpet and was really good. The whole group was good but he was just something else. They have all played together and toured 20 years ago in Mexico. We walked down there and had a glass of wine each, Veggie crisps and mini eggs stashed in my bag. We also walked home unlike half of the village that had been drinking but still drove. Naughty!!!! Great evening. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Nice to spend an evening with my Huffle too.

When we came home we checked on the sleeping kids, had some toast and tea and watched The Blue Jays.

 

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