Severn Valley Railway Fun!

We spent a day playing on the Severn Valley Railway line last week, taking advantage of an off-season offer and we had such a great day! The railway line was saved from extinction by local people and sections were purchased from British Rail over a number of years and reconstructed by volunteers. The work continues today with steam engines being saved from scrap yards and lovingly restored to chuff up and down the line between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster. All the stations are decked out with stacks of trunks/suitcases and the original waiting rooms and ticket booths - so lovely!

Our view from the first carriage - you can see the driver and the coal man looking out of the engine! Lots of people waved at us as we chuffed past, it was great fun. As it wasn't their busy season we had the carriage to ourselves so no matter when the girls squealed with delight when we saw two elephants and a rhino out of the window!! Yes really, I'm not joking - we think it might be the safari park maybe?

Faith spent ages with her head thrust out of the train window watching the steam engine and looking back along the line of carriages. The window was lowered using a leather strap and she thought that was great too, as well as the really traditional toilets with scrolly handles and wooden seats!!

Idris loved watching the world go by from the train window - steam trains are slow enough to actually enjoy the scenery as you go along! (Dewi is wearing a fleece hat that Eve made for him from one of the patterns in the sewing book that Santa brought for Christmas!).

This is Eve reaching up to pull the chain that sounds the Engine's whistle (a mock-up one in the indoor Steam Engine Museum!). Listening to the real one blow and watching it from the carriage as we rode along the tracks was a great review of the states of matter science lessons we did last year! Faith thought it was great that the driver's flask of tea (or hot chocolate as she insisted it was!) was kept on the boiler ledge to keep warm!!

Eve had a go turning the brake wheel in the brake van - he had a tiny little stove to keep him warm on the journeys!

I have to confess - I love steam trains! I love the mechanics of a steam engine and I love the nostalgia of 'the good old days' I never knew! I took a few pictures like the one above accompanied by groans from Dewi that had he known I was a closet train spotter he'd never have married me! I told him that he had my mum to thank as she loves steam engines too. That made him roll his eyes even more! There was loads of fascinating information about the engines and carriages, including the royal carriage that King George travelled around war torn Britain in! Loved it, despite the rain - see below for smudgy raindrop soaked photo of train pulling into the station!

Christmassy Fun!

Decorating the tree..... we go for an eclectic 'collected over the years' look, ranging from baubles Dewi and I found in the attic of the first flat we rented together, to home-made ones the girls crafted and everything in-between!

Yes, Dewi does have a mohawk..... don't ask..... at least it isn't blue..... yet!

Faith demonstrated the Christmas jack-in-the-box to Idris - he's a bit young to understand it right now - he just looked surprised! Faith found it hysterically funny when she was about 8 months old!

Idris exhausted by all the merriment - that is the dog's stocking hanging in the back ground. It reads 'Santa I can explain' and makes me giggle every year!

Christingle - the sweeties on Faith's just made it to the end of the service!

The lights turned out in Church for 'this little light of mine' - Faith was very enthusiastic with her orange but managed not to torch anything or anyone!

Mince pies made with wholemeal flour pastry bound together with ginger cordial - very delicious if a little softer than normal pastry. They didn't make it past the one hour mark though so can't have been too bad!!!!

Face painting Fun

I took the girls to a Birthday Party this week. Let it be said that I am not a fan of children's parties - I won't go into it here in case I offend anyone but I much prefer our special 'Birthday Days Out' that we do for the children's special days!

I digress...... inside the party bags were a mini face painting kit with red, black and white paints and some ideas. Of course the girls wanted to try them out so as soon as we got home we broke out the paints and a lot of silliness ensued! This is Eve who wanted to be that cat (painted by me!)

 This is me, painted by Faith who decided I should be a ladybird...... what a great job she did!

 This is Faith as a ladybird.... painted by Dewi...... she went to check on his efforts in the mirror and declared "hmmmm, it's very nice but would be better with more spots I think!"..... more spots duly added!

And this is Eve painting Dewi. She wanted to make him the 'scarecrow' a.k.a ghost and I can't put the finished face on here because it was truly quite disturbing once finished!

The funniest part of the whole silly scenario were the things the girls came out with!

As I painted Eve's face I commented on how very long her eyelashes were to which she replied "Good, just like a camel, only they have two sets cos they can't wear sun hats!"...... what?? Where did THAT come from??!!

And then Faith was painting me and I reminded her to be gentle around my eyes and told her that the skin was delicate there to which SHE replied "that's cos you're old now mum!"..... what?? WHAT?? Er...... hello? I'M 30!!!!

Dewi and I were in fits of giggles the whole way through which the girls enjoyed even more than the actual painting I think!!

Snowflake Thank You Notes



Every year I have very good intentions of having the children write to say thank you for their presents but each year it somehow doesn't quite get done as I planned, with me doing most of the writing! It must seem an awfully daunting task to small children I think so this year I am planning ahead and making it achievable from the get-go!

I found these snowflake templates and edited them to carry a thank you message. They were then printed at half size, glued to sheets of card with lined paper glued to the back, enhanced with glitter glue and then cut out ready to go straight after Christmas!

Beautiful 2012 Calendars Free to print!

And this beautiful calendar with illustrations from a talented young lady from the blog 'a number of things'.

Loving My Little Boy Soooo Much!

He is developing his own little personality now - for example he loves music and was entranced by The Nutcracker when we went to see it as our Christmas treat with my mum. He just cooed and blew gentle raspberries all the way through!

We have little conversations now - he lay on my lap after feeding yesterday and played with my hand. I spread my fingers and we locked fingers then he let go, then he touched one of my fingers then i touched one of his and we did a gentle 'hand dance' for a few minutes until something else took his attention. Tonight Dewi brought him up to me whilst I was in the bath and he lay on my chest with his hands over my hands. I gently wriggled my fingers on his tummy, making little splashing noises, just for a few seconds, then stopped and he gave a tiny grunt (of approval I thought!). So I splashed again then stopped and he grunted and we went on this way for about five minutes until he was fed up.

He wanted to feed then so I sat up and he fell asleep feeding in the warm water! He is tucked up in towels and blankets on my bed now, still asleep!! I love that! He sometimes falls asleep chatting to himself and other times wants to feed to sleep or just snuggle up in bed together!

Best check he's still nice and warm as apart from our lounge with the log burner going, our house is pretty cold tonight!!

Winter Activities

We played with snowy play dough using the recipe from nurture store. This dough looks like it hasn't worked when you cook it up as it doesn't form together like regular play dough. Be patient though and as it cools it will form - it is really smooth and lovely after kneading and I will definitely try it again although not sure how long it keeps as we used it to make ornaments a few days later and baked it!!!

We froze tiny animals in layers of blue and white ice then rescued them with hot water, salt, spoons and some patience! Faith spent ages doing this and it was interesting listening to her count the number that had emerged then estimate how many were still to be discovered. Even more interesting was listening to her revise that estimate based on the progress of the melting! She wasn't far out on her original estimate to be honest!

The girls enjoyed making snowmen with Starfall and animated snowflakes at the snowflake factory. They also enjoyed some Christmas dot-to-dots which proved way too simple so we moved onto these!