A little plea...

No layout to share today as it's my holiday week from Pencil Lines :) Business as usual next week!
Today we had a lunchtime bbq with my mum & dad.It did look as though it was going to be a typical English Bank Holiday this morning as it was very grey and drizzly,but it actually turned really hot and sunny eventually :)
The guinea pigs returned to their home this morning :(, feels strange without them out in the garden any more :( And I still keep looking out for dandelion leaves !
You may have seen on Anna's blog that I'll be doing the Womens's 5k race with her this coming on Sunday :) Now, I can asure you that I'm not running it!! With Anna's back pain, she has decided to walk it rather than run this year,which means that really I have no excuse for not doing it with her! So if you would like to sponsor me,please let me know (I haven't had my details through yet as I've only just registered) or please donate on Anna's page here .It really is a worthwhile cause :)

Tomorrow we are hopefully off to the zoo for a day out.Holly was supposed to have a sleepover at a friends house this evening but had to come at about 9.30 as she was sick, bless her :( She was so upset as she really wanted to stay and is now tucked up in bed ,fast asleep.Fingers crossed she just over did it and will be fine to go out tomorrow :)

Whizzpops and yum yums :)

Yesterday we went to the Roald Dahl museum and the above is what the girls had in Cafe Twit! the Whizzpopper was hot choclate with raspberry coulis,marshmallows and crushed maltesers -yum! And the yum yums were...yum! The museum was really good ,and I much preferred it to the Natural History one!! It is in a lovely village and as the weather turned warm we went for a walk up to the church to see the grave .The girls also went to story telling workshop whilst we sat and had a drink outside :) They came home with yellow ledger paper and 'special' pencils as used Roald Dahl when he wrote his stories :)



Today we have doing the 'boring' stuff ,like haircuts and food shopping! This rather lovely book fell into my basket while were out though,looking forward to making a few things from it!

Tomorrow morning we will be up bright and early as Anna is coming over and we are off to see Coraline :)
And I've just realised that I still have that delightful job of putting name tapes in all the new school uniform...joy!

Busy busy

Well sort of!
Yesterday we has a bit of a lazy day and had a bit of a lie-in :) Once up we went out to St Albans to get some paint for the bathroom as well as sneaking in a quick visit to paperchase :)
Sunday was another hot day and the girls spent the afternoon in the pool whilst I finished reading 'Confessions Of A Shopaholicc' :)
Today we all went to London to visit the Natural History Museum.The girls enjoyed it though it was very hot & stuffy and we came home with aching feet!Just as we started to walk home from the station the heavens opened and we arrived home very wet and soggy...
Tomorrow we being invaded by girls, Em has two friends round and Holly has one here too :) Let's hope it doesn't rain and they can go outside,as I think Holly is hoping to show off the guinea pigs!

This my Pencil Lines LO this week,my final week using MLS,as I'm having a holiday week this Sunday! I have lots of other scrapping catch up on though :)
I used papers from the Lucky range and Doodlebug Loopy Love letter stickers.
On Thursday we are hopefully going to the Roald Dahl museum and then on Saturday Em & I are off to the cinem again, this time with Anna :) I can't believe the holidays are nearly over again...:(

Lots of visitors :)

We have had a few visiotrs here the last few days:)
On Thursday we had the Bowkis family here for a BBQ :) Although the date was set a couple of weeks back, it was a bit last minute that it was going ahead due to the weather.anyway, we made lots of noise,ate lots and laughed lots:) I took hardly any photos and thos I did take I think Anna may kill me if I post!
And yesterday we took delivery of these sweeties :)

We are babysitting our friend's guinea pigs for the next 10 days,though I think the girls would be happy to keep them for good! They came out for lots of cuddles and pampering yesterday,so are probably are feeling a bit ignored today as both girls are out at the moment .I had no idea that guines peas ate so much or so many different things!Luckily I have been leaving the dandelions growing in the garden in preparation!

Enjoying the sun!

I'm still here! But with the mini heatwave we've been having and Geoff being home,I am in total wind down mood and blogging hasn't appealed..!

Saturday afternoon we went to pick Holly up from Anna's :) She had a fab time (including afirst aid lesson, Olympics lesson and a long walk round the farm!) and came home very tired,even having a sleep in the car on the way home :)

On Sunday I think we just chilled, I really can't remember! On Monday afternoon we went to the Claire's outlet in search of a Hello Kitty lunch bag for Holly,which we found ,as well as an HK headband and Em got herself one of their surprise bags with some really good stuff in it!Mind you,she did peer into few before choosing one!

And yesterday we had a lovely day out at Aldenham Country Park in Elstree :) They have the most fab recreation of Winnie The Pooh's 100 Aker Wood...I was in my element! I don't know how long it's been there but I wish we'd taken the kids there when they were smaller,the photos would have been so cute! I'm hoping we might go back in the October half term with it will be all Autmny and leafy :) There was also a huge lake to walk round,adventure playgrounds and a small farm.A bargain of a day out for just the entrance fee of £5 for all of us!

When we got home it so hot I actually went in the pool with the girls,not a pretty sight! I tried to get pics of them using the underwater cameras ,but that was easier said then done!

Today has been absolutely boiling hot again so we all spent the afternoon in the pool before em headed off to my Mum & Dad's for a sleepover :)

The Talent Show

Today we were treated to the Deacon V Bowkis Talent Show, a twist on the usual show put on by Em,Holly,Izzy & Lilly during our get togethers ! This time,they had been practising in advance ready for a showdown...Anna & I took our roles as judges very seriously(!!) and delivered some X Factor stlye comments and criticisms! We only agreed to choose an winner on the condition that there were no tears,tantrums or diva strops by the those who didn't win! This time the winner was Em,but no doubt we'll be having a re-match soon!



As per usual Anna forgot her camera today so not many photos were taken :( Holly & Izzy were happy to strike a couple of poses though :)


Holly has gone back to Anna's for a sleepover with Izzy.Despite a few tears when she left,apparently she was fine again within a couple of minutes :) I get the feeling though that she will be very tired when she comes home tomorrow!

Train ride

Today we went on a very short train ride (one stop!) to Digswell.The main point of going was that my sister wanted to take her daughters over the viaduct.Anyway, whilst there we decided to revisit our youth (and Mum's!) as my Nan & Grandad used to live there.We had a little reminisce ..only to find that the sweet shop (remember 1p chocolate tools?!)is now a floor coverings shop .We walked down to my Nan & Grandad's old house ,which brought back lots of happy memories :) I have some very old photos somewhere of me & sister on the front porch wearing winter coats and fur hats which would go perfectly with the new Little Ladies paper from My Little Shoebox :) Whilst part of me really wanted to knock on the door and ask if I could have a look in the garden I think I'd probably rather remember it the way it was... I did sneak a photo of the house though and the rusty old lamp post which is still at the end of the drive :)

On Tuesday we went to get Em's school shoes and got the last pair in her size! And then we went to see Ice Age 3 :) The kids have never seen so many films in one holiday!

Tomorrow we're having a visit from the Bowkis ladies :) And Anna is going to be taking Holly home with her for a sleepover with Izzy ! I'm sure she'll be fine,she's looking forward to a Rock Band session :)

And I'll leave you with a couple more butterfly photos as there were so many out there again yesterday :)

Rubbish blogger?!

Yep,that's me!!
Summer has returned the last couple of days and it's been lovely :)The pool has finally had some use,I think the girls have only been in it twice so far this year.
So,last week...just trying to remember what we did!
On Wednesday the girls went to Knebworth Park with my mum & dad and had a whale of a time seeing the dinosaurs,playing on the fort and having a train ride :) They arrived home very hot,sticky and tired!On Thursday we didn't do much and then it threw it down with rain from 5 o'clock onwards.
Friday totally confused me as Geoff was off and it felt like a Saturday! We went shopping for the few bits of school uniform needed in the morning.I have a gripe...why is it so difficult to find kids tights that fit?!In the afternoon Holly went to an activity/play zone place with a friend whilst Em had her best friend over and she stayed for a sleepover.Whilst they went shopping on Saturday morning Holly and I went on a bike ride round both lakes :)After lunch they all made the most of the sunshine and went in the pool, armed with their under water cameras!
Last night Holly had a sleepover at my mum & dad's house.It always feels weird when one of them isn't here!
The garden is still a butterfly haven and I have still been chasing after them with my camera (much to the kids amusement!) I got this photo whilst standing on a garden chair!

Today has been spent mainly in the garden :) I mowed the grass and then sat on a sun bed reading 'Shopaholic' ,whilst keeping an eye on the kids in the pool :)
Then this evening Em and I went to see 17 Again,which was fab:) I just don't get why people take such young children to see 12A films though...isn't the 12 in the rating a bit of a hint?!
And finally ,Pencil Lines is live ,with more My Little Shoebox loveliness :)I used papers from the Home Sweet Home range and a photo taken a couple of weeks back using the tripod and timer!

Bugs and beasties...

One reason I love the butterfly trees in the garden is that they attract...butterflires ! The last couple of years, we haven't seen that many,the peacock butterflies only seemed to appear a couple of days :( However this year has been better :) Last week and over the weekend we had lots of Peacock butterflies and Red Admirals flying around.They were pretty impossible to take photos of as the wind was blowing the tree branches around and most of my pics were blurry:(.I finally managed to get some okay ones when they settled on the less pretty things in the garden...like a piece of old wood, the blue sand pit and the sunbed!


We then had a visit from as whopper of a dragonfly.The photo isn't brilliant but you can get an idea of how big it was!

Who stole this week?!

I thought I'd blogged on at least Tusday...obviously not!!

So to catch up...um, I spent the first part of the week still feeling grumpy about the weather,the car and other things,that much I can remember! It rained a lot...or just looked like it like it was going to rain ...and then didn't...we resorted to making sock puppets out of old tights...both girls saw friends, we got Holly's school shoes,popped into town a couple of times...I think that sums up the week !

Last night Geoff and I went to a wedding reception of someone he works with.Let's just say that next time I will definitely eat more before I have a drink (or two...!) I'm obviously not as young as I used to be..and felt rather rough this morning! After a walk round the lakes with the girls and some Diet Coke I was feeling much better :)

At least I've been able to go out on the bike a bit more this week,as well as going out with Holly a couple of times :)

As the wether forcast hasn't been looking great,we're now booked up to see a couple of films at the cheapy showings :) Tomorrow we are off to see Bolt,then on Sunday Em and I are off to see 17 Again and next week we're booked for Ice Age 3 :) What's the betting the sun will now shine on all those days?!

This month on Pencil Lines we are joining up with My Little Shoebox ! We have their design team joining us every week this month ,we are all using MLS ranges and they are also sponsoring the gallery RAK for this month!

This is my layout using the Flawless range :) All items used are my MLS except the black alpha stickers which are Jenni Bowlin:)

I will try and come back tomorrow with photos of the butterflies in the garden at the moment :)