Rachael's dance show

Rachael had her dance class show last night. They were performing songs from High School Musical and Rachael's group danced to "Fabulous", "You are the music in me" (slow version), "Work this out", "Got to go my own way", the Hawaiin one! (Huma Huma?) and "Every Day". For some reason Rachael was tucked away at the back for all the dances and the same children were at the front. The cynic in me says that it was all the children of Greswell's staff that danced at the front. When I asked Rachael if she preferred to be at the back she said that they had been put in their places to dance and not had a choice. The dance class is moving into the school in September and I am humming and haaing as to whether to let Rachael go after all the hassle last year when she left the school and went to St Mary's instead. The children all danced really well and the parents seemed to enjoy themselves.

A finish and update

I have finished another one of the Bent Creek Snappers - December. I am now half way through stitching the series. I had to order a couple of threads for the rest of the designs but now the kids have broken up from school I should be able to get the rest of these finished fairly quickly now. I want to finish this as a wall hanging and am thinking about making my own bellpull ends as I can't find anything I really like.

I have also completed Part 6 of How does your Garden grow? but I decided not to bead it yet as part 7 and 8 are both filling in the gaps of part 5 and 6. I thought it may be easier without the beads in the way. I am really enjoying seeing how this is stitching up.

Luke painted a pot a while back and planted a sunflower seed as part of his Beaver scout activities. Yesterday was the final meeting before the summer holiday so we were going to take his sunflower in to show towards his badge. However it was too big to carry so we took a photo of him and it and took that instead. There is a photo of it below.

It won't be long before it is taller than he is!!

Luke was also awarded 4 badges at Beavers last night. He got his Creative, Experiment, Healthy Eating and Imagination badges. Not a bad haul as he hasn't been going to Beavers that long really.

First home grown potatoes

Today we have had our first ever home grown potatoes! They were the tastiest potatoes I have had in years. We had roast chicken and tossed the potatoes in a little butter.........mmmm. The children helped Colin to dig up the potatoes this morning and seemed to really enjoy themselves doing it. Colin weighed the potatoes at 2.4kg. Luckily we still have another tub to dig up in a couple of weeks.




We have been eating peas straight from the pods for the last couple of weeks so there weren't enough of them to have with dinner and the carrots are a bit late and are not ready yet. The strawberries have been good and the children have enjoyed picking them straight off the plant and eating them.

I went back to Weightwatchers this week and was glad that I got back there before I put it all back on again. I was a bit upset that I have put on most of what I lost last time but will try to lose it all again! I have put a ticker for my weight loss journey at the very bottom of my blog.

Woohoo!

I have just finished Part 5 of "How does your garden grow?" It was really hard. I haven't tried many speciality stitches before but they had been relatively easy going for the first few parts. I really struggled with these though especially the buttonhole bar and the bullion knots. Any way it's done and you can see it below!




Part 6 looks like it should be fairly quick and easy with some straightforward specials in it.

Kids Fun Ideas Show in Manchester

We saw this advertised in the local press a while ago and thought it would be fun to do and might give us some different ideas of things to do with the kids in the holidays. The tickets were really well priced. It was £6 for an adult but another adult could go free of charge. Kids were free! The show ran from 10-4 on the Sunday (not sure what times it was for the Saturday.)

When you got there you could go and collect goody bags. One for the parents and another for the children. They were full of money off vouchers etc and came in very handy. Actually in the hall itself were various stands some with free competitions to fill in, colouring sheets and all with loads of information regarding different areas including Bolton, Bury, Stockport, Manchester, The Wirral and loads of others and some from specific companies - Haven, NSPCC etc. As well as all these there was a stage for 20 minute presentations by various exhibitors. The first one we watched was "Chemistry with cabbage". It was fabulous! We got loads of ideas for chemistry experiments using things around the home and kitchem. Have a look at the website chemistrywithcabbage.co.uk for the recipes. They are well worth a go - especially the elephant's toothpaste one although that may be best done outside............just in case!!! My 2 can't wait to try them.........what a shame we don't break up for another 3 weeks yet.

There were also some singers and dancers from a couple of shows that you could go and see in or near Blackpool who were pretty good too. The overall favourite though as far as the children were concerned were Haven. A few of the party dances from our holiday soon put them back in the holiday spirit. It seems ages since we went away.

All the staff on the stands were very friendly and knowledgable and made it a great day out. The only downside was that we hadn't anticipated being there for so long and hadn't taken a packed lunch with us. The food and drink was extortinate! Can of coke £1, chocolate muffin £2.05, chocolate cookie £2.10, small roll with various fillings £2.50, Mars bar 80p and get this one.........£1.60......that is not a typo...........£1.60 for a bag of crisps!!!! Needless to say we had a late lunch elsewhere in the end.

Hats off to the First Aid team. My daughter has Type 1 diabetes and needed to do a finger prick to check her levels. They gave us somewhere to sit and even gave us a sharps bin to use! Well done guys!!

This is the first time we have seen this show advertised so I don't know if it is a new thing but it was a fantastic day out and we will definitely go again next year if it is on.

Good news!!

I found out late yesterday afternoon that I got the job!! My original contract at school was from the start of December to the end of March. This was then extended to the end of July but I then had to apply for one of the year long contracts starting in September. I had a really awful interview which I became a gibbering wreck in but obviously I work hard enough to warrant a job!! There was a choice of 30 hours or 15 hours and I got the 30 hours.