Day out at the Trafford Centre

On Wednesday we went for a big day out at the Trafford Centre.  For the summer, they had a carousel in Barton Square, so Evie and I went on that, on a two seater horse named Fraya.  The singing bears were also there.

Evie wasn’t totally sure about the bears, but Henry seemed to like them.
The new Legoland is also in Barton Square, but the queues were pretty long, so we just went in the shop. And look who else was there

After that we went to Pesto, which is currently our favourite resaurant. Henry tried Arancini (risotto balls) and spagetti. Which made my mum very nervous!


And Evie also had lots of fun eating messy foods

Then she noticed the face painting stall, and decided she wanted her face painting. She’s tried once before when she was really little, but got scared. So I said we’d do it, but decided to just go for a small butterfly or something because it would be quicker and she wouldn’t have to stay still as long. Evie decided on pink and purple flowers on her cheeks, and this is what she got – it looked amazing!!

After lunch we did a bit of shopping. Some cereals at Holland and Barrett to make our own yummy muesli. And a trip to the Disney store to buy Tinkerbell knickers and a Tinkerbell umbrella. I’m not entirely sure how we managed to be there for so long, and buy so little to be honest!

Then we all needed a bit of a sit down and a coffee, so I had coffee, and Evie had the pinkest cupcake you’ve ever seen

By this time Henry had had enough shopping, and so he’d fallen asleep.

By the time we got home, we were all tired, but we’d had a lovely day.

Touchstones

We went to church today, and had a lovely community lunch to celebrate the ordination of our new OLM (Ordained Local Minister – a kind of voluntary vicar).

Then Evie and I went to Touchstones in Rochdale – it’s the local art gallery, and on the last sunday of the month, they have a family arty/crafty activity session.  We’ve never been before, but I think we’ll definitely go again.  Today we made a little pencil holder like a house, and a model of the first ever Co-op – because it all started in Rochdale you know!  Evie did the colouring in and sticking, I was in charge of cutting out.  Except that the co-op model was tricky!

Here’s our efforts!

After we’d made our models, we went for a look round the gallery. They had an exhibition of Victorian paintings there, and they have the origianal of ‘A Special Pleader’ by Charles Barber. You’re bound to know it, I’ve seen it in all kinds of places, in case you can’t see the link, it’s the little girl standing in a corner crying, with a collie looking on. Well, yes, I saw the original! i’ve not been to many art galleries (not really my kind of thing to be honest), but it was actually really cool to see the original of something that’s so famous.

A day at the park

Today we all went to Chadderton Hall Park. It wasn’t raining when we set off, but typically it was by the time we got there. But it wasn’t too heavy, so we still managed to have a walk around, and then we went for coffee and cake at the cafe.

I then managed to get my workout mojo back, and went off to the gym. really wasn’t looking forward to it, but now I’ve been I do feel better, and less inclined to eat rubbish, knowing how hard I’ve worked to get rid of just a few hundred calories!

I also took a trip to Asda to buy a couple of things we needed, and managed to find myself a new knitting bag! I’ve been looking for a while for one that doesn’t look like a grannies knitting bag, but the ones I’ve seen are all well over £70, which seems like a lot for a knitting bag. But today I found a nice looking and big holdall for the grand total of £8 – so I now have a fab new knitting bag. I’ll take a pic when I can find the camera!

Bulgur wheat salad

I made this yesterday and it was lovely.
I just sort of made it up as I went along, so my quantities might be a bit out. This made enough to serve me and my husband as a side dish, with a little left over.

75g bulgur wheat
2 tomatoes
cucumber
1 large or 2 small peppers (whichever colour you prefer)
2-3 spring onions
1 small can mixed beans in water
Olive oil (optional)

Cook the bulgur wheat according to the instructions on the packet. I covered mine with water and left for 30 mins (actually, I used veg stock instead of plain water to give it a bit more flavour).
Chop the peppers, spring onions, cucumber and tomatoes.
When the bulghar wheat is cooked, put it in a pan over a VERY low heat (the lowest you can).
Stir in the peppers and spring onion and a tiny drizzle of olive oil if you want to. The heat is just to help the flavours develop.
Stir in the canned beans (drained)
Give it a few minutes, then take it off the heat, and add in the tomatoes and cucumber.

I like it slightly warm, but I’m sure it would also be nice cold.
It’s just like couscous salad really, but bulgur wheat is lower GI, has a bit more fibre and is (IMHO) a bit more tasty.

We had it as a side dish with some quorn fillets (done like garlic lemon chicken), and a green salad. But I think because it’s got all the beans in it, it would be a great lunch on it’s own. And I’m sure you could put whatever veg you like in there.

I got in!!!

I’m really really excited. I’ve got a place on the MClin Res (Masters of Clinical Research) at Manchester Uni, to start in September. I’ll be doing it part time, and so it will take me two years, and I know that with two young children it’s going to be really hard. But I so want to do this because I hope eventually to be a research midwife, either working in a hospital, or a research unit at a University, or even as a lecturer, and I know I need to do this to help me move towards that goal.

So, so pleased about this!!

Swimming

Today we had a successful swimming lesson!

It was Evie’s third lesson, and she hasn’t been very impressed so far, and last week she spent 25 minutes of a 30 minute lesson crying and yelling “I want my mummy!”. But today I decided I was going to swim in the big pool while she had her lesson in the little pool. And it was a big success no crying (after I initially left her at least), and she even enjoyed her lesson. And as a bonus I got to swim in peace for half an hour, and then Evie got to play with mummy in the big pool.

Success! We celebrated with toasted teacakes, lattes and vimto.

Lovely weather

Finally the weather here is starting to feel a bit more like spring! So everyone is feeling much brighter. The kids have been out in the garden, and I even managed to get a bit sunburned on a recent trip to a friend’s house – we were in the garden all afternoon knitting.

I’ve been working on my clapotis done in gorgeous yarn from Fyberspates.  I’m absolutely loving knitting it.

Busy day yesterday

Had a lie in in the morning, which was lovely.  Then because it was such a gorgeous day here, we went to Daisy Nook garden centre.  Along with the rest of the North West.  It was so busy that by the time we got there, they’d completely run out of cakes in the cafe.  Could have been a big disaster, but Missy Moo decided that a ‘hot cross mouse’ (hot cross bun to the rest of us) would suffice instead.  I bought her a couple of little plant pots for her bedroom, now just need to find a very sturdy and not at all delicate plant to go in them.  Also bought some sweet pea seeds, and my mum bought sunflower and green bean seeds.  We did try sunflowers last year, but I was rubbish, went on holiday and they died.

When we came home, I put together another Ikea Expedit storage unit.  Took a great chunk of skin off my hands in doing so – but it’s up, and Evie’s room is much tidier.  Still have three Benno DVD storage units to put up though.  Also made some celeriac puree for Henry, who has the most enormous appetite!  But celeriac is a stupid vegetable.  Yes, it tastes quite nice, but I’m really not sure it’s worth all the hassle of trying to peel it.

Today, M&S came, and finally actually delivered and installed the last of my furniture.  It’s now all OK, and all in place – only about 8 months after I first ordered it!  They did still try to deliver another two bedside tables that I’ve never ordered though….

Haircut

Just been to have my haircut, and I’m really happy with it. My hair is really fine and rubbish, but it looks as good as it could do at the moment. I might even be really adventurous and have some copper highlights put in next time.
I would have taken a photo (well, actually I have tried) but they’re really bad – not good enough to post. Will try to get Newt to take a decent one later.

Evie also had her hair cut today. They have a special high chair for them to sit in, and when they put the cape on her, she looks just like a mini Harry Potter – very cute! She was very good as well while they cut her hair – didn’t mess about and didn’t whinge.

Other than that we’re all feeling rather poorly and sorry for ourselves at the moment. We’ve all got a cold – except Evie. It seems to have been one cold after another for months now – if it’s not me it’s one of the children or Newt. Roll on spring!

Christening

Evie, Henry and I went to a Christening today.

Evie had a really good time.  And apparently wants to go again next week.  At the ‘do’ afterwards there was food (good), balloons (good), music (good), and lots of room to play with balloons (good).  So what more could she ask for really?  Henry also seemed to like watching all the older boys running around and making a lot of noise!