Easter Sunday

This easter, I really wanted Benjamin to have a little fun now that he's a little bit older so I decided to set up a little easter egg hunt for him. I kept it simple and I was a little worried he wouldn't understand what to do but he totally got it! He loved his easter basket and was very excited about the chocolate. After all, who wouldn't be?!?
He found some at the bottom of the stairs first (with a little guidance)...

And he found these eggs under the workstation all by himself.....

Admiring his findings after retrieving some from under the chair -

Tucking into a little chocolate egg - yum yum yum! -

We spent the afternoon at Ben's parent's house and had a gorgeous roast beef dinner there followed by some of my homemade masterpiece....a chocolate cake with white chocolate icing. Ben did the decorating -

Benjamin had a great Easter. He had chocolate eggs from Ben and I, chocolate bunnies and a new book from Grammy and Grandad. He also had some money come from his Great nanny! He will be seeing Grandma on Tuesday and will receive another egg from her so he is one lucky boy! :)

Happy Easter everyone! xxx

First swim

So Ben and I have been really useless about taking Benjamin swimming ha! Aged 21 months he went for the first time....and he loved it! We took him to Splashes on Good Friday. He held onto our hands for the first two minutes then as soon as he saw the slide in the baby pool...he was off!!!

Once he had gotten over the wonder of the baby slide, he did enjoy splashing about with Ben and I and he was willing to come into the deeper end. He also loved going down the big water slide with Ben :)

We finished the afternoon with fish and chips from the chippy for tea. And a certain little man was VERY hungry when we got out the pool haha! 

Good Friday was indeed, a good one :) xxxx

6 years....

I am not always a publicly slushy person but I cannot let our 6th wedding anniversary go by without a mention of it! Ben is a wonderful, kind and loving husband and a terrific father to our son, Benjamin. He tells me he loves me every day and still gives me lots of compliments.  He always puts me and Benjamin first and has been an amazing support to me. Our wedding day doesn't seem that long ago but he has now put up with me for 6 whole years ha! Marrying Ben was the best decision I ever made. He is a great blessing in my life, a blessing that I haven't always felt worthy of but I am and always will be grateful, just the same! :)

Have you noticed the absence of SNOW in these pics? It was cold and windy but not snowing like it has been today!!!

Best day EVER!!!

21 months!!!

I cannot believe that our gorgeous boy is 21 months this week! That's a year and three quarters, where has the time gone? I don't want him to get any older than 2 because I love this age so much. Benjamin is still my baby and is still quite infant-like in some ways....but at the same time he is getting more independent and confident by the day. Here are some cute bits of information about him:

- He has started kissing us :) I am so pleased about this because he has never done this up until now and I thought he might be anti-kissing ha! He has always been cuddly though. But now he gives Ben a kiss when he is leaving for work and will sometimes give me a kiss when I ask for one.
- He has some favourite programmes on TV including 'Bob the Builder', 'Postman Pat', 'Sarah and Duck', 'Chuggington', 'Woolly and Tig' and I hate to say it but he is fascinated by the world's most annoying man....Mr Tumble! ha! These are all on the CBeebies channel.
- For about a week he did not want to take his daytime nap but he has now gone back to taking his nap late morning into lunchtime. I am VERY pleased about this! :)
- He has developed a great interest in books which I am loving too! He asks me to read them to him, sometimes more than once at a time ha! He loves 'talking' about the pictures and if I ask him to show me where something is on the page, such as a flower or butterfly, he likes pointing it out. The ex-teacher inside me is ecstatic right now hehe! ;)
- He is enjoying church nursery and for the first time since the end of December, he said goodbye to Daddy last Sunday and went straight in himself without crying at all! However he still cries when he sees his Dad in a suit on Sunday morning and then again when we approach the chapel car park. He is smarter than I give him credit for haha! 
- He loves going to visit people in their homes. If I park outside somebody's house perhaps to post something in their letter box, Benjamin cries for a little while when we drive away again because he thought we were going in ha! I cannot even drive into a cul-de-sac to turn around because he is convinced we are about to get out the car and go visit somebody!!!
- He is crazy about those toy cars that little kids can 'ride' or 'scoot along'. He is still totally obsessed with pushing objects through holes.....haha! He is a VERY active child and doesn't sit still for very long unless he is engrossed in a toy or a TV programme. Ben was just like this as a child too! 
- He is a great dancer. His whole body moves. His favourite song has got to be 'Gangnam Style' (groan!) but most kinds of music will get him grooving. 

We love Benjamin so much....just as he is :) 

3 cards

This won't be a very interesting post for those of you who are not interested in paper crafts but if you are, I hope you like these 3 cards I made last night.

My sister in law, Hannah, just recently announced her engagement to her boyfriend Simon. So I wanted to make them a card. The silver panel under the flower says 'congratulations'.

Then I made this one for my Nana's birthday, which is coming up in a week -

I bought the bear stamp in The Range the other day and really wanted to try it out! 
And the next one is going to be for Ben, as it is our 6th wedding anniversary coming up this weekend :) The silver panel says 'especially for you'. I didn't have one that said 'happy anniversary'. Ha!

Primarily I am a scrapbooking fan but I have recently discovered that I enjoy cardmaking too! I think I am an amateur really but I enjoy doing it and it's my way of putting thought into somebody's birthday or special event. If you are an experienced paper crafter and would like to see some amazing work, then check out my friend Sophie's blog at: stampinberry.blogspot.com
She is AMAZING!

A 50th birthday party

A few weeks ago Ben and I were invited to a 50th birthday party. The birthday girl in question was the mother of my friend, Jadi. With the help of friends and family, Jadi planned a 50th birthday party surprise in a hired hall. It was a shared party as Jadi's auntie was also turning 60. Jadi asked me to make a large batch of cupcakes for the party. This was simply flattering in itself as I know quite a few people who are far better at producing cupcakes than I am. But when I had finished them and handed them over, Jadi described them as 'perfect'. The word 'smug' springs to mind haha! I really enjoyed helping out by doing something I love, baking is a passion of mine. Here's a photo of a few of them close up.....

Can you guess who's lurking in the background? Yes, he was a good boy, I asked him not to touch them and he didn't! 
And here's the entire lot!

I currently take photos using my mobile. I really do need to invest in a good quality camera, one that takes clear photographs in a darker environment, so I apologise for the naff quality of the following photos! And here are some of my cakes at the actual party....

The birthday girl, Anita, cutting her cake. She had absolutely no idea this party was going to be for her and her sister! She really did believe it was for her son's girlfriend who was turning 25 around the same time!

Me and my friend Jadi :)

Ben and I had a great evening out. Little man was at home fast asleep while Grandma babysat. (thanks Grandma!) Happy birthday Anita!

Happy Mother's Day

Just in case I run out of time tomorrow, I felt it highly appropriate that this evening I use my spare time to write a little something about Mother's Day.

Firstly I will write a little something about my Mum...........

My mum (Jackie) brought me up more or less on her own. She worked hard to support my brother and I financially but always had time for us personally as well. She saw me through university and later on, through my wedding day. She brought me up to be well mannered and hard working and for this I am very grateful indeed. She has accomplished a great deal on her own over the years, including running her own musical instrument tuition business. Well done Mum! She's also a terrific Grandma.

Ben also has a great Mum called Vanessa. She is married to Kevin and Ben is the eldest of 7 children! Vanessa has shown me nothing but kindness since I began dating Ben and I consider myself very lucky because some young men are tied to the apron strings and no woman will ever be good enough for their sons! I do not have this problem. Vanessa and Kevin always encouraged Ben to be an honourable man and taught him to treat women with respect. I am very grateful for this as Ben is a lovely husband. Vanessa will always say that she has had no part to play in this but I think his good upbringing definitely plays a part in it. 

As for gifts, I always like to do homemade. I am a keen baker and crafter, so this is what we put together for the Mums - 

Homemade chocolate fudge. The tag on the ribbon and the card are also homemade......of course ha! The two cards were different in design but I had already handed one of them over and forgot to take a photo of it beforehand!

And I had an early Mother's day present from Ben and Benjamin a few days ago - 

Ben is rubbish at keeping surprises well hidden so he just couldn't help himself haha!

And finally....a few words about actually BEING a mother myself. 

My son is only 20 months so isn't quite old enough to say Happy Mother's day and get me breakfast in bed etc. But he shows me he loves me every day with constant cuddles and affection. I won't pretend that motherhood is an easy task...it really isn't. But it is absolutely worth the sleepless nights and toddler tantrums. I love that my son needs me and relies on me to look after him in all ways. Becoming a mother has been a HUGE learning curve for me and I am still learning now. I am extremely grateful that God trusts me enough to take care of one of his precious children, as we indeed all are. I love you Benjamin xxxxx

Fundrum

Today Benjamin and I had a great time at Fundrum. For those of you who don't know, Fundrum is an indoor play area for children. There is so much climbing and rolling around to be done here! This is probably benjamin's idea of heaven ha! We spent pretty much all afternoon here and I couldn't be more grateful to my friend Jackie, who had a free pass for us! Benjamin loves this place so much that if I were to bring him here on my own, I could probably just settle myself in the middle of the play area with a good book and he would crack on and entertain himself for quite some time without any need for my assistance! But today I was lucky because I met up with two of my 'mummy' friends there, Jackie and Vanessa, with their children, Daniel, Jasmine-Anne and Henry. It was unbelievably hard to get some good pictures of Benjamin having a good time as he just would not keep still! Can't say I blame him really.....

I think the ball pit is his favourite place :)

There were about 10 of these cars there. But when another toddler got into the car that he had his eye on,  the pair of them 'argued' over this one car haha! 

And a little bit of quiet time in another area......