Here is our new playhouse. It took a weekend to make. Arthur and Elliott absolutely love it. It is made of wood with windows and a felt roof to keep the water out. It has a balcony and a little ladder up. I painted it and made vinyl ‘curtains’ for the windows with different animals on and a vinyl ‘castle gledhill’ sign for the outside. We also put down a rug inside to make it a bit cosier.
Many thanks to Uncle La La and Aunty Lelly for all your help! we couldn’t have done it without you.
It is the best thing we have done yet, in terms of entertainment for Elliott and Arthur. They love climbing the ladder and shouting ‘Hiya’ from the balcony. They also love hiding in the house and playing Peepo through the windows. We use the space underneath to store all their other garden toys so it is a great use of space. Here it is!
Today I made play dough. I kind of made up the recipe after finding about 20 variations online but it turns out it is a bit of a no brainer. For any of my Mummy friends reading this here is what I did.
I put 2 tbsp of salt and 2 tbsp of oil in a saucepan on a low heat with a teaspoon of almond essence. Then I added a mug of water and a mug of plain flour. I just stirred it until it looked like dough (it kind of needs to cook a bit in the pan as it starts off quite runny) and took it off the heat. Once it was cool enough to handle (use some extra flour if it is a bit sticky) I divided it up into balls and coloured them with food colouring. Whilst I was doing it I had given A&E a shoe box I had cut holes in and a bunch of blocks so they could post them through the holes. It kept them occupied for the whole play dough making.
The almond essence is an essential part of the process. I really remember the smell of play dough when I was little and it was the almond essence that did it. There is something very special about fresh warm play dough and it’s lovely smell.
Arthur and Elliott played with it for an hour. I improvised what they could use as tools but they didn’t seem to mind what they used. Elliott liked making things out of his play dough. I asked him what he was making at one point and he said ‘hat’ then put his creation on his head. Arthur liked squishing it flat and making lots of different marks in it. He loved my icing nozzle for making big circles on one end and stars on the other.
They didn’t try and eat it which surprised me. Especially as it smelled so nice. They seem to have grown out of the eating everything phase some time ago. Though I do on occassion find Arthur looking guilty whilst harbouring a tiny farmyard animal in his mouth.
So play dough saved a rainy morning and soft play land saved a rainy afternoon. I always find it is a bit harder being stuck indoors as you have to make twice the entertainment. Hopefully I will make it outside tomorrow.
Yesterday it was 27degrees. It was too hot to move. So we decided to head to the beach. Tynemouth is only 25 minutes away in the car and has a lovely long beach with road access at one side so Daddy could drop Elliott, Arthur and I off on the beach with our mountain of stuff and go and park the car.
We took a picnic and a giant quilt to lie on and our umbrella. When it is too hot the beach is great as there is always a lovely breeze off the sea to take the edge off it. We put our blanket down next to a little stream. Arthur and Elliott played for hours and paddled in the sea and made sandcastles. They helped lots of other children make things too and made some friends. They had lunch and then had a nice long nap under the umbrella so Daddy and I could have a long sunbathe.
When they woke up they played more in the stream and we found a big crab which they both got to touch as I held it. Though they thought it was hilarious when it ran sideways up my arm!
We had a fantastic time. We have never spent the whole day at the beach before. I think we will again as it went really well. Daddy went a bit pink so is getting me to cover him in Aloe Vera at every opportunity. No doubt he will wake up this morning and be completely brown as he is lucky like that.
On Tuesday last week it was a fairly nice day so I took Elliott and Arthur to the park over the road. Our house is on a main road which is a bit noisy at times (though to be honest I often find so called ‘quiet’ places noisier than our house, being woken up at 5am by the sound of birds is not my idea of fun)
So yes we live on a main road. I don’t mind it, it is quiet at night and during the day there is always a helpful Geordie about to give me a hand with a buggy crisis or tell me my kids are gorgeous when I feel frazzled. Another advantage is the fact that I have the park over the road to my house.
It is a nice park as it is locked at night so drunk teenagers can’t pull up all the flowers and pour cider all over the kids play area. Off we went to the park, I didn’t bother with the buggy as A&E are good enough at walking now to just hold my hand and walk up the road to the island and then down the road to the park. They know that they have to be very careful next to a road and both held my hands very tightly. A very kind ambulance driver stopped to let us cross. We got to the park and played football, then Elliott and Arthur played on all of the climbing frames.
Both can now climb up the steps of the climbing frame and sit at the top of the slide and slide down without any help from me so I sat on the football and yelled encouragement whilst they demonstrated their climbing skills.
I think that is one of the hardest things to do as a parent. To let go a bit and give your kids the freedom to do their own thing without too much hand holding and hovering. I think if they rely on you too much they become careless and think you are going to be there to catch them every time they do anything. It was actually Grandma Alison who made me feel confident enough to let them just get on with it. She said ‘if they can do it, they are ready for it’ wise words indeed.
Here is a video, I will say my heart was in my mouth watching them sliding down the slide. I dont think I give them enough credit, they are better at sliding than I am that is for sure.
Well a couple of weeks ago we went to South Shields with GR and Poppa. We played on the beach and saw the swans in the park. Then we went to Colemans for fish and chips. Now Colemans is special, in fact, I would go as far as saying it is the best fish and chip restaurant in England. They even got sent to the Carribean to make fish and chips for a Royal Garden Party there. I am going on a bit now but I feel very lucky to have such an amazing place just round the corner.
So we asked the nice lady in Colemans for a table and she said we could have two between us all as their biggest table was reserved for the Foreign Secretary. So in a rather surreal lunch we all had fish and chips on tables next to David Miliband and all his Labour cronies. Elliott decided to stuff a whole peice of cod in his mouth and do a cod smile at Mr Miliband who politely muttered that he was cute but I think was secretly thinking ‘I wish I could stuff that much fish in my mouth at once’. Mr Miliband then accidentally squirted a sachet of ketchup over his lap and swore a few times under his breath (I think he was intimidated by Elliott’s cod eating skills)
His PA handed him napkins to try and get it off (I had wetwipes in my nappy bag but I wasn’t going to give him any as I am a Liberal Democrat) eventually he just looked like he had wet himself after being handed a damp cloth.
So Cameron and Clegg, if David Miliband does become leader of the opposition and you need to ruffle him
in a debate. Just get Elliott eating cod in front of him and he will be unable to function.
It has been ages since I wrote anything and it isn’t because nothing has happened. I simply haven’t had the time, so be prepared for a big update in posts over the next couple of days. Here is the first; A couple of weeks ago it was a lovely day so Arthur and Elliott and I went to Granny R’s for a spot of gardening.
They love helping her in the garden and really like sorting out her clothes pegs, posting things into her big terracotta pumpkin and watching the little kids at the primary school behind her house playing. They also take their watering can responsibilities very seriously. Arthur walks around touching plants and saying ‘gentle’ as he carefully strokes them. Elliott loves snails and calls them ‘slowlies’ as we sing a song about a snail that goes ‘slowly, slowly very slowly’.
Well last weekend was very exciting, Arthur and Elliott got a new baby cousin! Daddy’s big sister, Aunty Helen had a beautiful little girl.
Mia Rose Barlow was born rather dramatically at 7.30 on Saturday night. As you can see she is perfect and gorgeous. That day the Gledhill posse went on a lovely country walk through woodland and had a wonderful day out. It seems very fitting that a great day should be topped off by great news.
Many congratulations to Aunty Helen, Uncle Neil and Big Sister Anna. On your beautiful new family member!
Check out what Granny Ruthy and Poppa Fleck bought us for Easter. It is vaguely egg shaped I suppose! We have been after something cool to tidy our bath toys away for a while. The body of the ladybird comes off so you can scoop all the toys out of the bath with it and it has a shelf on top for keeping little curious hands away from shampoo. Yay!
Recently we went to the seaside. It was a hot sunny spring day and we had chips and an ice cream. Daddy ran for about 2 miles trying to find us buckets and spades. He came back with lovely ones and a big bouncy ball. We had one of those days where you feel like you are in a movie because it is as close to perfect as it could possibly be. I love it when you have a day like that. It is the stuff that great memories are made of. Here are some pictures.
Last month we all went on a trip to butterfly world. It isn’t far away and is a great day out. There was much excitement and running about screaming and shouting Bupppaaa (the word for butterfly) and doing the babysign for butterfly too. Here are some pictures.
