birthday.......

15 years have passed since this little boy became a permanent fixture in our daily lives.....

it's been such an amazing 15 years......

there have been innumerable times of joy, immense pride, tears, encouragement, 

achievements, frustrations.......

all the things that go alongside journeying through life with your children.....

I wouldn't swap any of it for the world and I count it such a privilege 

to be mum to this fantastic 15 year old.......

{lemonade cake as requested.....

not one of my finest moments but we did have a good laugh about it.....}

on the morning of his actual birthday 

{which happened to fall on a Thursday this year} 

we had a little nod to the fact that it was a special day..... 

but, as the Thursday was also a school day

 Isaac requested that we postpone the proper celebrations 

and gift giving for a couple of days 

 {this is something we haven't had to worry about in the past}

that way he could celebrate properly on the Saturday with 

a relaxed and laid back day......

so, fast forward two days to Saturday and it started out with this.....

a custom lego set that he had seen online and had

earmarked as the one and only thing he REALLY wanted....

he loves it and has earmarked a couple more custom sets for Christmas....

he also requested a visit to IKEA for a big breakfast.....

easy.....

I am more than happy to cook up a big breakfast for birthdays but 

he was adamant that he wanted to go to IKEA, so off we trotted....

{we took our own HP sauce...... 

cooked breakfast without HP is just wrong.....

and in Oz they don't have it at the checkout in little sachets like they do in the UK.....

we know this from experience during a previous breakfast outing.....}

it was lovely to share this day together

and I can't believe that another year has passed in the life

of this fantastic son of mine.... 

July....... better late than never.......

where did it go?.......

July I mean......

it sped by in a flurry of 'beginning-the-holidays' and birthdays.......

and my, oh my, the weather {for the most part}

did a beautiful summery job......

we had days on end of sunshine with just a touch of

rain-y-ness at the beginning and end of the month, so I was happy......

Evie and I worked together on a Galadriel costume

for a friend's hobbit themed birthday party.....

we had so much fun planning and working out just how

we were going to make that brooch and the headband, oh, and the dress.....

it all came together in the end and she was so pleased with the result....

it's amazing what you can do with a white duvet cover

some cardboard and a bottle of silver paint......

here are all the hobbits and wizards and elves and orks

ready for their afternoon of fun and adventure.....

my birthday was spent with these lovely people,

our home ed group in Bristol,

where the children spent the afternoon at a local park

 competing in the annual sports event....

lots of traditional races can be participated in.....

including the sack race.....

welly wanging.....

and sprinting.....

such a lot of fun for all involved.....

 

and just a few days later it was my beautiful girl's

12th birthday......

she requested a sewing machine cake,

so a sewing machine cake I made......

{the Australian Womens' Weekly Birthday Cake Decorating Book

was my helper here.... I couldn't have done it otherwise.....}

and her thoughtful older brother bought her

one of her very favourite films.....

{we have already watched it...... twice......}

lots of friends came to visit our little part of the world

the day after her birthday for another celebration

and what a lovely afternoon we all had

relaxing {and playing} on the field by the house

where there is a big walnut tree which is perfect

for clambering up and playing {or chatting} in......

they even brought their instruments {and voices} 

and sang 'happy birthday' to Evie which made her

feel very special and happy.....

next it was Brian's turn to be the 'special person for the day'....

Evie made him one of her awesome LEGO minifigure head t-shirts as a gift, which he LOVED....

and we went out for morning tea to a lovely quiet and quaint local tea room....

where Evie was 'mum'.....

our July also included a fab day out visiting the

Black Country Museum in Birmingham....

this living and working museum has been constructed

over the years using original buildings from the local area.....

these have been deconstructed from their original site and

re-constructed to make a wonderful old town which celebrates

many of the industries and traditions of the Black Country.....

there's even an old fairground with some rather spiffy rides....

this speedway ride went really fast....

to the extent that everyone was hanging on for dear life.....

Evie pronounced it 'great fun'.......

there's an old chapel......

lot of old cottages with working veggie gardens

{and one even had piglets..... this was Evie's favourite garden of all of course.....}

there was an old street with shops of all different varieties....

we sampled sweets from the old confectioners and chips from the old chip shop.....

yummy.....

and even though it rained throughout the day

we had a great day out at this most lovely of museums.....

the day after the Black Country museum we found ourselves

in Manchester for the day.....

Brian had been gifted a ticket to the cricket for the day so

the children and I tagged along and decided to have a 

little mooch around the area......

we didn't have time to do too much but we were able

to find a rather fun swimming pool where the children

spent the morning riding flumes and rapids

and we spent the afternoon at the 

Museum of Science and Industry.....

I loved the architecture of the aviation building....

all that stunning ironwork and those beautiful arches and windows.....

and the children enjoyed just browsing round the

science museum, which reminded us a lot of @bristol 

{which we haven't been to for over 5 years},

 'having a go' at all the different exhibits on show....

such a busy and fun month July turned out to be.....

and now we're already nearly half way through August......

time is flying.....

more birthday celebrations.....

we all have our birthdays within a few weeks of each other in our house, 

so during the summer we hop, skip and jump from one celebration to the next,

which is truly lovely, and gives a very festive spirit to the summer holidays.....

even our wedding anniversary is right in the middle of all that celebrating..... 

might as well make the most of the festive atmosphere around the place....

Isaac is the last of the four of us to have his celebrations and 

his birthday really marks the end of our summer break.....

it's one last day to stay in jammies all day long.....

to choose all the food for the day.....

and to generally chill out.....

this year was a bit special though as Isaac turned 13.....

yes, teenagerdom has arrived in our house.....

he had a special request that we go out for dinner this

year and that we go to auntie dottie's for a family get together,

but other than that he just wanted to kick back and enjoy a

quiet day at home.....

there were special books to be poured over after all.....

and lego sets to be enjoyed.....

and games of an electronic variety to be tested out.....

our visit to dottie's house in Devon was glorious, as usual, and I did

actually manage to make a cake for this one.....

 {look at me all excited, complete with unbrushed hair!}

as instructed, it was a blue lego brick {not quite as dark a blue as we were

hoping for, but blue nonetheless} with a little lego scene perched precariously

on top which had been explained meticulously to me by Isaac as to how it

should appear on the cake.....

 

as always, I had grumped and groaned at my pathetic attempts at cake decorating

and, as always, my son gave me a huge smile and said it was fantastic....

love my teenager boy......

he's such a treasure.....

a blink of the eye and autumn has flown by.....

my word it seems an age since our holiday in Italy....

the weather has changed and autumn is firmly in charge....

but before we move on in the seasons I should really update

my space here with the rest of our late summer/early autumn

activity.....

after returning from Italy where Evie celebrated her 11th birthday

we spent the day at my sisters house in glorious Devon so she

could celebrate it all over again with the rest of the family....

the weather was beautiful..... mr sun put his hat firmly on his head,

and much outdoor water play was enjoyed....

presents were gifted.....

this beautiful place mat and coaster set

was made by one of Evie's cousins and took pride of

place at the party table....

 

and this amazing sweetie tree was made by 

Evie's other cousin and was truly spectacular....

because we were away until the day before Evie's birthday celebration in Devon

I knew I would not have time to make her the cake she had requested so I asked 

my niece if she would be willing to make Evie's cake this year.....

she very kindly agreed and, armed with very specific instructions from Evie,

 she came up with this beautiful cake for us all to enjoy.....

there was also lots of other party food to enjoy.....

 lovely warm summer birthdays.....

shared with the ones we love.....

truly delightful.....

summer hols......

this year we decided that we would like to go somewhere

hot for our summer hols, since the weather in ol' blighty had

decided to be very un-summery.......

we looked at where the cheap flights would take us and

decided on a little jaunt to Italy.......

Brian and I had been to Venice for our 10th wedding anniversary 

{and I had visited Italy in another life for a ski-ing trip when I was at school} 

but the children had never been and we thought what a fab opportunity to

combine culture, history, beauty and hot weather all at once......

and so we found ourselves leaving on a jet plane bound

for Pisa with a few travel books and a desire to see as

much as we possibly could during our week long stay.....

we used public transport to get around 

{mostly trains and the metro in Rome} 

and it was all realiable, relatively 

cheap and easy to use......

so let me give you a little visual tour of our holiday.......

first stop, Pisa......

seriously, I know it's obvious, but the tower REALLY leans..... 

and after a wonderful, traditional Italian dinner we were treated

to some rather splendid street music......

 

our next city stop was Siena......

the beautiful Piazza del Campo where we sat and had a

picnic lunch and then hit one of the famous gelaterie and

sampled their scrummy ice cream.....

 

of course, you couldn't go to Italy and not enjoy the

morning coffee (and afternoon coffee and evening coffee....)

it was an essential part of the trip.....

 

Rome was the third city that we visited and we chose to go to

the Vatican Museums during our first full day there......

we were treated to HUGE amounts of stunning artwork

{below is Raphael's School of Athens which Brian was 

particularly excited to see 'in the flesh'.....}

and to stand and gaze up at the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel brought

a big smile to my face it has to be said.....

 

in the contemporary gallery I recognised some of Henri Matisse's

artwork but the children had come to the end of their patience 

with my ooooohh-ing and aaaaahh-ing over the artwork by then

and kept hurrying me along, so I didn't get a chance to really

enjoy the contemporary gallery as much as the previous parts

of the museum.....

 

at the end, after all the galleries, gift shops and post offices was

this lovely spiral staircase......

it started off as just a sloping spiral then developed very shallow

steps which were quite far apart..... the steps got deeper and 

deeper and closer and closer to one another until you end with 

what seems to be a normal spiral staircase.....

I just really liked it, so here is a photo of it.......

 

our second day in Rome was actually Evie's birthday and she had chosen to 

have a tour of the Colosseum as her 'special thing to do'......

first up though was a trip to the Spanish Steps where there

is a wonderful fountain where you can cool off 

{it was so hot and that was at 10am......}

 

I just enjoyed admiring the view......

 

then it was on to the Trevi Fountain......

 

we didn't have any coins to chuck in so we just took

lots of photos instead......

 

and the Pantheon.......

 

and finally we ended up at the Colosseum for our special

tour as requested by Evie........

 we had booked a tour where we got to visit a few 'extras' that

 we couldn't have otherwise experienced, like walking onto the stage that they 

have built over a small section of the Colosseum floor......... 

it really gives you a sense of how immense the place is......

 

we were also able to visit the dungeons where the gladiators and animals

 would have been held before their fights in the Colosseum itself......... 

these dungeons were only opened to the public last year.....

 it was quite sobering to hear all about what it would have been like for those 

waiting down there whilst standing in the very spot they did.......

 

we then climbed to the highest point possible and had a fantastic

view down into the Colosseum.......

before all the stone walls were built in the dungeons, the stage

would have been held up solely with wooden pillars.......

the pillars and the stage were completely removeable and it therefore 

meant that the basement area of the Colosseum could be flooded and used

to stage sea battles for Roman citizens to come and watch.....

it must have been an amazing sight......

 

and so we bid farewell to Rome and travelled on to 

our final city destination, Florence, where we visited the

science museum and saw Galileo's telescope 

{and a couple of his fingers in jars...... go figure!}

 

and did a fab walking tour with Mario who wanted to 'show us the heart of Florence'.....

 it was so much fun to see his enthusiasm for his city and to be taken to see some 

beautiful carvings by Michaelangelo as well as lots of amazing architecture......

 

The Old Bridge...... the only bridge in Florence which

survived the second world war.......

 

ahhhhh, it was a splendid holiday with lots of lovely memories.....

just looking at these few photos has brought a smile to my face......

now we need to decide where to go next........