Friday's Fave Five - 24/11/23

It's Friday!  Time to look back and be thankful for the good things over the past week.

Susanne is our prompt and host for this.  You can find out more here.

Here are mine:

1)  Family time last weekend.  It was Granddaughter Ella's birthday and all of us got together for that.  I posted about it here.

2)  Enough dry weather to be able to get out for walks most days.  The ground is still very muddy but I don't mind that.

3)  More volunteers at the Food bank.  Many hands make light work as they say and definitely true there, especially when the delivery from the council arrives and it all has to be sorted and stored.  Also on days like yesterday when we have to clear everything out from the Church to the storage area as there is a function at the weekend.  Most weeks some things are left in the Church but full clear downs mean the storage area has to be organised to make space for the extra items.  2 volunteers had returned from last week and there was another new one yesterday.  Hopefully they will all stay.

4)  Many of you will know one of my DILs is American so yesterday was an important day for her although here it was a normal working day so they will celebrate Thanksgiving at the weekend.  But she posted these pictures from Grandson Vinny's nursery:

I'm thankful that they have great childcare for our Grandson.

5)  A knit and natter session this week.  The previous one was cancelled as only a few of us were around so it was good to catch up and enjoy a good chat with like-minded people.

This weekend will be quieter for us.  Hope you all have a good one especially if you're still celebrating Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving! - 23/11/23

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.  

Hope you're all having a great day.

Weekend Recap - 20/11/23

Well it was a busy one!

Our eldest son and his family arrived late on Friday.  The grandsons were all ready in the PJs and they both settled reasonably quickly in their beds.  Miles seemed to think it was the morning as he'd been asleep in the car and took a little bit of convincing that no, it was still time for him to be in bed lol.

Saturday we met up with our other son and his two boys plus of course the birthday girl Ella and her brother and parents.

We went to the Museum of London in Docklands where there is a play area for the kids with soft play and other activities.  They all seemed to enjoy themselves.  After the session finished they had a quick visit in the museum before heading to a pizza restaurant just a few yards away.

It's hard getting 6 little ones to pose for a photo but this is probably the best one taken between us!

Here are a few others from the day.

Not obvious from the photo but Noah and Rory chatted the whole way from the station back to our house!  Vinny tagged along too.

We brought Rory and Vinny back to our house as I was babysitting them in the evening as their Mummy was singing in a concert and Daddy was going to watch.  We fed them but then I took them back to their house to go to bed.  They were so tired out from their busy day that they were asleep within a very short time and I didn't hear another peep.

On Sunday we had them all at our house for lunch except Nathan who had swimming lessons.  But by late afternoon they had all gone home so I was able to relax in front of the TV for the evening!

Looking back on the comments from my last couple of posts (thank you for all the birthday wishes for Ella and other kind words) there were a couple of questions that I'll answer here.

Yes John we do still play Kerplunk although the version we have is not as robust as the one my children had.  It takes a while to assemble and is best done by an adult!

Marie, we do gather elsewhere for the big extended family gatherings but the group we had at our house was just Hubby's generation and we were a couple missing so only 11 - I can cope with that.

Carla, the pig I made for Ella was named Maisie in the pattern book I used so I kept to that although of course Ella may decide differently lol.

And finally for Linda, this is the pattern book I used

It quotes Louise Crowther on the front but it's a David & Charles book - there are others and the website is www.davidandcharles.com

Despite my struggles to complete Maisie I already have the wool to make George the Dog - on the right.  But first I have lots of knitted squares to sew together to make a blanket. 

Finally, on a slightly sad note, I'm not sure if any of my readers now go back to the time when I was originally on Yahoo and then Multiply before finally ending up here who may have known "Benni".  Her actual name was Theresa and although she hadn't really blogged much in the past few years she was very active on Facebook posting photographs she'd taken.  Unfortunately she died suddenly last week.  Thankfully there was a post on her page notifying friends - some of my blogging friends have just stopped blogging without any explanation which is a bit disconcerting. RIP Benni.

Friday's Fave Five - 17/11/23

Well Friday is nearly over so I need to get my skates on and get this post done before I turn into Cinderella!

Susanne keeps us on our toes, reminding us to look back on the week and find the good things.  You can find her blog here.

These are mine for the week:

1)  A lovely meal with Hubby's siblings last Saturday.  We were the hosts and it went very well.  I blogged about it in more detail here.

2)  I finally finished the knitted pig I was making for Ella's birthday.  She turned 3 today and we will see her tomorrow for a family celebration with all the grandkids.

3)  A decent pair of wellies that are comfortable and waterproof.

As you can see my walk today involved a lot of mud.  I walked around the lake and thanks to all the rain we've had the paths are VERY muddy.  Wellies are a necessity so I'm glad of a comfy pair.  I'm also glad that we can access the rear of our house from outside so I don't have to carry the boots through the house!

4)  A nice couple of hours with Ella on Wednesday.  We spent ages "playing" Kerplunk.  

She was more interested in just dropping the marbles down the chute than really playing the game but it kept her occupied for quite a while and then we moved on to Playdough.

5)  Noah and Miles are here for the weekend!  (And my son and his wife of course and not forgetting Ness the greyhound.)

Looking forward to us all getting together for Ella's birthday tomorrow and then on Sunday our station is celebrating 150 years of the railway being here.

Hope you all have a good weekend too.