Flow Rider Surfing

So, the surfing pictures are back! 

We all had so much fun. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone thinking about it. It was Stella (Rich's sister) and Carl's 20th anniversary so they had a party. Both families were invited and as such we were split between the 2 wave machines, so I only have pictures of the Brown clan as we happened to split down the middle. There was a quick instruction video, and then off to get wetsuits. 

Now, aside from Rich, none of the men had worn wetsuits before. Ethan had a fit of shyness and so asked to change in the shower cubicle. While they were in there, all the blokes got ready and came out. With their suits on backwards. Much fun was poked, particularly at Carl who though he has never worn one before, has a wife who can scuba and has her own suit, so we thought he'd at least remember that the zip goes up the back!

Our lovely instructor Tom showed us briefly how to bodyboard and get up onto our knees, and off we went.

 Stell with Tom

 After Stell's first wipeout :)

 Big Sam (Rich's younger brother) and you can just spot Rich biffing it at the back. We were shown how to glide fairly gracefully to the side to stop, but while it looked simple, it was very much not.

Hence my look of intense concentration! And here I am...

 It is my unfortunate privilege to inform you that in this position, with the water wooshing up and under the board, your...ahem...personal area... gets a little bashed. It wasn't that big of a deal and not really painful but I am assured it was worse for the men. Sorry fellas. Still, an incentive to learn quickly how to get up on your knees!

Despite the look on my face, I really enjoyed it. Even if wetsuits are the least flattering piece of clothing in the entire world.

Rich above, and with his brother Big Sam below.

 I really didn't expect much from Ethan, I thought he'd either refuse to try, or try once, fall off, and then refuse to try. However, he put us all to shame! He had several turns and wants to go again. I was really impressed with how brave he was as it's not one of his strong points. He absolutely loved it and really wants to go again.

With help from the instructor, and on his own :)

Too fast to snap! 

We were also shown how to do it standing up on special thin wooden boards - a little like skim boards on the beach. However there are no photos of this, even though I managed to stand up alone for a whole ooh... 15 seconds ;)

We did it at The Flowhouse at Xscape, Castleford, and we absolutely loved it, the water was warm enough that we didn't get cold in between turns, and the instructors were friendly and helpful. Now, it's a little pricey at £22-25 for kids and £30-35 for adults, and we were incredibly grateful to Stella and Carl for being so generous as to pay for everyone. There are group deals and multiple session deals, but still it's a bit teeth-suck inducing. I still would go again though, it was tons of fun and for a special treat definitely worth it. And the look on Ethan's face when he'd done it by himself was absolutely priceless. 

So overall, I'd definitely recommend it, even with the price. Hang 10! Surf's up! Kowabunga dude! Yeah, I'm not really pulling that off at all, am I.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Valentine's day and the end of the chocolate ban

Time has once again slipped by without a post. What can I say? Three children under 6 is BUSY. I also try to abide by the rule of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, where he says to the groundhog, "don't drive angry!" though in this case it's don't blog grumpy, as being hungry tends to make me a little snappish.

I love this movie more than is a normal amount.

So, quick roundup. We've had a fairly uneventful month, although after a week of sleeping through Henry got another cough and it was all over, sad trombone. However, it has now passed again and fingers crossed, he's back on track. 

Speaking of illness, I have got a raging case of tonsillitis. It began a few days ago with a tickly throat and continued with a trip to the walk in clinic on friday night (the big V!) where I was told "Oh yes, that is a lot of pus." Why thank you  grumpy nurse, that's exactly what I wanted to hear about the inside of my throat. Gross. This was then emphasised by the pharmacist who when checking my antibiotics said "so take 2 four times a day.... is it a bad infection?" Clearly that is a large dose of penicillin, for which I am very grateful. Don't worry, there is no picture. This is not that kind of blog.

Last weekend my Dad was up to visit now that he's home from New Zealand which was lovely, I've missed both him and my mum while they've been gone. She's still out there, sunning it up! Dad was kind enough to take the big two boys out on Saturday afternoon so that Rich and I could have a bit of a rest and then we had a delicious chinese takeaway for dinner, naughty but oh so good. So good in fact that Rich and I had it again for dinner when I got back from the doctor on friday... oops. While he was up he took this picture for us, which is I think the first one of the five of us together.

Even though it was taken before I could get my Sunday morning make up on, I still love it.

Valentine's day was a bit drab what with the illness, but it was still nice. I made this for Rich...

Which now I look at it kind of seems like an order, or slightly obnoxious. "Hey, You love me!" At least we all know now who wears the pants... The words in the back are the lyrics to All I ask of You from Phantom of the Opera, which was sung at our wedding. I totally stole the idea from seeing something similar online, but changed the scrabble tiles for keyboard letters, because we've never played scrabble ever, and also because we had an old broken netbook. He loved it, and got me my favourite chocolates now that the ban has been lifted. which segues us nicely into the diet.

So, I've lost 12lbs in about 4 weeks. I cheated once as my sister Sam sent some homemade chocolates over for a belated Christmas gift and they weren't going to last. I'm pretty pleased with myself, that's a decent chunk of weight and I'm almost to the first stone off. All the right places are shrinking, and I feel a lot better about myself already. My end goal is to be able to fit into my wedding dress by our 9th anniversary, which is July 23rd, so I've got plenty of time. In between I've got little goals to get to, the first one being 12st 7lbs, which I beat just over a week ago. The next one is one stone off, which will be 12st 4, only 2 lbs away. I'm not happy with the numbers, but I've decided I'm not ashamed to write them down. They're only numbers, and they don't define me. My body has done amazing things (insert cheesy music here) and grown 3 humans. It has acceptable wear and tear. But just because I'm not ashamed doesn't mean I can't improve.

As for the month of no chocolates and sweets, I thought it would be harder. I'm really glad I did it as it made me realise how I was eating a bit of chocolate here or a few of the kids treats there. I've not felt the need to gorge on it now I can have it. My dad brought me back two large bars of Cadbury's Blackforest Chocolate, which is quite possibly the most delicious flavour ever, with little biscuity and cherry flavoured jelly bits. I ate more than I should have, but not as much as I would have before. It was however still too much for my digestive system since I had my gall bladder out, which it reminded me of with some wicked stomach cramps. Therefore, I still have chocolate lurking about the house and hopefully it'll last me a fair while longer. So, success for now!

Last of all, I'll just mention the amazing family trip out yesterday where I dosed myself up and we all went indoor surfing with extended family. I was however doing the surfing and don't have the pictures back yet so I shall do a proper post on that another time. 

For now, despite the tonsils that are trying to kill me, life is good.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

I'm sorry, December was a blur

Sorry folks. We had a mad December, with 5 rolls of wrapping, 4 batches of bread rolls, 3 excitable boys (plus us!), 2 Christmas days, and 1 chest infection. Doesn't quite roll of the tongue like a partridge in a pear tree but hey, it's what we had.

We also had a visit from the reindeer in town, which of course sent the excitement into a tailspin and yet I had no parachute.

 Why yes those are my boys hands reaching for the nose. We avoided any fingers in nostrils scenarios and the lucky reindeer was left unscathed. 

Time to decorate the tree!

 We got these white lights 2 years ago as a last resort, one of our old strings blew around the 19th of December and I went out to buy more and there were none anywhere. These were in Asda and I actually didn't really like them to start with, they're berry lights, so LED with little balls over, but now I love them. Oh and when I got home and took the old lights off to put them on, it turned out to be a loose connection and they were fine lol! Those now go around the window.

 Placing the star. sidenote - will you look at the legs on that boy?! He's part grasshopper I swear.

 New Christmas jumpers :) 

Not long after this we went down to my Mum and Dad's for first Christmas, where we received many fab presents including this canvas from Jess:

 And this scarf from Mum:

And oh my goodness, the most delicious homemade chocolate fudge ever from Amy. So good that I made it for Ethan's teachers' Christmas presents. I'll add the recipe to the blog soon.

Gingerbread in the hizzle!

 I had help from both boys this year and it was a lot of fun, almost no stress, the exception being those bleeping snowmen. We used cadbury snowballs and mini marshmallows glued together with royal icing. Balancing them was... fun...

More importantly it was delicious, though the boys spared no thought for structural integrity while picking at it over the course of a few days.

Apparently turning it around didn't occur to them and one evening there was a crash as it collapsed. The next morning I was confronted with "Mummy! What did you doooo?!" before the fell back to munching.

This year Ethan was a wise man in the nativity with his cousin Zach

The hat was a little big but he loved it.

Then it was time for Christmas number 2 (on Christmas day this time) at home and the Browns. Ethan was incredibly excited to get his bike, and a new Batcave and lego and allsorts, and Sam was more than happy with the plethora of trains he got!

We also got a soup maker which is totally fabulous and I got the boys to eat actual soup!

New Year's was pretty blah, We stayed up until midnight by accident and were underwhelmed by the London fireworks before getting off to bed, to round out 2013 in our usual lazy fashion!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Harry Potter Day at Stockeld Park

Last weekend we headed up to Stockeld Park after a tip off from a friend that they were having a Harry Potter weekend. After checking it out online we thought the boys would enjoy it and there were a few free events, so off we popped.

We eventually decided (upon arriving) to get a family day pass to the park, as there was a show in one section and a maze in another that we'd have had to pay for. That was the only negative of the day really, that getting into all the parts of the park was a bit cha-ching, and it wasn't really checked. We could definitely have gotten away with at the very least just buying a pass for me and Ethan. We were only checked twice, once on the way in to the 'Enchanted Forest' and once at the bean planting station (which would only have cost £1 without the pass). The maze and sorting weren't checked at all, which was a bit irritating after we forked out for it!

Anyway, back to the good stuff!

First off we had broomstick training, with 2 wizards and a witch from Hogwarts. They were brilliant. An aside, all the... actors? characters? anyway, they were all from Make a Wish Entertainment (facebook here) and they were amazing. More about them later.

This is Wesley Wizzo, who looks and acts freakishly like my brother-in-law Jonny. So much so that Sam shouted his name. Ethan did some magic spells, the group fought a swamp monster, practised flying, and helped a wizard earn his golden hood.

 There he is flying around, with adults acting as quidditch hoops and the whomping willow. He had a blast, and it was good imagination exercise!

Next there was bean planting, with very dry sparkly soil - points for lack of mess - and a white bean, planted with a wish in a small pot. Simple and enjoyable.

In the same area was an animal rescue/welfare group who'd brought some owls along for the event, and they were lovely about the children touching the owls and they both even got to hold the smallest one.

I can't adequately convey the pure joy this brought them, especially Sammy.

After this we stopped for a snack, and then went into the Maze. We were given a quiz and the answers were hidden in the maze, but, being Harry Potter questions, I knew them already ;)

We loved it, it wasn't too difficult, if you looked at the maps posted here and there throughout. There were a couple of bridges and a tower to see the maze from above too, which was fun. We made it through in about 20 minutes, though we did pass an arguing family who'd been in there an hour! 

 After the maze Ethan went for sorting, which was fab, the hat's face moved and it spoke, and he loved it. He got Gryffindor, so was made up. After this we had the Harry Potter Catwalk, which I have no pictures of because I was Sam-wrangling. All the dressed up kids basically did a fashion parade, with a guy introducing each one. I was impressed that they both had a crack at it, Ethan struck a spell pose, and Sam raced up and down. They were both outdone however by the only girl dressed up as Luna Lovegood. She was spot on, stripey tights, tutu-esque skirt, sprectre specs. She strutted down the catwalk, turned, and dropped into a perfect split. Naturally, she won, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Quick stop to hug a reindeer (Sam is slightly obsessed with these kind of costumed people), and then off to the Harry and Hagrid show in the Enchanted Forest. The show was fun, though Rich had to take Sammy out. When Hagrid called on Harry, he kept shouting "No Hagrid, I Harry Potter!" So they went off to look at the lights in the forest and Ethan and I watched the show. It was great, the actors were absolutely spot on, little bit of magic and great rapport with the kids.

Ethan was so excited, it was very cute. 

After we went through the Enchanted forest it was time to head home. There was a small ice skating rink, but it was busy and we needed to get back, which was a shame. Anyway, on our way out to the car, Harry and Hagrid were waiting for a pick up off somewhere else when we bumped into them and another witch (Polly Potions, from broomstick training) and the second we approached, they immediately turned it back on, and were more than happy to spend a few more minutes with the children. They were absolutely brilliant, and made the day. Very good with the children, really happy, enthusiastic and just seemed to really enjoy their work.

Then it was home to bed where two sleepy boys went to bed without Daddy washing off any Harry Potter scars :)

Make a Wish Entertainment apparently do parties and events, and I would absolutely recommend them and as soon as I can afford it I'll book them to do a birthday for Ethan!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Halloween

We were lucky enough to get two chances the dress the kids up this year, for the trunk and treat at church and for trick or treating. So first, for the trunk and treat...

We had last minute vampire who decided he wanted this cape from the 99p shop. Thrifty!

 We also had a last minute gruffalo who refused to wear the ghost costume he'd asked me to make. Still, he had a gruffalo dressing gown and slippers already so all it took was a green felt tip for the poisonous wart at the end of his nose, and we were done. We had a fun time at the trunk and treat, I made a coconut shy with skulls in the place of coconuts in our car boot for the kids to knock down, they got sweets, bosh, done.

Then for trick or treating on our street we managed to get Sam into his ghost costume.

 He's 'woo'-ing. Ethan wore this Harry Potter costume, only with scar and glasses.

 We had a fun time visiting the decorated houses on our street and getting far too many sweets and chocolates, but to be honest the boys enjoyed opening the door the most. Sam spent as much time as possible with the door open, leaning out and shouting "come trickle treating!" across the street.

Henry wore this for both occasions and had no opinion. Unless you count spewing on it, which I don't, considering he is non-discriminatory with his barfing habits.

I did 3 pumpkins,  one of which when I took the 'lid' off the insides were so perfect I saved them for pie.

The pie was delicious and supremely easy, I just googled for a recipe and done. Except for the part where I forgot I had already bought nutmeg and ginger ages ago and bought them again, giving me a cupboard full of it. 

And that was halloween :) Lots of fun, a bit of mess and thankfully no damage done to my hands while carving the pumpkins - a first!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Magic Chocolate Cake

 I've had a few requests so here it is, the un-killable cake. I made more this week (goodbye waist!) and forgot to take it out of the oven for like 15 minutes, and it was still fine. I'd turned the oven off at least. Right, let's get to it.

200g/7oz self raising flour
225g/8oz caster sugar
1/2tsp salt
25g/1oz cocoa powder
100g/4oz margarine
2 eggs
150ml milk
splash of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 180°c.

Mix the dry ingredients then rub in margarine. Mix the wet ingredients and beat. Combine.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. I usually stick it in what I think is a 9 inch round tin.

This is how the recipe pretty much reads in my book. It originally came from the Be-Ro baking book via my lovely friend Jannine, and I have since had and lost 2 Be-Ro books. They sell for about 80p, but last time I was in morrisons I couldn't find a replacement. Luckily I had it in my recipe notebook, although it looks like this through my terrible handwriting and overuse:

The original calls for 5tbsp of evaporated milk and 5tbsp of water, but Jannine and I both thought, nah, that's just milk, and replaced it. Because evaporated milk is gross, and I never want to buy it. I also usually have to cook it a little longer as the batter is really quite runny. I've swapped butter in for the marg, and I've never used caster sugar, just bog standard granulated, because when I make cake it's usually on a whim, and who has caster sugar just in the cupboard? Aside from you know, grown up people who bake properly.

Now for the icing, because of reasons.

9oz sieved icing sugar

2.5oz butter/marg

3tbsp hot milk

1tbsp cocoa powder

1tsp vanilla

Melt the butter, add the hot milk and vanilla, then the cocoa powder and sugar. Beat it to death, done. If you want it thick enough to spread (like the above picture) add a bit more sugar. I can't tell you how much more really because I just go til it looks right. Also I tend to guess with the cocoa too, but basically, you can't go wrong with this either.  Both last a few days, which is more than enough.

So there it is, make it, eat it, and curse me on the last slice. If you intend to take it somewhere or share, and you have willpower like mine, make it right before you need it, because it is very much moreish.

Also if anyone does manage to ruin it, let me know and I'll make you some kind of award, because seriously, you've got recipe destroying skillz.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Bank Holiday, and an update on me

Bank holiday Monday was a hit! We used a surprise treat as an incentive for good behaviour for Ethan as he's been a bit of a snot recently, and it worked! The surprise was a trip to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for Superhero Day. He loved it, and got to meet lots of characters. He also got to shoot a crossbow, a real one this time, and thought that was the best.

With Boba Fett

A star wars Trooper

A Jedi

Ironman!

They also had a craft activity, a musical instrument area, an artist from the Judge Dredd comic book doing a talk and helping kids draw heroes, and a talk about superhero weapons. The downside of the day was that they didn't put any kind of timetable on the website, so we assumed that the characters (including Ethan's favourite, Batman) would be in and out most of the day. We went fairly early to avoid crowds, and as a result missed Batman, as he wasn't coming until 3:30 for a demonstration of how he uses ninja skills. We also missed the talk about superhero weapons, because we spent half an hour wandering around the third floor trying to find the 'Observation room' which turned out to be a tiny room tucked away in a corner, that wasn't very well signposted. We arrived just as they were packing up and rushing off to the next thing, which was a real shame (for me!) as I saw the weapons on the trolley as they pushed it out, and they included the Portal gun :( Never mind.

Ethan and Rich spent the afternoon clearing the garden and washing the car in the sunshine. It was lovely to watch Ethan muck in and help Daddy. Sam attempted to help too, with mixed results.

Rich also managed to cut through the power cord with the hedge trimmers...twice. I managed to fix it both times, the benefits of having a dad who taught me handy stuff! 

We had good weather on Tuesday too, and Ethan was very excited to wear shorts to school :)

Look at those milky legs! inherited from his mother, unfortunately. He did however also inherit his father's ability to go brown at the slightest hint of sun, whereas I either burn, or in the case of my legs, just somehow magically stay whiter than paper.

Today is a bit grey and damp, but he insisted on shorts again. Even though he also insisted on taking his coat because it might rain.

I've been very productive this morning, demolished 2 side tables and an old tv stand and took them to the dump, hooray for a bit more space! I can now put the crib next to my side of the bed which is you know, helpful. Isn't the dump cathartic? You get to chuck stuff into massive skips and hear crashes and things breaking and all sorts, and clear your house at the same time!

Less than a month to go til due date, a month yesterday to be precise. I literally cannot wait. I might have overdone it a little at the dump, as I am very very tired right now, and it's only lunchtime :S

I had a fun pregnancy dream the other night too. I went into labour at home and ran out of time. My sister Becky delivered it (super likely, seeing as she's only in New Zealand!) and though it was totally painless, the baby had an extra head. It was slightly miniature, but a head it was. Only when I looked again it was a weird hand thing on it's shoulder. Then when I looked again it was gone, but the baby's hand (in the regular place) was all webbed. My mum appeared and said "Oh don't worry, it's too much cortizone" and wiped his hand with a wipe til the fingers were fine. Then I woke up. Like I said, fun, and not at all creepy :S

Update: I was even more productive this afternoon. I hoovered upstairs, moved the crib, and emptied it of clothes. Then I emptied out and tidied the airing cupboard. The airing cupboard for goodness sake! Then I had two bags of clothes and towels and linens that were spare (we had LOADS in there, it was like a flippin' TARDIS) to take to the clothing donation bin thingy. I also found in there a bag of handed down clothes for Ethan that we got aaaaages ago but were massive, and now he has plenty of shorts for summer! I am now thoroughly pooped, and Sam is going to have french toast for tea (Ethan is at a friends house) then we'll start the pick up run (Ethan, and Rich from the train station) showers for the boys as it'll be late for a bath, bed for them, and a collapse on the couch for me!

I didn't do nesting with the boys. It's hit me this time though. It's oddly unsettling! Still, it can only be a good thing when I actively feel the need to tidy! 

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!