August

So here we are at the end of August. 
Just another couple of days left before that first day of school feeling hits and S stands by our front door for the traditional photo shoot and heads off on the start of a new academic year.

The weather has been good during the summer break. S has been out and about meeting up with friends at local parks, she's been to the cinema a couple of times, mooched around town, been trampolining, met my mum for lunch, had friends to stay and gone on a sleepover.
Plus in the middle of the holidays we had our own holiday when we took the Eurostar to Belgium.

I have well and truly fallen out of the blogging habit this month which is a shame as it meant I have missed the 10th anniversary of when I started recording our lives here at Jumble and Jelly. Although I don't post as regularly now as I did when the children were younger I can't imagine stopping because it's so lovely having a record of us and the things we do.

I am borrowing an idea I have seen on Pinterest and decided to write a round up of August using a series of prompts. An idea I can see me taking forward into the next decade of blogging.

This month I have been

Reading 

A French Affair by Katie Fforde. I took this away with me and read most of it on the train journey to and from Brussels. I wanted something which would be light and easy to read and I thought the title was very apt seeing as we had to travel through France.

How did it take me until I was 50 to read this book. I loved it. L-O-V-E-D it.

Watching


Serendipity, a fluffy rom com with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as 18th August was Serendipity Day.

and Forgetting Sarah Marshall as it was Mila Kunis' birthday on 14th August.

Trying

To make a jelly in a seaside sandcastle bucket for Sandcastle Day. 
But the darn thing didn't fully set and ended up a quivering heap on the plate!

Cooking

I made lemon rice pudding meringue as a nod to Lemon Juice Day.
I made S some macaroni cheese and bacon sandwiches.
I also made honeycomb lasagne and ham and mustard hash. The lasagne will be making another appearance but the hash won't as although G liked this S didn't.

Eating

We made sure we included raspberries in our picnic lunch in Antwerp as this was the closest we could get for Raspberries and Cream Day.

Belgian fries. G liked them, S and I weren't that fussed. But the waffles. Well what can I say, we all loved those.

Drinking

Watermelon Day was on 3rd August and so I made sure to have some in to make a smoothie with it. I know this should probably be obvious because of it's name but I didn't enjoy it in a smoothie as it made it too, well, watery!

Doing

Silly things with my lovely daughter. It may not look it in this photo but she was laughing as much as me and G whilst we were posing for this!

Going

To Belgium. We stayed in Brussels and had day trips to Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges. We had a great time and I would thoroughly recommend a trip to Belgium to anyone considering it. 

One evening a couple of weeks ago we met up with some with friends and we took ourselves off to a local green where we enjoyed fish and chips for our tea. Their younger children played with S and we sat around chatting about this and that. A perfect way to unwind after a day at work and spend a relaxing summers evening.

On a great clue solving day out to Lymington. The treasure trail took us around the town as we worked our way through the puzzles. We got the answer wrong, but we didn't care as we had great fun trying to solve the mystery.

Loving

Rocky.

Let me introduce you to the latest member of our family.
He's 18 months old and needed a new home. How could we resist?
He was already named Rocky and of course we had to keep it but within a day or so we were calling him Rocky Road. Due to the fact he is always around your feet, especially when you are trying to walk down the stairs he is now being called Rocky Road Trip Hazard.

Feeling

Annoyed is how I was feeling a week or so ago after I discovered that now S's school will only allow girls to wear on of two 'official' style skirts I am expected to pay out £22.50 to purchase one.
The reason this new school uniform rule is being introduced is because other girls were wearing skirts which were too short and didn't comply with the rules. So now the school have decided that all girls have to wear one of the skirts they deem as acceptable. Never mind that many girls did wear skirts which were within the uniform guidelines. It makes me so cross.

Wearing

A dress which matched S's drink

and a bottle green scarf in homage of Word Scout Scarf Day.

Thankful.

This month marked the 10th anniversary of when we lost our dearest Dad. It feels utterly impossible that so long has passed since then. I still miss his dreadfully but will ever be thankful that he was my Dad.


Wondering

If I would find a lion suitable to photograph on World Lion Day and then finding this smiling face on a door not far from the apartment we were staying in.

Listening

I bought this Shaky album for 1 Euro whilst we were in Ghent. Bargain I'd say.
We used the cover for this year's take on Vinyl Record Day.
And in case you are wondering, yes that's me knelt against the washing line support in our back garden.

Although it hasn't happened as yet, in actual fact we're off to it tomorrow evening, G and I will be listening and warbling away when we go to Sing Along with Grease. Can't wait, what a way to end the month.

12 Days.....

...... have passed since my last post.

This two week Easter school holiday has felt more like the six week summer break.

It seems like such a long time ago S was last at school.

Not that she agrees with me of course!

So what have we been up to.

With my family over on Easter Monday we found a way to mark Chocolate Mousse day, Wednesday 4th was Vitamin C Day and easy to work celebrate with my daily glass of orange juice at breakfast time and then Thursday 5th was a fail.

I wanted to bake some biscuits for Star Trek first contact day but as we know school hols do have a tendency to cause plans to go awry and so this didn't happen.

Friday 6th was Tartan Day.

 I have been combing the charity shops for months hoping to find for a skirt suitable to wear, but all I could find were this type or worse (for me at least) tiny mini skirts.

In the end I went with changing into my PJs at the earliest opportunity!

.

Saturday 7th was a very important day in our home.
It was S Day. 
A little day out was planned but S woke with a sore throat and other cold symptoms brewing.
So the sensible thing was to put the original day out plans on hold and instead we stayed much more local and went out for a spot of lunch instead.
No photo of S from that day but here she is a week later feeling much better.

Sunday 8th was the slightly unusual Draw a Picture of a Bird Day.

So we did just that.

From left to right we have S's owl with huge hypnotic eyes, my grumpy looking chick and G's most excellent (non specific breed) bird.

G and I were also busy at the weekend completing another jigsaw.

This time it was Vintage transportation.

In the bottom right hand corner is a double decker bus, it's a shame the flash has blocked it out.

The coronation of Henry V took place on 9th April 1413. 
Many centuries ago Southampton was surrounded by walls to defend the town from would be invaders. We made a trip to Westgate which once led directly to the quay and through here in 1415 some of Henry V's army marched on their way to the battle of Agincourt.

10th April was Sibling's Day It just so happened that T was round to see us that evening and I asked both he and S if I could take a photo of the together, explaining the significance of date.
Both refused for the same reason. Neither were happy about how their hair was looking!
What are they like.
Instead I shall post a photo from when those things weren't an issue!

For years Dan Maskell was the voice of Wimbledon and 11th April was the date he was born.
Before I went off to work G and I did something simple and a little silly for this day.

S came to meet me after I had finished work as we had a couple of return to school purchases to make and in the shopping centre we came across a display of eggs which had been decorated my local primary schools.
This rabbit was my favourite.

The reaction you get from people when you mention Marmite, as in love it or loathe it and not much in between, was repeated whenever I mentioned that Thursday 12th was Liquorice Day.
I happen to love it and so was very happy to partake in celebrating with a sherbet fountain and it's (much smaller than they used to be) liquorice stick dipper.

Friday 13th was Scrabble Day. With G on a late shift and S out at dance there was no-one at home to have a game with so that day passed me by for the time being.

I decided to cheat a little when it came to 14th and 15th April and have one event mark both days and yesterday on a walk into town we detoured past two buildings which played their part in the event.

Admiralty House housed the Post Office headquarters and this building is situated not far from where RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on 10th April. I've never seen the movie Titainc but I understand this building features in it.

Titanic struck the iceberg on 14th April and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later in the early hours of 15th April.

Further along the same road is Canute Chambers where the White Star company had their offices.

As the plaque explains it was here that local people came to wait for information regarding their loved ones as many inhabitants of our City were employed working on board this ship.

Another Outfit and Some Shopping

They'll be having a good old knees up in Liechtenstein today celebrating their National Day with food, drink and a fun fair.

The flag was my inspiration for another outfit, nice and easy on what was supposed to be a work day.

As it turns out there was no work for me today, I needed to be at home as part of the school hols.
Up bright and early S and I took ourselves into town. We started by stopping for breakfast and then it was on to the annual task of school uniform shopping. It was completed in double quick time as just one new skirt and two new shirts were needed.

Seeing as I'm in shopping mode today I thought I'd post some photos taken on our break and mostly in Amsterdam of all things retail which caught my eye.

As sign on the outside of a shop.

A cute little saying in the window of a shop selling very smart raincoats.

I liked the splash of red.

A sign which made us smile.

This is a toy shop in Haarlem. One entrance for adults and one for children.

C&A has long since disappeared from our high street but is still to be seen in it's home country.

S wanted a break from all the walking when she spotted a Primark and I was very taken with the pretty interior decoration.

A stylish motif on the window of a vintage store.

Barbie sat inside a clog in the window of a shoe repair shop.

A huge wooden pair of glasses hanging in the window of an opticians.

We spent hardly any time going into shops as there was so much to see but there was one which I couldn't resist. Called Dille & Kamille (which translates as Dill & Chamomile) they are a homewares and gift shop. Stach are a chain of food shops and they sell the biggest and most scrumptious looking meringues. 
Having Stach meringues on display with Dill & Kamille goods made a very attractive sight.

Easter

                         What a lovely Easter weekend we've just had.
Starting back on Good Friday me, G and S took ourselves off into town. For ages now we've been wanting to go and have a round of mini golf on the course in one of the parks and Friday proved to be the day we finally got to do it. We were the first group to arrive and had it all to ourselves for the first ten minutes. This gave us a good head start on the people who followed and meant we could just take our time and enjoy each hole and not feel like we were holding anyone up.

S managed to get a hole in one on her very first go but unfortunately things didn't carry on in the same vein for her!

We all had a really good laugh and it was lovely to spend time together.

A Festival of Colour was advertised as being held at the shopping centre so we wandered on over.

Loved what they had done to the steps.

The colour was continued in people dressed as exotic flowers

and the traditional fairground attractions of the helter skelter

and these gallopers.

A couple of weeks back G and I watched High Society. I love everything about this movie but G had never seen it before. I'm please to say he liked very much.

After watching it I commented that I have never seen The Philadelphia Society, the movie on which this musical version is based.

A few days later a copy arrived in the post, G had been online and ordered a copy and we watched this Friday evening.

I'm glad to have seen it (Cary Grant is in it!) but we both agreed High Society will always be our favourite.

We've now passed it on to G's mum to watch.

G had to work on Saturday and as S was busy with a friend I went to Winchester with him. We went a couple of hours before he needed to start work so we could pop along to the Angie Lewin exhibition at the Discovery Centre.

G was in and out within 5 minutes, he said it didn't so anything for him so he went into the library to see if he could find a book he was after.

I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't doubt I would. I love her work.
It wasn't until I was nearly leaving that I realised what I had chosen to wear that day by pure co-incidence, wasn't a million miles away from what I had been looking at.

We had time afterwards to sit by the Cathedral and have a drink and a bite to eat before G had to go on into work.

I then had an hour until my train and spent most it it in a shop called Molly's Den. There are several of these locally. Each one a treasure trove of collectables, antiques and all manner of goodies.
I came home with a new handmade brooch

and some of my money which my mum gave me at Christmas was spent on this cute mini desk calendar. 

Easter Sunday was a strange day. G had to work the late shift again and T and S were both at home all day. That hasn't happened in a while. I busied myself with household chores and in between those S helped me to prepare some games, presents and nests for our family day on Monday.
I cheated and bought the meringue nests to which we added a good dollop of melted chocolate and some mini eggs.

We had invited some of G's and my family over to us for lunch today which is when most those meringue nests were eaten.
Everyone was given a chocolate rabbit. Each rabbit sported a tag handmade by S which read 'You're Some Bunny Special'.

Plus there were some games. We had a round of bunny bingo, an Easter bunny left and right game, a guess what's in the golden egg competition and then we rounded it all off with a messy 'make your partner look like a spring lamb' game.
This involved one person in the team wearing a shower cap which was then covered in shaving foam. As shown here by T.

The shower capped team members lined up on one side and the other team members stood in a line opposite. They were given a bag of cotton wool balls which they had to throw at the shaving foam. They had one minute to get as many balls to stick as possible. As shown here by my sister C, my sister's partner A and by G. 

It was incredibly messy, incredibly sticky and incredibly funny. The winning team managed 34.
S was G's partner and she only managed 6!
I would thoroughly recommend this game, but make sure you have plenty of towels handy for the clean-up afterwards and a black sack for throwing everything away in.