The Buckingham Blog

Today, to follow up Krystal's 6th birthday on Thursday, she got all dressed up and ready for her party at Pizza Express on Belmont Street. 

We arrived about 10 minutes early to get into the room, only to find we actually had the whole of the top floor allocated to us - so a room with a big table set out with blobs of dough and another room with a big long table for the kids to sit at. 

 Krystal & Thomas

As all the kids arrived to join in the fun, hand over generous gifts and catch up with each other, it was time to get their gear on to make the pizzas.  They all got numbered hats, Krystal number 1 as the birthday girls and Kory coinscidentally got number 8 which he was delighted with as that's his age.  They also got aprons and washed their hands. 

 
Chef Krystal and Chef Kory ready to get making some pizza!

 it was time to head to the pizza making room. One of the managers, Luke, was taking the "class" and the kids were pretty good at listening to his instructions and actually following them.  it was nice to see and somewhat surprising that they did!

They spent some time making the edge thin so that it goes crispy, squashing the whole thing flat.  The kids all loved the feeling of the dough.

Next came the bit they loved the most, throwing the dough from hand to hand.  This caused much hilarity!

Some professional help was required but on the whole the kids did really well!

Once they got them big enough to put into the pans, they got some white "glue" and had to stick the dough in to the edges.  There were a few bases with holes in at this point but Luke was able to rescue them before any tears and tantrums occurred. 

 
Best Friends: Kory & Amy and Krystal & Annabel

Once all the pizza bases were in the pans safely, it was time for what could have been a really messy part - the pizza sauce - passata I think it was called.  Instead of spreading it on, the sauce was dolloped on the side of their base and they had to swoosh it, tap the base on the table or tap with their hands until the sauce was covering the dough. 

Rather amazingly, there was none on the floor, the walls, the ceiling or even the aprons!  Not sure I'd have been quite that brave with 11 kids. 

There wwas then a choice of several toppings, ham, mushroom, olives, pepperoni, cheese.  Poor Luke had to keep getting more as they were putting on so much, but they did look really tasty by the time they were ready to go to the ovens.

 
Thomas, Hannah & Josh (right pic)

 
Krystal with Erin (left pic) 

James couldn't resist a shot of the hats

 
Pizzas getting put into a carrier by numbers on the hats

While the pizzas were cooking, the kids went back to the table, got some juice and all chatted.  They were getting louder and louder by the minute but thankfully the food arrived just in time.  Silence in the room.  Lots of happy munching wee faces could be seen.

Just before it was time for everyone to leave, Krystal's cake came out, everyone sang happy birthday to Krystal (to which she looked really embarassed) and blew out her number 6 candle. 

Krystal had a wonderful time, her friends seemed to enjoy it too and Luke was brilliant with the kids.  I would highly recommend Pizza Express for kids parties.

Julie.xx

On Thursday, we drove down to see Dad & Tricia. We chilled in the house, the kids played on their scooters, and then we all headed to the park. By the time the kids had gone on the chute three hundred times, it was time to get dinner, and we went to the local carvery. I even got a meat free version and it was delicious!

On Friday morning we got up and headed to the safari park and met up with Mel, Liam, Leah & Hannah at lunchtime. We had already been round in the car part of it, the kids played in the adventure park, we ate lunch, we went on a boat to see the chimps, we saw the sealion show and went round the petting zoo.

Well, that's between swapping jackets several time between no jackets, summer jackets, rain jackets and winter jackets. One minute it was roasting, the next it was tipping down and then it was soooo cold!

We had arrived at 10:30am and didn't leave until 5:30pm. We stopped at an indian in Dundee on the way home, finally getting home close to 10pm. The kids were exhausted!

I think I'll let the photos say the rest!  What a great end to the Easter holidays.

It's been a busy old week of birthday activities for our 7 year old.  Yeah, 7!!  How can my wee man be 7 already?!  It's like someone fast forwarded my life. 

His hactual birthday was Monday, we were wakened very early to be told he was now 7 and to get on with opening presents!  He got Skylanders for the Wii from us, as well as lego, books, transformers, pyjamas and a magic set.   He got Lego, Scotland strip and tracksuit & Skylanders storage from others.  He was delighted and there was nothing he didn't want or like (thankfully!)

He was at school in the morning, then I picked up him and his friend Amy at lunch time and took them to Burger King for lunch before returning them to school. 

By 3:15pm when I collected him he was excited about going out for dinner too (it's been a bit of a tradition that we go out on bithdays) so we headed into town to meet James after work and go for some food.  Chiquitos was his choice as it almost always is and considering he'd eaten a burger king, he put away some amount of food (5 fajitas to be exact - think he has hollow legs)  It was a nice evening.

Yesterday (Friday) was the last day of school for the Easter holidays and I had decided in my wisdom to have a few friends over to the house.  Only a few friends became 14 including Kory & Krystal.  I am so pleased the weather was in our favour and it was warm and dry enough to let them outside to play. 

They played football and with the garden toys, we fed them pizza, chicken, sausage rolls and potato wedges about 6pm, we did his birthday cake and played Just Dance on the Wii and soon enough it was time for most of the kids to be collected.  All but 6 went away.  There were 4 staying for a sleepover!!  We had Jamie, Daniel, Leah, Amy and of course Kory & Krystal. 

They played in the garden with some silly string for a while then came in, got into pyjamas, played on the Wii again, had wrestling fights, ate toast then went to get settled in for the night.  It was nearly midnight that they went to sleep and were back up at 6am *yawn*

They all left about 10am having had (I think) a great time.  Kory got stuck into opening his presents and once again did so so well.  His friends know him well too, mostly getting things they know he's into. 

One very happy and very exhausted little boy!  

Julie.xx

Last Wednesday I headed down by train to stay at Mums to help Laura & Jamie out with Owen while they went into hospital to have their new wee boy, Leon. 

We had taken Owen shopping in Kilmarnock while she was having her c-section and got the call late afternoon to say little Leon had entered the world.  He was 8lb 2oz and we got to go and visit him that night. What a wee cute tootie!  It was lovely to snuggle a little teeny fresh baby again, but don't be misled!  It was equally as nice to hand him back and sleep all night!!!!

Some photos of his first couple of days....

On Saturday Kory & Krystal had their swimming lesson then James came down the road with them to meet their new wee cousin.  Krystal was chuffed to bits with a real moving doll and being the only girl there, Kory was a bit unfazed altogether, preferring to play with Owen. 

Laura & Leon got home yesterday, here's Leon chilling at home

We came back home today, it was a bit of a flying visit for James and the kids, less than 24 hours really.  I enjoyed my time away & spent some nice time with Owen doing fun stuff, here's the photos of that too...

We took Owen to choose a balloon for Leon

To the beach (the day David Cameron was in Troon, mounted polie EVERYWHERE)

Congratulations again to Laura, Jamie & Owen on their new wee family.  Can't wait to see them all again.   

Julie.xx

Today was the first of 3 days off school for half term so Mummy & Daddy planned a day trip for us, but wouldn't tell us what it was apart from that it was in Dundee.

We got up early and headed to down the road, arriving in Sensation's carpark.  This is Dundee's Science Centre. 

We went in and started looking around, then our friends Leah & Hannah arrived as a surprise with their Mummy & Daddy (Melanie & Liam)

We spent the moning doing lots of fun things to do with the senses, like smelling and touching things before watching an experiment demonstration using liquid nitrogen.  I enjoyed that. 

We were a bit hungry after that so left the museum to find somewhere to eat.  While we were looking around, we met Desperate Dan!

We finally found a Jimmy Chungs which is a chinese buffet restaurant and yummy.

After we'd eaten lots, we headed back to Sensation.  We had to show our stickers to get back in as we wanted to see the Planetarium show.  We had to wait a while and it was an eventful wait. 

First of all, Mummy met a lady she's been friends with on the computer for 7-8 years.  This was very strange as she lives in the middle of England and didn't know we'd be there. 

The second thing was that there was a wee show on and Krystal volunteered to go on the stage.  This is pretty amazing as she hates doing things like that. 

Finally the planetarium opened and we could go in to watch the show about the stars and planets.  We had to sit on the floor unlike the Glasgow one, but it was good anyway. 

Just Hangin' Out with Daddy

We then went for a quick cup of tea before it was time to drive back to Aberdeen. 

I had a really nice day out and hopefully we'll do something like this again soon.

Love
Kory
xxxx

When Amy was round I filmed them dancing to their favourite song (Katy Perry - Fireworks)

They're all funny but in particular watch Krystal.....

Julie.xx

Tonight after school my best friend Amy came over to play and stayed for dinner.  Amy is my friend who was in Turkey at the same time as us last year and is in my class at school.  We had great fun playing in my room, eating and playing on the Wii at Just Dance. 

Kory
xxxx

Krystal and her friend Annabel were treated to their first evening to the theatre after a meal out to Pizza Hut (their choice!!) 

We bought tickets a while ago for Beauty & The Beast at His Majesty's and we were not disappointed.

The girls wore their Belle dresses and took their Belle dolls with them.

The show was full of lovely songs, sparkly dresses and they absolutely loved it. Their wee faces were worth every penny!

 Julie.xx

Kory with his hair parted to the side after his shower tonight impresonating James' Dad! 

Julie.xx