The Buckingham Blog - Holidays

Turkey Holiday

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:50:00 -0400

We've been on our holidays and it was amazing. It was only for a week, but it was hot, relaxing and we were totally pampered in the hotel. The hotel we ended up in by accident after our flight was cancelled and we had to change airports and hotel. But boy was it a good change!

We went on the 6th and got home on 13th (after an 8 hour delay - which was awful!) and we're only now getting back to reality. There isn't really a whole lot to tell, we sat by the pool, we ate lots in the all inclusive restaurants, we drank. The kids went to mini-club by day and mini-disco by night and thouroughly enjoyed it. Kory got zig-zags cut into his hair and I had a manicure. Kory even cried when we left.

So I'll let the many many photos do the talking...Enjoy!

Wednesday - Day 1

Thursday - Day 2

Friday - Day 3

Saturday - Day 4

Sunday - Day 5

Monday - Day 6

Tuesday - Day 7

Sleepy kids in the airport and the broken plane!

Can't wait for our next holiday! (Bet you lot can though after that lot of photos!)

Julie.xx

Holiday Week

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:18:00 -0400

It's been school holidays for 2 weeks now, but they've kind of vanished without doing much. We had Coral and Chad to stay for a few days in the middle, over Easter (I'll do a separate blog about that) and they went home last Monday. James had the rest of the week off.

On Tuesday, I got my hair cut in the morning. I very nearly got a whole new style put in but chickened out before Jenni's wedding in May! Then we went into town do do some shopping and let Kory spend some of his birthday money and vouchers. I went for a sunbed at night which is the first since before my heart monitor was put in over a year ago. Now it's out I can go!

Kory & Krystal thought it was really funny to put on my pyjama trousers and t-shirt and run about like a 2 headed monster!

Things went downhill on Wednesday when we got up though. I had incredible pains in my tummy and was so weak I could barely move. As the day progressed James was wilting with pains too. Was a horrible day looking after the kids who were great at amusing themselves. They asked if they could have a sleepover together that night in the spare room, so they did!

James felt a bit better on Thursday so managed a walk with the kids to the woodland area near our house, Kory took his binoculars though not sure what he hoped to see!

On Friday we headed out to the ceramic experience, then B&Q then down by the river for a while. Saturday was a lovely day here in Aberdeen, so we decided to get on with some jobs that needed done in the garden. James oiled the table that looked a bit rough after the winter outside. I painted Krystal's clock (note to Coral, it worked, it looks fab!) James fitted a new retractable washing line, we tooks stabilisers off Kory's bike, we cleaned the patio and I started repotting my seedlings, but it was too windy, the poor things were all over the place so I gave up!

Today we got up and it was a lovely day. On a spur of the moment we decided to head to a castle to make use of our Trust memberships and have a wee picnic. loads of open space to let the kids loose too! They had great fun, eating outside, running, playing in the park, looking at plants and trees etc. Some photos.....

We came home about 4pm for a while, then again on the spur of the moment decided we'd had a bit of a washout week with being ill, and were going out for a last holiday meal. This time though instead of somewhere for kids (you know, crayons, soft play, kids menus etc) we'd attempt taking them to an adult restaurant. We went to our favourite indian that we've not gone to for a long time.

I can say honestly that the kids did us proud. They didn't carry on, jump about or anything. They ate poppadoms, their rice and chicken curry and nan bread. In fact they were so good, we went to Baskin' Robbins afterwards and got blue ice creams!

Back to nursery, work and the boring mundane routine tomorrow. How long till Summer holidays? Most people hate the holidays, I love them, and having the kids around and not being shouty Mummy getting out in the mornings.

Julie.xx

Holiday Week 1

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:13:00 -0400

I wrote this at the end of the first week James was off, and completely forgot to post it, so now here it is! We didn't take many photos that week, mostly we did garden things and housey things - BORING!

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James has been off all week, but this was taken last week before Kory's boxing class.

And this one when Krystal wasn't feeling well she crashed out on the couch.

Anyway, this is roughly what we've been up to!

Sunday - spent hours at a garden centre trying to choose hanging baskets, flowers for them, and some pots. Then came home and planted and hung them!

Monday we had a birthday party at Dizzy Rascals then spent the afternoon in the garden potting some more plants.

Tuesday James painted the bits of the outside of the house which had yellowed and then we had a burger king tea. A nice lazy day!

Wednesday morning we took the kids swimming and then went to Jimmy Chungs for lunch. Krystal went nuts - no idea why though!!

James gassing on the phone to his dad!

Kory mastering his skates and Krystal on new scooter from Nana & Grandad

Thursday James took the kids to the park and went for ice cream. I went to town to hit the sales and hated it! Rude people everywhere!

Friday The kids wanted to stay in the house (it was pouring) with James and told me to go out! You don't ask me twice, so I went for some food shopping! We also put up out new clock.

I bought new wellies, Kory's been asking me for a while so we can go puddle hopping walks!

And lastly, Krystal is going through a "don't take my photo" phase. unless she's in the mood, I've no chance!!

Julie.xx

Our Holiday

Mon, 11 May 2009 06:13:00 -0400

I expect this will be long, so get comfy first!! We left on Friday 1st May about 10am to drive to Glasgow where I was meeting Laura. The drive went pretty smoothly and we met at Glasgow bus station. James went on down to my Mum & Tom's with the kids. Laura and I headed for the train to Edinburgh to go to Never Forget, the musical with all Take That songs.

We had a little bit of time once we arrived to visit a few shops, then headed to the Playhouse. We had a drink, then went to our seats which were front row in the dress circle. Normally a show starts once the lights dip and you expect it. Not this one! We were in the middle of chatting when the drums kicked in and the whole audience got a real fright.

The show was really good, much funnier than I was expecting it to be. There was Philip Olivier (ex-Brookie) and Shaun Williamson (Barry in Eastenders) in it who were really good, what a body Philip has! We had time afterwards to head for a Burger King then back to the train down the road. So a really nice outing.

Saturday was a "nothing" day really, just hanging out at mums with Kory & Krystal eating her out of house and home as demonstrated by Krystal in the garden!

In the evening James and I popped out for a while to go see Laura's new flat and meet one of her flatmates Martyn. He reads the blog and really wanted to appear on it, so here you go Martyn, your 5 seconds of fame!!

On Sunday, James and I nipped into Ayr for a few bits then we all went to visit an old school friend of mine, Nicola and her kids. It was nice to catch up even if a bit of a flying visit. Bathtime that night was fun as mum has a jacuzzi style bath that froths up the bubbles big time. Kory stood up and had bubbles all over him and called himself Bubbleman!!

Monday morning was holiday time! We packed the car up, went to Laura's work to say goodbye then got on the road to Yorkshire and our caravan for the week. It took about 3.5 hours to get there and the kids were as good as gold. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds in Carlisle and then they watched a DVD for the rest of the (silent) trip! Thanks to Katy and Steve for lending us the player and screens, a future Christmas present me thinks!

When we arrived, we unpacked a bit, did a quick change then headed to the onsite social area to investigate and get something to eat. It wasn't as big as we expected (mainly based on Haggerston Castle) and it wasn't in season yet so a bit quiet, but they did have a quiz on and the resident bunny came out to see the kids. Krystal was terrified, not going near whereas Kory was chasing it about asking for cuddles and photos! Talk about role reversal!

Tuesday morning involved unpacking the rest of the stuff then going swimming onsite. I've been in cold pools before, but this was something else! We'd been in about 10 minutes when Krystal's lips went blue. I had to take her out as her whole body was shaking which is a shame as she was loving it otherwise!

In the afternoon we headed for a place called Yarm. We grabbed some sandwiches and had a car picnic. Then went to Butterfly World. Some of the butterfly's were really gorgeous, some small and some as big as swallows! We spent a while in there, I really enjoyed it.

Then we headed to the park beside it and spent ages there. I think Kory had been taking his bravery pills as he had a shot on the death slide without any coaxing which is so not like him at all.

In the evening we went out for a meal at a kid friendly type place called "Merry-Go-Round" which was quite nice for that kind of place! It was quite busy, so while we waited we played with the camera!

We went back to the pub after dinner, did another quiz then back to the caravan for snuggles in dressing gowns, and some hot juice while it heated up a bit.

We were up early on Wednesday for the drive to Flamingoland about an hour and a half away. We'd arranged to meet Jenni, Dave & Lagan there, but despite leaving from different places at different times, they ended up behind us on the road!

As soon as we were through the door, the kids were wanting on something, so first stope was a merry go round. Lagan and Krystal looked so unimpressed!

Next James took Kory on the dodgems which he loved.

Dave getting soaked by Lagan (James & Krystal behind on the boat!)

By the time we'd had a nosey round all the rides it was time to eat. Jenni had brought loads of food for a lovely picnic. Well done Jenni!

It started to drizzle a bit at the end so we got on the move over to the zoo area. All the usual zoo animals really! We kind of raced round it a bit in order to get to the Sealion Show on time.

Well you can't go to Flamingoland and not take a photo of the flamingo's right??!!

Next we spent a while in the farm area. Not farm as in cows andsheep, but kids farm as in rabbits and guinea pigs. There was a sciency exploring area indoors which was all dark. Krystal was glowing like a lightbulb in her white jacket! Kory was scared and went in a huff.

Krystal and I went on a helicopter ride which actually went up quite high! She loved it though.

We could see quite far over the park and round to Jenni & Lagan in the next helicopter.

While Kory was huffing he wanted to go on a mini roller coaster. Of course once Krystal saw this she wanted on. Krystal loved it, not sure if Kory did or not, because his huffy face was well and truely on!

By that time we decided we'd been there all day and not gone on a single adult ride, so got on the Moo Cow train thing back over to the theme park part. This is the kids on the train and below is Jenni, Dave & Lagan on it. This is the 5th picture of them I took, Dave kept blinking!

James doesn't "do" roller coasters, so he became babysitter for 10 mins while the rest of us went on the biggest coaster. It was one of the floorless kind. It's a bit blurry, but this photo shows Dave and I in front and Jenni behind us mid-ride. It was over really fast, after the first drop, I didn't regain my sense of direction and the next thing it was over!!

The sun came out then, just in time for us passing an ice cream hut. So we had to stop for one. Kory & Krystal had mini-milks which went down well. Jenni & I squeezed in one more ride before the park shut and we headed our separate ways for the night.

The kids were exhausted, pretty much asleep right after a snack in the car. We stopped off in Hartlepool at a Pizza Hut which was actually really nice, then went for a look round the marina. It had been a long day so we gave the pub a miss and just read magazines in the caravan.

Another early morning on Thursday to head to Northallerton where Jenni lives to see her wedding dress. We got stuck in traffic so by the time I arrived at the shop, she had it on already. Obviously I can't share details, but she looked lovely!

We went back to her house after that with Lisa & Seb (another of the bridesmais and her son) The 4 kids played for a while, then we had a living room picnic lunch! Lagan had a sleep while we bored James to tears with wedding talk.

Then we went to Dave's farm. Since Kory was little he's called Dave "Farmer Dave" which isn't rocket science given that he's a farmer, but I think Dave secretly likes his nickname!

We saw loads and loads of cows which Krystal was very taken with. Kory on the other hand was happy to look from a distance.

Though he was keen to take pictures of them, like this one.

Both of them would have stayed in the tractor ALL day long!

But we had to drag them away to go for a walk in the forest.

By the time we left the farm, we were all hungry, so Jenni fed the kids and the grown ups ordered an indian takeaway.

We left about 7:30pm and headed back for our last night in the caravan. The kids slept in the car, so we decided to go for a little while in the pub where they came alive again!

Friday was mostly driving home, but with a stop in Newcastle to visit Ikea. Seeing as we've not got one here it's always a novelty, but I was very restricted as the car was already full! Again the DVD players were brilliant on the way home.

A quiet weekend was had, recovering from the lack of sleep all week and getting in more shopping. A great holiday was had by us all, and now back to reality (not to mention heat, a big bed, space to move and lots of TV channels!!)

Julie.xx

Krystal's 2nd Birthday (Part 2)

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:46:00 -0400

We had to wake Krystal up when we arrived at Brodie, so she was a bit sleepy when Coral, Chad, Kelly, Pete and Jasmine arrived. It didn't take long to come out of her shell though! As they hadn't eaten, they went for a cuppa and a cake while we had a look around.

We headed back to the hotel after that, had a bit of chill out time and then started to get ready for the meal. It was really all a surprise for Chad's 60th, but as it was Krystal's birthday too, I put a totally OTT dress on her. It was everything I said I wouldn't do (pink, frilly, lacey, sequins-y) but I loved it on her. And she thought she looked like a fairy princess....what more can you give a little girl?!

The Meal

We had a private room booked for the meal which was probably just as well with the noise the kids all made! Kory was delighted to sit next to Jasmine and drink a J2O like she had! They all had macaroni cheese while we had something rather more sophisticated and 3 courses!

The Cakes

Once we'd eaten, the hotel brought through the cakes I'd given them earlier in the day. A personalised fruit cake for Chad and a pink butterfly sponge for Krystal.

Krystal wasn't sure about blowing the candles...

...but got there in the end (with a bit of Daddy help!)

Pass the Parcel

Coral had arranged a game of pass the parcel for us all, where there was a relevant gift under each layer. A bit of fixing the music and we all got our designated gifts!! I got lip gloss (which is actually the colour I wear, so well spotted Coral!) James got Fruit Pastilles, Kory got a duck feathery pen and Krystal got sparkly hairbands.

Photoshoot!

We don't often get dressed up for things or get the chance to get someone else to take a photo of the 4 of us, so this was a great opportunity.

Then one of the staff took a shot of the whole troop

The kids with cousin Jasmine

And the 2 birthday people together!!

The Running

Somewhere along the line Chad got a second wind (might be wine induced?!!) and was running around the room with/after the kids. So now when he says he's old now he's 60, we have evidence that proves it means nothing!

Other Stuff

And lastly the other bits and bobs.

Kory and Krystal "hiding" from Jasmine

Krystal insisting on being under a table for a story, though she doesn't look impressed!

A very sleepy birthday girl

Trying to change the tunes!

Running on the seats became a game, but a dangerous one as Krystal was so sleepy!

Back to the Room

Everyone was wilting about 10:45pm, so we headed back to the room. Only by the time we got there, Kory and Krystal had come alive. Firstly they *had* to show Nana & Grandad their pyjamas and bolted down the corridor! Then once Krystal was in bed she kept sitting up like a jack in the box. She looked exhausted though!

And Kory had a motormouth, even when the light was out. Sugar buzz and excitment I'd say!!

I think it's safe to say Krystal enjoyed her birthday, as did the rest of us!

Julie.xx

Cyprus Holiday

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0400

We're Baaaaaack!

We arrived home on Tuesday night all exhausted from 2 weeks in Cyprus staying with James' parents Coral and Chad. We've all had a great time. I expected to "do a blog" last night about it, but there are so many photos that I spent the evening sorting those out (some of which are unfortunately corrupt) and naming them all. Today has been a nightmare trying to put them into a slideshow, I have literally spent HOURS doing them & my laptop has been playing up. So a few photos and slideshow of them all below.

The flight out was great, the kids were really well behaved. The day after we arrived we went to a place called Governers Beach. Kory and Krystal loved maing sandcastles and Kory eventually got the courage to play in the sea, but was scared of the seaweed!

We ate out about half of the nights that we were there, a chinese, an italian, James and I got a "get out of jail free" card one evening and went to an indian, we took the kids to McDonalds one night and the rest of the time it was good old Cypriot food - that is half a cow to meat eaters, and a plate of halloumi and salad to the non meat eaters!!

Krystal's 7th tooth decided that on holiday would be a good time to come through, so she was a bit of a pain food wise. Normally she eats like a piglet, but she wasn't having any of it there. I suppose it was the heat too, poor thing. Kory was mostly well behaved as usual though!!

In the second week we went back to Governors Beach, this time deciding to take a picnic - instead of waiting ages for lunch which didn't go down well with the kids - this was an instant hit with Krystal.

We went up the Troodos Mountain for another picnic on Saturday where there was a nice wee park for the kids to play in.

Other than that, we hung about the house just chilling out a lot, went to the shops, ate nice food in the house and went to Coral and Chad's friends' house for a meal. I'm the only one who actually looks like I've been anywhere near the sun, though Krystal has got a mini tan on her arms!!

The flight home wasn't as fun as the one going...Krystal was a total pain in the bum. A combination of the tooth, tiredness and boredom. She didn't want anything - food, drin, dummy, drawing, teddy etc. She wanted to walk up, but couldn't!! Thankfully there was another child making a lot of noise across the ailse so anyone who didn't like it wasn't in view for us to see eye rolling!!

Thanks again to Coral and Chad for putting us up (or is that putting up with us??!!) and all the other stuff.

Now I'm off to deal with my holiday blues again and put some insect stuff on the 15 bites I have on my feet and ankles that are driving me bonkers!

Julie.xx

Haggerston Holiday

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:28:00 -0400

We're baaaack!!

Well actually we've been back since Saturday night, but I'm just getting round to sorting the photos out to put them on here. We have had a really busy time over the past week, which would take waaaay too long to tell every detail, so I'll try to keep it short.

Saturday 19th - left house at 9:30am and headed to Dizzy Rascal's for Daniel's birthday party en route. Had lunch there then left about 12pm. We stopped off at my Aunt Doreen's house to visit on the way. We arrived at my Mum & Tom's house about 5pm

Sunday 20th - Had a lazing about morning. I had a fancy bubble bath and Kory decided to strip off and come in too! Later we visited Tom's mum and dad round the corner. After dinner Mum & I went to Laura's work for me to see round! Then to Asda for some food shopping for the holiday.

Monday 21st - Got on the road just after 10am to head south. James and I ended up going the wrong way, but the kids slept so that was fine. Arrived at Haggerston in the afternoon and checked in at 4pm. Headed to our caravan, set up beds then went to the on site restaurant for dinner and into the cabaret for the evening. It was a male singer who was really good. Probably see him on X-Factor next season! That night was SO cold, we had Krystal in our bed and Kory under 2 quilts!!

Tuesday 22nd - Got up and sorted for the day and then went for a swim on the park with the kids. Late afternoon was nap time for James and them, so they were all happy for the evening!! We went to a chinese for dinner which was yummy. That evening Kory got his first taste of slot machines and racing car games courtesy of Daddy! There was a band on that night and they had to stop as the fire alarm went off and we all had to get out.

Wednesday 23rd - We headed into Berwick for a look round the shops and had lunch in a lovely wee shop. After they all napped we had dinner in the caravan then made it to the kids show for the first time. Kory sat in awe but didn't want to join in. The cabaret in the other room that night was some rubbish singing lady who couldn't hold a note!!

Thursday 24th - We had a lazy morning then took the kids swimming again. It was the best chance to clean them as there was no bath in the caravan!! We went to the pub for dinner that night and saw the end of the kids show. Through in the cabaret was the best show they had done all week. The onsite entertainers did a top 20 disco songs, all singing and dancing for hours. Krystal crashed out on my knee watching it and Kory was playing arcade machines!

Friday 25th - We slept in and had to be out the caravan about 10am, oops. We drove back up to Mum's house, had lunch then went to visit my friend Nicola who had a baby 3 weeks ago. Thankfully I wasn't at all broody! At night I went to Asda with mum while James chilled in front of the 50inch TV on the reclining sofas!

Saturday 26th - We got up and left about 9:30am for Glasgow, we met my Dad at the home my Grandpa is in. We visited him for about 30 mins then went to my Gran's house for about the same time. We then went over to Dad's house for lunch and back on the road about 3pm and headed for home. We got chinese for dinner as we had no food in.

Sunday 27th - This was a chilling out and sorting day, we did some shopping, lots of washing, James & Kory cut the grass and I cleaned the windows!

So that's our week and a bit, and yes, that was the short version!!

Julie.xx

Birthday trip to Aviemore

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:39:00 -0400

Sorry for not getting this on sooner. What with me trying to sort out pictures and a spell of illness over the past couple of days I'm just not as efficient as everyone else at getting these entries on the blog.

Anyway, excuses aside, better tell you all about my (our) birthday weekend to Aviemore last week. Like Julie said my birthday surprise from her and my parents was a relaxing weekend in the Hilton hotel. We headed off on Saturday morning, the car packed like we were going for a fortnight rather than one night, around 10.

The drive wasn't bad actually and the kids behaved the whole way. We got there about 12:30 but as check-in wasn't till 15:00 we decided to do a bit of a driving around first to see what had changed in the 15+ yrs since I was last there (not a lot!) and try and get our bearings.

We found this nice little Italian just down the road from the hotel. Stupidly, and I have no idea what we were thinking, we decided to have the "all you can eat" buffet they had on. It was really nice actually, all the food was homemade and was being replaced with new stuff every few minutes - Yes Krystal does eat that much!! :-)

After rolling out all full-up we headed to the hotel. It's really grown since I last saw it and the place is now full of things for the kids to do. Kory had a field day the moment we got out the car.

After checking in we headed up to the room. The hotel had laid out a nice little surprise for me as well in the form of chocolates, shortbread, sparkling wine and balloons. Woo hoo!!!

The kids loved the surprise as well :-)

We never really got time to have a drink as we headed straight down to the swimming pool to let the kids have a splash around. Krystal has never been to a pool so this was her first time and, being so long, Kory was a wee bit rusty as well. Both were in tears pretty much the moment we got in but it didn't take them that long to get used to it. A few milestones for Kory as well - he managed to doggy paddle for the first time with his arm bands and a float and got to try his first jacuzzi.

Time went past really quickly and by 18:00 we were in for dinner. Still bloated from the Italian the 3 course meal was nice but oh it was too much!!! I was still feeling the affects at 08:00 the next morning :-(.

We called it a night after that as Krystal was getting grumpy!!

Kory on the other hand saw this as an opportunity to party and was still going strong at 22:00. Well I say strong, this was him at 22:00 but his head hit the pillow like a lead balloon 10 minutes later :-)

Generally it was a good night sleep as well which was an another nice surprise.

The weather wasn't great the next morning but with an 11 o'clock checkout the time soon flew by. We went down for an early breakfast which basically had everything under the sun going ( and me still stuffed from the ngiht before - bulk!!). The kids stuffed themselves silly and Julie stuffed her face like she wasn't going to be eating breakfast for another week. It was yum though :-)

The hotel gave us one more present which was a complimentary pass for the kids to go into their fun house. So after we were all checked out we headed there. They both had a great time, unlike the ones in Aberdeen though, the adults aren't allow on with them (boo!!) so we had to sit and watch them from afar.

"The party man" Kory didn't last as long as he usually does and was knackered after about an hour. So cue our time to get in the car and head home.

Both of them slept pretty much the whole way so I think we can safely say that a good time was had by all.

And so ends my 30th birthday celebration. Well almost, my 33-inch Transformer just turned up today - woo hoo!!! My parents birthday present to me. I'll get some photos of that on soon :-).

Finally, thanks everyone for all your presents and the effort you all made for my birthday. It's really appreciated! If you heard the problems they all had organising all this lot they'll be glad to see the back of this milestone.

Anyway here's some more photos from the weekend. Talk soon.

James

Flash, Bang, Whoop - Fireworks

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:28:00 -0400

Look at this. It's me doing a blog on our daily going-ons for a change .

I've been on holiday this week so I don't have an excuse not to do it this time. Not that I try to avoid it but the rest of the family tell these things better than me anyway.

Right, enough waffle....

A busy little week so far. Yesterday started with Julie going to the doctor's to get Krystal checked over again. Her rash on her face still hasn't gone yet and apparently it should have by now. We've now got cream for it which seems to be doing the job so far.

Rather than waiting for them Kory and I went down the supermarket to buy some yummy ingredients for dinner. It's only the second time we've cooked it but we decided to make Mango & Chicken yummy!!

After lunch and the kids had their sleep we headed off down the beach. We thought we'd try and avoid the need to park in the city centre and then have to walk down the beach for this year's fireworks display. Instead we took Kory down to Rambos for an hour to let him have a play and build up an appetite for dinner.

When his belly did start to rumble we headed off to Jimmy Chung which is a local chinese "All you can eat" buffet. It's the first time we've been to the one down the beach and it was actually quite nice and the range of food was HUGE! We had loads and Kory, although saying he was full-up, managed to polish off 3 tubs of jelly. "1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Orange" as he kept reminding us all night!

Once we were all stuffed we headed back to the car to get all wrapped up for the fireworks display.

In case you don't know everyone in Aberdeen goes to a large field just at the side of the Amusements.

We didn't tell Kory but we had a surprise for him...Glow Sticks. Here's a wee picture of Julie and him with them. He was chuffed to bits!

The fireworks were slightly late in starting but once they did start they were actually quite good for Aberdeen. Usually they're rubbish! The rain stayed away long enough as well which was good.

Kory was a bit scaried of the noise but even with his head buried in my shoulder he still couldn't help but watch them. Krystal slept through the whole thing until the very end. Typically when we had to head home .

The kids were completely knackered by the time we did get back though and Kory actually did seem to enjoy himself. He's still going on about it today and pretending to be a firework hehe.

Anyway it's getting late and I've gone on long enough.

James

Holiday Week

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:37:00 -0400

Oops, I didn't realise I hadn't updated this for a week. With James being off last week we were pretty busy. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were just normal days, as Kory had school and then the car was in the garage (AGAIN!) to get the brakes fixed. They had better be done this time, as that's over £700 now.

Kory fell off his Winnie the Pooh car on Thursday mornign and crashed into a wall and got a big bruise on his face!

On Friday, James took Kory and Krystal to Rambo's in the morning and I did some housework - it was actually quite nice in a strange way to be by myself regardless of what I was doing! In the evening Coral and Chad (James' parents) arrived from London for the weekend. Both kids were in bed, so I got to open all the pressies for them (thanks C & C!)

On Saturday morning Kory was delighted to find his Nana and Grandad in the spare room, and even moreso when they produced several new books for him! The whole weekend we've heard "Nana do it" and "Grandad do it" The weather was lovely, so we decided to go to Storybook Glen for the day.

It's a childrens place set in lovely gardens, with lots of (very bad) models of characters around the place. The don't look much like what they are meant to be, but the kids don't seem to care. I think I've been spoilt having been to Disney twice too!

We spent a couple of hours wondering around then headed for some lunch. Once we were done, we decided to head to Stonehaven as there was a European market on. It was smaller than we thought, but we did get some yummy pancakes before we came home again.

After both kids were in bed, James and I went to the pub for a couple of drinks. Neither Kory or Krystal made a squeak the whole time we were out, yet tonight Krystal just won't stay asleep.

Today the weather was rubbish all day. Everyone went to B&Q this morning and then James made a roast for lunch. After lunch Coral and Chad had to head off to the airport, so we headed into town for a while.

Enjoy the rest of the photos and I'll pop the videos on this post another day as I am off to bed now as I've had 3 rough nights and feel awful!

Julie.xx

Weeee!!

Choo Choo!

Kory loves diggers so this was great!

We hunted everywhere for this one, he was so keen to meet Humpty Dumpty!

Sitting inside the 3rd Piggy's House!

At Old McDonalds Farm

Thomas!

Driving Noddy's Car

This Seesaw was brilliant!

Fireman Sam (I think!)

And a sleep after a hard day out!

Cyprus Holiday Photos

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:36:00 -0400

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts. I have several reasons (laziness etc) but mainly it's because BT are being their usual rubbish and have not yet connected our broadband, so we are using a neighbours one and the connection is rubbish! I've not been able to get the photos online till now! The holiday seems so long ago now, even my tan has faded! We had a nice time and it was mega hot. Kory was good mostly but has been a nightmare since we got home, he has molars coming through and our normally angelic, sleeping, eating boy has turned into a devil child who screams constantly. I've had a cold this week so timing has NOT been good!

Anyway, I'm not going to waffle on, but just comment on the photos (sorry there's loads, but know family want to see the good ones and couldn't choose between them!) and I promise blogs will resume normal service soon and I'll let you all know what we've been up to.

Eating on the balcony

Kory and Chad read a book

"It's SO funny Daddy"

Mr Cool!

Like 2 peas from the same pod?

Kory in his UV suit for swimming

The Little Dude Rules

Swimming Boy

Kory being cheeky as usual

When we went to the old part of Limassol

Me and my boy

Kory & James

At the donkey sanctuary, Kory preferred the doggy!

Kory with Coral

This was a cat Kory befriended at the house

Us all at the wine festival on our last night

Me and James before our night out alone!

'Do you think I suit them?'

James' arty farty picture of a dragonfly

At a BBQ, Kory provided the cabaret with his dancing

At Curium chilling with a cold drink

Hmmm, wine...

Chad, Ian, Jan & Coral

Chad & Kory (again!)

That's all for now
Julie.xx

Lazy me!

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:01:00 -0400

Yeah yeah, so no blogs in ages from me! I'm busy don't you know?! I'll just rewind briefly back to the Saturday we went ot Jenni's, it was a long drive down, we only stopped once in Stirling for lunch and then went on. On the Saturday evening Jenni and Dave had a friend over and we had a BBQ. He brought his dog with him which Kory was delighted with.

On the Sunday we visited the farm, which I see Kory has filled you in on already! In the evening we went out for a meal to Brewsters. Considering how good the ones in Aberdeen are, this one was appalling, food, service, everything. Not to mention how hot it was that day and there was no air conditioning on, the food took forever and Kory was starving and when it finally arrived it was not what it said on the menu and totally overcooked. Swift complaints were put on the website and today I actually got a letter saying it was being investigated!

Kory had fun playing with the inflatable (England) ball and goalpost outside, only he didn't get he was meant to put the ball in the net and kept picking it up and running off with it. This is yet another 3-6 month item of clothing, his shirt! He wore it in Cyprus last year!!

On the Monday, Jenni and Dave were working so we went a drive to a little place called Richmond. We had found out that Mackenzie Thorpe has a gallery there and as I like his work, we went for a look. Well we only had to buy something too didn't we? So thanks to my gran and grandpa, I am now the proud owner of a proper bit of art!

Here it is!

On the Tuesday we went to the Metro Centre in Newcastle, then drove home. Again it was a long drive, but Kory was a star! The rest of the week when James was off we didn't do an awful lot exciting, James finished the garden off by painting the fences, we went food shopping, I went to the gym and swimming. That kind of thing!

Things got more exciting at the weekend when we saw a house we wanted. It's been on the market for a while at "offers over" but on Friday it flicked to "fixed price" so we viewed it on Sunday morning and fell in love with it. So since then, I've been back and forth with mortgage advisors (yes plural, we have 2) and they are to-ing and fro-ing with banks etc on our behalf.

The stumbling block is the fact that James has started his new job, just literally yesterday. So far so good, but I'm sure he'll post soon about it. That's it for now, I'm so stressed out with this house thing, I just want to know one way or another if we can have it! So watch this space! This pic is Kory ripping apart one of Jenni's flowers!

Julie.xx

My London Adventure!

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 20:18:00 -0400

Look at my Mummy and Daddy, don't they look nice? This is the first photo I've seen of them in ages and ages. It was taken at a party that we went to in London at the weekend. To get there we had to go on a big adventure which started on Saturday morning. Instead of me waking Mummy and Daddy up, they woke me up, how rude!

Instead of having my breakfast and having a wee sleep, they put clothes on me, and bundled me into the car!! It was even still dark outside. We drove to a place called the airport and had to wait ages to get on a plane. Mummy says I've been on one before, but I don't remember!! I had great fun sitting in my own seat because the plane wasn't busy.

When we got off the plane, my Nana and Grandad were waiting for us. We went on a train to get to their house, which went under the ground and was all dark. I preferred when I could look out the windows, but I wasn't scared at all. After I had some lunch, we went to visit my Great Nana Buckingham (Daddy calls her Nanny Bigfoot, but I'm not sure if I'm meant to)

The photo above is me with her and this photo is of me and Daddy and his Daddy and his Mummy...confused? I was, but they said it was 4 generations of Buckinghams, isn't that very cool? I had my dinner at her house, but it was yucky, Mummy tried to give me some food from a jar and I didn't like it. Even the pudding was yucky and I love puddings!

After my dinner, we all got changed into some posh clothes to go to a party. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep in the car. I never get to go out at night times, I'm normally in my bed. Here is a nice photo of me with Mummy and Daddy at the party. The music was awfully loud and I was a bit scared at first. But there were loads of people to give me cuddles.

Like my Auntie Kelly, here I am with her. Uncle Pete is the one looking at us, and the lady is someone I didn't know, but she sat at our table all night and didn't smile once, how rude. When you are as cute as I am, everyone smiles at you!! Jasmine was at the party too, but was running around mad and we didn't manage to take her photo!!

The music started to get to me after a while, so Daddy took me out to the car for a break. I thought I looked pretty cool driving the Merc, what do you think? Maybe I'll ask Santa for one for Christmas...then there would be LOADS of wrapping paper to play with!! The car had lots of cool gadgets that grandad couldn't work out...once I can talk, I'll show him how!!

I managed not to go to sleep until 10 o'clock and all the dancing and music got too much for me, so I cuddled up with Mummy and fell asleep!! I had to have my dummy too, because the music kept distracting me. Aren't I cute sleeping?

When I woke up, I went for a cuddle with my other Great Nana. This one is my Daddy's Mummy's Mummy!! Here is a photo of us all, again 4 generations all together. I don't really understand who all the other people at the party were, all people related to me in some way, but it was too complicated to take in.

Some of them were even talking funny, which Mummy told me was because of the juice they had. I didn't see anything strange, some of them even had bigger versions of my bottle for their juice!! Here is my Great Auntie Janet with her bottle. Maybe she was just very thirsty??

I'm not normally a very cuddly boy, but I was a bit scared of the music, very tired and just liked snuggling into my Daddy. He was dancing with me which was fun too. I got a bit grumpy, so we decided to leave and start on a big drive home. I fell asleep in the car and so did Mummy holding my hand, but she wouldn't let me put that photo on here!!

While I was sleeping, Daddy was taking photos of all the sights of London on the way, which took 2 hours!! Here is a nice one of some of the Christmas lights along the side of the big river. London had lots of nice lights that I could look at in my buggy!!

The next day when we got up, we went for a walk in a big park, called Hyde Park. There was loads of squirrels, here is Mummy talking to one! We went to a wee cafe and had some lunch, Grandad even gave me some of his muffin, yummy! After that, Mummy and Nana went to a big shop called Harrods, but us boys don't like shopping, so we went home. Yippee, no shopping!!

Mummy bought some cool Christmas decorations for our tree (if she ever decides to put it up!!) and then came home and made my dinner. I got something called gammon, and it was very salty, I had to drink loads of water!! After dinner I went for a bath. My Nana has the most ducks in the world. One of them squirts water out it's beak which was soooo funny! She kept doing it on my face and making me giggle!!

On Monday, I gave in and said I would go to that Harrods place with Mummy and Daddy. It was amazing! Then we started a big adventure to get back to the airport and back to Aberdeen. I got to stay up late before I went to bed too because I had a late nap. I must remember that's how to stay up late!!

Today I spent lots of time with my Daddy, and he did the funniest thing...he pumped up my pram tyres, isn't that hilarious?? Well I thought so, I giggled and giggled, Daddy got it on the camera, but I don't know how to put films on here, so Daddy says he'll do it tomorrow for me.

I have a few things to tell you all too before I go, I am now such a big boy now, I have got a tooth (which hurts loads), I can wave bye bye, I can clap my hands, but only do this sometimes, I can do the actions for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and I walk with help. I can't wait till I can let go!!

Kory
xx

Cyprus Holiday

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 21:06:00 -0400

We're back home now after our week in the sun which was great. We were there staying with Coral and Chad(James' parents), Laura (my sister) and Jasmine (our niece - James' sisters daughter, not Laura's!)

We had a bit of a quiet week actually, as we'd been so many times before we didn't do the "tourist" things and spent most days by the pool in the garden and then eating loads at night and swimming in the pool again!

I love this photo of the wee guy in his sunhat. This was taken on Thursday I think when we went into Limassol to look around the shops. It was really hot so we stopped for a drink, which turned into lunch!

Here's Kory & I having a dip in the pool on our first day, it was so warm, Kory loved it.

This is a pic of Laura one night at the house.

Jasmine by the Swimming Pool.

Kory on his tummy not crying for a change. He's usually screaming when he's left on his front!!

Chad giving Kory some water when out for lunch.

Coral playing "Row Row Row the Boat" with Kory!!

This is one of the cute pictures of Kory with cousin Jasmine.

Kory looked so sweet in his linen pinstripe trousers and wee tiny shirt!

This is us all out for a meal on the last night.

Here's the view from the house as the sun is going down.

We're sure Kory has a split personality - look! These photos were taken only seconds apart.

Laura found a new best friend in Jasmine, they played in the pool for hours, with throwing each other in and Jasmine climbing on Laura's shoulders and jumping in and doing handstands together!

Here's me and James in a photo together which is unusual!

This is me with Laura - yes we're sisters, but twins??!!

Getting ready to head off

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:28:00 -0400

Well that's Kory all packed for his holiday...

...literally!!! :D

James