Day Out at Erddig

Monday was a Bank Holiday, and luckily, a day of beautiful Spring weather.  Having not been to a National Trust property besides Attingham Park in quite a long time, it was due time to visit one we hadn't been to: Erddig, on the English-Welsh boarder, about an hour from our house.  Erddig, pronounced "Air-thig" in Welsh, is "widely acclaimed as one of Britian's finest historic houses... and is a fascinating yet unpretentious early 18th-century country house reflecting the upstairs downstairs life of a gentry family of 250 years."

Here we are entering the property from one of the car parks inside a walled orchard.

Entering the gardens through the workshop, there was very used stove and oven and LOADS of tools for woodworking. (Pictures taken for Grandad ;o)

Then we entered the stables where there were horses and old coaches.  I enjoyed explaining to Ellen that people had to use horses and coaches to travel before there were cars.

Then we entered the fantastic manicured garden at the back of the house.

 This was the best picture of me and the girls... as you can see, it didn't exactly turn out well.

Brenna really enjoyed looking at the beautiful flowers and touching.  Her little finger was always ready to touch... see it in the picture?  So cute.

Here are a few videos of our cutie pitootie 13-month-old toddler walking(!!!) around the garden.

Peek-a-boo!

The "Wolf's Den" was a fantastic area for the kiddies made out of logs outside the garden walls.  There were wooden tee pees, where Ellen pretended over and over that there were storms coming... evening making thunder sound effects!  I loved the fragrance of wild garlic that hung in the air and brought me back to walks through the Englisher Garten in Munich.

 Sitting pretty.

We were on our choo-choo train.

Hi Girls!  We played Three Little Pigs with this wood house.  The girls were safe from the Big Bad Wolf in this house made out of wood.

 And there were stumps to balance on.  We were pleasantly surprised when Ellen got herself up on this stump and stood up all by herself!

 Boo wanted to do everything her big sister was doing.

 The girls loved climbing up this wooden...uh, "thing".

 Brenna saw that Ellen got the top, so off she went, too!

 Brenna is such a determined girly.  Hi Ellen!

We had tear the girls away from the Wolf's Den to have our lunch before we were allowed into the house at 12:40.  We found a long bench beside one of the ponds with ducks to have our picnic on.I h

 The girls were so happy having her lunch on the bench next to Daddy.

Ellen and me at the front of the house, which was far less impressive than the back of the house.

After this, we went through the house, briefly ran through each room trying to find some hidden teddies to keep the girls entertained.  Each room had loads of original furniture.  In one bedroom, I pointed to a chair with a fold-down lid and a bowl in it and asked Ellen what she thought it was.  "A potty!" she correctly answered.  In the bathroom across the hall, I found the shower to be interesting - it was basically a free-standing stall with a metal bowl with holes at the top. The water was collected in a bowl below and a servant would pump the used water back up into the top metal bowl to be used again...eww.  

We had such a lovely day.  Sunshine, pretty scenery and a happy family.

Ellen's Begins Nursery

Our big girl Ellen started nursery/preschool on Monday. She has been looking forward to "school" since the Autumn and every time we'd pass her school, she'd point at it and say, "That's my school".  She's had two two-hour induction days the past couple of weeks and has loved it.  When I picked her up on Monday, she ran up and exclaimed, "I'm a happy girl!"

Ellen is in the "Rainbow Room" and attends 11 hours a week: Monday and Friday 9am-12pm and Wednesday 9am-2pm.  She was so excited to get to take her Peppa Pig lunch box with her today.  It was actually rather strange packing her lunch yesterday - that was a first for me.  

Brenna also started Musical Steps on Monday.  It's similar to Rhythm Time with singing, bouncing, dancing and instruments, but near us in Telford, as opposed to Shrewsbury.

I attempted to take a picture of the girls together before our walk to "school".

This is Ellen's nursery/preschool.

Brenna after her first Musical Steps class on Monday.

Yesterday afternoon was an absolutely beautiful day.  The girls and I had a tea party in the garden - our "tea" was just water, but that meant Ellen could pour it in the cups for me and Brenna.  This picture of perfection only lasted 5, maybe 10, minutes... then we needed to take a walk up to the park.  Actually we walked to a new (to us) park with swings that I found out about over the weekend... it's only a 20-minute walk uphill to get there.

Brenna WOULD NOT keep her hat on despite my putting it on her head over and over.... and we lost it on our walk up to the park... grrr....

 It really was lovely having a tea party with the girls... we even had a bit of real cake.

Happy Easter

Brenna's 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday to our beautiful Brenna.

Many more pictures to come when I'm not so tired ;o)

Granny and Grandad Time

On Sunday, Granny showed Ellen how to bake Fruit Soda Bread.  Ellen loves to help in the kitchen, so baking with Granny was extra special.

Fruit Soda Bread

475g Soda Bread Flour (or plain flour with 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda)

65g Sugar

1tsp. Salt

1 medium Egg, lightly beaten

450ml Buttermilk (we used 300ml thick buttermilk with 150ml milk)

110g Sultanas or Raisins

1. Preheat oven to 160C

2. Grease a 2lb loaf tin

3. Combine the flour, sugar, dried fruit and salt. Blend the egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to     the flour mixture.

4. Pour into the prepared bread tin.

5 Cut a slice half way through the dough as this will help the bread to rise evenly and flour the top of the            dough.

6. Bake for approximately one hour or until a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean. (Ours took 90     minutes).

7. The base of the loaf should sound hollow when you tap it. Turn on to a wire rack to cool. 

Ellen and Grandad spent some time painting on Monday.  Ellen's picture is for Daddy.

My sleeping princesses

Helping Granny

Granny and Grandad Bolton have already been here a week to help me with the girls while Jeff is in Saudi Arabia for work. The girls have been proving their helpfulness, too.

Dr. Ellen is making sure Granny is fit and healthy, but her finger needs a plaster/Band-Aid.  Of course, a surgeon's mask is required to put on a plaster!

Brenna wanted to "help" Granny unload the dishwasher.  She loves to move the bottom rack back and forth.

 

 "Look Granny, I've helped to take this spoon out!  I'll just drop it on the floor like the other one."

Brenna is 11 Months Old

Brenna is 11 months old.  As you can tell by her smile, she is such a cheeky monkey.  Her personality is really shining through now.  She loves to make us laugh, joins along when we sing and is very determined.  I took a total of four pictures before she was off towards the camera and there was no way to convince her to stay in place to take any more.  Oh, yes, she is an expert crawler now, too... and into everything.  And, boy, are the stairs interesting!  She's crawled up the first step a couple of times before I have swiftly removed her... I really must get the stair gates up.  She stood up on her own for the first time the other evening... in the bath of all places!  Now she can stand up anywhere she wants: in her bed, on the play kitchen, on the shower door.... the world is her oyster!  I predict Brenna will walk unaided over the next month. She can walk quite steadily only grasping on to a single finger for support.

Now that she's able to crawl, she can entertain herself by getting out the toys she wants to play with. She simply crawls over to the toy shelf and pulls out the baskets her toys are in.  She squeals with delight when Ellen plays with her, too. Ellen enjoys playing choo-choo train and hide-and-seek with Brenna now that she is mobile.  However, the downside of Brenna being able to crawl, is that she is also able to bother Ellen whenever she wants.

Granny and Grandad are visiting to help me look after the girls and to keep me company while Jeff is away on business in Saudi Arabia for 12 days.  I'm really loving watching the interaction between the girls and their grandparents.  Ellen enjoys cuddling with Grandad and taking his hand on walks, and Brenna squeals when Granny walks in the room.

 .Distracted by Grandad

 My gorgeous almost-three-year-old

Such a big girl