Easter Holidays!

Callum’s penultimate term at pre-school ended with an Easter Bonnet Parade and Concert. The concert was short but was raising money for the Bell Ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital.  One of the girls at Callum’s Pre-School has a heart condition and has  spent a huge amount of time at the JR - she is just amazing, so fiesty and very determined and our fingers are crossed for her for the future. 

The singing was so sweet … my favourite was “I had a tiny turtle”.  The kids and parents came up trumps with the bonnets for the kids.

We marked the first day of the Easter Holidays with a trip into Reading on the train with the kids to grab some noodles.  We all had an absolute ball.  The kids did pretty well with their noodles (especially Riley who at 9 months old couldn’t get noodles into his mouth quick enough).  Callum loved the ice lolly – pure crushed raspberries and very scrummy).

Gran and Granda Harrison came down from Newcastle to spend the Easter Holidays with us.  Callum was in his element, playing games non-stop throughout the weekend.  Things got even better when Nic and Aly came over for a couple of days.  We went to The Rowbarge for Easter Sunday lunch – lovely main course … shame about the puddings!  A walk down the canal resulted in a couple of games of Pooh Sticks before heading home. 

      

Callum ended up with a few Easter Eggs too.  Aunty Nic came up trumps managing to find an Easter Egg with a Mini (Callum’s fav car)but he still enjoyed eating his other eggs.  He also bought a couple of new games with the money he received from both sets of Grandparents.

My friend, Jill, had arranged for the kids to visit a Fire Station during the holidays.  Callum is a huge Fireman Sam fan so was very excited!  First of all the kids were shown how the fire engine uses its stabilisers and saw just how high the ladder and cage could reach.  They were then taken inside and were able to sit inside one of the engines.

Sadly the day before our visit, two fire fighters lost their lives in the call of duty and it really hit home how dangerous this job is.

The first full week of the holidays was rounded off with a visit to Marwell Zoo.  A lovely sunny day … but it was such hard work.  None of the kids seemed that interested in the animals (which was a first!) and were more interested in running off and we spent most of the day shouting.  An earlier than expected end to the day … and a quiet evening in to get rid of the headaches!

We normally rely on Grandad Jackson for supplies of tomatoes and radishes throughout the summer.  This year, we’re having a go at growing some of our own in pots.  Callum “helped” Jon plant two tomatoes, one pepper, one carrot and two rows of radishes.  Callum loves cucumber so bought a packet of seeds to take up to Grandad’s and they planted the seeds. 

 

The Cookie Cafe were organising another Easter treats and crafts morning so we took the kids along.  They had great fun making some chocolate Easter nests complete with eggs and chicks.  They then made and decorated some Easter baskets.  Even better, we could sit back and enjoy a coffee!

All too quickly the Easter Holidays were over for another year.  On the last Monday, we organised another breakfast for all the kids.  They all turned up in their PJ’s and we caught up with news from Kathryn and Jessica in New Zealand.  Hard to believe they started their new life down under almost a year ago.  We still miss them and the kids keep asking where Jessica is and when she’s coming back! Afterwards, we cooked pancakes and the kids stuffed themselves silly.  For some strange reason, Callum and Ben decided they wanted to eat the lemons (!) … unsurprisingly, none of the others followed suit!