General update/ photo drop

Oh my gosh, how long has it been since I did one of these?!?!  

About 6 weeks. I seem to be writing more on topics than general ramblings.  Better change that quick smart.  Try and keep up, while I bombard you with photos of our lives.  I apologize if I repeat myself in any way shape or form.

So a couple weekends ago we went to Lake Conastee Nature Park.  We have been to Conastee Park before, they have loads of play equipment and plenty of baseball pitches.  This is the other side of the Lake.  It is more of a bird watching / nature reserve place.  It was a beautiful day, and we had lots of fun walking / running on the paths.  They form part of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which they are constantly updating and maintaining here in Greenville.

This is an adorable picture of two of my favorite people. They both look so happy here.  Notice the garden furniture is out?  It is finally getting warm here.  Although it is rainy today, it is still 76 degrees......

We recently took a trip to Helen in Georgia.  You can read more about that here.

Th boys had a great time hunting for eggs on Easter Sunday.  Even if they were in their pajamas still

Sebastian was more inclined to eat what he found straight away, rather than hunt for more.....

I have been doing a shed load of baking.  We have stopped buying bread, as it just wasn't very nice.  I am now making a loaf a day to keep up with what we all eat.  At least this way we know the majority of what goes into our food.

I am also making a batch of about 40 cookies each week.  I found an awesome recipe on the choc chip pack from Costco.  A slight tweak on the time and temperature, and they make awesome snacks.  Not sure I have bought any packs of cookies or biscuits for about 6 weeks.  I am also making my own rice crispie treats, with decorations, which the boys love.  Next up is fruit jelly snacks.  I have tried one recipe, but they end up as jelly blocks, rather that gummy sweets.  Again, a slight tweak on the ingredients will probably do it, but we have to eat what we have first!

Isaacs behavior had been better for 6 weeks.  Until yesterday.  Funny, he started eating a certain snack type yogurt over the weekend, after not having it for six weeks.  We introduce it, and boom, email home about behavior.  Think we will be knocking them on the head for good.

Do you like my painting?  I went out on a Friday night with some ladies form a local Facebook group to Corks and Colours at Southern Galleries in Simpsonville.  It was a bring your own bottle painting evening.  It was great. I am really pleased with my picture!

Cocktail Friday is still going strong.  Don't forget to check back here every friday to see what concoctions we have been drinking recently!

This is a screen shot of a photo I pasted on Instagram.  See those likes???  They are all Monster Jam drivers!!!!!  If only they could know how truly OBSESSED Sebastian is with monster jam. We have a few recorded, and that is all he wants to watch.  He plays with the monster trucks when he is not watching them.  He thinks he is a monster truck and uses the sofa as his course.... 

This is my friend Amber.  She is another Zumba instructor.  We recently got together and choreographed 'Chica Practica'.  You can check it out here on her YouTube Chanel.

Check out the flower on my strawberry plant!  I got these in the ground too late last year to fruit, though they did send off tones of runners.  I have so many flowers this year it is ridiculous.  There are load of little strawberries coming along.  Yaaaaayyyyyy!!!  Think I will do a full post on my veggies patch soon, it is certainly coming along.

And in case you missed it, Oliver had the titanium plates laced in his ear recently.  You can read more about it here.

I did my Zumba Gold training this weekend.  It was awesome.  Ali the trainer was really good, I had a lot of fun, and learnt a few more rhythms.  

                                          

I am so enjoying my Zumba at the moment, and am looking out for a subbing opportunity very soon.  I am leading a song at a Zumbathon this weekend.  It is a charity event for the Make a Wish SC, so if you are in the area, please come along

Thats all for now! 

Photo drop spring break

Isaac has been off this last week on spring break.  It has been so nice to spend some time with him.  Here are some photos with what we have been up to this week.

Sunday we headed up to the Kings Mountain area, just by the North/South Carolina border.  We intended to do Kings Mountain Military Park and Kings Mountain State Park.  We started at the military park by having a look at their museum, then did the battlefields trail.  This is a 1.5 mile trail around the battle field from the Revolutionary war.  There were many informative boards on the way, and you can get a tour on your phone if you wish.  There are many monuments along the way commemorating the people who took part in this important battle.

The boys did really well walking this trail, and hardly got carried at all.  We did it in about an hour, and thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the sun.

By the time we returned to the car, we were all pooped, so decided to give the state park a miss, and save it for another day.

Monday we met up with some friends, before atrocious weather set in for a few days.

Wednesday Isaac and I went for breakfast at IHOP.  I like doing this with my boys when they are off.  Now Seb is in school 3 mornings a week when the other 2 are off, be it separate or together, it is nice to do things just us.

Thursday morning Seb was off, so we headed to the zoo.  In the summer, they open at 9am, though all animals are not on display.  It turns out this is temperature dependent.  It was cold Thursday morning, and I did not dress myself or the boys appropriately.  I think we were the first ones in the zoo!  It was lovely.  The lemurs were playing, there was a snake up close to the glass, and the lions were roaring.  It goes to show, you can got to the zoo numerous times, and still see something different

Still take the same pictures though!

It was so cold, that I was not up for supervising the boys in the park.  We headed up to Pelham Road to meet Paul for a coffee.  My car has been in the garage for about 2 weeks following my run in with a deer.  I have had an X3 in the meantime, an alright car, but not my beast.  Paul had to had his car back on Thursday, and had decided on a Mini.  So I went to meet him to pick it up

It is an alright little car.  I quite like it.  A few differences to the X5, size being the most obvious. But......it has no sun blinds in the back and no heads up display.  Hopefully my car will be fixed soon (it's supposed to take 4-6 weeks)

 Good Friday I spent most of the day lying on the sofa watching HGTV, while Paul built  this

It was a full on pajama day, as the weather was supposed to be atrocious.  It wasn't too bad, but we enjoyed the down time as a family.  The boys watched a film or 2....

Having been cooped up all day Friday, we had to get the boys out today.  Unfortunately it had been raining again, for most of the day, so we decided to take them to Monkey Joes.  I had a coupon to get one in for free, so it wasn't too busy, and I was suprised how quiet it was.  They had a few electrical issues, never good in a room filled with bounce houses....  But they sorted it out, and the kids had a great time.

Then it was lunch at Twin Peaks.  What's nice about this place is the fact kids eat free Saturday and Sunday, making it a reasonably priced meal out. 

Today is  Easter Sunday, we are going to do our first ever egg hunt for the boys. Paul watched the Liverpool game this morning, followed by the F1, then a nice roast, and I think a day around the house.

Happy Easter everyone!