BARLEYLANDS FARM

today my friend and i took our little one's to barleylands farm in billericay. the sun was shining again and we set off at 10am. it took about an hour to get there and me and kim were very pleased with ourselves as we didnt get lost on the way once lol!!

the first thing we did when we arrived was set up our picnic as we were all starving by now. after a delicious lunch, we looked around at the farm animals, there were pigs, goats, cows, horses, rabbits, donkeys and guinea pigs. i love the photo (top right) of melissa feeding the goats, her face is a picture! aswell as the farm animals there was an indoor sandpit, the kids loved this, and being indoors the shade was so cooling as the day was getting hotter and hotter. there were also some go-karts for the children and adults to ride on, melissa needed a helping hand from tomas with this as she was a little hesitant at first, but as soon as she got the hang of it..away she went! it really was a day full of fun for the kids and well worth a visit if your ever in the area.

A WALK IN THE WILDSIDE

today mum, manda and nicole came over for the day. we had decided to take a walk up to welsh woods, melissa had been there on a school trip in july, we all like our walks in the countryside and none of us had ever been there before, even though its only up the road. mum arrived at half 9, we had a quick cuppa and set off laiden with a hefty picnic basket.

here is a photo of all of us trekking through the field, mum is taking a photo of me taking a photo of them lol!

here's melissa posing with aunty mandy.

the view across the fields was gorgeous, it felt a million miles away from the hustle and bustle which is just 10 minutes down the road.

we had a walk through the woods and across the fields but nicole and kirsty were starting to flag, so we decided to find a nice spot under a tree in the shade and recharge our batteries.

after something to eat and a little rest we started on the journey home. as we were walking along mandy noticed that me and mum had practically dressed the same, something we hadnt even realised all day!!

GOING CRABBING

I cant believe how lucky ive been that during my 2 weeks off work the sun has shined practically non stop.

today me, the girls, my friend kim and her son all went off to west mersea for a day crabbing. now im afraid to say that aswell as spiders, crabs are one of my least favourite creatures, its something to do with there legs...yuk!! but we had a really great time and im now not that scared of the little things.

here are kirsty and melissa, you can see that kirsty is nervously laughing at the crabs round her toes lol!

we also spotted a little seal happily swimming by the pier, he was so close but the photo's dont really capture this, and as id forgotten my camera i only had my mobile to take some photos with and now the seal looks more like a little dog.

you can just about make out its head bobbing around above the boat in this photo.

we all thoroughly enjoyed crabbing and at at the end of the day we tipped all the crabs out and watched them scurrying back to the sea.

HERE COMES SUMMER!

at last we've had a few days of brilliant sunshine. im off work this week so its an added bonus for the sun to be shining too! yesterday me, the girls and mum went to mersea for the day, we had a lovely time, kirsty and mum spent most of their time in the sea, but me..im more of a sunbather, it was bliss just laying on the sand with the sound of the waves crashing in. i dont think ive ever sat down for that long. if im at home sunbathing in the garden im always pottering in and out of the house tidying something!! i will post some photo's of our day out soon, but unfortunately i forgot my camera so im gonna have to wait until mum has emailed me a few across.

JUST FOR YOU ANONYMOUS

i had a comment today on my hollyoaks collage from somebody asking for bigger pictures of "craig". so here they are just for you....enjoy!!

hope that made your day lol!

HOLLYOAKS COLLAGE

MY STARRY WEEKEND ...PART 2

on sunday, me, the girls, kim and tomas, went to stowmarket to watch a celebrity football match, it was between our local radio station SGR COLCHESTER and the men from the channel 4 soap HOLLYOAKS. well what can i say but WOW WOW AND DOUBLE WOW !!!! i dont mean to sound shallow but they were even more gorgeous in real life. anyone who watches hollyoaks will know who i mean by warren, craig, justin, sonny and tony. i couldnt tell you there real names lol! we had a great time cheering along to both sides scoring, and the wolf whistles that went up when a hollyoaks player had the ball was just brilliant. although football is sort of a mans game, i can tell you that practically 80% of the crowd were women, i wonder why???


half way through the match we had sneaked up to the sideline to get a better view, we managed to get a couple of close ups before the bouncers arrived to move everyone away

after the match the players showered and got ready to meet their adouring fans. we were so lucky to get so close to them all, and the highlight was when "tony" had his photo taken with my 2 girls, now there's not many girls there age who can boast at having their photo taken with a hollyoaks star!

MY STARRY WEEKEND...PART 1

at last im able to blog about my star filled weekend, my pc's memory card blew so for the last few days my pc has been running so slowly that it takes me almost 20 minutes to get onto the internet, 20 mins seems a long time when ive a hundred and one things to be doing, so i'd given up in the end. im off work now for a couple of days so have the time to let you catch up on my great weekend.


on saturday, me and melissa went with kim and her son tomas to a summer fete near colchester, it happens to be a nursing home that judy finnegan's mum lives at, every year RICHARD AND JUDY open the fete and sign autographs etc. we waited patiently in the queue with the kids, then it was our turn to meet them, they were absolutely lovely, they chatted with us for a couple of minutes and then the kids got a signed autograph and had there photo taken with them. once that was done we visited the individual stalls, and kim and i got hooked on the tombola stall, she ended up winning 3 bottles of wine, some tea bags and a bottle of spring water, me on the otherhand, i ended up with a kids friut shoot drink and a tin of mackerel much to my dismay lol!! i was hoping for the bottle of bacardi, but never mind! the highlight of the day was when we were queueing for the toilets, kim had gone in with tomas which left just me and melissa waiting outside, and who walked up behind us, only richard himself!! so there we were happily chatting about the fete and the weather to one of britains top daytime tv celebrities...very surreal!

WE'RE GOING TO THE ZOO, ZOO, ZOO

ive had a really lovely weekend, on saturday me and the girls met my mum in town and headed off to colchester zoo for the day. mum hadnt been to the zoo for years, and was really looking forward to it, she's a dab hand at the old photography now and she took loads of lovely pictures, if you wanna see the whole collection of them go to http://ruthjen.blogspot.com/ and you can check them all out. we were so lucky too as the weather was glorious, and the only time there was the slightest bit of rain was when we were boarding the train ride, think someone was looking down on us there ( thanks mick x) we ended up walking round the zoo for 6 hours and even though me and my little one visit the zoo regularly i was amazed at how many animals i'd never actually seen before.

today ive had to work, 1; because they were short staffed and 2; i really need the extra money, my day ar work was fine and passed quite quickly thank gooness, although i missed my usual sunday morning lie in. when i got in it was time to cook dinner and catch up on the ironing and the usual sunday night baths and hairwashes. as i hadnt spent much time with the kids today i let them all stay up a bit later and we had a game of BUZZ, the playstation game, it was such fun!

i'm really looking forward to next weekend too, we're gonna be out stargazing, but not at the ones in the sky, "richard and judy" are opening a fete at a nursing home in colchester so on saturday we shall be there and then on sunday we're going to stowmarket to watch the "hollyoaks" men play footie against our local radio station. me and the girls are soooo excited!!! i will be sure to tell you all about it.

MAD COWS AND ENGLISHMEN

woke up today at 745, early for me on a saturday i know, but melissa had her summer fayre and she was singing in the choir, she did so well considering she hadnt been able to practise and only found out yesterday she was doing it! afterwards it was a mad rush trying to get sorted to go to my mums. we arrived in sudbury at 2ish, mum was waiting for us despite the fact it had been peeing down with rain. it always feels so strange walking into mum and micks house and him not being there. we caught up with the latest comings and goings of the week and then decided to go for a walk down the river, thankfully the heavens didnt open again and we had a lovely walk, the highlight was coming across some aberdeen angus cows( sorry but all i could think of was burger king!!)

you can tell by the look on their faces they were not impressed lol!

we had such a lovely walk and it was good to see my three kids having such a good time together, no arguing or annoying each other, just playful fun.

we were all nicely tired when we got back to mums, the kids chilled out whilst me and mum got on with sorting dinner, no rest for the wicked, but a couple of glasses of wine helped. we've all got full stomachs, especially the kids, they ate all their dinner and had two helpings of desert. so mum was happy with their empty plates. now its a chilled out night in front of the tv.