Christmas Day, woop woop!!

It feels like Christmas Day today so Merry Christmas everyone!!!  We are all excited for our shipment arriving today woop woop!!  Defo cartwheels on the grass, hula hooping on the rooftops and dancing in the street ha ha ha ha!!  Last night we chose three things we were most looking forward to seeing again.

Amy's choices - toys, her clothes and her bicycle 

Colin's choices - shoes, pictures for our walls and Amy's toys so he can watch Amy happily play with them, awh sweet

My choices - my hoodie tops as it is still cold in the house in the evening that's the trouble with no central heating or double glazing and houses designed to keep you cool in the summer it's brrrrr in the winter, photographs especially the photographs I don't have copies of like our wedding album (I just want to make sure they survived the long journey bobbing on the sea) and pictures/photographs for the wall.  I have a big long list so also have Amy's toys, my Pyrex dishes sad I know but since we  have moved into our house we have not been able to make my special pasta dishes due to lack of crockery.  Cutlery is something else as we bought a 'make do set of 4 cutlery' and yes they've made do but now I would like more than 4 forks and have something more substantial to eat with, my list would go on and on I think but those or the main things so far we've thought of I wonder if our options will change when the boxes start opening???

We have been so proud of Amy having to last without her toys since February/March she is soooooo excited!!!!

Think of it this way it feels like Christmas Day but we kind of know what we are expecting but we have forgotten a lot of what we packed.  On Christmas Day there are always a few little things that you get that you don't play with or don't like but today we know that every box we open will have things that we LOVE as only the Creme De La Creme of our possessions made it to the shipment boxes!  Photos will follow of the day ahead!!!

EXCITED HOUSE TODAY!!!!!!!

Baking with Lemons!!

Baking with lemons!!

We trawled through the internet for something ironically that didn't taste too much of lemon as none of us like lemons ha ha!!  So the Lemon Bars, lemon cheesecake and lemon biscuits would have been tooooo lemony, so we settled for a Jamie Oliver recipe of -

Lemon, Almond and Poppy Seed Cake

 

 

And look behind Amy is our new dining room table but our dining room chairs are still on order!!

 

 

Mmmmmm not sure if that looks good or not?????

 

So with our shipment not arriving until next week hopefully all we have is a baking tray so we can make a tray bake instead of a cake, improvisation!!!  That was me making a hole in the cake using a kitchen knife rather than a little thin discreet probe to see if the cake had baked hee hee!! 

 

 

And the final product which is nice enough if you like lemon tasting cake but none of us are that taken by it!!  And look we have another 4 lemons to use up!!!!  Why could we not have an apple, pear or orange tree in our garden instead!!  We had fun baking though and it will be much better when all our baking equipment comes in the shipment too :o);o)

Random pics xxx

 Random pics xxx 

 

 

And to round the day off yesterday it was Ice Cream Man Van day!!  So we bought a Chocolate Box to get a variety of flavours to decide our favourites, yummy!!

 

Happy Amy with her Double Chocolate Ice Cream, it was delicious!!!

 

 

Colin out in the garden picking lemons off our tree. 

Amy says perfect for Grandma's hot water in the morning :o)

Now all I need is a lemon recipe for something??????

 

Our local park and beach!!

Our local park and beach

 

Amy and I took a walk after school to the local shops and post office to post her letters to her friends.  On the way back we stopped off at the park that is just round the corner from us!!

 

 

Having fun on the zipwire, swings, roundabout, fireman's pole and slide, perfect way to round off the afternoon before tea!!

 

It started to warm up yesterday so Colin and I headed to the beach for our daily walk!  We are looking at the weather forecast of 20degreesC next week, woop woop!!!

 

 

We had to share the beach with some big diggers though!!

 

 

But it is all for a good cause protecting the sand dunes

 

Beautiful walk xXx

Book Day Assembly

Amy's first Book Day Assembly

 

 

Dress down day at school for Book Week so you could choose to dress as one of your favourite book characters or a character from one of the books chosen for Book Week.  Windy Farm was one of the books chosen for Book Week so Amy went as a farmer!!  She was a little worried about her hat that we got from Beijing as she felt it smelt of the China sweat smell and true enough when we were there everything did have a funny smell.  Anyway it didn't smell but it was looking a bit bashed at the back from travelling as it is only paper it would do the purpose of the day though!!

There is also a reading challenge that starts in January where children have to read 12 books from a list of age related books.  Amy got the form home and she had completed it with the books she had read from our travels and from the library, well done Amy.  The prize is a certificate and name on a Reading Challenge honour's role!!!  Amy is thrilled with herself!!!

 

Looking good Farmer Anderson xx

 

Parents were allowed to attend the Book Week Assembly so Colin and I went along

 

It was amazing to see all the children from the school in the gymnasium around 700 children plus parents and teachers!!  It was really good the children lead most of the assembly, they had a parade where all the children went in a procession to show off their costumes by walking around the hall and up on stage, a play by the teachers and the littlies sang a book week song!

 

The teachers part of the assembly, it was funny and the play was based on Windy Farm book but based on the school rather than on a farm!!

 

Fab picture of Amy just looking soooo happy at the end of the assembly.  The children all seemed to have fun!!

Our first week and weekend in our new home xXx

Our first week and weekend in our new home xXx

 

 

Our first walk to school across the football pitches with us now being local residents!!

 

Colin and I went into Amy's class to help them make play doh brains and this was Amy's effort!!

 

Our weekend antics xx

 

Amy chilling in front of the TV, with the TV being our only piece of furniture in the living room!!

Can't wait for the sofa to arrive tomorrow!!!

 

Colin is trying to get us set up for Saturday night movie night.

 

The football pitches across the road are so busy it is lovely to see the place come alive with lots of juniors playing football matches.

 

Amy and I had some girlie time and made some cupcakes whilst Colin went outside to do some gardening!!  The garden certainly needs some TLC as it was an old couple that lived in the house before our landlord bought the property to lease out!

 

Oh yeah licking the bowl, you chocoholic!!

 

 

Mmmmmm they look and smell delicious, yummy!  I wonder where the one missing has gone!!

 

Oh yeah in our tummies fresh out of the oven, oh yeah!!

The heart sign says it all Amy, too true they are scrummy yummy!!

 

 

It is the no frills local time and UK time clocks, they are normally showcased a bit fancier than my efforts but it does the job!!

 

Amy all ready for movie night.  We had a library DVD all set but then we realised that it was Region 4 and our Laptop is set for Region 2, oh dear but never mind we watched Frozen from iTunes.  The sound from the TV and sound bar was excellent, happy campers!!!

 

 

It has certainly been a while since we had Sunday morning pancakes, yummy!!!

 

Here is Colly re-using the water from the bath to water the garden.  The bath is smaller than UK sizes but it certainly took a few trips to empty the bath!!  Good bit of exercise for you ha ha!!

 

Look out here is our furniture arriving, all excited!!!! 

Cartwheels on the grass time ha ha or maybe not!!!

 

 

 

 

Here we go boxes and boxes and boxes galore!!

 

Amy ran and got Jemima to show her the furniture coming in!!

Amy's room just missing the bed and wardrobe!!

 

 

First job was for Amy's bed to be made hooray!!  Amy's wardrobe is still on order but her things are hung up in our walk-in wardrobe

 

 

Next was the sofa!!

 

Sofa sorted, looks great and is sooooo comfy!!  But anything would be comfortable after our movie night sitting on the floor last night :o)

 

Our coffee table which has turned into the TV unit until the TV unit arrives in a few weeks!

 

Our dining room table will remain in the boxes until the chairs arrive so Amy can carry on using the dining room as a Hula Hooping playground.  Amy can now Hula Hoop for over 10 minutes, WOW!!!

 

 

First seat on the sofa, Amy reading her book and Jemima having a snooze just hope Jemima doesn't drool on the NEW Sofa ha ha!!

 

 

Our bedroom with our mattress put on its side to make way for the furniture!!

 

Oooooooh our bed being made up!!  The assistant has been helping at times!!

 

 

Thankfully the units came pre-built so it was a case of lifting them out of the boxes that was a real stroke of luck!!  We love our new furniture!!

 

 

And as with all children the boxes have turned into a playground ha ha!!

Amy made a box into a little house so here she is back reading again with her design of polystyrene on the walls of the box!!  Roald Dahl is her favourite author at the moment along with Enid Blyton's Famous Five Adventures.  Great seeing all the books that I read as a child still being enjoyed, bringing back great memories!!