A photo a day : The Forest Of Dean

After our lazy day yesterday we decided today, we'd do something very active. Walking. Of course living at the edge of the Cotswolds, we are completely surrounded by many perfect walking sites. However, we fancied something different, so headed over to The Forest Of Dean. We have been here many times, and each time we do it rains, so I was somewhat surprised and pleased that the weather stayed hot and sunny the whole time we were there. 

We decided to take a packed lunch with us, for Eva this was a egg and cress sandwich, some fruit (Mango) a pack of ready salted crisps and a drink. I had a ham and egg sandwich, malt loaf with butter, one ginger cookie and a bottle of water. Archie enjoyed Red Pepper, sweet potato and apple for his lunch, washed down with a bottle of milk. We ate our lunch over looking Cannop Ponds, Eva fed her crusts to the ducks and swans who were swimming on the lake. I remembered we still had duck feed left in the car from our trip to Studely Grange on Tuesday, so once the bread had run out we switched to that. 

After lunch, we began our walk. Honestly, we had no plan where we were going, just walk till we were tired out and then head home. We ended up somewhere, in the woods. I have no idea where if I'm honest, it all looks the same. In the end we had a 1 1/2 hour walk and then went home. I love the drive back through the Forest and much as the walking through it. This place is beautiful, it's on our list for a long weekend away next year.

Bean xo

A girl called Eva.

Eva Ann Hopkins,
Age 5 years.
Favourites-
TV show : She's crazy on anything to do with animals, always has been, her favourite being any David Attenborough documentary. Cartoon wise she adores Tom and Jerry or Scooby doo. 
Food : Jacket potato. She could live off them given half the chance.
Colour : Pink. She does like purple too but pink is always her first choice.
Animal : She's Owl crazy, I think her obsession with them began as a toddler when she saw a barn owl for the first time. By the age of 2 she was able to tell you all the breeds. Her favourites still remains the barn owl.
Dislikes-
Having her hair washed. Flys or spiders. Meat. Wearing trousers. Dirt. The wind blowing her hair. Not getting her own way. These are the main things that can cause a melt down. She's beginning to get that teenage temper already, many days I've had her bedroom slammed in my face! She's a diva that's for sure.

10 things to do this summer.

1. Visit the beach. 

Building sand castles, splashing in the sea, eating fish and chips, ice-cream cones and spending pennies in the pier. The summer for me is all about the beach! We try to go once a year, even before having children the boyfriend and I found ourselves at the beach eating ice-cream watching the sun setting. This year will be the first time we take Archie, I'm not so sure how he will react to sand and I dreading the whole fist full of sand in the mouth moments which from what I remember from Eva's first beach day are not fun for either of us. We're planning on our beach trip before summer - next month - as I'm back at work in June and want to have a nice day out before then.

2. Visit a zoo.
Another yearly thing for us. Boyfriend loves zoo's, even as a child his parents had to take him to one every year on his birthday. I think this year is the only year he's been unable to go to one at all due to Archie being unwell with chicken pox, although we are planning to go to bird land tomorrow. Eva visited her first zoo aged 3 weeks, Archie is 6 months and yet to step foot in one, mainly due to Eva being at school now and boyfriends work hours. we only get the school holidays and boyfriend doesn't always get the time off. This year we are visiting Noah’s Ark zoo. (www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk) It's one we are yet to visit and seems to be a very child friendly place.

3. Have a picnic.
No trip is complete without a picnic. Whether it be a trip to the beach, a walk out in the country or a simple trip to the park. I normally end up eating sushi rather then sandwiches which sounds weird, raw fish? But I love sushi, I'd probably opt for a veggie range rather then fish while out and about though.

4. Go for a walk in the countryside.
I'm very lucky to be in the middle of the Cotswolds meaning I am surrounded in hundreds of amazing walks and places to explore all year around. I love walking in the summer mainly because the sunshine makes for good lighting while taking photos and the ground tends to turn into a bog during the wetter months. I'm looking forward to going for a walk in the woods to see the blue bells, something we do yearly. We also take Eva on a deer walk, whether we try and see how many animals we can find. One year we found wild boar!

5. Fly a kite.
Kite flying for me sends flash backs of the tantrums my brother would throw when his kite wouldn't fly and ended up being thrown in the bin not long after it was brought. We headed to Worcester Woods last year and brought Eva a cheap (I say cheap but the smallest ones were £10) kite and used the fields to go fly it. She loved it, and was actually better then all of us put together! I've just sorted out her kite from the garage ready for trips out this summer - if it's lasts that long!

6. Slimbridge wetland centre.
Or as Eva calls it "Duck land" because it's all about the ducks here. With loads of things to see and do there it's a winner even on wet days. They have hundreds of ducks, geese, swans and other such birds as well as the wildlife, it's beautiful and well worth a visit. We are going with the in laws this year, nanny being a nature lover she's excited to go with Eva and see what they can find.

7. Baking.
This a must for the summer, with Eva off school keeping her entertained on the wet days will be a mission so that's when baking comes in. I love baking, I'm covered in flour most days from baking biscuits or cakes. I plan to do alot with Eva. She tends to get bored making things so I shall bake things for her to decorate and of course she gets to lick the bowl!

8. Go to the park / feed the ducks
With quite a few local parks I can see us spending alot of time visiting these over the summer. Archie is now sitting up unaided so I shall have to take him soon for his first try of a swing. Parks always come hand in hand with feeding the ducks, we normally buy an extra loaf just for them and I've found that if we are in town when we decide to feed the ducks we end up buying them a loaf from the bakery rather then something cheap! They eat better then most.

9. Swimming.
We do this anyway, once a week at least but it's one of those things that need to be there on a list of things to do in the summer. I may look at taking the children to another pool rather then our local maybe one with slides and things.

10. Take photos.
The final thing on my list is photos. I plan to take alot over the summer and post them on this blog. I feel I've forgotten photography over the past year or so and I've run out of excuses to not get the camera out. Go back to 2012 and my camera rarely left my hands!

Six months.

 September

28th - Archie arrived in the world.

October.

3rd - Heel prick test (everything was fine)

23rd - Hearing test (everything fine)

28th - First smile. 

November.

2nd - Starts babbling.

26th - First jabs

 December.

5th - Rolls belly to back.

25th - First christmas.

31st - Second jabs.

January.

6th - First laugh (to soft kitty song from the big bang theory)

28th - Third jabs.

 February.

There were no milestones this month, but his hand eye coordination greatly improved.

March.

11th - found his feet.

13th - sitting unaided.

14th - First word ; Dada.

16th - First swim.

26th - Rolling back to belly.

I am Bee

Name : Carly

Birthday : March 24th 

Hobbies : Photography, Baking and Knitting

Likes : Drinking tea, watching crime shows, The Big Bang Theory and being a mummy.

Dislikes : Dust, arguments and moaning.

Fears : Spiders, lifts, Lorries and being in a shop at closing time.

Relationship:

I have been with my boyfriend Sean for almost 8 years, we met back in February 2006 through friends and began dating in May. Since then we've had two children and have a house together.
Children:
Two. I have a daughter, Eva who was born prematurely in March 2009 and a son Archie who arrived 6 days late in September 2013.
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My blog is based on my life, I write about my opinions, my children, myself and day to day life. I love to write, I hadn't realised just how much until I began this blog, I'm my own worst critic though and can say, that I'm not overly pleased with how my other post's have been written and will probably at some point re-read them, edit or delete them. It's kind of an OCD thing, I like things to be 'just so'. I have a thing about dust, it annoys me. If I can see dust on anything in my house even if I am about to leave the house I will have to get a duster and clean it. You may think that means I live in a super clean house, wrong! It's clean yes, but I have two children. My house is as clean as it can be with them and their muddy boots.

Archie learns to sit.

Archie has wanted nothing more then to sit up for a while now, if you try to lay him in your arms he will wiggle and moan wanting to sit up. Even while on his play mat he gets frustrated after only a few minutes, so I've started sitting him in either his Bumbo or between my legs so he can play. This week for the first time he started to sit unaided, first for only a few seconds but by the weekend he was doing it for long periods of time! I'm amazed, and slightly tearful at this. Another milestone hit, another reminder he's growing up.