Playing Hooky

Callum and I did take half a day off on Tuesday and he decided he wanted to visit Tracy, my friend, his Godmother and the very lady who is getting married soon. On an earlier post I asked for ideas for her Wedding Hymns & Reading and whilst they are still making the Hymn choices the reading is to be Apache Wedding Prayer.

Tracy has just moved and is in the process of knocking down walls as well as organising her wedding, when we arrived she had just posted my wedding invitation which arrived yesterday and she has spent a lot of time on it.

It was sealed with wax!

She has then made each invitation

And inside included along with the invite details, all the RSVP info including e-mail, snail mail & phone numbers, a timeline of the day's events and just to top it all off in her very effective and organised way a full set of directions, where to stays(including prices) and best places to park.

If the day goes according to plan it is going to be fab!

On the way home we went to Barton Grange Garden Centre and we had an afternoon tea. As a child this was a favourite treat for both myself and my younger brother John.

I can remember the cakes, scones, cream and jam all being brought out on a cake stand and plates of sandwiches, bread and butter and crumpets and of course as much tea as we wanted.

As soon as I saw it on the menu I thought that was going to be my treat, I then found out to my parenting horror that Callum has not only not EVER had an afternoon tea but didn't even KNOW what one was!

Oh Shame on me I am not a good mother.

I of course insisted on him also having one. Out came 2 tiered cake stands with our goodies on and his eyes almost popped out of his head. We had a lovely time, we laughed quite a bit and indeed drew admiring glances from other diners(Callum said they were staring because we were laughing so loud) I choose to believe they were envious of the giggles.

Even with a dairy allergy we had a delicious afternoon tea and I have righted a wrong. Never let it be said my boy does not know what an afternoon tea is.

He now understands why I was so excited about the holiday we are due to go on soon. We are going on a cruise and they serve afternoon tea each day. We enjoy cruising and have been on a few but this is the first one that does a proper afternoon tea.

Before heading home we used the facilities and they were very impressive. If you live close to Barton Grange and haven't been pop in, the wash basins were lovely and the hand-dryers were fab. Callum was also impressed with the gents facilities as they had the most stunning urinals(I kid you not) I did not take my camera, but luckily he has one on his phone so went back in and took a photo, when I work it out I will get the pictures from his phone on to the PC and on the blog.

We had a lovely afternoon and something we will repeat again. All the things we could have done and he wanted to see his Godmother how cute is that?

Yesterday I managed some card making.

I made this card for my RSVP for Tracy and Mark

And its true we really can't wait I am soooooo looking forward to seeing her get married as well as catching up with some very special people that I haven't seen for far too long.

The next cards are for my nieces who all have birthdays coming up 2 on the same day!

Chloe's is first, followed by Charlotte and Coral

Let's hope the weather cheers up, have a lovely weekend Keely x

My Baby's almost a Man

It really doesn't feel 2 mins ago that my baby was just that a tiny(well 8lb 5oz) baby. After years of trying and a few miscarriages, both before and after, our son is almost into adulthood.

What's brought all this on I hear you ask( I know it's only in my head!) I went to see Mama Mia the movie at the weekend. I thought it was hilarious in parts particularly Pierce Brosnan's singing and Julie Walters version of Take a Chance on me should be seen to be appreciated.

The main reason that I felt the need to put pen to paper so to speak was one particular scene where Meryl Streep's character is helping her daughter prepare for her wedding and they sing slipping through my fingers or you can watch the download http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv8z-RRucso. Now if I were to say that this brought a tear to my eye I would be telling a big fat lie, I did in fact bawl my eyes out, there were streams, nay rivers coming forth. Why it should have provoked such a reaction I have no idea, I am even crying as I type so emotional am I.

I suppose it just brought home how quickly Callum has grown up and whilst he is still relatively young and unlikely to be leaving home for a number of years my role as "mother" seems somewhat redundant(I'm off again!)

One of the things it has made me do is re-assess the time we do spend together which is not really that much. So tomorrow I am taking half a day off as is he and we are playing Hooky yeah :-). The only rule is that we must do something fun and together and the best bit he chooses and drives! I will have no control and for me this is very strange. It has been commented on before that I am a little controlling the words control freak have also been levelled at me. Whilst I wouldn't disagree totally I do feel someone needs to be in control and in the absence of my dad I make a perfect candidate. Of course when dad's around he is without doubt the person in charge(when I let him).

So tomorrow should be a great day and I am really starting to look forward to whatever "it" may be.

I will leave you with some photos of Callum's first driving lesson which was on his birthday to say he was eager to drive really would be an understatement. By the way he is the taller one, I don't make many but I make them big and strong.