Happy Birthday Flyingpops!

A yummy pancake breakfast, followed by a family day out bowling, lunch in a restaurant (yet to be decided) and then a delicious evening meal to come!  No baby doughnut arrival today please, this is Mummy's special day! ;)

Some numbers...

Haven't done this sort of post for a *very* long time...to be honest I haven't even *glanced* at the numbers for a very long time, but there we go...plenty of capacity in mente right now - so out swarm the tentacles (carefully)...

Having peeped through my fingers and forced my pseudopodia around the place here are just a few raw facts and figures (expecting, of course, some bristling between Google Analytics et al - but that is par for the course) about this tiny corner of the internets (feel free to switch off here if this sort of thing doesn't interest you ;)

These numbers are "All Time" (i.e. back to when I started this little personal experiment with Social Media)-

Total number of blog posts (Yeah, not "blogs") - 2,388 (or about 0.73 posts per day - down a bit on previous numbers - as was expected)

Most viewed post - This one - read (so far) 15,150 times...followed fairly closely by this one, read 7,897 times...to put it in context, as of right now, most of my new posts are getting just under 100 page views (the odd blip aside - this one and this one got significantly more than that)...

Total page views -552,496 (by 375k visitors) - daily visitor numbers are actually waaay down on what they used to be, but then I did leave the site pretty much alone (for a couple of years)!  Picking back up (very healthily) again now of course... ;)

Average dwell time - 1 minute 9 seconds (so, taking this average, "the folk of the internet" have spent -very roughly- 38.1 million seconds / 635k minutes / 10.6k hours / 441 x 24 hour days - or approximately 302 full working weeks?) Well - put it this way - quite a bit of time has been spent absorbing what has been written here.  Thank you... ;)

Total pictures posted - 15,327 (way less than 5% of what we, as a family, actually shoot - storage issues at home are a frequent...urm...point of discussion...?)

Total pictures viewed - 1,770,713 (-very- roughly 115 times each)

My most viewed picture?  This one...spotted in NPG HQ in Kings Cross...viewed 26,026 times... ;)

My most "interesting" picture (according to Flickr)?  This one, a very rare, very rusty, very -expensive- project bus snapped at the show and shine at the Volksworld festival...

Tweets - 7371 updates since July 16th 2007 (or about 4 tweets a day - sometimes more, sometimes less)...but yeah, old school...tweeting before it was cool...oh and Stephen Fry still follows me (not *entirely* sure why though)...probably because he is nice... ;)

So there we go, most numbers, over the last three years, have at least doubled since I last checked...Makes me wonder what would have happened if I had been paying attention? ;)

Happy Birthday Flyingpops!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! This morning has already seen lots and lots of lovely presents waiting on the breakfast table (which Thomas helped to unwrap, when he could keep his eyes off the) -

...lovely (hopefully) cake (thanks to Mum and Jamie Oliver for their help cooking it and thanks to Thomas for help filling it and decorating it - and not eating *too* much of it before it was finished)...

...and Thomas even sang Happy Birthday to Mummy...! Oh and everyone is looking forward to our lovely meal out later on...! Many happy returns of the day! ;)

Happy Birthday Fink!

Hope you have a wonderful day.. Thomas has helped to wrap your presents and is now wanting to open them... He's practiced singing 'Happy Birthday' and is ready to eat the birthday cake for breakfast! Tonight, I asked if he would like a curry with Daddy, Nanny, Grandad and Auntie Lucy and Uncle James... he replied 'How about a banana naan?'

Love you lots and here is to a better year ahead..

xxx

A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THOMAS...

lkj=[k[lploiuyewq -KSAPOK#,WER#U\JPO;opa#jmB >

Thanks Auntie Alan and Uncle Ruth

Ok, so Thomas is a little confused with your names, but you know who you are!

After a frantic hunt and a very long wait, Thomas was given his birthday present.. everyone was excited as it was a really 'cool, thoughtful gift' and .... he cried and it had to be put back in the box! ... Yes, I know, how ungrateful but kids are kids and can be silly sometimes!

So, we left it a few weeks and this morning Thomas woke up to find it on the play mat... such a treat! Daddy spent a few minutes demonstrating it and he hasn't stopped playing with it since! No joke, he loves it and I would highly recommend it to anyone out there! He's always had a fascination with rubbish trucks as we watch them every Friday and he announced this morning that he wanted to be a rubbish truck driver!

Thank you so much... he loves it and we've loved the peace and quiet whilst he's played!

Thomas has Two parties to celebrate being 2 years old!

So, with Thomas being 2 and us having lots of family and friends, we decided to have 2 parties on the same day... 3-5 for toddler friends... 6-8 for family and friends...

We had prepared lots of lovely toddler friendly food including Bagel snakes, egg toad stalls, cheesy feet and a few tasty treats that make it a party (including party rings and cheese balls!)

Thomas got his wish to eat cake (and not being used to cake, the sugar rush that followed afterwards!)

All the toddlers made hats with Lovely Louise, ate lots of food, smeared even more into the carpets and played happily in the garden in the Play house, sandpit and on the ride on toys... Thomas loved celebrating with his mates, couldn't quite take in that everyone was here together and when we all sang 'Happy Birthday' to him, he smiled as we all sang his name, then said 'No'. There were absolutely no tears/tantrums until it was hometime when the over excited little ones, just didn't want to leave! (and we fall onto the sofa for 10 mins happy that it was such a success!)

But, no rest for the hosts as a few of us tidied up, hoovered the crumbs, and got ready for party number 2.... where an excited Thomas was insistent on wearing his new PJ's from Brenda! We didn't take many pictures at this party, but celebrated with close friends and family who all enjoyed Chilli, Jacket potatoes and Birthday cake...

Thomas was literally asleep on his feet as we put him to bed at 9.30... and he collapsed into bed after a fantastic day knowing full well what a birthday entails ... he had happy dreams until gone 9 the following day and Fink and I were wide awake at 7 and actually went in to check him a few times as he has NEVER slept till 9! (and Sunday morning was present time as there were even more to unwrap!)

Thanks everyone for all your help, presents and making it such a special day ;o)

Thomas 2nd Birthday by Flyingpops

I absolutely love reading back through Fink's blog and often treat it as a diary, reminding me of birthdays, holidays and am very guilty of saying, "We must blog about that when we get home" (but never get around to doing so)! However, life has been fairly busy over the last month, and Fink hasn't had a chance to blog, so as a dutiful wife and having only ever posted a handful of times, I thought I would try and help record a few recent events...

So, rewind your Hermione Granger time travelling clock and meet me back on the 6th August...Thomas' 2nd Birthday!

Initially, Thomas didn't really understand what a birthday was...he was a little confused as his friend Hugh was 2 a week earlier and we had celebrated with cake and presents in the park. When asked if it was going to be his birthday, he always said 'Huga Mooga birthday' and 'cake', yet as the event approached and my excitement built he could definitely sense something was happening...At one point, he really thought inanimate objects like a cement mixer, tractor and recycling trucks had a birthday too (sweet!)...

So, I set about filling the house with homemade posters, banners, blew up balloons and wrapped all the presents. I'm really not sure who was more excited, but when Thomas went to bed on Friday evening, he definitely knew there would be a birthday, presents, cake and a party the following day!

When we all woke up on Saturday morning, there was a large stash of pressies waiting for our special boy...

As soon as he woke, I lept out of bed and we all raced downstairs excitedly... singing Happy Birthday and doing lots of cheering!

Thomas quickly learnt to open the big ones first, was taught to shake, smell touch and then tearing open paper (something I love to do myself!)

And loved trying out his new helmet and arm, elbow and knee pads for the scooter!

Then, with presents open it was time for Thomas to enjoy a special treat breakfast of Cheerios, watched Cars on DVD, then completely exhausted from the excitement, fell into bed at about 11 o'clock giving us plenty of time to start chopping, grating, chilling and preparing for 12 toddlers all due at 3pm..

Wonderful evening...

Well, despite what I said yesterday we actually did manage to celebrate (thank you to my folks for Thomas-sitting)! We ended up (it was Flyingpops' choice, of course), heading over to Dorking to (what she kept referring to as the "Watermill" for which she had a voucher, apparently), which had me thinking (pretty much the whole way) why on earth are we heading all the way to Dorking just to go there? I mean, as a place to eat it's *okay*...but there were plenty of places on the doorstep equally good...most odd...anyway, my confusion was rapidly dissolved when instead of stopping at the Watermill we pulled into the Arkle Manor car park (a rather special fine-dining experience which emerged, unexpectedly, from the ashes of (probably the worst) Harvester in England, when it closed down - death by dirty salad cart and sticky carpet)...

Flyingpops had a wonderful goats cheese tart to start, I had creamy french onion soup (with a jumbo garlic crouton topped with runny cheese floating on the top) and for mains Flyingpops had wild mushroom risotto (and then tried to convince me that the one I make her is better, but it tasted about the same to me) and I had probably one of the best rib-eye steaks I have ever eaten...absolutely melting, it didn't need the steak knife it was served with...*drool*...

Fantastic... ;)

Happy Birthday Flyingpops!!

Lots of love from Thomas and Fink! ;)

Proper celebrations to be conducted on Saturday, as today is a very busy working day for everyone (annoyingly), but many happy returns of the day!! x x x

Easy First Birthday Food

Here we go, the spread we did for Thomas' family birthday party-

- join me, if you wish, to go into more detail about some of the treats we made -

Sausage Aeroplanes - take Porky Whites Surrey sausages (the best British sausage) and fry them in a little oil at a medium temperature, turning occasionally for around fifteen minutes, allow them to cool, then slice in half (length ways) to form the body of the plane, next, take some cracker bread and, using an extremely sharp (non-bevelled) blade, slice them in half (also length ways) to form the wings, now slice a small triangle of cheddar to form the tail fin and open a packet of Hula Hoops, removing two that are reasonably circular...the last thing to do is to open the "glue", which is a tube of primula (or similar)...start with one piece of cracker bread and use two little blobs of primula to attach the Hula Hoop "wheels" then just lay the sausage onto it (this stops it falling over), squirt a spot of cheesy glue onto the top of the sausage and pop the top wing into place (hold it for a second) and then do the same with the tail, preferably serve right away, if not chill the planes to set the "glue" or a few bits may fall off...

Bagel Snakes - Hard boil a dozen large eggs (start with a pan of cold water, add a little salt, pop in the eggs, then bring to the boil and cook for seven minutes), allow them to cool, remove the shells (roll them on a chopping board, bash the rounder end where the air pocket is, nip the membrane and then peel the shell off in one go working in a circular fashion), roughly chop them and add a small jar of mayonnaise (mayonnaise has a high PH and acts as a very good preservative, contrary to what you may have heard) and a good grind of cracked black pepper. Slice the bagels in half (into two rounds) and then chop these in half to make semi-circles, then arrange them into snake shapes, smearing them with a generous amount of egg mayonnaise, then decorate with chopped chives, olive or baby tomato eyes and thinly sliced red pepper tongues...
Egg Mushrooms - Cook up some *more* hard boiled eggs (same method as above) then when cool, carefully slice off the top and bottom, then half some large, ripe English tomatoes and balance them atop the eggs, using Primula to decorate them with spots, slice some cress to make "grass" to decorate the plate you present them on...

Cheese and Pineapple Monster - this one is really easy, everyone knows how to make cheese and pineapple on sticks (pro-tip though, get the cheese out and bring it up to room temperature first, especially if it is Cheddar, this reduces the crumble factor when inserting the cocktail stick), for the monster's body, just carve a mouth out with your sharp knife, then take a slice of Gouda or plastic American cheese, make a small slice and cut "teeth" from it and arrange in the mouth, tomato eyes can be attached with more cocktail sticks...

Sea Monster Rolls - Just normal submarine rolls, I happened to fill these with tomato, mozzarella, shredded basil, ham and a drizzle of olive oil, then I inserted bulbous eyes from mini cheese biscuits, and slicing a hole in the back and sides, cucumber fins...

Birthday Train - this was extremely simple, no cooking involved, just buy a couple of chocolate Swiss rolls, a load of sweets (for decorating) for glue use a mixture of icing sugar, cocoa powder and a little water, a bag of dessicated coconut, a little water and some green food colouring for the grass, Jammy Dodgers and Rollo's for wheels, Matchmakers for the rails and chocolate fingers for the sleepers! Then just go crazy, in a good creative way, only took us about 10 minutes and looked really good... ;)

Hope that has provided some inspiration! ;)

Godstone Farm review

So to celebrate Thomas' birthday we decided to take him to Godstone Farm (which is only about 15 minutes from our front door - not entirely sure why we haven't been there before)! After a few kids got ill with e.Coli last summer (oh yeah, that's probably why) the whole place is covered in signs like this one -


- warning that hand gels aren't much use compared with good old fashioned soap and water...so, forewarned, we passed through the entrance gate (Thomas absolutely fast asleep after his large breakfast at Redhill Aerodrome) and scratched our heads...I mean, doing the farm was going to be amusing enough for us, but frankly the thought of having to do it all over again when Thomas woke up did give us pause, so instead of walking around we went to one of the (quite expensive) cafes, the "Tea Room" and sat down for a drink, had a little poke around the shop, that sort of thing...when he did finally stir (didn't actually take that long) he absolutely *loved* it...we started off taking a little walk around the small animals-


- ducks, rabbits (that sort of thing), then around the Guinea pig village and small bird area -



- then the mouse house (which Flyingpops wouldn't go anywhere near) and little hens (which Thomas found fascinating) -


- checked out the bigger kids play barn -

- and the soft play barn (and second cafe) -

-saw some (very sleepy) baby piglets-

-and then went to the petting area to meet some horses, ponies and (more) rabbits-


- and after touching we made sure we washed our hands (Thomas included) -

Next up we went on the little tractor ride (which was 90p extra each)-

-which takes you out around the back of the farm past one of the ponds (and lots more pigs and ducks and things in larger enclosures)-

- and then we walked up the hill past the "Bomb Pond" excavated in a matter of seconds during World War 2 (and now home to lots of wildlife)-

- we had to skip the nature trail as it wasn't suitable for buggies, so we headed straight to the (enormous) adventure playground-

- which has probably the largest sand pit in the world -


- I can definitely see us coming here and eating a picnic, reading our books while Thomas just runs riot (in years to come), not that he doesn't run riot now, of course, but when he's old enough to look after himself...anyway, he had a go on everything Thomas-sized-




- then we found a quiet place to sit and eat our lunch (cheese and pickle rolls)-

- went and did the Toddler bit of the soft play-

- and finished off our day in the arts and crafts shed doing a bit of painting-


- a brilliant day, absolutely loads to see and do, I suppose we were there for about five hours but there was absolutely no chance of getting bored, a genuinely fun day out for all of us...we'll be back!

Loads more pictures from our visit here...