The Big Hoot - Birmingham

So Sunday saw us take a drive down to Birmingham for a day out. None of us had ever been before, so that was an adventure in itself. The trusty Google search, located a reasonable priced car park near to the main attractions of the city centre, and off we headed.
A couple of hours later, after a couple of rest stops for the kids and some congestion on the M6 heading into Birmingham we made it to the car park.
I'd printed off the trail map for the Big Hoot and we proceded to walk around collecting as many as possible.
We found 3 before heading to Eastside City Park to have a picnic, luckily there was a covered area with benches as it has started to rain.

The boys then had a quick play in the fountains 

before we headed over to the Science Museum to collect some more owls. 

We then followed the route round to the children's hospital,

we then made our way to the Cathedral gardens still hunting as we walked

After spotting all those in the Cathederal Gardens we moved onto the Square outside the Museum and Art Gallery.

Inside the Art Gallery in gallery 16 they had a collection of 26 Little Hoot owls, which we all designed by different schools in the area.

We then made our way back to the car via New Street and the Bullring

In all we found 31 of the 89 Big Hoot owls and walked 5 miles in the process

5 favourites - May

5 favourites from May, you'll notice it's more than 5 photos, but they are linked so I'm including them! 

Callum celebrated his 6th birthday with presents, a trip to the cinema to see Big Hero 6 and a party a few days after with his friends 

Connor celebrated his 4th Birthday with presents, a trip to the cinema to see Penguins of Madagascar and a party with his friends the weekend before 

A trip to see the 3 Queens arrive on the River Mersey into Liverpool to celebrate Cunards 175th Anniversary

A trip to a new Museum (the World Museum, Liverpool), lots of new things for the boys to discover!

A glorious sunset from our house

5 Favourites - April

Playing a little catch up, here's my 5 favourite photos from April

Exploring Lymm Dam Nature Reserve and the Nye Channels and Scallops of the Sandstone

A family photo taken on Ayr Beach overlooking the Isle of Arran 

The boys altogether rock pooling on the beach off the holiday park 

The boys with a Caroline's daughter Ayla (who we met for the first time) on the tall ship outside Glasgow's Riverside Museum 

The boys on the last night of our holiday with some of the characters from Haven holidays, they loved all the singing and dancing with the characters and getting to meet them each night! 

Project Life Cover, Weeks 1 and 2

Have been meaning to get these pages blogged all weekend but somethings always comes up. So here's my cover page. I used photos taken at the back end of last year and included a write up of my one little word for 2012!

Week 1 1st-7th January

We spent new year at my parents, then returned home and back to routine with the eldest returning to playgroup on the Thursday. Both boys had colds so we missed mum's and tots this week.

I also managed to capture some of the little sayings the eldest is using and some of the cute things the baby is  doing!

Week 2 8th-14th January

Baby turned 8 months, Hubby had a birthday and completed a computer game he'd had for a long while. Eldest did some cutting with sharp scissors and helped me craft. Some smaller photos for bath time and reading and my return to work after maternity leave. We went to mum's and tots this week and had a visit from Nanna and Grandad. I included an insert this week with a picture of a space rocket by the eldest at playgroup and a photo collage of our day on 12th January (I'm doing 12 on the 12th of 2012). 

I'm loving the process so far, and love that I can include the little things our sons do and say. 

Off to work on getting the photos sorted for Week 3 so I can put the layout together tonight!

Starting Point - 8th October

Last Saturday Shimelle posted this as her starting point and my immediate thought was fireworks. I've never used 2 different patterned black and white papers before.

I then looked at this weeks challenge on uks and found that I could use that with this paper placement as a starting point and came up with this!

Another photo scrapped for Connor's album, I'm really pleased with how it came together in the end!
The journaling breifly talks about how this lady has become known as Aunty ...... even though she's one of my best friends mum's as she's always been there for me and spoils the boys when she see's them!

I'd love to see what you came up with!
Tfl xx

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week

I've been following Shimelle's blog for a long while now and am always inspired by the fabulous pages she shares but never seem to get round to much scrapping. This weekend however I was lucky enough to have a day out at a crop so here's a page that fits her sketch from last week.
I started it at the crop and added the title and journalling when I got home.

I have removed the photo for safety reasons, will cover the photo to protect my son's modesty and post again later!