Wonderful autumn family weekend!

What a wonderful way to start the autumn half-term.  My parents rented a holiday cottage for a few days near us (we don't have any spare rooms in our house) and arrived on Friday evening joining us for a lovely dinner.  As this was the first time they had been to Sheffield in 2 years, this was a really special evening. My brother and his family arrived on Saturday lunchtime and we joined them at the holiday cottage for lunch followed by a lovely walk in the nearby woods. It is the first time that they have been up here, with the exception of Andy, in 4 years, so it was very exciting all round. On the way back from the walk the boys were fascinated by the well in the village of Midhopestones.

On returning to the cottage the boys asked if they could play with the cars outside and made good use of the sun and the patio before getting too cold and coming in for the evening meal.

On Sunday morning Mother and Andy took Juno (the big black dog) for a long walk (about 6 miles) while the rest of us headed up the lanes to meet them from the other way, the boys armed with their scooters to help them walk further.

After a lovely lunch at the cottage we headed out for yet another walk, this time through the woods where the boys pretended to be aeroplanes, armed with sticks that had pine cones attached to them for jet engines.

We discovered a 'troll' bridge where the boys decided that Juno must have scared the trolls away by bouncing into the water,

and a marvellous pretend 'shop' where we could buy anything we wanted! The boys were pretty exhausted after the walk and played quietly back at the holiday cottage until teatime, after which it was time for an early night.

On Monday everyone came round to our house so that Daniel could see where Alex lives and play with Alex's toys.  There was a request to go to the local park so we headed off there to let everyone run around and play, whilst Mother and Dad took Juno to stretch her legs across the hills. 

The park was great fun, until Daniel spent too long on the roundabout and went decidedly green!

Then it was back to our house where we squeezed everyone round the dining room table for lunch

followed by coffee

and games in the garden

before heading out to the woods nearer us for another walk!

During this walk the boys learnt how to scramble up and down banks, using roots for support, and really enjoyed going off the beaten path.

The best part however, was probably the stepping stones, which fascinated both boys so much so that they had to go across several times!

All in all it was a wonderful few days and we were very sad when everyone had to go back and life was back to normal again.  Alex was not impressed at having to go to holiday club for the rest of this week...he wanted to go to school instead! I guess it shows he is enjoying school which is a good thing.

So after all that excitement here we are again and it is Wednesday so time for WOYWW. My desk this week is in the midst of making a Christmas card so there are scraps of Christmas scrapbooking paper that I am cutting up for the card, my craft mat, knife and trusty mug of tea.  The little wooden box sitting there is my sewing kit...I had to do an emergency repair on some of my trousers!

I am VERY late with showing you all my DT entry for Quirky crafts this week, although my entry was on time on their challenge site, I am relieved to say! The challenge this week is Autumn/Fall leaves and colours. I used two images from our sponsor, stitchy bear digital stamps, the woodland and Brr...its cold, coloured with promarkers to make this ATC. This ATC also fits with Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'Trees and leaves', Kaboodle Doodles 'halloween or fall', DYSU 'Trees', OCC 'faces' and SCSC 'wrap up warm' challenges.

I have also made a card for this weeks Less is More challenge which this week is Polka dots (all of these trees have polka dots on them!). This card also fits with colour create 'burgandy, gold, green and cream' colour scheme (that large circle in the background is burgandy in real life I promise!), MTTC 'quite white' (lots of white space on this card, albeit cream coloured!), and Meljen's 'red and gold' challenges. That is all from me. It is now time to catch up with work, which is sad after such a wonderful weekend.  Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Caro
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