All dressed up and nowhere to go

A little while ago I took the girls shopping around Taunton for some new clothes. We were mainly after a new dress for Leilani because I noticed that most of her dresses were really too small for her. Lani has also been wanting to wear Emily's clothes a lot of the time lately (mainly her old ones) and it was causing a few problems so I figured it was time to get her a few new items and explain that she can't wear Emily's clothes anymore (and it worked really well).

I'm not usually into dressing my girls in the same clothes, and have hardly ever done it before. I'm not against it, I just don't normally choose to do it. I'm more likely to get the same top but in 2 different colours or something. But... when we saw these dresses in the last shop we went in (always the way) I couldn't say no! There were no other colours or similar styles, so I ended up getting 2 the same! The girls were so excited and Lani was particularly excited to 'be a twin!' We came home and after the girls had their bath they tried them on and we took a few photos outside. We later did a fashion show for Daddy!

Leilani was most excited about getting some new church shoes too... or as she calls them clompy shoes! It took us a few months to find these, and nearly every Sunday morning I would be reminded that she needed some clompy shoes for church like Emily's (her old ones!) So it was a bit of a successful day really... but maybe not for the bank account!!

Not too sure why they decided to start jumping, but I just love Emily's hands in the picture below!

Just wouldn't be right if Lani didn't pull some funny poses...

... and then watch Em try and copy her!

They had fun... and then came in and ate a sandwich with their sunglasses on ??? Weird!!!

First Trip to the Movies

On Monday 17th August, after a busy week of getting things back to normal, we took the girls to the movies for the first time ever! It was quite exciting really and both of them couldn't wait to get there - we had been talking about going for a few months, and I don't think they could believe it was actually happening!!!

The cinema here has a kids club, which means on selected screenings you get 1 free adult ticket with every child ticket, and children's tickets are only £2.50 so it was fantastic value! It was kind of hard trying to pick something suitable for them to see though, as we didn't want it to scare them too much! We ended up deciding on Bolt. It was a pretty good film actually, and Lani really enjoyed it. It didn't keep Emily entertained for long though (probably a bit old for her really) and she wriggled around a bit talking to herself and eating sweeties (as they call lollies/chocolates here)! She was pretty good though, and we are excited to go again soon. We have been waiting for UP to come out here (yes, way behind you guys on this one) and Lani has asked about once a week if it's out yet! October 9 - so not long now and hopefully we will be off to the movies again!!!!

On Their Way

Our time with Grandma and Poppa and Nanny went too quick. On Friday 14th August we were saying goodbye. It was hard to believe really - that our time with them was over already. They were heading up to the midlands to see a few things and then into London for a few nights before heading over to Paris. We did think about going up with them over the weekend, but decided it was just too much for the kids, so we stayed at home and sent them on their way! It was lovely having them here, and good that Mick was able to take the week off so that we could get out and do a few things all together. It was nice just spending time with them too, catching up on things and showing them a few games on the wii!! Nanny proved to have outstanding balance on the wii fit and we discovered Poppa has a pretty fast eye, but our biggest surprise was Grandma on the boxing - she didn't stop until they were all down!! Just trying to upload the video now!!

The Most Beautiful Castle in England

Leeds Castle in Kent is often said to be one of England's most beautiful castles, and when I first saw it in a travel brochure I thought it looked amazing and have been wanting to go since we got here. It is a beautiful castle, set on a lake and surrounded by acres of well maintained gardens, but because it looks so wonderful in its brochures (with photos from the sky) I kind of felt a little disappointed when I first saw it - maybe I was expecting the sky view, I don't know!! I still found it a lovely place to visit, and a pretty spectacular castle and the walk in, although long and unexpected, was especially beautiful.

I especially liked its symmetrical look from the front! The castle was started in the early 12th century but its present appearance is a result of centuries of rebuilding and extensions. It was a royal castle for many years and one of Henry VIII's favourites and he visited here often, mostly with his Queen, Catherine of Aragon (1st wife) and he escaped the London plague here.

Our tour was very interesting, but again I didn't take a lot in, although it helped a bit that Lani was entertained by a worksheet they gave her - finding items in each room, but we still had to move pretty quickly to keep them happy! Our tour started down in the cellar.

I loved this shoe cupboard in Lady Baillie's dressing room, which was designed in the late 1920s and had up-to-date technology, such as under floor heating in the bathroom, marble floors and walls and built in lighting in the cupboards! Lady Baillie (1899 - 1974) owned Leeds Castle and was the last person to live here. When she died she left the castle to the nation under the charitable trust of the Leeds Castle Foundation. To read more about Lady Baillie and Leeds Castle go here.

Lady Baillie's bedroom, designed by Stephane Boudin in 1936. It is in the style of the French Regency and Boudin would send his designs over from Paris for her approval. Everything was custom made to her requirements, the bed even has built-in reading lights!!!

{A massively thick door way!}

{Always a favourite - the library, this was one of the nicest I've seen.}

I loved the library and the shoe cupboard, however this room really did steal my heart, how great would it be to have an elegant dining room pre-set ALL the time!! Oh it's just a dream come true - it looked beautiful too!

It was a beautiful castle, inside and out, but I'm not quite sure if I would call it the most beautiful - not just yet anyway!!

Emily was happy to be outside again - free to run where she likes!

There was a lot more to do here than I thought there would be - a whole days worth of activities really, the only problem was most of these took place on the far side of the castle grounds, and when we went there to get lunch there were wasps everywhere - I have never seen so many! It was pretty much impossible to even eat anything, kind of spoilt it really. Gail, Phil and June left shortly after this because they had a few other things to see in the area, but we decided to stay a little longer and take a look at the maze and playground area.

{I like the castle from from this angle}

{This English Cottage Garden was lovely, especially for little girls to run around in!}

There was also a bird aviary here, with quite a lot of different birds in it. The girls enjoyed looking at them more than I thought they would, and I especially enjoyed watching Toco Toucan - It really looks like their beaks are just some plastic tube someone has taped to their face - it doesn't look like it belongs at all - fascinating really!!!

{We didn't attempt the maze, but I would have really liked too - I love mazes!}

The play ground was pretty good actually, apart from the wasps... they were everywhere again and so unfortunately it was a very quick play for the girls and then we were outta there, although there were heaps of people around playing - I just didn't think it was worth risking a wasp sting - I still can't believe how many there were, and some people didn't really even seem to care.

It was getting late into the day and we were ready to head home anyway, the girls were asleep in the prams after about 5 minutes of heading out - they were exhausted! We had a lovely day out. (If you would like to see the magical sky view go to www.leeds-castle.com)