Cheezly quiche!

Today we were going to make bread, but when I unpacked my breadmaking machine part of the measuring spoon was missing!  I haven’t got a proper measuring spoon so we had to put that on hold!  So we made cheezly broccoli quiche instead…  Cheezly for people not in the know is a nasty stinky soggy thing that pretends to be cheese!  Its horrible but Caitlin knows no different and is happy to eat it.  She’s never had quiche before since it is made from cheese, cream and milk its a definite no no.  First of all we rolled out our pastry…

Well Noah tried his best at rolling…..  That was the last we saw of him…he obviously thought he’d done his bit!  So Caitlin took over, to brush the pastry with melted soya marg…

We then filled them with the cheezly slop and broccoli as per Vic’s mother-in-law’s instructions!!!!  Thanks Vic’s MIL!  And here is the finished results…. I think they look brilliant!!!!!!!  And they went down well too, Caitlin and Noah both loved them, we’ll definitely be making these again!

With the pastry scraps we made a couple of jam tarts…they also went down well with Noah!!!!!!

But Caitlin licked a bit of jam out then said she didn’t want the rest…

Hopefully we’ll get a spoon set tomorrow and the bread making will resume!!!!!!

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Last party for a short while….

Yep, we went to another party!!  This time it was Abigail’s 3rd birthday.  Once everyone was there we played pass the parcel, which Caitlin won!!!  Unfortunately we left our prize behind so we’ll have to get it next time we visit!

Then as it is July in England it started to rain!!!!  So we played inside for a bit until it was time for party food.  We had to have an indoor picnic due to the weather…  This was the only picture I managed to get of everyone.

Noah has got such a cheeky grin!  Here he is looking like he’s up to no good..

Then it was time for birthday cake…

After we’d finished the food the rain had stopped so we could go outside!

This house caused a few tense moments!  One little girl at the party is not used to sharing and refused to let anyone in the house just saying it was hers!  Noah is obviously at a very influential age because all the pushing and kicking rubbed off on him and he pushed Abigail out of the house!  There were lots of tears each time someone was pushed or kicked!  Hopefully Noah won’t continue with that!  It was definitely from copying Hannah because he’d seen her kicking on Sunday and joined in, then today he was behaving really nicely until Hannah arrived and the first thing he did to her was pretend to kick her so he must have remembered her doing it!! I’m hoping that because each time he has done it he’s been told off it won’t last.

Here’s a very cute picture of him to finish on to show he wasn’t bad all the time!

Just playing….

After the excitement of all the parties today we just played outside in the sun!  Just racing cars and bikes….

And twirling each other around……

And just generally ran about like mad people!

Caitlin then decided she wanted a turn on the camera…. so here’s one she took!  She gets about 50% of her pictures this good, they’re just usually of me so I delete them!  Cruel I know but she should pick on Noah more often!!

Elvis Update 2 – the boring one !

 Well, Byrney said she’d get me to post – so I apologies in advance for the boring read!!!!!

Got the old broken engine out of Elvis – really annoys me that if the frame was designed very slightly differently you’d be able to leave the gearbox in-situ, but alas – the whole thing has to come out which involves lots of blood, sweat, tears and colourful language!!

 To elaborate on why – the cambelt went on the A34 on Byrney’s way home from work so she came home on the back of an AA van (again!). I put a new cambelt on , but it still wouldn’t start. Did a compression test and got some worrying results, a few further tests and I established the piston ring had gone on piston 4 😦

 Trying to detach the box and block was a pain in the rear – ended up with a giant pool of gearbox oil flowing over the garage floor, and me – queue the expletives!!!) As some of you will know, its distinctly unpleasant – especially when you’ve got to work in it For those who dont know what gearbox oil is like – take my word for it, it STINKS !!!!!!
Had to put a new clutch in too as the flywheels are slightly different between the two engines which I didn’t think of, then had a nightmare getting it back in – gear selector kept jamming on the frame and nearly ruptured a brake line, front of the box “bent” the front valence slighly, then I just couldn’t get the mounts to line up – turned out the little oil pressure sensor/switch on the back of the engine is larger than the one that was on the other engine – too large to fit in the subframe by about 5mm !
Also had to get the inlet manifold off again to sort a sheared stud – knew this when it went on so I hadn’t tightened it up properly so the gasket can be re-used
Eventually got the engine and gearbox back in but it was 8pm by then so gave up for the day – still need to jiggle it round a bit to get all the mounts to line up properly but its sooooo heavy compared to a mini engine / box – so thats a lot easier than it sounds! Gotta get some new exhaust manifold studs and make a new exhaust manifold yet which is another mission all together!!!
Thats all for today – no pics as I was too dirty to use a camera!!!!!! Phew – 10 hours hard labour !
Richard

Elvis update!

Well I’ve completely lost track of how long Elvis has been sick, but it is AGES!!!!!  Anyway finally now the house is for sale Richard can move onto fixing him!  Hopefully in time for Mini In The Park in a few weeks!  The old engine in out and a newly built engine consisting of bits from both that engine and the new engine are in the process of being put back in.  Really Richard should be doing this post as its all got way too complicated for me.  I know there was no compression in cylinder ?4?…maybe a different cylinder but definitely one of them!!! And other stuff!!  Yeah I’ll try and get Richard to post a more sensible post!

Caitlin has been learning all about it when she goes to investigate whats going on, she’s really fascinated with it all.  Noah just wants to stick his hands in the bucket of gearbox oil…really really not good!!!

Another party!

The party week continues…(and this isn’t the last!!)  Today was Hannah’s party, she is 3 so almost the same age as Caitlin.  So we went over to help her to celebrate.  There was a treasure hunt which we won!  We had to find the spot in the garden that was in the picture and there was an egg there….  We got all 6 eggs…  Here’s Caitlin retreiving an egg from the gnome!

And Noah searching out the egg by the frog!

Also in their garden (well next door’s actually, but that where the hunt was!) which I didn’t get a photo of was a tiny door about 15cm tall with tiny steps leading to it!  Their neighbour is an art teacher and he built the tiny door and steps to draw and write a story about.  he never published it but I think he should!  The door belonged to Mr Peabody!

After some party food we had an egg and spoon race, which was a bit chaotic but they enjoyed it!

Notice how Noah is running away and Caitlin is facing the wrong way!!!!!!!!!

Jasmine’s party

Today we had another party….so off we set walking!  I’d allowed a bit of extra time as I knew the Ladybarn park festival was on, but last year we went specially for it and we were done in 10mins!!!  This year there was badge making to be done….

Then we had a play on the fire engine…..

Then we saw somw willow weaving.  We still had about 15minutes to spare so we lined up to weave some willow….  45 minutes later!!!!!!!!  We had a lovely willow butterfly!  It was really cool but just took ages.  Caitlin is convinced that it was fairy wings!

We then finally arrived (very late!) at Jasmines party!  (Sorry Jas!)  Where we played lots and of course had birthday cake!  Here is Jas about to blow her candles out!

Then there was presents…..

They were all fascinated by the cd player which had microphones!  We have one too and it is very popular!  Then it was time to eat the cake…or just jelly in Caitlin’s case!  She’s having a bad week with her milk, she had some on Monday and has been complaining of a tummy ache and an itchy mouth ever since!! (Oh and has had many many toilet trips since too!!!!!!!)

Noah made a friend at the party too…. Ester who is almost 9 months old!  Noah was very taken with her and kept hugging and kissing her.  When she was sat on my knee he kept saying “duddle” so Hannah took Ester back and I went to pick Noah up but he wandered off to Hannah, well Ester!!!!!!!!  It was her he wanted a cuddle with!

Keith’s Wedding!!

Last night we went to Keiths wedding! Caitlin and Noah had a fantastic time dancing away with everyone, and everyone asked to take Noah home with them…he certainly charmed everyone!! Caitlin found some sweet lipsticks..but she didn’t seem to get that the lipstick part was to eat she just liked to play with the cases….

We didn’t really manage to get a photo of Noah dancing, so here’s one of him watching the bride and groom (Keith and Sarah)

And Caitlin joining in the Irish dancing….. Good job we’ve been practicing our stamp and kick at home! She can go to lessons once she’s 3.5yrs old…

Why…builders!

Why???  That’s what Caitlin asks to everything at the moment!!  That wouldn’t be too bad, but Noah not wanting to be left out is also saying why to everything…that’s a LOT of whys!!!!!!!!

Next door are also having an extension built and Caitlin and Noah are fascinated by it all.  They keep standing looking out of the window and skip deliveries, diggers and general building activity!  They are strange builders who so far (3 days) have made an almighty noise first thing then I’ve not heard a sound out of them for the rest of the day!  Surely they could do that quiet stuff early on and the noisy stuff later??

Yes Noah is naked..he has just discovered how to undo press studs and so takes his sleepsuit off at every opportunity!

Crich

We went to see the minis at Crich tramway museum…. The really loud musical horns nearly gave Caitlin a heart attack…

Noah loved all the noise and the minis driving right past him…..

After the mini procession we went for a ride on a tram.