Virginia Pumpkin Festival 2009

It has been a busy week followed by the craziest weekend in our town’s calender and I can see it being a bit mad for the rest of the week 🙂
First we found out that “Pixie” is not a girl HE is now a Pixel but is growing stronger and more boisterous by the day – this is him taking over Meg’s bed.

Becca had her fancy dress day at school on Wednesday and looked amazing – so cool and I adore her stripy tights.

Caitlin’s fancy dress party was on Friday which was the last day before half term for the girls- she was bat girl.

I made “mummy” buns for the school’s bake sale ( trays and trays of them )

All of this led us to the weekend and the Annual Pumpkin Festival. It is turning into an amazing event. Friday we headed down to watch the opening parade, we even brought our own pumpkin in the shape of Rachel 🙂

The parade is always fantastic but this year was even more special because Caitlin was taking part. An amazing group of street performers from Donegal came down and trained the kids and provided them with costumes, make up and props over 90 kids from the primary school were involved.

Caitlin had a ball and claimed it was much better to be in the parade than watching it but it was pretty good watching it from where we were.

The group have fire eaters and drummers and an amazing girl doing acrobatics on a sash.

The parade was followed by an opening ceremony and the switching on of this amazing sculpture -it is rotating balls hand painted and lit I wish I could of captured it better – it is gorgeous.

We took the girls down to the fun fair for an hour or so – I took Caitlin on the rollercoaster and Caitlin took Rachel on the teacups.

Saturday the rain unfortunately bucketed down but most of the events were indoors that day
with fancy dress parties for the kids and a concert by Bell X 1.
Sunday the rain let up which was great as the closing parade is even bigger than the opening one.
There was even more spectacles to see and acrobats and this time the secondary school was involved too.Becca was down practising for most of Sunday and Caitlin went down in the afternoon to join in.

Caitlin was thrilled as she was put in the lead of the bird this time – she looked fantastic in her costume.

There were samba dancers which the boys loved of course and fire eaters – so much to see.

Finally Becca’s group came along and we saw why they were practising they did an fantastic dance routine all the way down the street and the costumes were amazing.

There were great big “giant” puppets as well – the town did it self proud honestly every year the parade gets better and better. And I love that the kids were able to be involved in it – it made the parade for them.

After all of this we collected the girls and headed down to the lakeshore to watch the Fireworks display.

We had a good view and the display beautiful as always – over the lake is the perfect setting and the moon was peeking out through the clouds.

There was a giant pumpkin floating on the lake.

After the fireworks we went back up to the fair and went on as many rides as we could, Becca even went on the slingshot which is basically a ball contraption that flings people way up in the air- she is braver than me.
We finished the evening with a healthy dinner of chips and candyfloss before leaving the revellers for the adults fancy dress to it – and the were some costumes on display I can tell you !!

Great weekend was had by all .

The New Cat Pixel and lots of cooking

I am sat here typing with a singing toddler beside me, the newest addition to the house sleeping in my hair and my eldest off exploring the wilds of Northern Ireland.

Becca has had a mad couple of weeks, she was chosen by the school with 11 other kids to represent the school in a cross- border camp where schools from the North and the South of Ireland get together to learn and have fun. She was so thrilled to get a chance to go and we are so proud of her that the school thought she would be a good ambassador for them. So we packed her all up and dropped her to the bus on Monday apparently she will be abseiling and trekking and doing team building exercises and the like, we expect her back later in the week totally exhausted.
She did find it a bit of a wrench to leave because she had to leave the newest member if the family – her name is Pixie she is approximately 4 weeks old and she was abandoned by the side of the road.

A neighbour found her and thought she might be Meg’s kitten, being black and all, but Meg was neutered a long time a go so she is not responsible and the mother was no where to be found, she was cold hungry and barely moving when we found her.
We got her some kitten milk and started feeding her with a dropper and after a couple of days she was a lot perkier and started venturing out of her bed. She is now back to her playful self.

She is here over a week now and is growing stronger by the second, she now has a proper bed actually it is a cat house from Jennie’s work and she has even started using the litter box which I am incredibly happy about.

And poor old Meg is starting to feel less displaced by this usurper to her kitty throne – last night they ate side by side and slept either side of me on the sofa so an understanding seems to be reached after the initial shock she had when Pixie arrived in the house. You think she would be understanding she arrived pretty much the same way herself.

And Caitlin is thrilled Pixie too although she has to be constantly told to take it easy with her as she gets over enthusiastic in her care of the kitten.
Rachel is constantly telling me to feed the kitten and following her everywhere – poor Rachel has had a rough week she had a double dose of tonsillitis and laryngitis, it was a nasty old dose and she had no voice for a couple of days – today though she is making up for it by talking nine to the dozen and singing.

So we had lots of medicine and hugs last week and she found a new obsession – she loves doing jigsaws, her favourite is the 100 piece one we have of the rainforest which we have to make at least 3 times a day.
I am feeling bad too, the only creative things I have been up to have been in the kitchen, with lots of baking and home cooking going on – it seems to be this time of year as the days grow shorter and the air gets cooler, that make me want to get all homely and cosy in the kitchen. And I have been spending a tonne of time on the Bakerella site – I love her cake pops and so want to try them.

So lots of peanut and chocolate chip cookies have been made and I had a glut of free range eggs so lots of quiches were made too which came in handy for lunches.

and I had to make 36 caramel slices last week with Caitlin as she was “chef of the week” in class I just wish I could get back to scrapbooking again – I miss it if I am honest.