Autumn Nature Walk

I'll start this post with a photo of Luke. Whilst I was away on Sunday Steve, Sam, Jude and Luke all watched the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DVD. Luke got into the idea of eating chocolate quite quickly, by the looks of it.

Steve has gone back to work this week so life is returning to normal around here. It was nice to have him at home for a while, and I think he enjoyed it too. On Sunday I went to the wedding fair in Belfast with my sisters (including Hannah, the bride-to-be) and our Mum. I will put the photos that Maddi took onto the blog when I get hold of them. It was a good event. Busy. The catwalk show was probably the best bit, although I did enjoy looking at some of the stalls, including the wedding cake stalls, and the photography stalls. Hopefully Hannah got some ideas for her wedding from it. Afterwards Jenny and I went to Harry Ramsdens for dinner, because we were absolutely starving.

Talking of food. I went down to Boots today to 'officially' weigh myself. The plan is to get weighed on the first of every month, but life doesn't always fit in with that. I was surprised and pleased to find I'd lost 7lb, or half a stone, since my September weigh in! So all that belly dancing and refusing of treats did pay off after all. Now I'll have to keep it up.

I did a bit of exercise today! Pushing Luke in his buggy up the mother of all hills. I decided that seen as the weather was nice, we'd walk to mother and toddlers group today. But not a direct down hill walk, rather a scenic ambient nature walk. We had been inspired by watching Autumn Watch on TV, to go out and gather some of the autumn seeds. Also, Luke has been asking a heap of questions about the seasons. "Where has the summer gone?" "Why are the leaves falling off the trees?" "How do we know when it's time for Christmas?" etc. So I thought it would be nice to gather some autumnal things for Luke to create a little Autumn Nature Table.

In order to get to the country lanes, and walk that way, I had to push my over sized three year old uphill in a very badly designed buggy. Well, I should have lost another 7lb doing that, let me tell you! But it was worth it. We stopped by a field of sheep, where Luke got out of the buggy to call the sheep over. Then we found a big conker tree and collected some of the conkers for our nature table. A man stopped and asked us if we'd been watching 'Autumn Watch' whilst handing us some conkers that he'd found. It was nice to get some fresh air and walk to the mother and toddler group. Luke had 'Happy Birthday' sung to him there, and was all pleased about that.

After that we went to visit Daddy in his shop. Luke stayed there and watched a DVD whilst Jude and I popped to a few shops. I bought Jude some new clothes in Peacocks, which she was pleased about. She's looking rather trendy these days!

We were able to collect the car from Daddy's shop and drive home. As soon as we got in Luke said "are we going to make a table now with these conkers?" Bless him. We made a little nature display and have put it on the coffee table in the hall way. He can't wait to show his findings to Daddy when he gets home.

Now I have to go and get into my bed with Luke. Sometimes, in late afternoon when he gets tired, he likes to get into bed with me and chat. Usually the first thing he wants to talk about is our trip to Disneyland (last January), or what my favourite toy is. (Talking of trips, it's only 2 weeks till our trip to Geneva!)