Where is Baby Jesus?

The first Sunday in the month is Storytelling Sunday. This is brought to you through the lovely Sian over at FromHighintheSky. Why not go over there after you have read my contribution and take a look at all the other stories from around the world.

We have three lovely cats called Blue, Rosie Custard and Ruby Tulip, Blue is the elder statesman and has been with us for 13 Years, the other two are new comers and we part of the deal with our Daughter to move House AGAIN as we had moved from Manchester to live with my mum until we found a place but Miss Boo wasn't keen on packing all her stuff and moving again and as a result negotiated a Kitten and never moving as the price for her moving with us (she was just 6 at the time).

Any how move we did into our little cottage, and our first Christmas was fast approaching and as miss Boo was keen that we have all our traditional items on display - this included a Nativity scene that I and Miss Boo's much elder step-brother had made one wet school holiday it consisted of the usual suspects Mary Joseph, Kings, Shepperd's, a cow, a sheep, a donkey, an angel and of course the star of the show Baby Jesus. 

Now i have to admit the kings crowns were looking a bit worse for their trek across after the star and the Donkey only had three legs, the cow only one eye and to be honest the sheep looked like a grounded cloud, but Miss Boo loved it so it took its place under the Christmas tree nestled in the green folds of the felt we used to hide the tree stand.  Mary and Joseph looked down proudly at the little bundle in the tissue paper wrap in the manger, that was until one afternoon on returning from school, we discovered the sheep and the Kings on the floor and the Manger EMPTY, we searched high and low but couldn't find baby Jesus, now our middle cat Rosie had taken a liking to the duvet in Miss Boos doll House and was for ever having to have it removed from her growling grasp and be returned to the 
doll house, and as Baby Jesus had been under a little felt blanket in his manger we assumed that Rosie had been the force that had swept the sheep and the kings onto the floor, but try as we might in all her favourite hiding places we could not find baby Jesus.

We put the rest of the scene back together and I have to admit that I forgot about the missing baby Jesus until I over heard Miss Boo sitting with Rosie on her lap saying "Now Rosie, I forgive you for EATING baby Jesus, but I am not sure that god will forgive you for eating his son, so you might be going to hell.   I feel i must add here that miss Boo attends the local Roman Catholic Primary school.  I exited quickly before my laughing alerted her to my eves dropping. 

How ever there is a Happy end to the story as we recently had to move our fridge freezer (it involves golf clubs and is way to complicated a story) and there in with the inevitable dust bunnies was a Naked but very much un-chewed baby Jesus, so Rosie is OK !

Day 3 - Dragon Hunting

Day 3 - started early as Uncle Smudge had needed to drill and 11pm isn't the best time to do that if you like your neighbours, so it was up at normal work time (i know on my Holidays too) but we managed it and were having breakfast when he arrived.  He finished in record time, and even managed to fit in fixing neighbour satellite too.

Miss Boo and I had plans involving a roofless chariot and some Roman Dragons, and our good friends Koala and Lady Anna, so we set off for town and our chariot.

The Chariot was ready and waiting and there were Quite a few other people waiting to go hunting with us.........

The tour guide had changed a bit since the last time we had been aboard as "olive" (from on the buses) had retired to Devon........

But we felt at the end that Darren was a good substitute....

The Roman Amphitheatre was our first stop and the girls climbed the hill and conquered all......... then came a Handstand incident and we had tears and a strained little finger, which was fixed by a plaster and a sweet! from Koala's medicine box............  honestly thats why Miss Boo is grimacing and not because she is having a Poo.

The we took a walk into Caerleon and found a.................

War Dragon....................

Then the sound of tummy's rumbling was heard and so we headed to a local cafe and ate delicious food and a lovely Sticky Toffee Frappacino........  then the Hoola Hoop attack came.... poor Koala..................... she fought valiantly against 

 Tiny attackers, and ate as many of the hoola hoops as she could but when she was full they tried to make her eat more, but Koala won the day....... Hurrah

We then took in the artistic delights of Caerleon (well really we went looking for Icecream which is harder to find in Caerleon than it should be).

Here are some of the delights we encountered.....

The Museum had lots of fun things to do today, and as we wanted to see the other dragon they had we decided it would be rude to join in.....

The it was back on to the bus stop to catch the bus home, BUT not before we had ICE CREAM ...... can you tell who had some

More dragons spotted from the safety of the bus......

and two more on the way home ............. all in all a fab day out with fab company and all in our home city................
watch this space for more................

DAY 2 - The Roberts Staycation

Day 2 of the our Staycation and it was billed as a wet day by the weather man so we decided that the sensible thing to do would be the shopping, so that we wouldn't have to do anything mundane at the weekend, so Miss Boo and I set out, as you can see our little trendsetter in jeans and denim wasitcoat and the handbag she purchased at the charity shop on our previous day out, was up for a little retail therapy - even it was only Alidi.


Whilst shopping Miss Boo decided that we should take a trip to the cinema this afternoon and see The Lorax, as she liked the bit in the trailer where the Lorax rubbed the two bears together and zapped the man back to life........... yeah my face was the same?  but it all made sense when I saw the film and was very funny!

The trip was also useful as we needed a photo of a movie poster as part of the Photo Scavenger Hunt.


The a takeout for tea at Grandma's as Uncle Smudge was stopping the night and in return for biker Boys Help in carrying his lathe to his van, he added a cable to the satellite dish so miss boo can have TV (if we let her) in her bedroom :)


all in all a very nice day 2.

Staycation - DAY 1 - Aug 1st 2012

Well Day one of my 10 day staycation and for the first 3 days Biker Boy is working mornings so its just me and Miss Boo, till 14:30.  


We went out for tea last night at Peachy Keens - YUM - and Miss Boo was almost asleep at the table, but we had eaten an ample sufficiency!  


We got up early Miss Boo waking me at 07:50 (I know if i had wanted to get her up for school she would have been a major grinch,)  still up and a shower and breakfast and dressed ready for our day out.  

We had arranged to go to the delightful Dewstow Gardens and Grottos, highly recommend if you like excentric victoriana and beautiful gardens and lovely friendly service, with My Friend Koala and her daughter Lady Anna.  We arrived to pick them up and installed the car seat and set off to sunny Caldicot, and  a magical adventure.

The girls had their Fairy hunt sheets and a map of the grotto and we were off, first fairy spotted and the letters noted down and then down into the grotto.

Lady Anna - you put your right leg in.........

 There were fairies and Pixies and scary Ogres (not at all Like Shrek)  But our trip meant that we got to cross another item off the Photo Scavenger Hunt - I mean I am Certain that no-one else will have such a beautiful Labyrinth, maze or trail..............  We dropped Lady Anna and Koala off at home, and a quick tour of some posh charity shops before home, we got some rather amazing bargins for Miss Boo's room which we are about to re-decorate.

We then collected Biker boy and headed via the Big Yellow M 

to the Wetlands Centre in search of Dragons, This one has lists of extinct creatures "Lest we forget"

We did the RSPB Bird Bingo and had lots of things to find on our healthy walk and the sun shone down!

Who Needs Tracey Emmin !

The wetlands is a treasure of wild life and art and very nice Hot chocolate !

Miss Boo's Favourite Chair (she used to fit in the seat and her legs stuck out)

Always Wondered How birds knew the way !

UM think we better go ! that looks wet

And so we raced back to the car just before the rain started, then home for a hot bath and bed before day 2 or our staycation....   hope you enjoyed and we have inspired you to visit these wonderful places.

Scavenger Hunt

Sundays are for family fun days,  Miss Boo has always liked Sundays as they are family days, so one Sunday with our Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt List in hand we set out on a Road Trip - no real destination in mind we climb into the Roberts Mobile and headed to the petrol station for Fuel and "Shut-ups" ( a whole other story).


The List:


Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt 2012



1. A pier
2. A clothesline
3. A border
4. A roadside stand selling something
5. A train
6. A historical landmark
7. A person playing a musical instrument
8. A person dressed as an angel or a statue of an angel

9. A fountain

10. A horse

11. A shadow

12. A maze, labyrinth, or trail.

13. A library

14. A person playing with a ball.

15. Someone dancing.

16. A bride.

17. A church, chapel, cathedral, mosque or temple.

18. A movie poster

19. An outdoor stairway

20. A swing hanging from a tree (or a hammock)
21.  A picture of you standing with something that symbolizes your nation.
Substitute Item (new this year):  If you find any of the above too hard, you may substitute a photograph of either a heart-shaped stone or a four leaf clover for one item; however, you may not substitute this item for #21. 

We looked at the list and noted that a Boarder was one of the things we had to photograph so I headed towards Chepstow and the English Boarder..........  unfortunately Biker Boy wasn't aware that riding shot gun meant both navigating and photographing (well he had to be good a one of those)  and we missed the boarder into England as we headed up towards the Forest of Dean as I had spotted the Forest of Dean Railway on the Map and as one of the 
items in the list was a train I figured that this might be an interesting one instead of a boring intercity one.

So we drove and found Park Dean, we pulled up outside the station and decided to go and see if any trains were running today, we were in luck not only were they running but there was a special event on and there were lots of trains running today both diesel ones and steam, so we sat an waited for the trains - well some of us sat others stood and willed the train to appear!

Then the toot toot of a steam train filled the air and we all got excited and then the train appeared

The the sound of rumbling tummies drowned out the train and we decided that the call of the carvery was too much and we headed across the road to the luckily named pub.... which gave us another tick on our scavenger hunt and LUNCH and sunday lunch at that 

The Carvery looked spectacular and miss boo enjoyed her's minus the meat

But definitely PLUS dessert

After the feast it was decided that we sound have a stroll around Parkdean as we had seen a sign that said there was a local church open day and as church was on our list and where there is a church there are usually angels we decided this could be a good day out and we would get lots crossed off our list, plus we really needed to burn off the calories of the sumptious lunch.   

BUT as we strolled across to the path way to the parish church we saw the twirly outside stairs (plus tiggersuit on the washing line) and the gorgeous one on the Parkdean Works building.   we couldn't decide which was the better one so we took both......

It was a beautiful day and so we strolled up the hill towards the parish church and it's little grave yard and the sweetest little angel statue you could imagine.  Once we had looked around the church and Miss Boo had signed the visitors book.


She did it all by herself, and wrote that she thought the church was beautiful and she especially liked the way the light shone in through the windows.








As it was a Sunday and there was still school, on monday we decided to head home the pretty way, and as we were in the Forest of Dean it meant heading down the Wye Valley, and through 
Tintern.  Well it would be criminal not to make the joke........................






T'int an Abbey - Yes it is Big church look

Where we finished the Sunday in the most perfect way with a cream tea for me a pint for Simon and friends to play with for emily, whilst watching a local Cricket match so we got two more things off our list someone playing with a ball and a shadow.....

me and my shadow of me taking a picture of my shadow, well i thought it was clever.  But we left the bets till last as we came down through Chepstow a different way this time past the Race Course - we noted that they had put in a new roundabout and on the round about was a horse - we decided that NO-ELSE would have a horse like this one....................