Sugar Plum Fairy

Move over Darcey Bussell....Lauren the Ballerina has arrived in town!! Lauren started ballet classes today and loved every second of it!! She looked so cute in her little ballerina outfit, which, fortunately is pink!!

The weather continues to be quite miserable and although the weather on Thursday was positively spring-like, it didn't hang around.
Both of the girls received money from great grandparents for Easter and with it I bought Amy a trike that I can push and more importantly steer. I thought she would enjoy taking taking Lauren to school on this. Pictures of this when we finally get outside with it!! Lauren's money hasn't burnt a hole in her pocket....yet.

I leave you with some pictures of the budding ballerina.

Baby Cool

Just had to share this picture of Amy sporting her new sunglasses (part of her Easter present from Nana).

Big Cook, Little Cook

I came across a recipe for "Bailey's Cupcakes" on another blog and as I am rather fond of all things Bailey's, I decided to give them a go.
Lauren is extremely keen to help out in the kitchen and whilst Amy was having her nap we set about making our cupcakes.
They taste pretty scrummy, (the Bailey's butter cream icing is, for me, the best bit) but trust me when I tell you that they are not for those of you watching your figure!!



I got my first pre-course homework for the photography course - a self portrait to include my name (but not digitally added) and to submit a portfolio of 4 pictures, 2 which I am happy with and say something about "my style" and 2 disappointments. I have plenty of disappointments, which, I guess this course is all about, trouble is I tend to delete them all!!
I do not do self-portraits and found this a bit of a challenge as I am never happy with the result. After taking millions of photos I packed my stuff away and had a quick view of the images in-camera only to delete the one I had settled on.*groan* Out came all the bits and pieces and after another million I managed to get a shot that will be submitted. I just pity the other people on the course having to look at it!!

Easter holidays continue and we took the girls to the Leisure Pool in Lisburn on Thursday. They loved the Lazy River and after watching Lauren go down some small water slides Amy wanted to do the same! She is totally fearless and loved every minute of it.
Also managed to get Lauren into swimming lessons here in Bangor and we went on-line this afternoon and ordered her a really cute swim bag, hat (which the girls have to wear) and goggles all to match. I think Lauren is more thrilled with the pink swim accessories!

And so I bid you goodnight, it is really cold and I am going to curl up on the sofa and watch my weekly episode of Casualty.

Early Start...

.... to my day, that is, thanks to Lauren and rather unusually Amy. Lauren has always been a bit of an early bird and I dread the brighter mornings as that ususally means an even earlier bird than normal! The early mornings are not helped by the fact that bed-time, Lauren likes to have her curtains parted ever so slightly - just so that she can see when it is morning time!! Tonight however, the parting will be closed when I go to bed!!

The weather continues to be sunny but cold and so we spent much of yesterday outdoors getting a healthy dose of fresh air, Lauren cycling her bike and Amy having a run around at the park.



This morning we had friends round to play, Amy was in extremely poor humour and ended up in bed at 11.30am. As I mentioned earlier, she doesn't do early mornings and as a result satyed in bed until 2.20pm!!

I had a bit of play with my camera this afternoon and managed to get a couple of good photos of Amy - she isn't a willing subject!! Lauren, needless to say performed beautifully!!

And so I leave you with my two beauties:

This week.......

has been a pretty busy week for me, hence the lack of blogging. Monday saw me and Dad fly to Manchester for a photography course on our Canon 400D. The flight over was a little scary due to the severe weather conditions and my navigational skills in the hire car were on occasions, a little less than perfect!
I think it is fair to say that we had a fairly intense day and that we came away from the course with a little more knowledege than we went with.

Still on the photography front, I have, today enrolled in a 10 week "Painting with Light" course. I am really looking forward to it and I am hoping that it will help me to get more creative with my camera.

Today saw the start of Lauren's Easter holidays and as the weather so was good this morning we had a trip to the park. The girls both had great fun playing on the slides and swings and we also fed the ducks, swans and geese with some bread, (sorry Roy, there is no bread for breakfast in the morning). Amy was a little reluctant to give up her bread and decided that she would eat it instead!!






Just as we were leaving, to lauren's delight, the peacock displayed its tail feathers for us although I have to admit it look a little bedraggled and not as colourful as I have seen it in the past.



And so it is the week-end, enjoy!!

Being a Mummy

As I am sure many of you know, being a mother brings about certain responsibilities and roles; cook, cleaner, launderer, teacher, entertainer, nurse, peacemaker...the list goes on. My role for yesterday and today has primarily been that of nurse.
Yesterday afternoon, Lauren was happily playing with her Playmobil hospital when she became very upset, I couldn't make out what was wrong for all the crying but somehow managed to discover (to my horror) that she had put the mobile phone belonging to the paramedic inside her ear!! (never in her 4 1/2 years has she done anything like this) I could just about see the end of it firmly lodged in her ear.
Cue Nurse Mummy, I frantically found my tweezers and managed after several attempts to get the phone out. Judging by her upset and panic I don't think she is going to repeat the exercise in a hurry!!



Amy on the other hand has yet another tummy bug!! (I seriously hope that she doesn't pass this one on) Again, cue Nurse Mummy to be sick all over, administer Calpol and change bedlinen and pj's frequently.....and despite it all, I wouldn't change my job for the world!!

Unfortunately we seem to have had a run of sickness in this house and I would dearly love for all the nasty bugs and germs to pack their bags and take themselves elsewhere !!

On this day......

8 years ago, Roy and I got married !! I can still remember eveything that happened like it was only yesterday - thankfully there were no disasters and everyone had a brilliant day.
Amazingly the weather here in N.I. today is pretty similar to what it wss like in 2000 - bright and sunny, but blooming cold!

I just want to say thank-you to Roy for the last 8 years and here's to many more. xo