IncREDible Nose Day !!

Today all the pupils in Kilmaine had the chance to do something funny for money and by donating £1 got to wear something red to school...not forgetting the red nose!!
Lauren and I had fun afterwards photographing each other in our noses, Amy looked bemused and appears to be gasping for breath in her photo!!

Weather watching....

..after a week of weather watching, disappointment and feeling extremely jealous of the snow the rest of the UK were experiencing, I spent most of the morning watching the white flakes flurry from the grey skies outside the window during creche, wishing and hoping that it would last long enough for me to get home and get a photo or two. Thankfully it did and after a quick bite of lunch, I and an equally excited Amy (Lauren was at a party), headed into the garden. We had great fun trying to catch the falling flakes and even managed to gather up enough of the white stuff to make a few "snowballs" before it turned to drizzle and was gone again, all in the space of an hour.



Recently I discovered the wondrous works of Cathy Zielske (better late than never) and ordered her two books, which, having arrived a couple of weeks back, have now been read cover to cover, the information absorbed and a scrapbook page produced (keep 'em coming)





A week or so ago Jo "tagged" me to write 7 random things about myself and I then tag some blogging chums; so here are my random facts:

:: I have a sweet tooth and love Thornton's Turkish Delight

:: I always wear socks in bed!!

:: I love it when I have my washing ad ironing up to date
(unfortunately it doesn't happen very often)!

:: I have developed a love of all things FatFace

:: I like everything to be done...yesterday!

:: I wear contact lenses everyday

:: My favourite flower is an orchid

I tag Jen and JanMary
I am hoping to make these random facts into a scrapbook layout so I will post it at a later date.

We have making regular trips to the Vet during this last week with Buttons our suitably named Chocolate Burmese cat who became poorly last week-end and after an expensive trip to the out of hours vet on Sunday he has spent most of the week on a drip being treated for pancreatitis. All I can say is thank goodness for PetPlan!! Our other cat had the very same condition 3 weeks ago - a little unfortunate as I now have to medicate the two of them and they don't like it one bit!! Here is a photo of them in their cat carrier when we returned from the vets, bandages and all!



Lauren has been making good progress with her reading. It amazes me that only 5 months ago when she started school she couldn't read anything and now she takes great delight in reading to me. Starting to read has also taught me to be more patient as I listen to her sounding out unfamiliar words and resisting the urge to read the book to her. I feel a scrapbook layout coming on!!



Amy's hair has become something of a discussion in our house of late. Why? because it is totally and utterly out of control. At present it is in one of two styles; bed hair style or hat hair style and rarely a style in between. I am at a complete loss as to what to do with it and am seriously hoping that it will just sort itself out!! This is her hair on a good day - unruly curls. Suggestions on a postcard please!



Apologies for the marathon post and numerous photos, I'll leave you with just two more photos:

Amy up to mischief..as always



and Lauren in posing mode



Have a good week :)

Very Late...

Now I know it is fast approaching the end of the first month in 2009 and I haven't blogged since Christmas Eve - so please forgive me - but I just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone.
We had a fabulous Christmas and really enjoyed the opportunity to meet Ria, our neice,(Amy was thrilled at having a real, live baby to poke at) and of course spending long overdue time with Jen & Ben. To be honest it felt like they had never been away and the girls were thrilled to have them around. Of course their arrival also meant their deaprture last week and although the parting was hard it was nothing like the roller-coaster of emotions we all experienced last year.
Luckily for Jen, she is returning to NZ summer whilst we battle with the wind and rain that is winter oh and our summer too if the previous years are anything to go by!!

The tooth fairy paid her 2nd visit just last night and there was much excitment this mornng when Lauren opened a little envelope with her name written on it with sparkly stickles glitter glue. *note to self* be more careful about the sparkly glue, Lauren quizzed me this morning, "that's a bit like your glitter glue, isn't it mummy?"

On the scrapping front I also completed a long overdue (a year to be exact) page about Amy finally getting on her feet last winter. A very simple page but I think I like it!



That's all for now folks, hopefully it won't be another month before I am back!

Almost Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us, the presents are wrapped, festive eats are in the cupboard and the girls are full of excitement and anticipation! That just leaves me with the house to clean, the turkey to cook, the table to set... and of course leave Santa and Rudolph their Christmas treats.
As it is the festive season, I decided to update my blog banner - hope you like it?
Now I know that this is probably not the best time of year to think about re-introducing my youngest to the potty, but at the beginning of the week we did and so far it has been pretty successful; the delight on her face when she succeeds and the "Hip, hip hooray" that we are all have to cheer makes for quite a comical scene!

While I was taking Lauren to school a couple of weeks ago I happened to glance out of the window and was struck by the sheer beauty of the sky I saw before me. A magnificent colour of red and orange, now I know what they say about a red sky in the morning, but for me this was a reminder of all things bright and beautiful. For those of you who missed it:



This Christmas will be a special one as Jen & Ben arrived home at the week-end. The girls have loved spending time with them already and to be honest, it is as if she has never been away. I can't help but feel a little bit of sadness as our family is re-united as this will be the first Christmas without my Papa, but I know that he would not want us to feel like this and so we will concentrate on enjoying this opportunity to get together.

Just last week, Roy surprised me by telling me that he had changed my car. What is unusual about this? 1. He never does anything on impulse and 2. he would never dare to change my car without consulting me first. I can't complain though as I have now left the days of driving a bus behind and am now seeing the world from a different level driving a 1 series BMW. It is fab to drive but Amy is most confused and is adamant that it "is not Mummy's tar, is Daddy's tar."



And now, I must go and work some magic on this rather untidy house. I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year. Hope Santa is good!

That long ?......

....since I last blogged? I realise that you aren't sitting waiting on a long overdue blog update but I thought I'd better show my face before the Christmas festivities begin and 2009 is here! What have I been up to?

:: Enjoying a lovely day trip to Glasgow - no children allowed!

:: Having a rather unfortunate meeting with the pavement outside school!! Yes really, I won't go into details or the embarrassment I felt but suffice to say that I seemed to come away slightly worse off!!

:: Getting some much needed decorating done in the house along with the pre-Christmas tidying and sorting that this time of year brings.

:: Putting up the Christmas trees with the help of my very own assistant, in the form of Lauren and being loudly accompanied by Amy on the piano as we put up the trees, thrashing out her own version of "Dinkle, Dinkle, little dar" Someday I will get round to photographing Christmas!

:: Finishing the last of the Christmas shopping - yeah!!

:: Realising that Lauren is growing up - she lost her first tooth at the weekend and although she was near giddy with excitement at the prospect of a night-time visit by the tooth fairy, I on the other hand had mixed emotions only a mummy can understand.



Today, Lauren brought home a picture she had drawn in school. I know I am a little biased but it is one of the best drawings I have seen - I am continually amazed as to her increasing ability and I have decided to frame the picture as a little reminder.



:: Amy has become a real chatterbox, sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense, particularly when she is really animated about something, but on the whole we are getting the message, loud and clear! The other day I had her in Bangor and she announced to all "I don't like shopping, I want to go home now" Clearly she hasn't realised that shopping is a girl thing!



...and finally, Jen & Ben are returning in about 10 days time, I can't wait to see them and hear all. They leave NZ next week and I trust that they will have a safe journey.

Lost in space...

Just a quick post to prove to all that I am still around despite my absence in the blogging world.
Mum and Dad are on their way back home, we are looking forward to seeing them, hearing their stories and no doubt viewing the many pictures that will have been taken (knowing Dad a DVD slideshow, complete with music and captions will have to be made and an "offical" viewing of it)!!

Lauren and I made our first school project for the Yr1 space theme. Having trawled the web for ideas we decided to make a planet, complete with sparkly cosmic rings!!



I hosted my first Virgin Vie party last night and as a result of the evenings sales and 30% comission during the month of November I managed to bag £90 of goodies for myself!!

And with that I'm off, serious relaxing and TV watching to be done. Have a good week-end!

Magical Moments!

We arrived back from Disney a week ago, having had a fabulous but very cold time. The girls loved every second of it and I didn't need to worry about Amy being afraid of the characters, she was right in the thick of it and most importantly, got to meet her favourite character...Minnie Mouse.
The little autograph books I made with my cricut proved to be a big hit with Lauren, Sarah and the characters themselves, we even succeeeded in getting all but one of the autographs. I left a blank space on each of the pages so that we could add a photo of Lauren with each character.

I decided when we came back that we would try potty training Amy, howvever her declaration that " I like nappy the best" and the onset of a tummy bug meant that we have had to forget that idea for a little while longer.

Tango is going home tomorrow after his final check-up with the vet. Mum, you will be pleased to hear that he has been a very well behaved house guest, eating up his dinner and has had lots of hugs and kisses from Amy (not sure how keen he is on these).

I'll leave you with a little slideshow of our trip to Disney. (There is some Disney music - if you want to listen)!

Make a Smilebox slideshow