Today is such a beautiful autumn day so we decided to take a walk in our neighbourhood and the boys grabbed their cameras so they could snap their images for the Kids Capture the colour competition. We were like pied pipers and started the walk with two children and a dog and ended up with five children! We are really lucky that we have so much beauty and wildlife on our doorstep, in fact this is less than 2 minutes walk.
I never thought that a coffee machine would make such a difference to our home. I am not a coffee drinker, but MadDad loves a good coffee and it is his affordable luxury in life. So when offered a Tassimo machine I thought it would be something that he would really appreciate. I was right, he is really impressed with the quality of coffee, however, this months challenge was to create our own drink, but MadDad’s coffee is sacred and he would not allow me to fiddle with it at all!
The only time I drink coffee is in the lead up to Christmas when I add Baileys, so I decided to add some and yum, very nice grown up coffee.
But the thing that has been most wonderful and completely unintentional is the freedom the Tassimo machine has brought to Maxi and our morning routine. Maxi has always been an early riser and he loves to have a hot chocolate on a morning, but at 8 I feel that he is too young to operate a kettle, so one of us has to make him one. The Tassimo machine means that Maxi can make chocolate for both him and Mini. I love instilling independence in children and Tassimo has certainly revolutionised our mornings. They are calmer, more relaxing and we get a little longer in bed!
What can I say, this has been a weekend of celebrating cake eating, family, friends fun, scoring his first two goals and lots of love.
Eight things I love about you!
You adore being tickled and trying to pretend that you are not ticklish. You challenge me to make you laugh.
Oh and what a laugh. it is infectious, it fills my heart with such joy.
You are fearless. You are a mini thrill seeker, adrenalin junkie and embrace new things.
You are an early riser, but as soon as your head hits the pillow you are off in the land of nod.
You are a team player. You love football and being part of a team.
You do not mind being different. You embrace your curly hair, wear checked trousers and love being you.
You are kind and considerate. You help other people when you can.
You love with a passion.
How can you be eight already? We never really believed that we would have you. You were a challenge form the moment you came in to being and kept us on our toes. You are a joy, my eldest child, an integral part of our family and I love you more each passing day.
And I have kept saying no. But the boys love them and want them. They have played on Skylanders with Master Frugal and I am coming to realise that they will not need them all as they can share and swap with friends. Plus all their friends have them and they love to talk about them.
However, we have a rile at christmas, they are only allowed to ask for four things and as they both really want bikes, Skylanders are out of our price range But thankfully the Tots100 might be able t come to our rescue with their great Skylanders competition.
So this is Decay. He is a magic Skylander with his candy cane light saber which shoots sweets at you and tricks you in to getting bad teeth!
Today we were sent some Snazaroo face paints by the wonderful chaps and chapesses at Panasonic and Mini decided he wanted to have his face painted as Dracula. So me and Maxi sat him down and I did the best of a bad job. When I was finished Maxi asked if he could put a pumpkin on my face using a stencil we had been sent, so I said of course and then he asked for a couple of stencils on his face. I bit down hard on my lip and tried not to squeal a th shock and stenciled on a bat and a spider web as requested.
I then went in the kitchen to tidy up the mess and light the pumpkins and left the boys to play a board game. You can then imagine my shock when I walked in to find Maxi had been in the dressing up box and put on Mini’s skeleton costume from last year. Yes it was short, but he had put on his black thermal pants under, so you couldn’t tell.
I decided not to say anything and you should have seen MadDads face when he got home. He was delighted and for the first time ever he took both boys trick or treating. So good things come to those who wait, either that or the lure of all that Halloween candy got too much for him!
So seven facts about my seven year old………..
You love being different, having slightly longer hair, wearing checked trousers, the need to conform isn’t in your genes!
You are a wiz at maths and ask me to give you sums to do all the time, in fact you idea of “fun” is a list of sums to work on!
You are a very sore looser
Maxi: Mummy where is heaven?
Me: Where do you think it is maxi?
Maxi: Is it near Devon?
Me: Erm…….. Go and ask your Dad
arly on down the journey that is raising children, MadDad and I decided that we wanted to call the boys sexual organs by the correct names, so Penis, Testicular, Scrotum, it is. Along the years Willie has nipped in too, but we don;t have pet names for them. Partly this was down to my experience growing up. My vagina was called a “frou frou” and my brothers penis was his tail. For a long time I thought that boys had tails to help them balance like animals and I don’t remember when I learned
This month the Tot100 blog hop is all about the naughtiest thing your child has done and the worst (or best) post will win a bundle of cleaning products from Dirt Devil with a value of £200.
I asked about on twitter to find out what the going rate was and settled on £1 per tooth. Maxi went to bed and popped his tooth in to a small lavender heart with a pillow on that I had made out of an old baby blanket and just couldn’t get to sleep due to the whole excitement of the tooth fairy. We kept on telling him that the tooth fairy only comes when you are asleep, so finally after what seemed like an age, but was only 20 minutes he was sound a sleep.
I made sure we had £1 and when we went to
The week before Spring break is always a busy one at school, lots of busy children cramming in lots of activities and lots of parents finding the time to go in and help and also see what there children have been up too.
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have never shied away from the fact that I am not a fan of homework for infant and primary children and told both the boys teachers when I met them and they understand that the boys only tend to do homework if it lights their fire or pushes their button, which isn’t very often. They are 4 and 6 and there are much better things they can spend their time doing other than homework.
Today you turn six. It seems like somehow we have blinked and all of a sudden I have a six year old. We have been blessed to watch you grow and develop. To get small glimpses to the man you may become. I look at you with wonder at the way you view the world, the ever generous friend, always there to hold someones hand or give them a pat on the back and words of congratulations. Maxi’s last sleep as a five year old You are an amazing big brother, who encourages Mini ever step of the way. You give him wonderful kisses and cuddles, but boy the two of more »
We had a pretty quiet weekend consisting of football practice and then a football party for the boys on Saturday and a Sunday which mainly included lots of comfort food and cuddles, which was fine by me. One of the plus point of buying the boys DSi’s for Christmas is that me and MadDad get a lie in on a weekend as the boys tend not to wake us at silly o clock. So this morning we were both lounging in bed and the boys came in for a cuddles with the DSi’s and we had a lazy, snugly morning. All was peaceful until Mini asked me to scratch his bum. more »
Each year I write a letter to you both, talking about what we have done during the past year and all the things that I want to tell you. It has been really tough writing this one, as your dearest Grandma was found dead by Uncle C on Christmas Day. I know that you were scared of Mummy’s screaming and tears, but you both were really good boys and went to Nana and Grandads and have been a tower of strength to be in the last week or so. You have both been so lucky to have spent time with your Grandma, who loved you so much and really enjoyed her more »
I am likely to be AWOL a little this week, as the snow pretty much has us penned in. No school, no way the cars on the drive are moving and no buses. So me and the boys are making the most of if. MadDad didn’t even get in to work today, which is a first! I am so glad that my mum has some fantasitc neighbours and friends as I can not get to her to help with shopping or anything. Also my brother, sister in law and neice are flying back from Florida tomorrow, I hope that they can make it back from the airport safely.
It is not often that a picture perfectly captures a moment, but also the peoples personalities too, but we are lucky enough to have one. When we were at The Mad Awards 2010, the wonderful Nikki Hall took some photo’s of my wonderful whirlwinds, which perfectly captures them. So when Photobox offered me the chance of a canvas prints, I knew which image I had to choose. I have used Photobox in the past, but only for prints and I have to say I was really impressed with the speed and the service and quality of the canvass. We chose to have the image wrapped around the frame and it looks more »
The theme for the gallery this week is black and white. When you look at this photograph what do you see? When I look at this photo, I see my wonderful, precious and very lucky eldest child, who had only days before been in intensive care fighting for his life. I think it is time that we all realised that this life is never black or white, but filled with all sorts of beautiful colours and until we walk a mile in someones shoes we have no right to judge them or their decisions. I have this image on my sitting room wall and it reminds me that life is precious more »
Maxi has always had issues from being a baby with tags in his clothes and I have always just unpicked the seam and taken them out, but recently this has been getting much much worse, to the point of it taking an hour each morning to get his socks on as he hates the feel of the seams.
