Monday 30 August 2010

My last year of my twenties

Yesterday was my 29th birthday and I had a really great day thanks to Adam and the kids.  I was woken up at about 7.30am with the kids bringing in their cards and presents and the cards that had come through the post for me.  They sang happy birthday to me and then I opened my things.  I got lots of cards, some money and a necklace from Lisa.  Also I was having a haircut later as my present from Adam, but he also put in a Next voucher in my card which was a nice surprise.  Lani had written her card to me herself so that was very sweet and Zach had had some help and then tried to write over it himself too so it was covered in scribbles :)

After that I had breakfast in bed - which was a whoopie pie left over from the night before and a hot chocolate.  The night before we had friends over - Sandy and Jake, Angie and Steve and Janine.  Sandy had brought the whoopie pies - sort of chocolate cakey disc things with marshmallow cream in between.

Then we got up and ready to go to Grimsby for my haircut.  Got there 5 mins late, for which the woman on the front was very snotty, but came out feeing pretty good, having got a good quality haircut.  Straight after that we had the Baby Naming Day thing nearby for a friend from work - Emma Vickers who I shared a tutor group with at Monks Dyke.  We've never been to one before, so we didn't really know what to expect.  I would say it was most like a wedding reception, but smaller.  There were speeches from the grandfathers and the parents and a song from the aunties.  It was nice, but we didn't really know anyone, apart from a couple of other people I knew from work.
New haircut
After that we popped back in to Grimsby so I could do some shopping and spend my birthday money.  We agreed beforehand that we'd only spend an hour there because the kids were getting fed up and if I hadn't found anything by then I would come back on my own another time.  But I did manage to do some super speedy shopping and got a couple of things - a pair of jeans and a shirt and scarf.  I love them both already :)  I also saw another shirt that I liked but they didn't have it in my size, so I was going to order it when I went to buy the first shirt, when I saw they had a leaflet to get £10 off when you make your first online order - so I got the girl to write down the details of the top I wanted and then came home and ordered it online with £10 off that evening - very pleased with myself!
Birthday clothes :)
So after the shopping we went home and Adam told me to go put my feet up while he sorted out some tea for the kids and put them to bed - possibly the best present ever! :D  So I went upstairs and chilled out for a bit.  After a while Adam called me downstairs and when I got to the living room they had a cake ready with candle and sang me happy birthday.  I was pretty impressed because Adam had managed to keep that a surprise too :)  And it was a gorgeous chocolate Thorntons one too, hmmm...... Which, by the way, is gorgeous warm with ice cream.

I also got lots of messages from family and friends wishing me a happy birthday.

That was my lovely birthday, which probably doesn't sound like much now it's written down :) but it was a day full of being made to feel special by my lovely little family and being able to pull rank on any decision with the simple statement "it's my birthday..." :D

Saturday 28 August 2010

Another milestone

Leilani has learned to tie her own shoelaces :)

She asked Adam to show her how, so he did it next to her and she followed his instructions perfectly.  She came running down the stairs and came to show me, with no help at all.  It only took about 5 minutes of listening to Daddy and she's mastered it.  She's so proud of herself!

She was sat putting her trainers on and tying them up herself when she said "Now I won't have to ask the teachers to help me anymore."  I asked if any of her friends at school could do their own shoelaces to which she looked up with wide eyes, raised eyebrows and a huge smile "Nope, no one!".

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Leilani's 6th Birthday

Today Leilani turned 6.  She was very Very excited in the run up to her birthday and I'm really glad she wasn't disappointed.  I tried really hard to make it a special day for her.  This morning she wanted boiled egg and soldiers in bed for breakfast, so I let her have it on the end of our bed, and for once I got the egg right so it had a runny middle (it's a bit of a difficulty for me - in my worries over it not being cooked I usually *just* over do it).  After that she opened her present from Zach and Tilly - some new school shoes that she had seen the week before and I managed to slip them in to the shopping with out her noticing.  When she opened them she remembered they were the ones she had liked so that was nice.

After that we were ready to give her a special present from us - now this really was special because she wasn't going to get anything, having chosen to go to Alton Towers instead.  But a couple of weeks ago I spotted a girls bike on freecycle, sent the email requesting it, being very polite, thanking them for their generosity and being sure to mention my daughter's birthday is coming up and they chose us to give it to us :)  When we got it it was in pretty good condition - certainly good enough to give as a birthday present.  She was so excited when she got it this morning and as soon as she was dressed went out on the drive to have her first go on a proper bike - no stabilisers.  She did really well, but I think was a bit disappointed she wasn't able to "get it" and ride by herself quickly.
We planned to go to Spout Yard (a lovely park in the centre of Louth) and invited some friends to come along too, but at 12.15pm the heavens opened and we got rained off.  Sandy, lovely friend that she is, said we could all go to her house instead, so we had a birthday tea there instead.  We had Evan and Joe; Lani, Zach and Tilly; and Riley, Gavin and Aiden.

After that we went back home for Quesadillas for dinner, got the two little ones to bed and asked her how she wanted to finish up her birthday and she chose to come out to the garden while I put the washing out and go on the trampoline.  Then watched Mighty Mights on cbeebies before bed.  At dinner time I asked her if she had enjoyed her birthday and she said it had been amazing and she wished it was her birthday every day.

I'm really glad she had a good birthday, I really wanted her to feel like it was a special day and I think she did:)

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Will it be my birthday all day long?

...is what Leilani asked me today - it's her 6th birthday tomorrow and she is very VERY excited.  I think she may be a little disappointed tomorrow because she's got so excited about it already and she's had quite a few birthday things early.  She got her main present from us already - it was the trip to Alton Towers, she got her scooter from my parents on holiday so she could play with it then and she's not having a party (because she had her day out at Alton Towers instead) so won't get presents from her friends.  Adam's parents came over to give her her presents tonight because they're out all day tomorrow.  She was over the moon.  She got some T shirts, chocolates, socks and a pair of pink sparkly shoes.  She absolutely loved them all and went to bed with the shoes at the end of her bed :)  She thought she was very grown up getting a box of Roses chocolates too and beamed as she handed them round to share with everyone.

So with so much having happened already I hope she remembers that tomorrow and doesn't feel let down by the actual day.  Fortunately we got very lucky and got a bike on Freecycle which is in really good condition and perfect for her, which will be a great surprise for her tomorrow because we'd told her she wouldn't get anything else because of Alton Towers.  She'll be terrified of riding it though because it's the next size up and doesn't have stabilisers...

And guess what she wants for her birthday cake?  A carrot cake, shaped as a carrot :D

And one of my favourite things about the whole affair is she is missing her two front teeth for her birthday.

Sunday 22 August 2010

The plan to wear out the kids backfired a little...

Saturday today and we decided we wanted to do something all together instead of mooching around and having a lazy day, which is pretty much what I'd been doing all week since getting back of holiday.  Zach was pretty grumpy and naughty this morning though so we decided we'd let him and Tilly have their naps first and then take them to Play Zone in Lincoln after lunch to burn of some energy and wear them out.  We haven't been before, but it was recommended by Sandy and Jake.  It was really good.  There was a smaller soft play area for under 4's with a ball pit, play area, soft slope to climb up, pod at the top to crawl into and a slide to come down.  The bigger kids area had loads of stuff to clamber around, air cannons to shoot out foam balls, a ball pit, lots of levels, but the best bits were the slides.  There was one of the bumpy kind, you know steep, then levels out, then steep then levels out... that you have to use a sack to go down on and it had 4 rows so we all went down together with Tilly on my lap - she's the bravest of the 3 of them and loved it.  Then there was another bumpy kind that starts with an almost vertical drop but soon hits the first bump and finishes in a ball pit and there's one that is a proper vertical drop of about 5m before it hits the slope to slide down - pretty scary.  I went down that one, first by myself to make sure I could manage it and then Zach cam on my lap but was a bit freaked out by it.  Tilly went down on Adam's lap fine.  Leilani took a lot of persuading and eventually went a couple of times on Adam's lap, but wasn't keen at all.  Don't know how we produced such a scaredy cat when Ad and I are such adrenaline junkies :)  Anyway, this place was great for us all to play in together, but really hard work for us grown ups!  And now I'm shattered and even more worn out than the kids.  That ought to sort out my current insomnia problems for tonight at least.

Saturday 21 August 2010

She can stand!

well for about a second or so.... Today Tilly stood unaided.  I had to trick her into it by holding her arms instead of her hands and slowly letting go, but she did it.  She's coming up to 17 months now, so it's about time!  She'll walk holding on to your hands, but hopefully that won't be too much longer now.

Friday 20 August 2010

Feeling sorry for myself :(

Today started off ok, but pretty tired.  Nothing new there.  Gradually got worse through the day as I developed achey muscles like when you have the flu and my throat felt really swollen.  I tried to get Tilly and Zach to have their nap together, which usually is no problem, but of course today after I settled them down and crawled in to bed Zach started playing up.  So no recuperation time for me.  Has been a pretty yuck day, feeling sorry for myself, but when you're a Mum of three you don't have the option of crawling in to bed to let it pass, you just have to suck it up and carry on.  To make things worse, Adam had to meet a client at tea time, so hasn't been able to help at that crucial time, and that's around the time the terrible stomach cramps started.  All I felt I could manage to make for the kids tea was 2 minute noodles, and even then while they were bubbling on the stove I was curled up on the floor because the stomach aches come in really painful waves.
Appetising eh?
So now I'm feeling very sorry for myself, have stuck Monsters Inc on telly to distract the kids for the last hour before bed and I am sat next to them splurging my thoughts to my online journal.  I'm sure I'll get over it soon and stop being so self pitying.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

My reminder of why we have late night shopping


Today I had my most hellish trip to the supermarket with the kids.  Tilly hadn't slept yet when we went out and has her back teeth coming through.  Add to that the 3 injections I popped into the doctors for on the way to Tescos and she really was not a happy bunny.  Tescos is a 20min drive away, where she slept and I figured this would be enough to get her through doing the shopping.  Wrong!  About 10 mins in she started screaming, and her screams are pretty loud.  The sort that make people flinch, cover their ears and turn around to see what child is being murdered.  She was inconsolable.  I tried giving her her dummy, a fig roll, a bit of Zach's sandwich and even picked her up ready to carry her whilst pushing the trolley.  When that didn't work and she was still screaming and thrashing about in my arms I put her on the floor.  Nothing worked.  I then had to wrestle her back into the trolley seat to try carry on the shopping as quickly as possible.  She may as well have been an octopus, it was so hard to get her little legs in the gaps.  I grabbed the Calpol I had in the tolley, not even paid for yet and tried to give her some, but she screamed even more at me and batted it away, spraying it all over.  Next she grabbed the bottle and flung it on the floor - smash. After quickly grabbing the attention of a passing Tesco worker (not difficult when you have a screaming baby) I made a dash for the bottles of kids drinks, grabbed a pack of the shelf, whipped one out and gave it to her.  I hate using stuff before I've paid for it, so it just shows how desperate I got.  That worked for about 3 minutes.  So then I had to just carry on with her screaming the place down and get finished as fast as possible.

All the while, I am getting various looks from the other shoppers, ranging from sympathetic "we've been there" looks from other mothers, to looks of disgust from people who obviously have never had to deal with a child who you just can not make better.  I even had one woman stop dead in the middle of her shopping and turn around and just stare, until she saw I noticed her staring and that woke her up enough to have the good grace to turn around and carry on.  Meanwhile Zach is up to his usual antics of just being generally naughty... so I have decided the only time I will be going to Tesco to do a big shop will be on my own, after the children are asleep.  You've got to love 24hr supermarket shopping.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Summer Holiday 2010



Warning:  This may be quite a boring read to anyone else!

Last week we went to Wales, which in itself is actually a small miracle.  A couple of years ago we took a cheap holiday there, but had to go in October because I was working as a teacher and the only time we could get the cheap deal was in October half term.  We went to Prestatyn, which in my opinion is a dump!  Weather was horrendous, we cut short the holiday early after a couple of miserable days with nothing really to do in the wet weather and decided to travel down to Reading instead.  Except we set off at tea time, drove south through Snowdonia, just as the weather got even worse.  We ended up on windy back roads in thick snow with 2 small children and the journey that should have taken us around 4 hours took 8. So at the point we determined never to set foot in Wales again....  However my family all go camping together each year, and since Jess and I chose the location last year (Cornwall by the way) we had to give in and accept it when Cait chose Black Rock Sands, Porthmadog this year.

We had a pretty good time actually, great location but the weather was very average.  We didn't get any lovely days for just chilling on the beach, but it wasn't a total wash out either.  So we arrived on Saturday around tea time and got set up.  Cait and Richard had cooked chicken and bread for us for tea, which was extremely welcome after a long journey with the kids.  On Saturday evening we got the kids settled in their beds just as they realised that tents don't behave like houses and even if they couldn't see each other they could still talk to each other :)  So it took them quite a while to go to sleep as Zach was calling out to Lani and Tilly was echoing his shouts - she's a little parrot at the moment.  After that Mom and I went to Tescos for supplies, where we noticed a lovely family, with beautiful well behaved kids and the Dad playing games with them as the Mum went along doing the shopping.  Next morning we went to the local branch of our church where upon arrival we notice sitting at the back the family we'd commented on in Tesco :) They were holidaying too.  Just goes to show that people notice a good example that stands out.

Sunday afternoon we went for a walk on the beach which really was a stone's throw away from our tent.  Really, if you through a stone over the dune next to us it would have landed on the sandy beach.  So it was lovely to just nip off to the beach now and then and not need to pack loads of stuff, because you could just nip back whenever you needed to.  The beach was lovely and with the tide out you can walk around the cliffs (which are black with distinct strata - very pretty) and go rock pooling - which the kids loved.  They spent quite a lot of time catching little fish and shrimp and playing in the pools.


Oh I forgot - Saturday night I didn't sleep very well at all, was very cold and by 5am decided I was wide awake and too cold to get back to sleep so may as well make the most of it.  I slipped out quietly so the kids wouldn't wake up and camera in hand headed down to the beach to get some pictures of the sunrise.  Was gorgeous.  The only other people on the beach were a man and his dog and another photographer - a woman with a lot more equipment than me, was quite jealous :)

We had a fire on a disposable bbq each night which was lovely.  Monday we just had a wonder around Porthmadog, poked around the shops, went to see the steam train, went to the harbour where Cait, Rich and Ethan were crabbing.

Tuesday we went to Greenwood Forest Park which is kind of an eco friendly little theme park.  It has a roller coaster the is "people powered".  To get it up to the top of the hill the people in the queue walk to the top and then go in a lift thing and their combined weight counter balances the roller coaster so as they go down, it goes up.  you then walk to the top on the other side to ride it down by the power of gravity :)  They have peddle go karts and big slides, magic shows, jumping pillows, some animals.  Was a great place for the kids.


Hanging on for dear life!
Wednesday we had planned to climb Snowdon (me and mom) but Amy had looked at the weather and told us it might be a better day for the beach and to do it on Thurs instead.  Didn't work out like that however.  Wed was not good enough to sit on the beach, so we went for a walk on it, but then went to Porthmadog again.  Did a bit of crabbing on the Harbour, then Ad and I took the kids to Caenarfon.  We walked round the castle, played around the water jets in the town centre and the kids each had a go on one of the old fashioned fun fair rides.

So on Thursday was our planned hike up Snowdon.  Jess decided to come with us, but the weather wasn't great.  At the bottom it was pretty average with a few light showers.  Still, we started up the mountain.  The others took a steam train ride while we were doing this.  The plan was that they would go up the Snowdon train and meet us at the top, but it was fully booked when we rang and would have cost £25 each anyway.  So Mom, Jess and I start up, but Mom was finding it hard going because she had forgotten her pain medication and her knee supports so she turned back half a mile in.  Jess and I carried on together.  I was really glad she came because it would have been so much harder on my own.  The first half was ok, but the second half was really difficult.  We soon hit cloud which brought freezing rain with it and we couldn't see more than about 10m around us.  About 3/4 of the way up is the hardest part of the climb, it gets really steep and was very difficult.  After that, the climb wasn't too bad but the weather was awful.  Our fingers were freezing to the point of not being able to feel or move them and that spread up to my forearms too by the time we hit the top.  The wind was scarily strong and we didn't send very long at the top at all - just enough to snap a quick pic on my mobile phone.  There was no way I could have got my camera out, my fingers were pretty useless by then!

We hurried in to the cafe (which was sooooo welcome!) and dried ourselves off on the hand driers a little.  There was a woman in there who was stripping off her clothes and drying them one at a time.  She had done the climb a few times though.  We didn't stop long and set off down again - running as much as we could to get out of the terrible weather as soon as possible.  At the bottom we felt pretty grotty - tired, achy, really cold and wet.  Proud of ourselves, but would probably never do it again!  I could possibly be tempted some time in the future only if it's a VERY good day weather wise.

So Friday, our last full day, again the weather wasn't great, but good enough for a walk on the beach in the morning.  The kids wanted to go crabbing again, so off we went to the Harbour.  Caught loads of crabs which Lani loved.  Zach got bored fairly quickly so Mom took him and Tilly off to go fetch fish and chips for us all.  That evening we had some pretty distasterous attempts at setting of chinese lanterns :)  The first two we tried on the beach before the kids went to bed so the could see.  The first got caught by the wind and burnt a hole in the side before it could set off.  The second got going but once it was up the wind tipped it a bit and I guess most of the hot air got out because it started sinking fast and couldn't get itself back up again before crash landing on the beach.  That evening we saw people setting theirs off from their tents so we thought we'd give it a go.  We got it lit, filled up with hot air and off it went... sort of... it got up a couple of metres then went sideways and started coming down towards the tents!  Adam had to run after it and cuaght it just before it hit Cait and Richard's tent.  Thought we better just give up there and didn't even try the 4th one we had.
Just about ready...

And it's off!  Except it soon came back down again...
Saturday morning we got packed up and drove up to Criccieth to have a look at the castle, but we didn't bother to get out the car.  Then set off back home.  Fairly uneventful journey back, the usual kids fighting, eased a little by cbeebies on the laptop and McDonalds for tea.

Saturday 7 August 2010

Maternity shots

So today I had my first go at doing some maternity photos for a friend.  This is her 6th and last baby so she thought she should probably have a go at documenting the end of her pregnancy.  She's 38 weeks now and since I'm off on holiday for a week tomorrow we thought we'd better get it done today, just in case.  In fact I hope she has it while we are gone because she's so fed up already, that last few weeks always seems to drag.

The photos went pretty well I think (notice I haven't said photo shoot - don't really feel qualified to use that term yet!) and while I haven't had a chance to do any post processing, I'm quite pleased with the first stage results.  Watch this space - I will publish any that she lets me (though the whole thing was done with the proviso that she would have the privilege of deciding what photos made it into the public domain...)

I'm doing my best to improve my photography at every opportunity, mostly by learning stuff off the internet, either from websites or other people on forums.   I think I've come a long way in the few years I've been taking it more seriously, but the more I learn, the more I realise there is still left to learn.

Friday 6 August 2010

Family things...



We had a great day out at Alton Towers on 22nd July.  Leilani chose to do that for her birthday instead of have a party this year.  We had a voucher to get us in for less than half price, as long as we used it before 25th July, so she got her birthday treat early.  Our fab friend Michelle Allsworth had Tilly for the day for us which meant Adam, Leilani, Zach and I had a great time doing all the family rides together.  The height restriction on most of those things was 0.9m and so Ad measured Zach the day before, after which Zach came shouting down the stairs "I'm 92 Mummy!" :)

We did tractor rides, looking at animals, the Squirrel Nutty ride, Log Flume, River Rapids, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Hex, Mini Driving School, Frog Hopper, (more that I've forgotten...) saw a show and went in The Deep centre - which is a new addition since I went last and was fantastic.  Like a mini version of The Deep sealife centre at Hull, inside the grounds so no extra cost to go in, but still pretty big.  The kids loved it all and it was a really great day out, would highly recommend it.

Thursday 5 August 2010

My life at the moment

Probably the best place to start is give a little description of how my life is at the moment.  Adam and I have been married for almost 9 years (anniversary is 1st Sep) and we have 3 children.  Leilani will be 6 on 24th August, Zach is 2 and a half and Tilly is 16 months.

We're living in Louth, which was supposed to be a temporary stop, but this has ended up being the longest we've stayed in one place - 4 yrs.  We'd hoped to have been long gone to New Zealand by now.  It's still our aim, but is taking a long time.

Seems I can only do snippets of this at a time while the kids are awake, so will have to finish this later.

My very first blog post

Right, so I'm taking a step into unfamiliar blogging territory.  Never really saw the point of blogging before because I use Facebook all the time and figured that was enough. Which it is for the present time, but then you don't get a permanent record of the status updates, comments made etc etc.  So I'm giving this a go.  I am going to try and make this a more permanent record of what I'm doing and how things are going, as much as I want to share anyway...  then I can print it and keep it as a journal.  The theory is that I'm more likely to come on here and add stuff than to actually write in a real life journal.

I wanted to get back into journal keeping because I came across some old ones and realised how much they had to offer me, how much I'd forgotten that I thought I never would and how much now has just been zapped out of my life as if it never happened because I've now forgotten and hadn't written it down somewhere in the more recent years.

Think I may have to set up a private one of these for my more personal thoughts though...