Happy Birthday Penny

Last Friday was Penny's 5th birthday. Wow, was she excited. Since Christmas she has been asking if it is her birthday yet. Well it finally happened and....... she slept in.

She has lots of lovely presents and cards. Seesaw, lots of unicorn stuff, craft stuff, Shimmer outfit, scooter and horse riding lessons. Grandad and Grandma came for birthday tea.
Saturday was party day. The theme being rainbows and unicorns. Grandma, Nanny, Grandad, Aunt Katie and Aunt Col visited. As well as lots of her friends. We had pass the parcel, pinata to bash and musical bumps. She had a fantastic time.

Socks

Bought Penny new socks with laughing lemons on then. She was putting them on in the caravan.
"The lemons are laughing. They are making me laugh. The lemon eye are closed as they are laughing so much. They are making me laugh."

She is so odd. She also pronounces laugh like a posh southern.

Deciphering

Sometimes my children seem to speak a different language and it some working out what they are on about.

PENNY
Was asking Penny about her day and she said she had been "singing to the Grandmas. Grandma there, Grandma there (pointing) Grandma there, in the nut place" etc. Couldn't work it out. Turns out she had visited Chestnut Street care home and sang.

JAMES
It is minecraft jargon, @ps, command blocks, super speed potions etc

IZZY
Random gippering with the odd word thrown in. Even harder when she is upset and crying to work it out.

Proud of Penny

Penny got star of the week last week. I know that by the end of the year every child will get it for something, but is it is absolutely fab that she has got it. She received for reading and phonics. It is amazing how quickly she has progressed since September. She is now spelling and reading basic words. One of her favourite games at the moment is to play teacher, so she must be enjoying school.

In other news James has his first wobbly tooth. With the amount of apples he is eating at the moment it will soon be out.

Parents Evening (between the lines)

Parents evening tonight, all was good, no problem. Here are a few things that was said and I have read between the lines.

Penny

Takes her role as one of the older one very seriously and help run the class. (Bossy).

Has recently widened her friendship group. (Fallen out with her firend and has had to rethink who she plays with).

Her confidence had increased. (She has got louder).

James

Is eager to finish his work. (Rushes and can make mistakes).

Increase in confidence. (Louder).

Likes to share his ideas and always thinks he is right. (Thinks he is always right whatever anyone else says, even when proof is in front of him).

Thankfully these are only minor things and both children are doing well, settled in nicely and are happy. James is enjoying lessons and sharing his ideas and show enthusiasm. He reading is coming along nicely. Penny is bubbly, confident, she listens well and responds appropriately.  She is doing well with her phonics and numbers. 

Both John and I are very please and proud of both of them. They are doing brilliantly.

Back to School

After 6 weeks of Summer fun, the kids are heading back to school. Penny is starting reception and James is heading into Year 2.
Penny has been excited about school all Summer, mostly because she gets to have her lunch there and to see Ruth. James, not so much. Penny went straight in holding hand with her friend without so much as a look back. James, however was teary and clingly, so was pushed in by me. It feels mean, but if I had fussed it would only have made him worse. He is normally fine within 5 mins but even though I know this it does stop me thinming about how he is getting on for most of the day.
Both Iz and I will miss them both. Roll on October Hols.

Rainy day

Rain and the cold has put playing in the paddling pool on hold so for something different to entertain the kids had a go at cake decorating.
I mixed a few different colours up. Minecraft colours for James and pink for Pen, gave them cutters, rolling pin and let them go.
These are the results.

They tasted great too.

Summer fun.

As we took our main holiday at Easter, we are staying much closer to home during the holidays.
Today we tried some of the free things which are in Sleaford. First we ventured to the National craft and design centre. Every Tuesday they have a family workshop based on dressing up. This week it is millinery. Penny (James was ill) was able to design and created her own hat, she based it on pink (see below).
Then we had lunch followed by a trip to the library to sign up for the Summer Reading Challenge. The children have to read 6 books over Summer, along the way they get smelly stickers and at the end a medal. We also found out that esch morning the library does junk modelling, which we will try and get to next week. Then we headed to the park for a play. All in all a very good day. Looking forward to next week.

Pennys hat, but not her jacket, they had dressing up clothes.

Penny is 4. Yay

After nearly a year of wait she has finally made it to 4.

We organised a party for the afternoon. The excitment got a bit too much for her and 10min before the party she conked out.

But soon got into the swing of things once people arrived. Pressie first, followed by making crowns. Then luckly enough the sun was out so a play in the garden. Followed by pass the parcel, hunt the eggs and musical statues.
It was the most relaxed party I have done there were 4 friend from school, Beth and 2 siblings James ages.
We got her a Sylvanian family boat, hula hoop, Jess outfit and flying fairy. She also recieved horse riding lesson, horse dancing barbie, post office and fuzzy felt, aqua beads and colour bag, glimmies, fairy, dogs and play dough and lego. She was very lucky.

Cowgirl Penny

For Pennys 4th birthday Grandma got her a horse riding lesson. She absolutely loved it and wants to go again. She was able to kick and get the horse to trot, had a go at standing up and down and held the reins correctly.

Think we might have started a very expensive hobby.

Easter eggs

Penny won an Easter colouring competition and received an chocolate egg. Yay.

Penny's masterpiece.

However, she can't have chocolate, so forward planning me got a dairy free one and stashed it away until she picked it her prize. The one she won has a butterfly on it, when I tried to swap it with her, her bottom lip started to wobble. "But I love blutterbies." Then she ask if I could break it and take James' milk out and put her milk in. When I explained we can't she started to get sad again. So hopefully I made a solution. It isn't great but it might work. This is my attempt at a butterfly egg.

Fingers crossed

Easter Celebration

James and Penny had their Easter celebration show today. It was the first time I have seen Penny perform as I was working at the Christmas play. They were both great. James had the vital role of the sound effect of a kiss in the sound effect role of Judas. Penny's class did songs and the story of Little Red Riding Hood. They also sang the Spring Chicken song. Great stuff. They seem to have both settled in beautifully. I'm sp proud of them.

Mummy Penny

Penny has recently enjoyed playing Mummy's with her babies. Up until now she her dollies have sat under her bed. Apart from Dolly who never leaves her side.
This is Penny feeding her baby.

Spa, picnics and Wooki es.

We have started our Summer holidays early. Thanks to a wowcher voucher i managed to get 5 hours at Belton Wood Spa for 2 people for  £12 including pastries and coffee. Bargain. Col and I went there Wednesday. Really enjoyed catching up and chilling out. The spa was OK, bit rough round the edges, building work was going on which didn't help. The pool was lovely though.
Yesterday Jamés was at the zoo with school so we ventured out to Belton house for aa play and picnic. Penny enjoyed all the attention, we even when on the train.
Penny has been watching Star Wars, thanks to Uncle Rod, both James and Penny play Where's Wooki while watching it. Much to my amusment and John embarrassment Penny has taken to shouting "there's Wooki." at men with beards.

8 months

My little baby is getting more mobile by the day. In the last few weeks she has gone from a wobbly sitting position surrounded by cushions for protection to humping her bottom in a weird shuffle while sitting to get about to realising if she is sitting up and leans forward on to her tummy she can reach things. While she on her tummy she can spin herself round like a parashooter. I think it will only be days before she figures out that if she lifts her tummy up she will be able to crawl. I wonder if she will go backwards like her brother did.
Other news, Penny is back to her normal self, I think the chicken pox wore her out, hence the major tantrums. Luckily she is back to her fun loving self. Today she was mainly wearing her Skye from Paw Patrol costume. She acts like a dog and demands pats, flying and pup treats. She is a funny little thing.

"I'm a big girl."

On Wednesday my little girl turns 3. Very exciting as since James birthday she knows birthdays mean a special day and cake. As she doesn't have friends as yet, we are doing a few different things.
Today Nanny and Grandad George visited and we had cake. Later Cat Grandma, Marley and Col Col came to play so we had more cake. Tomorrow we are heading to Wheelgate for a fun day out. On Wednesday their will be presents and more cake and Grandma and Grandad Terry are coming for tea.

Crocodile

Penny came screaming and running through, announcing we have a crocodile in the kitchen.
Me "It's a stick."
Penny "No, crocodile"
Me "No, it's a stick."
Penny "No scary crocodile."
Me "No, it's a stick, look." (Going to touch it)
Penny "NO NOT NOT,  it's asleep shhhh."

We now have a sleeping pet crocodile/stick we can't move or touch into the middle of our kitchen.

Penny's first day at nursery.

Another first in our family this morning. Penny had her first day at nursery. As we both wanted to see her off we dropped James off at school. He went in a lot better this morning, still clingy but giggling with it rather than lots of tears. As normal there was a bottleneck of parents trying to sort their children out, tackling bags, book bags, indoor shoes and coats, myself included. As a result we were 15mins late to nursery,  whoops, nog the ideal start. Anyway, after a quick kiss and cuddle she toddled in with out looking back.
With a child free morning I decided to treat myself to a book and a cream tea in the village. Knickers to the housework.
On pick Pen up, she had had a few teary moments when she had realised that we weren't there. But she said she enjoyed it and played with trains. I think she will be ok when she gets use to it.

First words

Penny has begun to talk, if she is anything like James we will have difficulty stopping her.
Her offical first word was ta. Which she would repeat after we gave her something. We also have Daddy. She hasn't mastered Mummy yet, so I can put my feet up while. We also have hiya and hello.
We often get repetition of sounds, we say bath she repeats the ba sound.
I'm slightly concerned that she doesnt have any teeth yet.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY PENNY

My gorgous daughter is today. We have had a lovely day. This morning she (with lots of help from James) opened her presents. We got her a sand pit, James got her a bucket and spade, Grandma Greenaway got her a castle which has ball that spin round it, Grandad Dennis got her a interactive Noahs ark which James is using as a dock unloading cement. Grandad and Nanny came for dinner. They got her lots of clothes, as did Holly, Vic, Mum. Mum also got her a pushchair and doll. Col got her a babies bed and highchair which she has figured out already, even though dolly is upside down most of the time. It was lovely seeing Grandad and Nanny as we don't get to see them as offen as we like. 

Col, Marley, Grandma Dennis, Holly and 3 week old Beth came for tea. Penny had a lovely time playing, though she needed a nap mid way though. Tea was very yummy. James and Marley played at having babies. They were sticking teddies up their jumpers and having them. I think seeing Beth had an impact. Both of them had a little cuddle and stroke. James and Penny are now exhausted and tucked up in bed.