Funny Izzy

Well Izzy is now three. She is a happy little thing. She loves her teddies and like her Aunt Col her bed is full up and there is hardy any room for her. Her favourite is rabbit who despite being loved the most is the one who always gets lost. Last night we when to Lincoln she dropped him and we had a mad hunt round. Fortunately, some one had kindly placed him on the side of a wall to be picked up. As well as teddies, she likes her dolls and taking all the furniture out of the dolls house to have a party.

She also say eyebulbs for eyes and her favourite food is sausages.

Funny Izzy

Just to set the scene.

Izzy in the garden, holding rabbit teddy. A real rabbit is hopping in the garden.

Me: Iz, look there is the rabbit. (Pointing to rabbit on the grass)

(Iz looks at rabbit).

Me: It looks like your rabbit.

Iz: (looks confused).

Me: Like the rabbit in your hand.

Iz: (looks in the empty hand).

Me: No, the rabbit in other hand.

Iz: (Swaps rabbit over to the empty hand, then looks in the now empty hand for a rabbit).

Me: (gives up).

James' first film

Using a Stop Start app, James, with a little help from me, has make a Minerrant animation.
Here it is...

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.

Sunshine at last

For the last two days the weather has been fairly warm and sunny, yay. We have managed to mow the lawn. The kids have been pulling out alloyds the garden toys. Izzy, my little outdoorsy person, is loving it. I have managed to get to the allotment, once all of us. Joh no dug a big patch over and I weeded the strawberries. The this afternoon on my own. I managed to dig a little patch. Penny and Izzy planned a some lettuce, leeks, edible flowers runner beans and chives in some pots.
Feeling a lot more active in this weather, might not tomorrow after all the digging though.

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.

Beamish

I love it here, I wish it was closer to us. Beamish is an open air museum. It is set out like different  areas, representing different time periods. The town is Edwardian, complete with sweet shop, bakery, bike shop, pub, dentist, haberdashery, grocers and lot of others. People are milling round dressed up and 100 year old trams, busses, bikes and cars are driving round. The place is amazing.
There is also a train station with a steam train. James loved standing on the bridge and catching the train smoke. I think he would have stayed there all day. His nose was black at the end of the day.
There was a few old fashioned rides to go on. Further round a WW2 farm, complete with land girls and animals. A pit village with a mine, school and houses. A hall and waggon way, which we didn't get round to seeing.
While we were there, there was a steam WW1 event. So a recruitment officer put kids through the paces.
We even had the sun shining.

Summer Holidays

Last week we went to Hartlepool for our Summer holiday. Except to was snowing and raining and gale force winds. Apart from that we had a fab time.
We stopped at Crimdon Dene ParkDean site, nice site, but the facilities were small for the amount of people. The kids loved the entertainers, dancing, games and amusements. James was allowed the freedom of going in the arcades on his own or with his friend with his own money (we are beginning to loosen the apron strings).

Happy Easter

Lego master piece.

It took a while, but between us we managed to complete the battleship.

Snow day

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to have some snow, enough for the schools to close for 2 days. Yay. Unfortunately, Izzy wasn't able to play as she was poorly with suspected scarlott fever. But a few week later it snowed again and her and Penny were able to make a snowman and go on the sledge.

Happy birthday James.

Last Tuesday, my lovely little boy turned 7, no longer little. Thankfully he still like cuddles and snuggles up against you on the sofa, enjoys sitting on my knee at any opportunity and insists that I help him with his lego.

He is no angel, but he can be helpful, funny and charming. He is clever and friendly and a fantastic big brother. We are so luck he is in our family as he brightens it up everyday.

His birthday party was at home and minecraft themed, cake, balloons, games and lots of friends and food.

Oh dear, sweeties gone.

Sneaky Izzy. Popped her in bed, I went downstairs. I heard her get out of bed and go into our room, the back to her own room. Then her hear her do it again. Few minutes later,  she came downstairs. So I popped her back. While hunting for her menagerie of teddies, I put my hand under her pillow only to feel something lump on the inside of the case. When checking it was full of Smarties. She had been sneaking into our room, where there was a tube from Christmas still hanging around and collecting them. Anyway, I let her eat them, snuggled her back in and when back downstairs, with the smarties . Minutes later, I hear the patter of feet going to our room and a sad voice saying"Oh dear, sweeties gone." Then off she goes to sleep.

Christmas 2018

Penny was up at 3.45am luckily there was a slight nod to the fact Santa had been (she didn't bring her stocking in) then snuggle sleepily in between us. Which meant I go no sleep for the rest of the night.

James pops up with an excited "Santa been". Bit dismayed at us shushing him as Penny was still asleep. 10mins later they are both ripping paper off. Katie popped in to join us (quite a bed full).

They woke Izzy at 7 to open hers. She has yet to understand the Father Christmas leaves presents but she certainly know who Father Christmas is. 

Then flying downstairs to a mass of presents. 

James - Nexo lego, Minecraft toys and books and a tablet.

Penny - large Barbie house, mermaid and fancy dress.

Izzy - Ice cream cart, Peppa pig and robots.

Mummy - coffee machine, handbag and gin.

Daddy - London trip, blanket and books

Katie - dress, and tools

Rod - truffle food and tools

Katie and Rod went home and we headed for Christmas dinner at the Red Lion. It was yummy. Poor Grandad didn't get a look in at his cheese board though.

Afternoon more presents and games. 

A busy day but very enjoyable. 

Boxing day we headed to John dads. For tea and more gifts. Then John mums on the 28th. FoLlowes by a party on New Years day with Hol and Vic and families. Lastly Col and Marley. 

Now the decorations are away and the last of the food is being munched. Today the kids and me went back to school. It is all over too quickly. 

Christmas past

When I was little one of the best bits of Christmas was seeing the huge (there was three of us) pile of presents that Father Christmas had left us. We also had a huge stocking or in our case pillow case which had PJs, slippers, books and our new Christmas day clothes in.
Morning was normally an early start with my more excitable sister waking us up with a cry of "Santa been" Sometimes I would wake up briefly in the night and feel the weight of the stocking on my toes then snuggle back to sleep knowing he had been.  One year much to my sisters horror I slept until 9.00 and she had to wait down stairs with the gifts not allowed to open them untill I emerged.
Around 4ish Col wold wake, yellow, go to Mum and Dads room only to be sent back to bed. Half an hour later she would try again with the same results by 5.30 Mum and dad would have given up on trying to sleep and say that she can open her stocking. At this point Katie and I would get up (no heating in our house so never go out of bed too soon) and we would all go into their bed and squish in. Pillowcases would soon be unwrapped. Dad would let mum out one of his gifts. Mum would then get up and lit the fire and put the oven on. We would probably be sent back to bed for a bit.
Downstairs we would have to wait for everyone to go in together Mum and dad already in the room. As a grown up I not understand that this was too see our faces when we saw all the presents. They were always bundled high and all three would be m8xed up together so you had to find yours.
We would all out them different. Col would rip the paper off, cast aside the gift and go straight to the next. I would take my time and look at each thinges. I always be the last one to finish. The advantage of this being that the other would look on enviously however, if there was a gift where the others got the same Col would past me the presents and say what was inside until Mum yelled at her to stop.
At lunch family would visit (as we got older we took in turns visiting) and Mum would feed us the proper Christmas dinner. Then it was more presents, this time family once. As I got older this became my favourite part. It was nice seeing people unwrap gift from you. From quite young we alway brought mum and dad a present. One year we was allowed to buy Dads on our own in Woollies. 
Then tea would be cold meat and salad the best bit being the seafood platter. After that board games until late.

Christmas it nearly here

The kids are now off school and a mixture of chaos and illness has entered the house. Poor Penny missed her school pantof and play due to tummy bug and her dreadful cough. Izzy now has it and my clothes has a constant slimy trail along them.
The kids are bouncing off the walls, but luckily they are eager to help around the house. They all like dusting, hoovering and baking.

We have an activity advent calender, everyday a different Christmas craft or activity, though if I'm feeling a little lazy I do pop a sweet in. So far we have vi sited reindeer, Father Christmas,  made a Christmas cake and decorated it, made gingerbread men, did a treasure hunt, saw the light switch on, grew crystal Christmas tree, made fudge, made and painted tree decorations and door hangers. Still a few things to go. Including making reindeer food, hot chocolate gifts and the all important gingerbread house.

They say thing come in threes. Well our heating has gone just when the snow hit, the washing machine packed up, then we has problems with Currys replacing the new one which arrived damaged. The car is also playing up and I never know if it will start or if it will have heating. Brrrrr

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.

Cbeebies Panto Fun.

We are not in a Christmassy mood, thanks to a trip to see Cbeebies Panto. I was lucky enough to get tickets from the lottery draw. 376,000 people applied for tickets. So we were thrilled to get to see it last Saturday.

It was an early start as we gphad to travel to Leicester. We also had to wear our party dress and Christmas jumpers. Only mishap was we forgot the kids coat and had to buy Penny.a new one. We thought we were looking at a morning of queuing, but thankful they were well organised and we waited only 40mins before we were issused with ticket and seat numbers. After that we wandered around the Snow Queen themed activites that Cbeebies had put on. 

There were people dressed up in strange and odd costumes. Penny was a little shy to begin with, it was all a little too different for her. We did a treasure hunt and collected letters to win a prize of a swashbuckler set. A quick stop of popcorn, lunch and a coffee for me and Col, then we made crowns and headed outside. Outside was a snow storm, which my lot loved. We all had a go at ice skating for the first time. Starting very carefully using the penguins to balance. Marley quickly skating off, having no fear of tumbling down. James and Penny also ditched the penguin to have a go on their own. It was loved by all of them. They had a go in the circus hut, juggling, hoops, spinning plates and diablos.

Then it was back to the theatre for the show. It was great. We saw lots of our favourite characters, including Mr. Tumble and silly Cook and Lime. We were taught a song and the actions and joined in during the preformance. The kids loved it. We are all hoping to spot ourselves on telly when it is shown at Christmas. 

Afterwards we braved going to a Vietnamese restaurant. The kids got to eat with chopstic,s with Penny thought was great. She has taken some to show her teacher. 

It was a great day. All of the children behaved fantastically. We are really proud of them. 

October Half Term

So much for a quiet week, chilling out.
We have been to Wheelgate park for a Halloween treat, rides and play. Followed by bowling with Grandma Janet. James won. We have made halloween pumpkins. Visited Holly and Beth for a play. Been to Whisby nature walk and picnic with Marley and Col. Penny has been horse riding and James has been experimenting.
Busy busy.