Holibobs

I am staying at Papa and Toot's with the bears for a week. The bears are being truly Wild, but still, we are having a LOT of fun!

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Busy times

Hello! I have a load of photos sitting in my email, but I can't download them for some reason, so a little substitution will henceforth occur:

It is the first Monday of the summer holidays. We have mislaid one of the Wii remotes, FHB and the Mouse have been fighting like mortal enemies for three days, the house is a filth pit from the depths of Hades, there are a lot of Hama beads underfoot making life a little uncomfortable without shoes and it is not quite pay day. Good start.

So today will herald a ferocious clean-up and the arrival of Papa and Toot this afternoon. Hallelujiah! Tomorrow we are all going to meet my Dad at the Science Museum to see the Apollo rocket. FHB is very excited.

In the mean time...

:: I apologise for writing crappy short phone blogs- I don't know where my time has gone, but the phone seems to be the way to continue blogging through busy times.

:: I have started three new crochet projects and finally finished all the large grannies needed for my blanket. Just 123 4-round squares to go. A crochet catch-up will follow at some point.

:: We have had some lovely afternoons on the beach- impromptu times, in school uniform, no towels, no way of drying off dingbat boys who insist in going in up tot heir shoulder fully clothed.

:: Fish n chips have also been consumed on the beach. W is working on the far side of London at the moment, which makes for a long commute and little time with the kids on week days. Whenhe can get away a little early we meet up on the shore for a picnicky tea and a run around in the fresh air. Last time, Custard sat in the ketchup.

:: My yarn habit is persisting. I have about 200 new balls of the stuff. Most of it is already earmarked and I am wondering if I could get away with going back for a third time.

:: FHB seems unable to sit down. Small boys should come fitted with restraining bolts like R2-D2.

:: The bears have discovered Home Alone. I am subjected to re-enactments of the aftershave scene about twenty times a day. It is very noisy.

:: I am tired already. You can't rest and regroup when you have four children- they need to go out every day and run around like puppies. I need a week somewhere sunny, flopped by a pool with a book, a hook and my husband only.

:: Then perhaps another week with the kids too.

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Oops I did it again

So I went back to the wool shop. I rarely get to buy posh yarn as I can't justify the cost- anyway, I now have enough to keep me hooking for a couple of years:

Oops!

This morning I went to town to buy a bit of ribbon. I had to modify my Summer Breeze slightly and I thought the ribbon would be just the thing. More of that another day...

The wool shop had a sale.

Oh. Dear.

:: 10 balls pink dk Patagonian hand dyed cotton
::  10 balls pink and blue chunky of the same
:: 10 balls Orange same
:: 10 balls oatmeal same
:: 10 balls dark brown same
:: 10 balls Orange and yellow same
:: 15 balls denim Sublime organic merino chunky
:: 15 balls oatmeal same.

I went in to spend 40p and came out 90 quid lighter!

It's all so scrummy, I'm going to gaze at it and stroke it all for a bit before I use it. Mmmm.

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Pinkness

Look what W treated me to last week...

**Squeal**

I am in love...

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

Like seemingly everyone else in the world at the moment, I am struggling to find time for anything other than school activities. We are all suffering from tiredness and grumpiness and a need to do nothing for a week or two. Five days of school left...

Amongst all the school stuff I managed to finish making a blouse and shorten some trousers today. I also did some therapeutic baking and am now going to have a jolly good sit down...x

Big day out for Bears

Being gluttons for punishment, the day after taking the bears to London, Papa, Toot, W and myself took the bears to our local beachy theme park. W's brother, our sister-in-law and our niece joined us too as it is Tink's Best-Day-Out-Ever place.

We had a fab day- lots of rides, a slap-up fish 'n' chip lunch courtesy of Papa, more rides, ice cream, more rides. After about five hours, the little ones were exhausted. There were tears. While everyone else went home for tea and a bath, Toot and I stayed out with the boys for another hour and a half, during which I had to have another go on the hair-raising upside-down-twisty-turny rollercoaster from hell with FHB. He was a very excited boy because it was the first time he had been big enough to go on the grown-up rides.

Now, I love a rollercoaster, but going on one with a very skinny seven year old is scary. I knew he was at no risk of falling out, but even so, I was hanging on to him all the way round incase he slipped his skinny little body through the safety seat. Heart in mouth time for me!

Anyway, all was well, obviously, and he had a tremendous time. His favourite bit was when he made me go on the water flume and I got soaked from my waist down. He owes me a bag of donuts for that!

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And again...

This morning Miss T and I went and bought a new bike. I am SOOOO EXCITED! I collect it tomorrow. Eeeek!

Then we had an ice cream on the beach while I told W how much I'd spent.

He was very understanding!

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Dinosaur Day

Friday was a teacher training day, so the bears had an extra day off school.  'I know', says I, enthusiastically, 'Let's go and see the dinosaurs!'

I basked in the glory of being A Popular Mum for a couple of days. The bears were excited and I was very much looking forward to seeing them myself, it's been a while.

Friday morning dawned...the bears had a punch up because Custard had lost his cagoule and refused to wear his old coat. FHB swapped. Then swapped back. All hell broke loose. I separated the boys. Mouse got angry because I wouldn't let her wear my coat. She pulled the pig face. I shouted. By eight thirty I felt ashamed. I tried to sort out FHB's ipod for the train journey. I am not good with technology. We had a slight contretemps. I realised I am not far away from him having to explain how to use the remote control to me.

We eventually left. I got on the train with my children. They sang 'Hey Jude' loudly all the way into London, much to the amusement of some teenagers sitting next to us. I don't know whether I am proud or slightly embarrassed.

We met Papa and Toot and managed to get across town to the Natural History Museum. Then we set a new record- we entered the main hall and lost Custard within thirty seconds of being in the building. Mine and Toot's voices rang from the rafters and a small boy appeared from nowhere, saying, 'I was just lookin' at the dinosaur'.

It is (always) a brilliant dinosaur.

Turned out the main dinosaur gallery was bloody well closed for a 'Spring clean'. Didn't they know we were coming? Papa staved off an explosion by treating us all to tickets to the new dinosaur exhibition, complete with moving, ROARING, dinosaurs. Turned out Miss T likes a walking, talking dinosaur, but is not so keen on skellingtons: 'Me scared, Mummy'. Just as well the normal gallery was closed then.

We had a great time at the museum, despite the fact that all my children appear to have bladder problems which manifest at different times, resulting in all their grown-ups spending what feels like half a day at least taking small, sticky, jiggling children to the toilet.

What did they like best in the whole museum? The earthquake experience? No, too realistic. The dinosaurs? No, too dark. The volcanoes? No. The fossils? No...  No, what they liked best was the stuffed panda in the cafe, who died in 1972. Go figure.

And the shop. Always the shop. After half an hour of FHB trying to choose between a torch and a pencil I wanted to crawl off and cry.

Anyway...

Then we had the Custard-needs-a-poo-and-there-is-no-toilet-nearby-I-think-I-might-throttle-him-incident; then we met W, who treated us all to pizza. During the meal we took the kids to the toilet a total of 12 times between us. And I had to throw away a pair of Miss T's trousers. Fun!

By the time we got home, Mouse was hysterically tired, Custard was vocally beyond that and W and I bought a bottle of gin.

I had a lovely day you know, and I brought home the same amount of children I started off with. Success!

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How to get a quiet afternoon

...with four exhausted children:

Ups and downs with Miss T

When my youngest child is not being deeply naughty she is tremendously good fun. Yesterday I was quite out of temper with her due to the flooding of my hallway with the entire contents of a LARGE bucket of dirty mop water, a trip to Tesco which would have been easier to have done with a load of baboons, and the need to clean the downstairs cloakroom (the whole thing- not just the toilet- the walls, the floor, the door too) not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES due to her pig-headedness in refusing to ask for assistance when she needs a poo.

Hmm.

Anyway, I was sitting here feeling Extremely Irritated, looking at my photos from the last week and suddenly I realised I was not cross anymore. Because you know what? Being at home with my children is good fun most of the time, and who wouldn't rather be doing this:

or admiring this:

than working?

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Chevron lace cardi

This has been finished for a while now, but I cannot for the life of me get a nice picture of me wearing it. I look like a moose in all of them. So, for now, here it it is on a hanger. This photo does it no justice- it is a not great photo, but it is a lovely cardi, looks really nice on and I have had loads of compliments when wearing it. Even the scary ladies in my LYS asked me if I had made it and what pattern it was because it was so nice- SHOCKER!!!!

My Summer Breeze is coming along nicely too- it is Very Pink:

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Summertime buys

Popped into town with Miss T this morning for a mooch round the charity shops. Bought a milk glass gravy boat, some fabric, linen trousers and some flat peaches (obviously not from a charity shop). I am very pleased with myself because nothing I bought was sludge coloured.

Excuse me, I am going to go and consume the peaches. They smell soooo good...x

Dream home

Last weekend we went for a walk along the seafront. Along with the joy (*shakes head*) of taking Custard for a walk I got to ogle the house that I am going to live in when I am a grown up (when we win the lottery, obviously).

I Want It ! Look at its lovely boxy lines and big sea-gazing windows. I want a Le Corbusier lounger in those windows. And a telescope. And a tulip table and an egg chair and and and......

I bet there's no crayon on the walls or play doh in the carpet.

Dreaming....x

Things to do with a pillowcase: Part 3

Make another bag. A messenger style one this time. I folded it in half width ways and lopped off about a third of it. I seamed the open side so I had a bag with two pockets and used the long bit I cut off to make a strap. A button and a bit of ric rac and voila:

I had a bit of pillowcase left from doing it- just enough to make a Kindle cover. I put a bit of wadding inbetween layers of cotton. It's lo-tec, but I love it:

What next, I wonder? 

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Perfect dinner

Last night we had peach, Parma ham and mozzarella salad, with homemade, very thin, potato, mozzarella, rosemary and salt pizza. Just. So. Good!

And wine, of course.

If you can't BE in Italy, eat like you are!

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