Rollin'

Me, an upended footstool, twelve balls of cotton, a chip basket for yarn ends and a large glass of cold white wine:

Next comes the fun part...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!

x

Feeding the birds

Yesterday. Chocolate fingers and shortbread. Outside my LYS.
SQUAWK!
X

Sunny Saturday

We went down to my Mum and Dad's at the weekend. W and my Dad went off to Cardiff to watch the rugby, leaving me and my Mum to entertain the bears.
Thank goodness the sun was shining! They ran around like lunatics for hours until they went purple and sweaty. Nice!
They truly were wild bears.
Luckily I keep antiseptic cream and sting cream in my bag, and you know, Custard didn't Actually break his patella, and the bird poo did come off, and really, one ruined dress, two pairs of pants, about 16 ice pops, a tub of play doh, two melons, a punnet of strawberries and about half a bottle of whisky isn't a bad price to pay...
Bleeding does stop after a while, and I did manage to get the bees out of the car.
X

Beachiness and bad barbecues

Hello! It has been a busy busy week for us, and I have only just had time to sit down and write about last weekend.

We had some friends over with their scrummy baby and took a Sunday trip to the beach. Let's have a barbie, we said, the weather's been great, we said, let's eat up the last of the wagyu beef on the beach, we said.

Well, we had an hour on the beach. The four of us adults spent half that time wrestling with an oversize wind break, which we eventually realised we could not use because it would not stand up in the soft sand. The bears climbed the rocks, underneath the big sign saying 'DANGER, DO NOT CLIMB ROCKS'. The adults sat on the blankets and drank coffee. The kids dug sand near the blankets. The sand ended up in the coffee. The coffee crunched.

We stoically ordered W to light the barbie. A beach warden poked his head over the sea wall and said we could not have the barbie on the beach, we had to go up onto the grass above. Which proved useful because that way W (down to his last match) met the Polish man with the parafin who lit the barbie for us while nearly losing his eyebrows. (Don't try this at home folks!)

With both our husbands being important with a barbecue, My friend and I were left with:

4 children on foot
1 baby in a large buggy
4 blankets
2 bags of clothes
1 enormous bag of buckets and spades
1 bag of shoes
1 cool bag full of posh beef
2 picnic bags
1 VERY large hamper

-to carry back up to the picnic area. We managed it- needs must, and the weather had started to turn and we were hungry.

Sometime later W slapped several chunks of wagyu beef down infront of us. Mmmmm. Really good. The treatiest of beef. We savoured it. For about three minutes. Then it got Windy. The baby started crying. Custard cut himself with a butter knife. Miss T started a mantra of 'Me freeeeezing'. We wrapped her in a blanket. Then the plates blew away. Then W said: Ooh, if you look over there you can see the rain. It'll be here in about eight minutes.

It was there in seven.

W and our friends scooped up all five kids and ran for the cars. I played donkey and carried the luggage. I got wet.

Do you know, we had A Great Day! Loads of fun, truly unforgettable...for whatever reasons!

Hope you had a great weekend too, whatever you were doing...x

A big weekend for bears

Hello! Hope you had a lovely weekend. We did!

Mud run...hanging out on the beach with the best kids ever...W and Lulu coming back to shore, wet and muddy...Adventure Island...FHB in the Best Place For Him...rollercoasters...old skool fun...new fountain on the seafront providing much entertainment for all...also-two birthday cakes; an evening with great friends and many margheritas whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest; fish n chips; a slap up curry...aah- good times...x

Quick camping

Doesn't the week fly by when you're doing a proper job? Sunday night already- I can't believe it! I've been filling my few quiet moments with crochet. A bit of one WiP here, a bit of another there. I need another big project to sink my hook into so sometime this week I will probably start my Summer Breeze cardi. I've been looking forward to it for so long!

The bears have been away at Papa and Toot's for the last few days, so W and I have caught up on sleep and relaxed a bit, whilst seriously missing them. The house feels far too big and quiet without my noisy, sticky children haring around.

Anyway, they got back yesterday and have just been pinging off the walls ever since. Today was beautiful and sunshiney, but W and I had quite a few jobs to do, so it was a housey day. I decided the bears should be outside, so I made them a tent.

For ages I have had grand plans of sewing them a lovely lined tent or teepee, all very complicated and unlikely. Today I seized the moment and grabbed an old duvet cover (W's sister's college one, it turns out), split the long seams and hung it over the washing line. Job done and a quiet afternoon followed during which all of my kids and then all of my sister-in-laws kids too, played and picniced merrily in the tent.

Splendid!

Hope you had a fab weekend too...x

The weekend challenge II

Hello! Hope you have had a wonderful weekend. We did this:

Good kids=a challenge mostly met. Given that it was Mothering Sunday I pulled rank on the kids and we went back to the beach again in the morning- it seemed a waste not to make the most of a beautiful sunshiney day. We have promised them the park on Thursday, with bikes. Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

x

A weekend challenge

On Friday I wrote this on the wall:

I wonder if we'll achieve them...x

NB: I wrote this on Saturday morning and meant to post it yesterday, but frankly ran out of steam!

In which we realise that six is quite grown-up

Well hello! It is a pleasant and peaceful Sunday here in the house of bears. W and FHB went out this morning for a bike ride so I did a little baking:

And a little crocheting:

There is a lamby stew in the slow cooker, a child friendly film on the telly, and a living room full of small children doing (as Mouse put it) different things, together:

FHB (age 6 1/2) was found playing a Star Wars game on the laptop.

Me: Oh, I didn't know we had a Star Wars game on the laptop.

FHB: I downloaded it.

Me and W (together): You did what? How?

FHB (smugly): Oh, I just went onto Bing and typed Star Wars Clone Wars into the search bar and up it came.

Me (part horrified, part impressed): Well, guess we'd better sort out some parental filters then.

Apart from the thick patina of dirt that I now need to deal with following the excavation of two small dinosaurs, the world is my oyster today.

Look I have even had time to finally take some photos of my lovely magnolia:

And to enjoy the fruits of my earliers labours, with a cup of weasel poo coffee in one of my brand new charity shop cups (that Papa and Toot treated me to yesterday- thank you!)

To cap it all off, Miss T has just done a wee in her potty! Yay!

Happy days...x

SprIIIIIIng!

Today we wore T-shirts on the beach and dabbled our toes in the sea. We had raspberries and tea, Hula Hoops and ice cream, kicked the football about and collected stones.

Then we came home and had lunch in the garden.

Oh yes, Spring has sprung, though I've got no photos to prove it, because I'm rubbish! x

What can I say about Wednesdays?

Today has held some lovely moments: Custard telling me that 'Daddy has tongle-itis'; Miss T telling me 'Lub oo'; getting the supermarket shopping done wothout any shouting, climbing or escapees; taking a quiet hour to finish the top I was making (more of that another day).

But, and here's the rub, today has also held some classic Wednesdayisms: Custard kicking Miss T in the face; Custard telling me I am an idiot (an old favourite, making a welcome return); Custard having a tantrum on the street; Mouse hating everyone (loudly); Custard disappearing for five minutes during the busy school run (wearing a brown jacket so he was pretty much camouflaged); Miss T telling me: 'not fred more' (You are not my friend anymore) at least a thousand times; the discovery that we need a not-unexpected-but-rather-more-immediate-than-we-thought MOT tomorrow, which has completely ruined my plans for the day. And then. of course, there was Swimming. Grr.

I am sitting in my living room listening to my children in the kitchen. They are drinking hot chocolate and squabbling about nothing at all, very loudly. My ears hurt. I want a glass of wine Right Now.

Close eyes, press fingers to temples, deep breath.

Let's look at a photo from the weekend shall we? This is FHB and his cousin, my Niece-who-has-no-plan. She was four and we had fireworks:

Look- FHB has magic coming out of his fingers!

x

In which I cannot work my camera

Hello! I had a bit of a blog hiatus over the weekend, mainly because I thought my camera was broken. We did lots of lovely things with the kids- a long muddy wander through the woods; a good climbing session at a newly installed adventure playground; a trip to a teeny tiny farmer's market and a subsequent exploration of a town we thought we might move to one day (we decided we won't); W and the kids made pasta- FHB and the Mouse showed little continuing interest, whereas (surprisingly), Custard proved very useful for the prolonged turning of the handle. Sunday tea for W and I brought a pile of the best cheese scones I have ever made and a lemon meringue pie of epic proportions.

I would have shown you all of this, except my camera was broken. I charged the battery. I put it in, took it out, open and shut the lens cover, swore a bit:

Me (grumpy): My ---- camera is broken. It's only 6 ------ months old.

W (takes camera from me): Let me see. (Turns battery around and switches camera on) There. It helps if you put the battery in the right way round (Smiles, smugly).

Ahem.

Anyway...Monday brought one poorly Mouse and a bit of a write off of a day, but today? Oooh, it is Lovely! Blue skies, the definate promise of Spring in the air, three children at school, a clean house (well, I had to do something yesterday), and orders from W to go and buy myself some new plimsolls and jeans, because everything I own seems to be falling apart. I am also under orders to replenish FHB's wardrobe because as the boy himself tells me- he's growing like a weed.

Shopping!

I have been such a good girl for the past couple of months, so any sort of interesting shopping, especially shopping that I do not have to feel guilty about, is Pretty Exciting!

This morning Miss T and I have been to Matalan. Not the world's most glamorous shop I admit, but when you have six people to clothe, it is all good. Look...

Flowery Shoes! In the garden!

Miss T and I had a bag of chocolate buttons and a drink out there this morning. It was so nice. I do not think I have been out there to Just Sit since October. I did, however, discover that there is quite a lot of work to be done out there. There always is. Four children and a cat carve up the grass to a point where we have seriously considered astro-turf.

I did find one small, not entirely healthy looking patch of crocus (croci? crocuses?), but it is, at least, a sign that Spring is around the corner:

Tomorrow brings a trip to Next (for me) and H&M (for FHB). Woo!
x

Edited to add:

I have just collected FHB and Mouse from school.

FHB:  Ooh, Mummy, I like your new flowery shoes.

Me (pleased): Thanks! I got them today.

FHB: Yeah, they're cool. You look like you should be going to play darts.

Me: Darts?

FHB: Yeah, you know, somewhere really cool like a darts club.

Me: crushed.

Four!

A very good Monday morning to you! My head is all whizzy this morning and I am having problems preventing my eyes from rolling backwards- we are all extremely tired. This weekend one Captain Custard turned four, so much fun was had, along with quivering excitement and little sleep.

W went to see this:

on Saturday, so my mum and I spent the day entertaining the bears with a bit of this:

and this:

Custard's favourite Birthday Item is this:

a card from his Aunt and Uncle. They made one like this for FHB a few years ago and Custard has always wanted his own. (As I write this he is hugging it. I think framing will be involved today).

And on Saturday night I spent quite some time creating this:

which he then shouted about because he WANTED A LIGHTSABER CAKE.

Grrr.

Me (Through gritted teeth, trying hard to be happy, jolly and birthdayish): No you don't. You want a Jedi cake. He's a Jedi.
Custard: Yeah, he's quite cool really isn't he?
Me: The coolest.

Oh, and you know what else?

I've only gone and...

FINISHED MY BIG JUMPER! x

Good Stuff

I know! Monday morning and I have nothing but good things to say! (This despite the cat pooing all over the lounge last night. We had throw away one of our ancient Ikea baby quilts. But hey- I'll have to make a new quilt. Yay! An excuse to sew!)

Four exclamation marks in one paragraph. And relax...

Well this weekend we discovered a new hobby. Geocaching. You go onto a website, you upload co-ordinates to some sort of GPS thingy (the technical stuff is not down to me) then you go off and treasure hunt. It is Ace. We spent all day out on Saturday tootling around searching for treasure. We couldn't find the first cache we were after- it was under a bridge and neither W nor I fancied grubbing around under there. But we did find a fab charity shop where I got these:

('Scuse the rubbish photos- it is grey and dull here today. Not complaining mind).
They fit perfectly, they've hardly ever been worn and they were £4.50. Result.

We then went out to our local nature reserve where, while Miss T was snoring loudly and I was confined to the car with her, W and the big bears went off and found a cache of treasure. I was going to photo what they found, but apparently you are supposed to be a bit secretive about it all, so I'm not allowed. We have to rehide the treasure another day in a new spot. The kids were So Thrilled and now think they are 'splorers.

After all this we were a bit peckish, so despite it blowing a gale, we bought fish and chips and sausages and sat on the beach. It was FREEZING. Miss T went purple. I had to chase a pie wrapper along the coast for quite some way and Mouse and Custard were astounded that grass can grow on the sand. Shock and horror.

Then we came home and went FLOP in our chairs. Turns out Star Wars was on on Saturday. I own three different copies of Star Wars, but yet we are all still compelled to watch it when it is on TV. Even with ad breaks.

Just a lovely day.

On Sunday we began with a full English (So Good) and the day carried on being great. Custard and I made flapjacks, W went on a restorative bike ride, I had an hour on the wii (didn't weigh myself, didn't want to spoil the day), FHB was allowed an hour on the DS as a reward for being a Pleasant Human Being this week, and Mouse and I made a skirt for her and a quick pair of trousers for Miss T:

(Mouse had a go with my camera too. Standing on the table. I find it best not to look).
At some point I'll blog some photos of the finished skirt and trousers in their giraffey glory, but right now Mouse has squirrelled her skirt away and I can't find it, and Miss T-oilet training promptly weed (wee-ed/weeed?) on her trousers so they are in the wash.

Poor FHB is desperate to learn to sew, so I think this afternoon may hold cushion covers for us.

Lastly, W broke the last of our Tooting pound shop pasta bowls. We bought them 13 years ago when we were first together living in university halls of residence:

In my current state of karmic trust and relaxation I have decided to see this as a Good Thing. A sign of better, proper grown-up things to come (at thirty-five!) This does not stand up to scrutiny, but I am still smiling anyway.

Hope you had a good weekend too...x

Monday catch-up

After a busy weekend during which we saw lots of friends, ate lots of wonderful food and did little else, I find myself here- Monday morning. I had one of those dreadful nights last night where although I clearly slept, it doesn't feel like it at all and the morning has crept up on me far too quickly. Added to this, Miss T is a bit too pink in the face and hot in the body today, so I think a quiet time will be had this morning:

I have a whole load of things to be getting on with this week as Miss T will turn two years old on Saturday and there are Things to be made before then. Mouse wants to make her a skirt, so fabric has been bought- more of that later. I have some crochet to finish:

(I have realised having loaded these pics up that neither of them are anything to with Miss T's birthday! There is a whole pile of crocheted stuff for that, but I'll have to show you tomorrow. The top pic here is a stack of Melody Griffith granny triangles ready to be starched and made into bunting. The bottom is my jumper. It is So Nearly Finished, but I had to frog half a sleeve because I had forgotten a rib. After looking at it for a few days I decided I couldn't live with it like that. And also, my Mum told me to redo it, and who am I to argue?)

A card to make:

(How fab is the paper? I am not a scrapbooker, but they do get good kit!)
And a cake to think about. My children are usually very particular about what they expect from a birthday cake, so I am waiting with interest to hear what they expect of me!

Sadly, before all the fun stuff I need to tackle a weekend's worth of laundry, recycling and action-figures-in-unexpected-places.

Have a fun Monday...x