October Half Term 2011

This half term is a bit different as the husband is off to Vietnam with my Dad! My mum is here at home with me and in the past week we have done nowt but clean the house, tidy the kitchen, wash, fold & put away laundry and some fun activities with the kids.

My parents arrived on Monday the first day of Half Term.
We took the kids to Tumblers in the morning to meet up with Netmums.
Once at home we did not have to wait long for Mum and Dad to arrive, so the party was complete.

We went Baking with Becky at Bicester Avenue's Wyevale Garden Centre. That was loads of fun, just hours before the men took to the sky in their Singapore Airlines aeroplane on Wednesday. The children made pizza and scary fairy cakes and they enjoyed making them as much as eating them up after!

Thursday was Cupcake baking day at home. The little people wanted to go to the play ground and it was soaking wet, so baking more cakes was the perfect way to keep them distracted!
Note to self: use hard butter at room temperature for frosting in the future!

Friday was big clean day. Mum did many loads of laundry folding and washing when I did the vacuuming all around the house. I ended up going to the osteopath at 5:30pm as I was completely shattered and in pain. His treatment worked wonders as usual...
An early-ish bed for me, whilst the children where no-where near ready to sleep at 9:00-10:00pm. I believe Mum managed to get them to sleep in the end...

Today, Saturday, we had a long lie-in and went for a quick browse at Waddesdon Plant Centre as Mum had never been and she wanted to pick up a nice plant for my sister-in-law. Upon retuen home I had a visit from a garden company who may be able to help with re-planting our garden. After that we went on to Tring to visit the Smith family. Nana & Grandad were there too, so it was a full house and we had lots to chat, catch up on and the kids enjoyed playing with each other. A very pleasant afternoon and early evening. We got home before 9:00pm and the children said they were still hungry so we made some boiled eggs and pasta shapes on toast for them and Mum and I had a fried egg with bacon and cheese. Then kids to bed and Mum went up shortly after. I'm finishing off some work now and then I'll be following their suit! Remember: clocks went back 1 hour tonight!

Packing & Wrapping

This week has been a bit manic as I am preparing for our Christmas trip to the Netherlands. Today I put through 6 loads of laundry, washed, dry, fold & put away.
I have just gone through the kids' toy boxes to pick out all baby toys which we will kindly and gladly donate to my niece, Mayre, who is now 9 months old.
It doesn't even make a dent in the amount of toys our kids have. Unfortunately we failed to have a good toy cull before we set off to return with even more toys...

Now all that needs to be done is pack our suitcases and at least wrap the kids Christmas presents. I can wrap the others at my parents' once we're there, but don't want to risk that the kids spot the toys that Santa is supposed to bring them. I did order them an early Christmas present each, but that's not arrived yet. I just hope it arrives tomorrow before we leave.

Tomorrow is going to be a mad busy day. I'll have to get up early. Do some more packing and/or wrapping, get our daughter to Pre-school for her Christmas Party. Then I have to drive across town to pick up a V-dub lamp from Hippi Haus, for our son's bedroom as he has now a wonderful mural of a VW Campervan on his wall, made by Sarah of Charlotte Desings.
After picking up the lamp, I'll have to collect our daughter from Pre-school again, she'll probably won't need lunch, but she'll definitely need an afternoon nap, if not for herself, then for my sanity and freedom to continue packing! LOL

So here goes... More wrapping to do!

Lost a little bit more...

So another week has passed and I have lost a little again. I was totally amazed as I thought I would have gained if not stayed after a week of feeling poorly, having a very poorly daughter at home all week and not paying 100% attention to the plan.
So well chuffed that I have now lost 6kg in just 3 weeks!

Today we did some Christmas decorating, well, DH did on my request. I'm still convinced we need more lights outside, but will do that tomorrow.
We can't do the inside yet as the painters/decorators are not finished yet.
Maybe next weekend?

I also did some mire crafts this weekend. Not as much as I would've liked to, but at least I got some stitching done. I finally managed to write all DDs birthday 'Thank You' cards and started writing the Christmas Cards.
I have loads of craft ideas and as and when I get a chance I will update on here.
For now I am working on a birth frame in cross stitch.
Other projects on the go or ready to start:
- Write Christmas Cards
- Jewellery making with beads
- Sewing projects, such as a bean bag for DS, bags, toys and doorstops.
- Drawing & Painting
- Baking cakes & biscuits

First and foremost, I have to sort out the laundry tomorrow. I need to fold several baskets full, as well as running new loads and dry them.
Oh, domestic bliss... NOT!

Summer (?) Holiday!

Brrrrr.... the weather has been absolutely horrendous. We've had rain, rain, rain and more rain. It's supposed to be SUMMER!!!!!
The house is fairly tidy and we're keeping up with things.
We went out and bought a whole range of new furniture a few weeks ago and I just cannot wait for it all to arrive, a good reason for emptying all the bookcases and cull loads of magazines and maybe even get rid of some books. Then of course there will be loads of clutter coming out of cupboards, things we didn't even know we had, let alone ever use.
OK - maybe I'm not looking forward to that as much. LOL

Next week it's off to The Netherlands for a week and then 2 weeks Italy. Camping with two children, one is 3 years old and the other will be just about 9 months old when we get to Italy. Now there's a challenge for you! I'm sure it will all run fine, as long as I find a way to keep up with the laundry, as I'm sure we'll need plenty clothes washing whilst we're there.

Well, wishing all of you happy holidays and see you when we get back in September!