Catch up

So been another week since my last post. not really very good but its one of those things I guess. Time for a catch up and Im sorry in advance for the mammoth post!

Thursday
Thursday my sister had the baby, Ollie. Safe to say there were mixed emotions there so moving swiftly on!

Friday
Friday was a nice distraction as Caitlins friend came round for a sleepover. First non-family member I've had sleep round so we made a big deal of it. We made chocolate lollies, decorated pillowcases and watched films. Girls seemed to love it :) Cameron stayed next door until almost 11 so he was happy too lol

Saturday
Saturday was, eventful. Caitlin is terrified, I mean seriously terrified of the dentist and everything to do with her teeth. So Saturday when she was crying her wobbly tooth hurt it was nightmare enough to get her to let me look at it. When I did I saw it was hanging by a thread and whenever she bit or anything it was pushing it into the gum hurting her. But could I tell her that, nope. Poor girl was hyperventalting every time I went near her. Took over an hour for her to calm down and she managed to pull it out so thank goodness that is over!

Sunday
Sunday was a much needed, relaxing family day out :) We had some vouchers left from the Summer for Wicksteed park so went there. First we went round the car boot sale where Caitlin got a pair of roller skates and a helmet

while Cam got a big bag of pokemon cards, his newest obsession lol. The kids had a great time going on lots of rides and the weather was amazing. We really lucked out.

Though it was still a bit chilly so Caitlin stole Marks gillet lol.

I also managed to get my last photo for the scavenger hunt!
19. A public garden

I'm posting this after the deadline so never mind but I did take it in time so counts to me lol.

Monday
Monday was amazing! Caitlins been in desperate need of some new furniture for her room for a while, her toy storage isn't much younger than her lol. So I wanted to get her some of the units from Ikea but delivery was £35! Cheaper to drive there! Mum wanted a few bits too so Mark and I set off.
While there I decided to surprise Mark, he's a HUGE Jamie Oliver fan and has always wanted to eat in one of his resturants so we went to Jamies Italian. Mark was thrilled bless him :) It was a pricey meal compared to where we usually go but tbh the servings were huge! I had muchrooms to start and that filled me up so much I asked them to wrap my burger up to take home as I wanted a pudding and wouldnt manage it otherwise lol. Mark kept joking he couldnt take me anywhere.
Pudding was worth it though, chocolate brownie and salted caramel ice cream, yum!

Obviously had to bring something home for the kids so brought them a do it yourself Krispy kreme doughnut each. Very happy children lol.

Tuesday
Today I gutted Caits room, built her furniture and rearranged it and I'm thrilled!!!!!
I moved her wardrobe round and put some of her loved but not played with teddies on the top for space.

Her desk which she loves :) I want one now.

Tidied under her bed and managed to get rid of one of her basket things which has really seen better days. I replaced it with a fold out pillow my Granny made for her. It can be folded up like this to sit on, or folded out into a long pillow for her to lie on and watch tv.

and last but not least is her new unit and rug :) I LOVE this unit as it fits so many toys and looks much more grown up. She also has her tv at her level now so she can change her dvds if she wants to :)

Safe to say she was made up and has been in there constantly since she got back from school, yey :)

Wednesday
Today was less fun. I woke up with a full on cold thats been threatening for the past few days so spent the day in bed catching up on paperwork and sleeping. Suppose I needed it but hate being poorly. Seem to be picking up a bit now though which is good as have training tomorrow with my Mum and looking forward to that :)

Scavenger hunt finished........?

So after a very quick start to the summer photography scavenger hunt, here I got stuck on number
1. A sign welcoming people to your home town (or a nearby town)
We do have one, but its on the edge of a main road so not like I can stop to take the photo. On the way back from shopping the other day though Mark took lots of photos with my phone and managed a good one so here it is!

And thats me now done! Or so I thought! When going through my list of finished photos I found I'd completly forgotten about
19. A public garden
On no! So I'm not done at all! Luckily we're going to a theme park Sunday which has a large garden area so hopefully fully finish then lol.
Currently have my niece Evie staying with us while my sister goes into hospital to have the baby. mixed emotions on that one so will see how things go I guess. Must admit it was draining having themm all in the house so I went to bed early looking for a good nights sleep. Someone else had other ideas

Stole my side little sneak! lol

And im back again lol

So I've been AWOL again. It's been one of those situations where I keep meaning to blog, I sit down at the computer to blog then either I lose everything I was planning to say, or something else happens and I end up dealing with that. So quick update on whats been going on in my life :)
Mark was poorly with a cold for a while. He muddled through bless him but def took its toll.

Caitlin dressed up as a mad scientist for her schools Messy science day. She lost a tooth that morning too so made her look that bit more the part lol.

We went fruit picking at the farm and ended up with lots of apple crumble in the freezer and 3 huge jars of apple and blackberry jam.

I've made a start on Christmas crafts and finished two of these, one for Caitlin and one for Mollie. Have another project almost done I'll share soon too :)

I've also been doing my usual gutting the house, rearragning bits and shopping for Christmas as well as foster carer training. TBH theres been a LOT going on but hopefully I'll be about more to share it as I admit I've missed blogging. I'll leave with a very sweet thing Cameron said when playing with a toy rocket :)
Cameron - I'm landing on the moon! *lands rocket on the chair* I'm landing on the sun! *Lands rocket on me*
Mark - Mummy always knew she was the center of the universe.
Cameron - She's the center of my universe because shes the center of my heart.

All together now, awwwwwww!

And I'm back!

Well I finally managed a chance to sit down and chill out a bit :) While the kids went back last Thursday we went away at the weekend so been crazy busy!
Kids have settled really well back into school. Cameron loves his new class and is still with most of his friends. Caitlin, as usual has settled back in like she never left. She adapts so well to change anyway I wasn't worried but nice to be shown shes fine.

Anyway as I said we went away at the weekend :) We usually have a holiday from The Sun paper in the summer but this year, probably because of the term time fine thing, it was CRAZY how quick dates went so we only managed to get a weekend in September. We booked Caister down in great yarmouth and we loved it! Would def go there again. The park was lovely and was great to be able to take Scamp along too.

We only had the two days as left after school on Friday and came home Sunday night but we made the most of it. Hopefully we'll be able to stay a little longer next year. :)

But we're back to normal now and back to routine. Also need to start planning my Christmas crafts as its coming up quick!!!

Not such a fossil hunt

Today they held a fossil hunt at the farm so we went along. After playing in the park we went to the field where they were hunting to find........a giant puddle. Cameron took one look and said 'Can we go back to the park please' Oh well lol. Wasn't all bad though, on the way back to the park I found £5 on the floor ;)
Though we didn't find any of our own they did have a large display of fossils that had been found there before which Cameron loved. He's such an interested little boy, any information he just sucks up like a sponge. Think he's ready to go back to school and start learning again.

After playing in the park and making dens again was time for home. It's getting quite cold here so treated the kids to some sweets snuggled under a blanket and watching a film :) We usually get the movie channels over winter but think we'll be doing it sooner this year. Nothing better when its cold than cuddling up with a film :)

That said apprently we're getting a heat wave soon. just as I've took all the winter stuff down from the loft and got it all organised. Typical lol.
Kids made me laugh tonight though, they were upstairs playing....
Upstairs - BANG BANG BANG!!!!
Me - stop banging!
Caitlin - it's ok it's dead now!
I don't want to know

Party time

Today was Caitlins friends party. I had hoped I could drop Cait off and get some shopping done but Caitlin had other ideas so I ended up staying lol.
Was a nice party, was one of those ones in a village hall and the parents have put out tables of colouring pages etc. Was funny to see all the dads around the loom band table! Caitlin was quite happy to run off and play while I browsed the internet on my phone. Got lots of ideas for Christmas anyway lol.
One of the games they played was to get into groups and make one child into a snowman with toilet paper. We'd done that at our Christmas party last year so Caitlin had a little advantage and sure enough she won! Happy wee girl there :)

So party over it was home time and I went next door for a coffee. Was a lovely relaxed afternoon of chatting, though coffee soon turned into wine lol. Well its almost the end of the holidays, trust me it's needed at this point!

New desk

Yesterday was the kids last cooking session and then they played round at their friends house so nice quiet day :) Today however has been lots of drilling, building and one very happy little girl.
As I said the other day, Catlins been asking for a desk in her room for months but her room is so small I was reluctant to get one. I had decided to get her one for Christmas and paint it pink etc but then Mum suggested the fold down ones in Ikea and I jumped at the chance :)

Its perfect! Folds down to a little shelf when not in use and all her pens and bits are stored in the pots on the wall. between there and all her new craft stuff, I'm starting to get a little jealous!

Ikea!

I love Ikea :) it's one of those places you could spend a fortune on things you never knew you always needed lol. I could have gone mad and bought loads but I only got what we needed :) Was really impressed as I had planned to get a desk and chair for Caitlin from Argos for £70, and I managed to get a desk, chair, cushion, wall storage and extra bits and bobs for £75!
After Ikea we went into town (of course) but I was very restrained there too and only bought some doughnuts for the kids and a crown for Caitlins Christmas. Shes been asking for an Elsa one but it's sold out everywhere so bought her a metal 'Sophia the first' one which in my opinion is actually prettier :)
Obviously hid that away but kids loved the doughnuts, Scamp tried for a sneaky bite but got caught lol.

So after a hard day shopping I'm exhausted! So my plan for tonight is to sort this.....

into these......wish me luck!

Cooking and cakes :)

Months ago I booked the kids into cooking classes at Tesco. As they were free I wasn't expecting much but they were great! They made tomato pasta and fruti crumble and even got a goodie bag to take home. The kids had a great time up to Cameron cutting his finger but letting him eat the leftover tomatoes made him feel better. Amazing the healing powers food has with him!

After cooking I had time for a quick shower before afternoon tea with my Mum and Gran. I'd booked it ages ago with a Groupon voucher to treat them and it was a really lovely afternoon :)

I'm not really a posh food person but the food was yum and the little teacups so cute! Was lovely to sit and chat just the three of us too, with all the rubbish that goes on we don't often manage to get together and discuss things except dramas!
As an extra nice surprise Mum found out she has tomorrow off work too so we're off shopping while the men watch the kids, turning out a great week so far! :)

So much stuff!!!!

I will never understand how we manage to fit so much stuff into such a tiny house. This morning Caitlin was still at my Mums and the boys were playing so I decided to tackle my wardrobe. Currently its all the Christmas gifts, crafting things and a few clothes all shoved in lol. First was the Christmas gifts.

Sorted them into piles of whose was whose and moved them into the loft, that was easy, then was the crafting stuff. I found a huge pile of layouts which needed organising.

OMG it took the rest of the day! Sorted them into order and managed to put most of them into albums but need to get some more page protectors to put some more in. Think I'll need to splash out on some albums though as they won't all fit in the ones I have. Currently filled 26 and I'm only up to may 2012!

Elsa take two

Well car boot went ok. not as busy as usual but clear out a load of stuff, bought a few new bits and made a little money so good enough for me :) Weather is dreadful now though and as Caitlins staying at my Mums tonight I thought I would give the hama bead Elsa another shot. Note Scamp sleeping peacefully, I haven't killed him I swear lol.

Picnic in the woods :)

Today was a nice day so we went to a local county park for a walk and a bbq. First though we popped up town as yesterday our Wii u stopped working :( We bought it last year pre-owned form Game and try and I might I couldn't find the recipt. can't fault their customer service though! Rung them up and explained and they checked my reward card and not only found a load of points I didn't know I had but also found that the console was 11 days inside warranty (yey) and gave me a reference number to take into store to exchange it. So thats what we did with no problems at all :)
knew the day was going too well though lol. Over the past couple of days I've been working on a new hama bead project, my most complicated so far. This is how it looked before we left for town.

This is how it looked when we came home. Scamp obviously decided to give it a go lol. NO idea why as I've always left them in the livingroom and hes never bothered before but maybe the boy is a Frozen fan.
He's lucky he's cute is all I can say!

So drama over we packed a picnic and off to Irchester country park! I've never been there before but it was really lovely. There was a trail around the woods with lots of trees carved into shapes to keep the kids interested and hunting for them.

There was also a huge park which they loved despite Cam falling and belting his head :( So long walk done, everyone fed and tired, time for me to get ready for our car boot sale tomorrow :)

Where does time go?!

Ok so its been another week since my lats post. Notice how I managed to keep up blogging until the kids finished school then it went to pot? Think there might be a link there ;) Anyway a quick rundown of what we did in the past week.

Friday
Well today we finally managed to go swimming lol. However that was the only thing that went to plan!
Got up, full of motivation to get some tidying done and ironing finished. Since kids have been off it seems a never ending job tbh. Anyway managed to get some tidying done, halfway through the ironing and the iron gives up the ghost! So rung my Mum and asked if I could borrow hers tomorrow to get it done. Joy. Kids were quite happy though as Caitlins friend Lucy came to play so since I couldn't iron I chilled out a bit before the hectic trip to the pool. Poor Mark was having a bad day so he stayed back which was a shame but he's been doing so well lately there's bound to be a downside. Overal a quite nice day :)

Saturday
Garage sale and camping! Garage sale was amazing as usual. Got loads of bargains including a brand new basketball net for £3 and a bag of craft stuff for £8.50. I took what I wanted out of it, Caitlin took what she wanted then I sold the rest on Facebook for £15 :) Bargain!
Saturday night was camping at the farm. I LOVE our new tent! Its huge compared to the other and million times sturdier. Scamp was amazed by all the animals and everything though he was NOT impressed by the fire and sat on my knee when we were near it lol. Kids played with the other kids and played a few games of cards with the grown ups. Was funny because Caitlin kept winning Pontoon, but didn't really know what she was doing. Bit depressing being beaten by someone who then says 'oh did I win again' lol.

Sunday
Home and bowling today :) Didn't stay at the park long as it started pouring it down so set off after breakfast. Mark spent the rest of the day in bed and even kids had a nap before we went bowling in the evening.
We got a Groupon voucher a while ago with our neighbours so was a really cheap night out. Kids loved it though Mark obviously just watched. Caitlin did really well and came joint third with Cameron (I was second!)

Monday
Cleaning again today.

Tuesday
Today was the dreaded school uniform shop. Actually wasn't too bad, managed to find everything we needed with minimal whinging from Cameron. £133 pound light now! On a nice note my Granny came up for dinner so was lovely to see her :)

Wednesday
Mark had an xray today which was done really quick so we took Caitlin to get her hair cut :) As usual she didn't want it short so just a trim and making her fringe look less like a birds nest lol.

Thursday
Today was busy busy busy, since the kids have been off all my paperwork that needs done has just sat there so I had lots to do. We still had a voucher for free entry to Kids play so thought the best idea was go there and let the kids run around and play while I got it done. Best idea I've had in a while lol. They played for 4 and a half hours during which time I managed to get everything done and dusted and lots of planning and booking done too :)
I also had lots of little errands to run so after all the playing we had a quick trip to town. Now I got a load of long sleeved tops for Caitlin in the next sale for a couple of quid each. However as they were plain I wanted a pretty gillet for her to wear with it. Couldn't find one anywhere! They were all much too small for her so I ordered one form Next, way more than I wanted to pay but there you go. While going round town however we popped into H&M and found this one :) Cheaper and Caitlin loved it :) Perfect :) Ignore the game she wants it for Christmas so I take photos to remember lol.

Friday

Scrapping :)

Another day planned to go swimming, another day we didn't lol. This time I ended up going dr and then doing a tour of all the supermarkets our town has in the search for one of those dolls.
The search continues :(
Anyway as I haven't done anything blog worthy thought I'd finally get around to sharing some layouts I've done recently. I'm a bit behind on the monthly sketch challenges in a group I'm in but catchign up now :)
This was Julys sketch

And this was my take on it. I don't really do project life so made one of the 3 panels down one side a long panel instead.

Next is a layout done of us in Turkey last year. Both layouts are done using last months counterfiet kit as i have't even made this months yet!

Having the kids off is seriously eating into my scrapping time lol

Id like to say I will do more tomorrow, but we have Caitlins friend coming to play, a huge pile of ironing and we HAVE to go swimming tomorrow as our free pass is up then!

The things we do for our kids......

Now those of you with children will know that come Christmas, the toy your child really wants, that they beg Santa for, will be out of stock everywhere and you'll be in a panic. So to try and avoid this I start as early as possible with things I KNOW the kids will still want. This year Caitlins asking for mainly Frozen things. Unfortunatly no matter what time of year it is these things are like gold dust.
Just to make it clear how crazy this Frozen obsession is with kids, a friend of mine has a daughter the same age and has been looking for an Elsa dress since the film came out last year. You cannot get an official one for love nor money (except ebay at over twice the price) so when her husband went to Florida for work he said he would look in the Disney store there. Now apprently they are in such demand walking in and buying one is just a daft idea, what you have to do is go into the store on a designated day, then you are issued a raffle ticket, if your ticket is drawn, THEN you can buy one! Its crazy! One of the other items in huge demand are the toddler dolls like this one of Anna

But they are sold out everywhere, particually the new ones where they have 'Royal reflection' eyes which means they have plastic, glassy look eyes rather than just painted on.
Anyway we went to asda on Tuesday and they were putting out all their new toys, including these Anna dolls and Elsa ones, honestly the shelf was full must have been about 50 of the bloody things. but I had all the kids with me and no credit card so couldn't buy them. So went home and ordered Anna at Asda online, Elsa was sold out :( I'd told Mum about it and turned out Mollie wanted these dolls too so yesterday I picked Mum up from work and went down to pick up my Anna and see if there were any dolls left in store, there was 1, one Anna doll left. It was less than 12 hours ago there were loads! So I hunted the shelves and climbed up onto the top (got odd looks) and found an Elsa.
So I had an Elsa, Mum had an Anna and I went to pick up the Anna I had ordered. Here's where it got worse.
When you order online they send it to store in a black bag, so I opened it and looked, the fringe looked wrong, the face the wrong and the eyes were different, it was a different design of bloody doll!!!!
Off I went to customer services and asked if I could send it back and get the right one delivered to be told that it would be the same doll sent to me as that must be the design the warehouse had. BUT I could change it for a proper one in store if I wanted. Woman looked at stock levels and said there was one left on the shelves somewhere, cue me running like a crazy person and climbing the shelves again to look on top and found it behind some tranformer figures! So now I have an Anna and Elsa, Just need to find another Elsa for Mum now lol.
There was a funny moment where I had both dolls side by side and showed the customer services lady that they were different, the woman behind me in the queue looked over and said 'Do you honestly think the kids would notice the difference?' Mum, me and another lady pushing a buggy all looked at her like she had grown another head. She obviously doesn't have kids lol.

Bird house!

Another dull day here! To be honest it's really needed. We did say we would take the kids swimming but they just wanted to stay home which really speaks volumes.
We did go for a walk round to my Mums for a bit though, and my niece very proudly showed us the bird box her and my dad had made :) So brings me nicely to:
Alternative B: A bird house

Only think I have 2 left now :)

More scavenger hunt photos

Well today poor Mark can barely get out of bed so we won't be going far! Figured I'd share the Scavenger hunt photos I got while in London yesterday.
I had already took one of a tour bus when this one drove past. I did debate chasing it but it pulled into a bus stop right in front of us so snapped it while a lady looked at me like I was mad!
20. A bus (not a car, truck, lorry, camper or RV) with a picture painted on its sides.

6. An urban street scene
Think this counts, Oxford street :) Made me laugh as we were walking past all the designer shops when I stopped and said:
Me - Oh I love that coat!
*Mark ignores me and keeps walling*
Me - Well are you not even going to look?
Mark - No *keeps walking*

11. A horn
Was a bit stuck on this one, had planned to take a photo of one of Caits unicorn teddies when I saw this statue coming out of a wall on the Strand and thought it was perfect :)

Well tonight the kids have asked to camp out in the living room so can't see much sleep happening! Swimming is on the cards for tomorrow with a free pass we recently won in a raffle so hopefully help Marks joints a bit :)

London baby!!!!

For my birthday I got tickets to go and see The Lion King in London. It seemed ages away so was actually pretty surprised the day came!
Mum was babysitting the kids so set of earlyish so we could have a slow walk to the show so as not to tax Mark too much. On the way we passed lots of landmarks like Big Ben etc. I admit I didn't pay too much attention as we're bringing Cameron back down here in November to see all the sights so will save it for then, we did pop into the M&M store though :) God you could spend some money there!
Loved this huge picture made out on M&MS! Mark wanted to change a couple round but the OCD in me would have killed him lol.

OMG the show was amazing! The attention to detail and the costumes were just incredible. Even Mark was blown away so that's saying something! I did feel a bit bad that we didn't bring the kids but Cameron would have got bored and Caitlin didn't even like the film so really would have been a bit of a waste of time lol. One ticked off the bucket list :)
After the show I was still feeling bad about the kids so went to the Disney store to buy Caitlin a pressie. It took all my willpower not to bankrupt us in there. It was huge! So many pretty dress up clothes and other disney bits! In the end bought her a pair of Cinderella shoes and a note book. £15 for the shoes lol, more than my shoes I was wearing cost! They were beautiful though. :)

We still had a while before the train home and Mark was struggling by now so after buying some Pokemon toys for Cam (his latest obsession) we stopped for dinner in Bella Italia. Was lovely to sit outside and people watch. bargain too at £10 each for a starter and main. No pudding though so of course had to stop at the Hagan daz shop for that ;)

All in all was an amazing day! I surprised myself too as was worried I would panic ect in the tube but did really well. :) Was a good trial run for November too, Can't wait to take Cam now!

More scavenger hunt :)

Well as poor Mark is resting after yesterday today has been a home day with cleaning and playing etc. Not much to blog about so thought I'd share a couple more photos I've managed to get for the scavenger hunt :)

10. A photo bomb (someone found lurking in the background of photo; the lurker may have intended to disrupt the picture or may be doing it unintentionally, but the background lurker is a surprise to the photographer)
Hope this counts, I know hes not lurking behind but as I was taking this photo of Caitlin playing with her ribbon Scamp suddenly jumped in to play so was certainly a surprise!

Alternative A: A kite, hot air balloon or blimp
I'm managing to tick things off my list much quicker than last year so will attempt to get the extras too. Took this picture of a kite when at Wicksteed park the other day :)

Now many left now!

Twin lakes

Today was home starts annual summer trip to Twin lakes. One of the perks of helping out is that we get to go along too :) Usually the kids are really excited so I was surprised this morning that Caitlin didn't want to go. Then when I was packing the picnic she asked:
Caitlin - Why do we need a picnic, can't we just go to Greggs?
Me - There isn't a Greggs there.
Caitlin - Yes there is, through the woods!
Me - Caitlin that's the boating lake!
Once she realised we were going to a theme park, and not just to feed the ducks she was much more excited lol.
While one of the perks is we get to go along, one of the downsides is that the others that go don't exactly stick to the times. We were supposed to leave at 10am, 10:45 people were still showing up. :( As a result we got far less time in the park than we should have but the kids still had fun. :)
We were lucky with the weather as we were predicted thunder and lightning but it stayed dry all day until we left :)

Not many photos as kids mainly played in the parks rather than going on the rides, but as we didn't pay I didn't really mind what they did iykwim. Home now and kids are exhausted so early night, yey!

Where has this week gone!?

Well its been a week since my last post and it seems like its gone so quick! I think with the kids off the days are so full and busy it's easy to lose the time.
This week we have been:
- Being gymnasts like in the Pirates show :)

- Having Mollie round to play and having Girls only time. Boys didn't mind they had their time too ;)

- Walking lots with Scamp

- Going to the Wicksteed park play day!

Along with dentists appointments, shopping, cleaning, catching up with friends and army crawling through the loft looking for an old computer game which I still can't find! I also managed some scrapping in among all that too so will share that at a later date. Hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays so far!