Girly time :)

Today Cameron went to his friend Jacks house, he loves it there and Jacks such a sweet little boy with a nice family so I don't worry about him going :) They only live a short walk away so decided me and Cait would walk him round with Scamp. No joke as soon as we dropped him off the ksy opened and we all got SOAKED! We were actually dripping when we got in. Mark gave Scamp a warm bath (he loves baths) while Cait and I got dry and into warm onesies. After having some one on one time with Cameron the other day was nice to have some girly time with Cait, typically as she always does she wanted to wear pjs, do make-up, eat sweets and watch tv. Well who was I to argue!? lol. We ended up watching The little mermaid two and three but not one lol, strange child. Mum got her some weird lolly pop thing with fake teeth on it so had to get a picture!

Mum, Bri and Mollie are coming round later for new years eve. They won't stay until the bells obviously but will be nice to play some games for a bit :) Also a good opportunity to use up all the party food still in the freezer!

Supernatural :)

Well managed to get loads done yesterday so very pleased with myself :) Feel very much like chavs though as the wheelie bins are now stuffed so we have lots of cardboard bundled up beside them along with Caitlins old bike, moldy pushchair I found in the garage and our old ironing board. Cant wait until bins get emptied!
Well after all that work I settled down with a glass of wine, some Christmas chocs and my little TV buddy :)

There wasn't much on TV so decided to check out Netflix and saw this.

Lots of my friends have told me I'd like this as it's similar to other things I watch but I've never got around to it, typically one episode in and I was hooked lol. They're on season 8 now so I've got a bit to catch up on!
Had a hell of a morning on the phone to Very. My Mum and I both ordered some furniture from their sale, mine has gone missing somewhere while Mums has arrived but is the wrong colour. What a nightmare! Trying to get through (on a preimium rate number btw) then arguing with a very rude guy who insisted I was wrong, uhh the furniture is in front of me and I know the difference between brown and white! Finally gave up and canceled mine and they're sending a replacement for mum.........who later rung me and told me after thinking she prefered the white and wanted to keep it. There are times I think I deserve a medal for not killing people lol

Almost there

One of my friends posted this on Facebook yesterday and I had to laugh, this pretty much sums up the house atm lol. Theres not a single room where I could close the door and think 'Right that ones done' The kids rooms are still full of toys needing homes, bathroom has all the new bits needing put up, kitchen full of Mums dishes she brought food over in, livingroom has a huge hostess trolley in it (again my mums) and my bedroom looks like Next/toys r us exploded in it! I have been getting bits done each day but with the kids being home, Scamp being Scamp and normal housework needing done too its going at a snails pace.

Managed to get all the decorations down and boxed up so hoping to get them put in the loft today then the aim is to get the kids rooms done so I can at least chuck them up there while I do downstairs tomorrow ;)
Camerons currently playing on his DS while Caitlin is sitting in her castle watching tv so better get on!

Walkies :)

Yey! After 2 rounds of immunisations and waiting for them to settle in, its finally time for Scamps first walk :) We've read a lot about pugzus and a lot of advice is about how poorly they do in extreme weather as they are short haired so don't have as much protection. With this in mind we looked everywhere for a coat for him but they were all too big! In the end we settled for this one which was the smallest we could find and doesn't fit too bad :) At least until he tries to lift his leg and falls over lol, we found folding it up a bit at the back fixed that though ;)

We were all excited to be taking him for a walk, Scamp less so however. Caitlin was going to her friends house for a birthday party and its usually a 10 minute walk maximum so thought that would be plenty for his first walk. Took nearly an hour! Between Scamp refusing to go at first and needing lots of coaxing, to him then loving it and stopping and sniffing EVERYTHING to everyone who walked past stopping and fussing over him I think he'd have got more exercise staying home lol. Kids loved it though, running ahead and shouting him, and were really proud every time anyone asked if he was their puppy :) Caitlins at her party for a few hours now so going to relax with my wee man and hopefully get a few more bits done in the house. :)

Still shopping lol

After sorting through the shopping I got at Next and Asda yesterday I had a fair bit to go back so thought I'd meet Mum for coffee and we could go take our many bags back together. OMG the town was crazy!!! It was way worse than it was before Christmas, took me ages to get a parking space and even then it was only because I was prepared to park in a huge puddle! Met up with Mum who said it had been mad in her store too, obviously everyone was making the most of the sales but personally I've never seen our little town so busy! Anyway after coffee Mum said she wanted to look in a few places so I decided to look in H samuels in their sale. You may remember that I always get the kids something special for Christmas, something that they can keep until they are older and either treasure or Ebay as they see fit ;) This year for Caitlin I couldn't find anything I liked at all, I usually get her soemthing from the Disney Jim Shore range but everything was either not what I wanted or else TOO pricey. Anyway I know H Samuels sell this range so thought I'd have a look and found this reduced from £20 to £9, I'll have that!

When the lady took it out of the window though she pointed out a teeny tiny brown mark on Daisys underarm and asked if it was ok. I really wasn't bothered so said yeah it's fine, then jokingly added on 'unless you can take some money off for it' 'I'll see what I can do' she said! Seriously I was kidding! Was a bargain enough as it was! Came back a moment later and said I could have it for £3, Result! lol. Happy Mummy, happy Caitlin :)

Sales!!!!!!!!

Well I cried my heart out at Doctor Who as expected, based on Facebook I wasn't the only one though so don't feel like too much of a crazy person! Only saw a little bit of Peter Capaldis Doctor but he seemed a bit off his head which bodes well in my opinion lol. :)
Anyway today was sales day! As usual Mum and I were at the Next store by 3am, we were about 60th in the queue! The girls at the front has been there since 1:30 and had sleeping bags and everything! I joke about it but can see that being Mum in years to come ;) We managed to get in in the first round though and tbh thank goodness we did as there was nothing! Honestly I got two pairs of jeans and a jumper for Cam. Felt bad for the people still queuing to get in as we left, felt like saying 'There's nothing left just go home!' lol. Still managed to get £270 worth of stuff but quite a lot of that was for the house. Hoping to finally finish off the bedroom, livingroom, Cams room and bathroom with bits from the sales :)
Usually after Next we go to River island, then onto a larger town or shopping center, this year though Mum was really ill :( Bless her she seems to have caught the tummy bug my Dad had last week so after Next she went right home to bed. I still wanted to make the most of it though so picked up Mark and the kids and we set of for Dunhelms. When we got there it was still closes so decided to treat the kids to a Mcdonalds. Cait was so cute, shes going through a really shy phase so when the guy behind the counter asked what she wanted I was surprised she even looked at him let alone answer, she asked for cerial, *rolls eyes* obviously they didn't have any so she had porridge with sugar which is obviously a treat as shes not allowed sugar at home. Cameron typically went for a sausage and egg wrap with hash brown and diet coke. Kid can eat! Managed to get most of what I wanted but didn't push it by taking the kids anywhere else, think keeping them away from their new toys when its the first real day they can play with them is just mean ;)
So after one day of shopping in the sales I'm just under £600 lighter, BUT I've got all new storage and wall decor for cams room, all new furniture, bedding and lighting for my room and all new furniture for the bathroom. :) Plus new clothes and shoes for everyone. Not too bad I guess :)

Christmas!!!

It's Christmas!!!! Sadly the kids had to say goodbye to Star as she went back to the north pole to help prepare for next year, but she did make sure they couldnt sneak out to see Santa before she went ;)

Kids were spoiled, of course :) When we were taking the presents downstairs last night I was surprised at how many there were! Caitlin was unwrapping things and I was thinking 'I have no memory of buying that!' But they were thrilled and loved everything so very happy Mummy and Daddy :) We didn't do too bad either! Mark got some dvds and a computer game, plus the usual jamie Oliver book and socks, while I was treated to new craft stuff (washie tape coming out my ears now!) new slippers, candles and a beautiful necklace from the kids :)

After a very quick tidy up before Scamp could eat the wrapping paper we went to my Mums for breakfast. She never gives the kids their gifts on christmas day as its nicer to keep them until its all died down a bit, but she does give them a bag of stocking fillers which I swear they get even more excited about lol. Only downside to the morning was I learned I just can't be around my sister anymore, usually I'm really good at putting on a face and smiling when inside I want to rip someones teeth out but just couldn't do it today. Think the fact she kept gushing about the wonderful gift she brought for the dog (a bone) when she hadn't bought anything for my two might have pushed me other the edge, but whatever it was I ended up storming out. :( Did put a bit of a damper on the morning but soon perked up after a few glasses of wine ;) This year was the first year that Mum and everyone came to my house so I was a bit nervous about cooking but besides dry stuffing (Mark didn't add water, lol) it turned out ok :) I had had a bottle by then granted so I probably wouldnt have noticed either way lol.
Remember how a few weeks ago Caitlin tried on her dress for Christmas day, it was too big so cue broken hearted tears, tantrums and Mum and I searching shops to find a pretty dress for her to wear on Christmas? Yeah its under this dress lol. Caitlin unwrapped her Merida style dress, put it on and refused to take it off. *rolls eyes*

Did manage to bribe her for a nice, family photo though :)

Funniest moment of the day had to be when Cameron was unwrapping gifts from my Gran. She had bought him some second hand skylanders so put them into an old Christmas card box. Cameron unwrapped it and while he was struggling to open the box we all made a big deal about how nice it was he had his own christmas cards now! He could give them all to his friends! He looked so uncertain and you could almost hear him thinking 'Seriously, I've got cards' but bless him he went along with it and acted happy and even said 'Oh yey I can write one for Jack' before managing to get it open and freaking out when he saw what it really was lol.
Well kids cuddled up in bed watching new DVDs, time to bawl my eyes out at Doctor who!

Christmas eve!

Well its almost here now! Have had a very busy big day but was fun so that's the main thing :) This morning Star brought us all an early gift which the kids got really excited about.

Turned out to be onesies for everyone, a selection box and Epic on dvd :) Hopefully keep them busy tonight!

After that excitement we didn't have long to do the last minute prep before going to the panto this afternoon. Wasn't too much left to do, just a quick tidy and cleaning the floors which really is done daily now since we got Scamp. Managed to get pretty much everything we needed from Asda last night and wasn't too hectic, few families rowing in the aisles but hey that's Christmas lol. So after finishing those bits we were off to see Snow white!

We were really worried about Evie and Cameron sitting still for so long (was 2 and a half hours) but they LOVED it! Evie was really into it, shouting and screaming along with everyone else. Cameron didn't shout quite so loud and rolled eyes eyes at a few points when he caught me looking, because obviously he's too cool to enjoy kids panto :p but so glad we went :) Was a perfect way to spend Christmas eve. Kids are now in bed watching their dvd and Mum and Bri are coming round for a chinese and to peel veg, almost the big day now. Yey!!!

Bad post/good post

Today I got a letter which, if the kids wern't here, would have had me commiting murder. It was a reply from our MP who got a letter from the social basically stating we were told NOT to give the girls back and it was our choice. Yet in the sentence after that they admit we had no legal right to keep them as they hadn't done any of the paperwork we were promised. I was LIVID! Unfortunately all I can do in reply is to email the MP with my opinions then wait and see. Grrrrr.
Well crappy post aside I also got this :) Bit of an early Christmas gift for me and Mark :) Gutted that Matt Smith is leaving Christmas day :( I LOVE him and I think I'm gonna be in floods of tears. Great way to celebrate Christmas isn't it lol.

I also received an adorable little air freshener with a pug on it :) There was no signature as to who it was from but I'm guessing it was my lovely friend Lesley :) Thank you!

Countdown

Even Star decided to remind me how long I have left this morning. Seems a long time but tonight Mollie is staying over (so tomorrow won't get much done) and Christmas eve we are off to a panto, so today is really my last day to get organised, Eeek!

Tbh there isn't too much to do. Mum and I are going shopping for the veg and last minute bits tomorrow night and I think the kids gifts are pretty even. Camerons pile is smaller than Caitlins though as we spent more on him I'm not going to panic about it. Cameron doesn't bother about that anyway and got to stop somewhere! Mainly cleaning need to try and get done, and make sure the rooms are ready for the toys that will soon be filling them. Wish me luck on that one!
Picked this up the other day and thought I'd share it. Most shops have reduced their Christmas stuff already so some great bargains to be found. I got this in Clintons, each of the silver figures at the top has a name on, Mark, Cameron etc and when you light the candle they slowly spin round :) I wish they had a less Christmasy one as would be nice to keep out all year but oh well :)

Funny comment from Cameron today

Cameron - Mummy did you know I was psychic?
Me - Oh yeah?
Cameron - Yeah, I can read my own mind!

Not long left!

Yesterday when we were shopping we found these selection boxes which I thought were a great idea. Rather than having sweets in it was dried fruit and fruit and oat bars, all healthy, good for you stuff. Obviously nobody else agreed because there was a huge shelf of them reduced to 75% off lol. Got a couple for the kids though and Star brought them this morning and picked out a DVD for them to watch this afternoon while Mummy gets on with jobs.

That was the idea anyway. Last night Caitlin developed an odd rash on her face and hands. The one on her face looked a little like a bite and the one on her hands seemed to me to be due to washing her hands so often now we have the pup, and its dried out her skin. Anyway we decided it wasn't a big worry and agreed to just keep an eye on it. This morning when she got up she looked fine, shortly after breakfast she complained her stomach hurt :s Lots of tears and panic later she seems to be ok and is cuddling with Scamp on the couch but little concerned. Can't think of a single thing which causes rash and a sore stomach but seems a bit of a coincidence both happened if unrelated iykwim.

Anyway better get on while kids are quiet!

Last day!

Today was the kids last day at School so Star decided to wrap their uniforms up as a trick lol

Well as it was the last time we'd have no kids before Christmas so we decided, along with half of Corby it seemed, to go and get some shopping while we could. OMG it was mobbed! It was like it usually is when I go Saturday afternoon, crazy! Took us ages to do it all then nearly fainted when it came to over £100! Was a big cleaning shop though, washing powder, shampoos, plus stocking up the medicine cupboard and first aid kit. So after all that we get home and I realise I forgot the eggs for pancakes tomorrow morning. Whoops.
On a good note thought I got my slot for the next sale!!!!! I LOVE the next sale and always spend a fortune. Worth it though as I get the kids all the clothes they need for the next year, I save a little bit over the months to pay for it, just in time for the next Next sale :)
After making my shopping list for my slot on Sunday night it was time to go see the kids sing at the church. I'm not religious but seeing them sing and all the candles lit was very emotional and I admit I shed a tear, was special really as next year Cam will be at juniors and they don't do nativities or anything there as they're too big. :( Got to make the most of it while he is still my baby! So excited to have them home now, let the Christmas fun begin!

Coke truck!

Well after a very early night I'm feeling much better this morning :) Obviously after spending most of the day with mark Star took a leaf out of his book as we found her playing 'magic the gathering' with one of my eeyores this morning. I was wondering where all the crisps were going!

Cute pic of Mark and Scamp :) Love the bond they have already. I'm really looking forward to when we can take him for walks as I'm hoping it will give Mark a bit of a push to leave the house a bit more. Pity it won't be until new year once he has had all his jags, just in time for deep snow the poor thing won't be able to walk through anyway! lol.

Anyway onto other things, guess what I saw today? Yeah the coke truck! I'm one of those people where the Christmas season doesn't start until I hear that ad so when I saw it was going to be in Northampton I asked my Mum if she needed anymore shopping and if she wanted to go. Was amazing how many people were there, there was an official photo point but the queue was HUGE so Mum just took one of me here, not often you see pictures of me is it? lol.

Typically we went with a list of everything we needed, came home with a boot full of things only 1 of which was on the list. Got a few extra gifts though, and a couple of decorations that were in the 75% off sale so was worth the trip anyway. Could have spent a fortune in the Homescense over there, its like a Tkmaxx but only house stuff and had loads of crafts stuff. Pretty ribbon, storage, papers, was really good though and bought nothing :) I know I've got some craft stuff for Christmas as I bought it ages ago in the Sarahs cards sale, I can't remember for the life of me what it was though! So waiting until new year where I hope to have it all reorganised and have a better idea of what I need, rather than just what I want. How many times have I said that now? lol

The bug got me :(

Ughhhhhh. I've been feeling rough for a couple of days now, bad chest, sniffles etc. Last night Cameron wasn't well at all. Couldn't sleep for coughing, panicing because he couldn't breathe etc so I ended up sitting up with him. This morning he waves up all fine and full of energy while I can barely get my head off the pillow. Swear he passed it all on to me lol. Oh well.
This morning Star was in the bathroom messing about with my shower gel, glad it wasn't my expencive Lush stuff ;)

Worst part about being ill is getting nothing done :( particually at this time of year. I had planned plenty of jobs as usual but spending the day in bed/on the couch soon put a stop to that! Even had to send Mark to do both school runs but thankfully went without issue :) Cameron brought us home the calender he made at school today. He's be studying Scotland and they all based their calenders on a Socttish artist, Cameron picked a picture of a lighthouse..........

at least thats what he says it is, looks like something else to me! And this gets to hang on my kitchen wall for a whole year, *sigh*

Coffee time!

Seems like its been months since Mum and I sat down to a cup of coffee and a chat. Today it was mainly to plan the Christmas day menu and any last minute shopping we need. Thank goodness not much! Just a few small stocking fillers and some general bits and bobs for relatives we don't see often. Rather than a coffee we both opted for a black forest hot choc as won't be long before these go again!

This morning was Scamps second round of jags, broke my heart again :( The microchip was 10X worse though, he went mental and it bled more than I thought it would. Thats it done for a good while though so yey! Will be able to take him for walks too so looking forward to that :)

Camerons Christmas party

Kids woke up this morning and ran around to find Star as usual, she was being a bit of an acrobat and hanging from the wreath in our living room. :) Was a bit worried she might fall off and get chewed by Scamp but she had a good hold.

Today is Camerons Christmas party at school, I was asked to bring in some cheese and pineapple on sticks but the cheese kept breaking and falling off so I decided to make a cheese, grape and pineapple tree instead, as you do.

Cams teacher asked me to come in and help out move the food from the classes into the hall, what started as a 10 minute job went into a full day lol. I miss being in class so once I started I decided to stay all day and help out. Was busy, hectic and fun :) We live close enough so that I could run home for lunch and during playtimes to check on Mark so all worked out well. Made me wish I could go back to work tbh but can't be helped.
Tonight is all about cards! I've made some but the rest have GOT to be done and posted tomorrow if they have any hope of getting there in time, I've got all the bits out, pizza dinner beside me, Kirsties crafty christmas on tv and Scamp is happily chewing his squirrel toy so better get to work!

Frozen

Today Star brought some sweets and tickets to go see Frozen for me and Caitlin. Cameron was invited but his exact words were 'but at the cinema I need to sit still for AGES!' gave me the impression he didn't really want to go lol. So he stayed home with the men and a fridge full of leftover party food, sure they will be fine ;)
We did plan on going to see the 2d showing at 12:20 but just as we got there we found the road was closed! By the time we had drove all the way back and around the other way it was sold out so we got tickets for the 1:15 3D showing instead. I'm one of those 'just in case' people so I'd brought along our 3D glasses from home, so between that and having free adult tickets from Iceland was only £22 for the 4 of us, not bad :)

I admit I LOVED it! I had read some reviews about it being a bit slow and boring and I think the start was for the kids but I really enjoyed the music and the set up. Olaf the snowman was genuinly funny and I was laughing out loud at a lot of points. I want to go see it again! Caitlin liked it but not as much as me, think I'm a bigger kid than her sometimes :)
After a lovely day out was home to do the last round of sunday night ironing, bath, homework bed. Camerons homework was a Christmas wordsearch (easy) and a Christmas sudoku (not so easy) OMG it was hard! I just couldn't get to grips with it. Took me 45 of working on it because we finished it. Not my finest moment lol.
Just a quick cute pic of Scamp to distract from what a idiot I am :P

Christmas party!

Today was our christmas party, I do it every year for my kids and my nieces and they always seem to enjoy it :)
I went a bit ott with the food, as usual, this is one of 4 photos, :s

We played lots of games, including making snowmen out of my Mum and dad. Whoever made the best snowman out of a roll of toilet paper, sellotape, black circles and a carrot won. Cameron and my niece Evie won this one :)

We also made decorations from lolly sticks, played pass the parcel, musical statues, and made models from Magic chocolate :) Cameron made a skylander, I've NO idea what one.

Kids all had fun and only had a few rows. I'm now completely wiped out. Mark got one of his headaches last night and still has it today. Caused him to throw up in the livingroom which scared the life out of Caitlin bless her so hes been in bed all day leaving all the 'fun' to me. Making the food with a puppy and two kids running about wasn't easy, plus you can imagine the chaos with the 5 kids running about. I had shut Scamp away in the hall by that point. Evie doesn't exactly have the best respect for animals and after her killing Mollies bunny in the summer by manhandling it I wasn't taking any chances! I did let him out to play with them at the end which he loved. They all lay on the floor to play sleeping lions but they had to not giggle when scamp licked them or ran over them. They all lost :) Evie was ok with him under supervision but I did catch her trying to feed him chocolate after I told her not to because it could kill him. Not impressed tbh.

But thats all the big stressful events over with until the big day! :) Just relaxing, meetings and a few bits and bobs to do now. Going to relax tonight with a plate of leftover party food, a well deserved glass of martini and catch up on my Tivo viewing tonight :)

Crazy busy

This week has just been crazy busy, between Mark being ill, school events, pen green events and general housework feels like I haven't stopped! Been getting really bad headaches too, actually made my vision go a bit blurry last night which I didn't realise headaches could even do! Star must have realised I was a bit tired as woke up this morning and she had brought a couple of plates of pastries for breakfast :) Forgot to get a picture though.
Today was Caitlins class party so after getting them off to school with two tubs of cakes I rushed home to start making the food for the Christmas party tomorrow. I've got most of it from Iceland but like to do a few bits myself to make it a bit different. I had planned to make snowman lollies like I made last year but forgot to buy the lolly sticks, so made these instead.

Quite cute arn't they :) Worked at the school this afternoon in Cameron class which was fun. It was that class I worked in last year and do miss it but at the moment really couldn't fit it in, plus I'm not really supposed to help out there anymore because Cameron is in that class and they don't allow it in case of favouritism or the child acting up because Mummy is there. Think I would probably be harder on Cameron rather than softer with him so probably good for him I'm not allowed to ;) Today wasn't a big deal though as was just helping the kids to wrap gifts for each other.
Right I'm halfway through making a chocolate house so better get on!

Christmas tree festival

Ok I admit I'm playing catch up. Most of the blog posts this week I've started but never got around to finishing, so this is me finishing them off and publishing them all at once :)
Today was Cameron turn to sing, rather than being in the freezing cold outside the shops we got to stay inside which was a plus. Each year the school has a christmas tree festival, where every class makes decorations to decorate a tree. Usually they have lots of games and fundraising things but as we had that at the craft fair this yeah we just did the one game and refreshments. We didn't expect it to be too busy but OMG it was mobbed! I was running the 'Guess Santa' game, lots of cards turned over and you had to find Santa, actually had to stop halfway through because I'd run out of prizes.

Forgot to photograph Star this morning before I cleaned her up but found her making snow angels out of icing sugar in the kitchen! Very naughty elf!

Caitlin carol singing :)

Marks stupid cold seems to be trying to get to me now, felt dreadful last night and not 100% this morning :( Kids were both in great moods though, ran around searching for Star this morning before finding her hiding in the fridge, wrapped up in my hat of all things. Lucky my hair wasn't a mess this morning so didn't need it back ;)

This morning was Caitlins carol singing at the local shops. Was much warmer going to see her this year than it was seeing Cameron last year, remember stepping over piles of snow to get a good view of him. Was told that he loudest kids would be at the front and funnily enough thats where Caitlin was ;)

Well works night out tonight and was quite funny. The pub we went to gave us a good deal but were running really behind, we were supposed to get our started at 7:30, 8:40 they cam out. One of the girls had brought a couple of tins of sweets which by then we were all very grateful for! Was a laugh though, I've always found the worse the service is usually the more of a laugh I tend to have; those of you who have been to the hotel on the Sarahs cards retreats will know exactly what I'm talking about! ;)

Elf warning!!

Last night Caitlin had a major tanturm at bedtime. To be honest her behaviour has been less than ideal for the past couple of days which obviously Star has noticed and left this on Caitlins door last night. Think she printed it off from this website ;) Caitlin was moritifed than Santa might know she has been so naughty and promised she will be better now. Will wait and see on that one!

She also decided to build a swing in the hallway which made the kids laugh.

Poor Mark is suffering form man-flu today, been on the couch most of the morning just watching tv so I haven't managed to get as much done as I would like. Finished wrapping the gifts and general cleaning up plus starting to make the Christmas food shop list. It's the first year that I'm having everyone at my house so I'm excited and worried at the same time. Got to go late night shopping Thursday to see if I can snap up some cheap cakes/cookies for the party Saturday so will grab my freezeable items like sausage meat, pigs in blankets etc then. Will be here before we know it!

I have a floor! Well, some of it.

Elf decided to sled down the banister this morning. Her sled wasn't quite as nice as the ones I saw on pinterest but I'm sure she tried her best! lol.

Tried to get some pictures of Scamp last night. He was being really cute and waving his paws at me but every time I took a picture he would hide his face behind his paws, he better get used to having pictures taken if he wants to stay in this family! ;)

It was so sweet though, Scamp was half asleep on Marks knee when Cameron came downstairs crying after having a nightmare. Poor Scamp started whining and got himself all stressed until mark put him down where he ran right over to Cameron and sat on his knee licking his face to make him giggle :) Little sweetheart was obviously worried about him. I know I've said it before but having only cats it does amaze me how loyal a dog is so quick.
Not long now until Christmas! Tonight I've managed to finish off the teacher gifts, gifts for the kids classmates and all the cards needed for the school. All are now boxed/bagged up and by the front door ready to be taken to school tomorrow.

It's great as my bedroom floor has had all this stuff all over it for weeks as I've started to get everything ready and now I'm starting to finish and get it all sent out I have visable floor again! Having the annual party for the kids this Saturday so just focusing on that now. Sooooo much left to do!

Santa!

This morning the kids were very excited to check on their 'Elf seeds' and were amazed to see they had grown into chocolate santas and candy canes! If I could find any that grow into toffee crisps I'd make an allotment full :p

After harvesting the sweets it was time for out trip to Twin lakes to see santa! The kids were really excited to see my friends kids Ben and Erika again and as soon as we arrived the adults settled down with a coffee and bacon roll while the kids ran off to play. Was the best bacon roll I've ever had, honestly, lol. After a few rides on the rollercoaster and a quick trip to the ice skating rink with Caitlin it was time to see Santa. It really was beautiful. First we went through the magic woodland, which was full of snow and animatonic animals, then a train ride through the north pole before meeting the main man himself. :)

Erika was amazed bless her. She's only 3 so really it was the first time she met him knowing who he was. As usual Santa asked them what they wanted:
Ben - a pink panther toy
Cameron - Skylanders giants
Caitlin - some new pens
Erika - a potato
Me - do you mean me potato head love
Erika - no, a potato!
We're still trying to figure out what she actually means, lol.

Christmas craft fayre

Well Star played a trick this morning! Yesterday she was on Marks desk, then this morning when Caitlin took a peep downstairs she was still there! Silly Star made it look like she hadn't moved, But when I went down to make breakfast while kids were doing their teeth she was in the kitchen with a box of 'Elf seeds' We weren't sure what we were supposed to do with them until Santa sent us a txt saying we were to plant them in a bowl of sugar and tomorrow they will have grown into something special.

Caitlin thinks Star was playing a trick by not moving, I think however it was because I didn't get to bed until gone 12 last night, then when I was just dozing off I heard 'Christmas is gone! Christmas is gone! then hysterical laughter. God knows what Cameron was dreaming about! Had to go wake him then settle him again. Was just dozing off second time when I heard Caitlin crying. Go to check on her and she wasn't in her room! By now it was 1:30 so my brain wasn't working and I had a complete heart attack thinking someone had took her and I heard her crying as they dragged her out before I realised it was coming from downstairs still. Poor girl had sleepwalked downstairs looking for me and paniced I wasn't there. Took her to bed and calmed her down. managed to sleep about an hour this time before Cam came in with sore legs so he ended up in bed with us too. managed about 2 hours sleep I think. So rather than playing a trick, I think nobody was asleep in the house long enough for Star to manage to do anything lol.
Today was the craft fayre at the school. We've been planning this for weeks and I've spent ages messaging craft stalls and various other places to find stallholders. I admit I was really worried it was going to be a bust but we made about £420 between renting out tables and running games and craft activities for the kids, including decorating the almost 400 gingerbread men and stars I cut out :) We managed to make £280 at the school disco and have a couple of other events between now and Christmas so hopefully will make about a grand before then.
Really enjoyed today though :) Was a busy one again obviously but Caitlin came to help. Was so proud watching her with the younger with the younger kids. A lot of parents came in and just played with their phones or chatted so she helped them with where was best to put the glitter glue, reaching pencils etc. She looked so grown up and had so much patience with them. Was bitter sweet as shows how mature she is getting but at the same time shows what a great kid she is. :) Another busy day tomorrow! Off on a trip to Twin lakes theme park with Homestart, so excited! Got to make a picnic then early night is needed I think!