Dance as if no one is watching.

Another layout from camping last year. There was a large pile of wood to use to make a fire. Everyone was busy helping out, kids taking the smaller bits of wood to the adults, the adults building and moving the larger bits of wood. Caitlin, being Caitlin, found a nice large flat bit, climbed on top and started dancing.
There was no music, but she was on her stage and she was happy :) Bless the people they just took the wood from around her and left her to it. Shes grown out of that now and most of the time is sadly much more self conscious; at times though I see her dancing and she loses herself and forgets where she is. I love that she can do that. :)

I did try something different I saw in a magazine somewhere where pp is put on the back of a photograph and folded down. I don't know if I messed it up but it doesn't look as nice as it did in the mag, looks messier imo. But was worth a shot! have to try these things. lol.

Happy birthday baby boy :)

Six years ago after a very long and difficuilt birth my amazing baby boy was born :)

I don't have any nice photos of me and him as I was really ill after midwife was useless and gave me pethadine too close to the end so I was off my head. She also said I was fine and tried to send me home, good job my Dad couldn't give me a lift as I had 3rd degree tears and almost died form blood loss, but he was worth it :)
Ignoring the scary part it was actually a funny birth. He was a week overdue and I was HUGE and uncomfortable so was desperate to get him out! I couldn't even put my socks on mark had to do it for me lol. My sister had tried all the usual stuff to have my niece, pineapple, cod liver oil etc and it never worked so I went for a more physical attempt, walking. Friday we went for a walk at east carlton park, didn't work, lol. Saturday morning tried again by going to 'The mad mile' car boot sale. We walked around it 5 times so about 5 miles. Think I over did it as walking back to the car I was pretty much shuffling, Luckily my mum and dad had come too so my dad went and got his car so he could come back and give me a lift to mine lol. Now at the time I didn't think it had done the job so I went home and had a sleep. My Dad and Mark were working in the garden and my Mum was doing the housework downstairs, everyone acting as normal, except the cat. Back then we had a cat called Sadie. We'd had her from a kitten from a woman giving out kittens from the boot of her car at a Morrisons supermarket; yeah I know, mad. She was never allowed upstairs and never bothered about it but that day she would not leave me alone. I had closed the door to get a sleep but she kept crying and scratching to get in. I eventually let her and she lay next to me and would not move. In hindsight I should have figured something was up but at the time I was too tired.
I was still too tired to make dinner so my Mum suggested going to her house for a takeaway curry, another attempt. My back was killing me by now but I thought it was just the walking so off we went. One curry later and my back pains were getting worse. Around now Mum pointed out sometimes contractions can be back pain rather than stomach so we started tracking them on the only thing we had to hand, the takeaway menu lol. I even used it on a layout I did later. :)

After that things started progressing pretty quick. The downstairs layout of my mums house is a livingroom which has two doors, one leads into a dining room, which leads to the kitchen, which leads to the other door to the livingroom in a big circle. My Mum hates this but that night I loved it lol. I just walked round and round in circles for ages. About 1am Mum decided it was time to ring my sister who was going to be my other birthing partner. She was at a party so came back a bit tipsy and very hyper. I made her go brush her teeth as I was really sensitive to smells and the smell of drink was making me ill! It was really quite surreal looking back, I was walking round in circles, Nicky was jumping up and down in a hyper state, Mum was watering the grass in the garden and Mark and Bri were eating ice creams in the living room.
By this point I was in agony so decided he must almost be here to went to hospital. Nurse examined me and I swear I almost hit her when she said I was only 1cm dialated. I went back home for another couple of hours and then came back.
I'll spare you the gory details but long story short it was a nightmare. Cameron was back to back, was HUGE and I was given drugs too close to pushing so he took longer than he should have done to be born. Thank god for my sister telling me how to breathe and push because tbh the midwives were useless. I don't actually remember Cameron being born, apprently I insisted he was an alien and wouldnt hold him :( but that wore off and obviously when I 'woke up' I adored him. :) Mum and Mark still tease me because I lost so much blood and I needed transfusions. I needed 3 pints of blood they had only gave me one and a half when I said I'd had enough and was going home. I admit I'm stuborrn and by that point I'd had enough. I don't like needles at the best of times so the nurse put one in my hand, then when that blocked she needed to put one in the other hand but she messed it up so said she needed to try again. Nope, had enough now I'm off. I had to sign all kinds of letters sayign I was leaving against medical advice and to be honest I was pretty ill for the next couple of weeks but it all worked out fine lol.
Even though it was a nightmare, and I swore he would be an only child so I'd never go through it again (obviously Caitlin had different ideas!) My amazing baby boy was worth every moment :)

Better late than never

On UKS I'm in a group where a member sets a sketch for us all to follow each month. I'm seriously behind lol. This is Februarys and I havent even started March! Used more photos from Turkey for this one, this time of Caitlin skipping stones.

It was a single page sketch but I had a few photos so decided to make it a double layout instead. the title is 'Skipping stones in the sand' which is explained in the journaling lol.

Here it says about how Caitlin wanted to skip stones in the sea like the boys, however she was scared because of the wind making the waves really loud so wouldnt actually stand anywhere near the sea. Bless her she tried so hard to throw to the sea but as she was about 15 feet away they were all landing on the sand. She was so excited however me and Mum would pretend we could see them splashign in the water. Caitlin got so excited and kept throwing. :) I tell my kids not to lie all the time but sometimes its a good thing :)

Birthday party

Today was Cameron and Caitlins birthday party. Ok their birthdays arn't until next week and I wasn't going to even HAVE a party but with recent events thought we could all do with a bit of cheering up :)
I let them invite one friend each, which along with the kids and the girls was 7 and thats enough in my opinion lol. First we decorated little trinket boxes. The kids loved this, even the boys which I was a bit worried about. Got to love everyone smiling and Cameorn not even looking at the camera *rolls eyes*

After decorating panckaes with sweets and icing the kids opened gifts. As usual they were both spoiled. lots of DS games for cameron and crafty things for Caitlin.


Now I love this photo of Caitlin.It sums her up so well lol. One of her gifts was from 'build a bear' we get them cheap and she puts them on her lamb. This time though the sunglasses and handbag set Caitlin decided looked better on her. So here she is, glamed up, sunnies and handbag and beating the life out of something.
Like I said, sums her up, crazy and classy all in one.

And lastly, birthday cake :) Just a simple tray bake from Asda but kids enjoyed it.

So garden is now full of balloons, bins are full of paper and leftover food and I'm ready for bed. Martini, britains got talent and an early night I think!

just big kids

super quick post tonight as got to get to bed ready for the party tomorrow :) Didnt get half as much done today as I would have liked, headache this afternoon meant I had to lie down for a bit, then when the kids came home from school my Mum, Dad and Evie came round for a visit. Was the most I've laughed in a while. I discovered this afternoon how to put Youtube on the tv and the kids discovered 'funny cat' videos. They were in hysterics! Honestly I said to Mark we enevr need to buy another dvd or anything again. With the kids birthdays coming up we got a bit sentimental talking about shows they watched as kids and did a search on a few. This resulted in finding a program from Baby tv called egg birds.
Basically its a group of eggs with beaks and hair. They're all pretty colours and patterns except one which is just white. They come across a washing line with two sheets on it making stage curtains, the white egg goes behind and dresses up as something in 3 stages and at each stage we have to guess what he is. Well the adults got into it a bit, at one point we were all shouting 'Whale, hes a whale! What?! A helicopter!? Well thats just stupid!' The kids were actually rolling on the floor laughing so much.

Well off to bed, got lots of sandwhiches to make and balloons to blow up tomorrow. Should be fun :)

Iron man 3

As you may have guessed by the title today we went to see Iron man 3. I only usually go and see films on Wednesday as it's buy one get one free, but I'm a HUGE fan of Iron man so couldn't wait to see it so we went today.

MINOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!
Now I loved the film, it was funny, clever and the action scenes were great. The ending was, well worrying though. I won't say exactly how it ends, but it very much ends, there is no room what so ever for another film. As the end to the Iron man trilogy it was great, all wrapped up well with a nice ending, but leaves me wondering, WHAT ABOUT AVENGERS 2?!?! They can't do it without Iron man, and if they have a form of Iron man and its not Robert Downey Jr playing him then that's just wrong. So I'm sulking and looking on google for any word thats he's signed up to Avengers 2. But really it was a great film, I'd go see it again tonight if I could lol.
All in all its been a great day really, this morning I was working with the kids in class on an interesting art project. They were asked 'If God was a food what would he be?' Now there were the usual answers, he'd be crisps because I like crisps, he's be Jelly because jelly is nice and so is he, but there were some very deep answers which I found surprising from a group of 6 and 7 year olds. Such as -
- God would be Pizza as it takes many forms like him.
- God would be a meatball because it's round like the world he created
- God would be water because everyone needs him
And my fave
- God would be a chocolate bar because my Mummy says chocolate makes her happy and god makes me happy.
How sweet! Speaking of sweet, look at the card Caitlin made for me :) Now she makes me loads of cards and pictures, seriously usually 4 a day, but this one is special because she actually sounded out and wrote this herself. :) In case you don't speak 'kid' it says 'for my Mum, love me, Caitlin' Ok so she made a few mistakes but still really proud. She struggles with her letters and reading so this is a really good attempt by her.

As usual has an adorable drawing inside too :)

Busy day again tomorrow. My Gran has a phisio appoinment in the morning which I'm taking her too, then got to return some clothes to Next and back to start sorting things for this kids birthday party Saturday :)

I did scrap I swear!

Today seems to have gone on for about a week. Caitlin slept in our bed last night so I was on the couch. Had weird dreams and woke up with a sore back so not the best of sleep! Sorted out caitlins toys and tidied her room this morning then had to go town in the afternoon. Did a few jobs then stopped for some refueling :)

Love these, raspberry and orange fruit cooler from Costa, tastes like sherbert. Couldn't believe it though, for ages our poundworld has had Disney pop up baskets for ages, while sorting Caitlins toys I thought one would be a good idea for her dress up toys, can I find one?! Ugh, watch I'll buy something else and then they'll start selling them again lol.
Well tonight I did manage some scrapping! Sorted out my alphas, huge pile for Caitlin again, and titled some old layouts which have been waiting a while. Light is dreadful to get a photo however so will take some tomorrow. :)

So close yet so far

I was going to scrap tonight, I got some layouts out which needed titles, I tipped out all my alphas (look see) and then.......

Caitlin woke up crying. Obviously I'm just not meant to scrap for a while lol. She was really clingy and weepy so let her sit with me for a bit and we ended up looking at daft videos on you tube and we found the coolest thing! Ok granted it doesnt take much to impress me and I THINK I've done a link here but not sure,

if theres nothing above here then no I havent lol. If you google 'Kracie happy kitchen' you will see what I mean. Its basically sweets and mini food form Japan. Now obviously being from Japan its not NORMAL sweets and mini food its things you make yourself. You get little powders and molds and you can make mini cakes, doughnuts and my fave, cheeseburger and chips! I thought these would be seeets but apprently they actually taste like burger and chips. Seriously watch the videos I think they're amazing :) Anyway while watching these we lost track of time and she ended up going back to bed at 10:30. Woops.
Speaking of food Cameron was on top form today, remember how I said about him being constantly hungry? Well we had a cracking conversation on the way home from school today.
Cameron - Whats for dinner?
Me - Sausage pasta bake.
Cameron - But I don't want pasta!
Me - Fine well you can have a sausage roll and veg.
Cameron - But thats not much!
Me - Cameron, we will have pasta, sauce, sausage and vegetables, you will have a roll, sausage and vegtables, the only difference is sauce.
Cameron - But I'll put the sausage and vegetables in the roll so really I only have a sandwhich which is only one thing! I always have 3 seperate things at dinner!
The kid should be in politics when hes older.
One thing Caitlin should NOT be when she older is a mother, lol. She was playing with her doll today and showed the following parenting skills:
- Telling baby off because she is hungry and that means Caitlin needs to go shops.
- leaving baby alone while she goes
- comes back and can't find baby
- puts baby on naughty step because baby 'ate mud and choked'
- rocks baby to sleep upside down while chatting on the phone
- drops baby in the 'pond'
Good job the baby was just a doll and the pond was only our rug!

Oh well, will try again tomorrow

Well I was determined to do some scrapping over the weekend, I even got out some bits and planned a layout. But before even cutting into a sheet I had other things to do so its now all piled up here.

This week is pretty crammed but will try and do some at some point, I'm SO behind on my challenges. I did manage some kind of crafting though, I painted the little boxes for the kids party on Saturday :) I've got some cheap gems and glitter glues and all that so hopefully the kids will enjoy decorating them.

Been a boring day today, ironing, cleaning, visiing my gran and dealing with the kids. Cameron today has been a nightmare, fighting with his sister (kicking her on one occasion) arguing, whining, having a major temper tantrum before bed. Honestly I was SO angry with him at bedtime I actually got a martini to calm down. Was just starting to relax when I heard him crying in pain :( his legs were hurting him again poor baby. All anger and annoyance was forgotten while I cuddled him and calmed him down. They're a pain in the behind at times but still love them to bits. :)

My saturday

Well today was a fun day :) We were going to east carlton for a pond dipping lesson with Wildlife Watch. Its a great orgnaisation with really cheap days out once a month for kids. £1 a child with lots of activities. Obviously with such a big day ahead we needed a good breakfast to set us up for the day :) Cameron true to form had a huge plate of scrambled eggs (3 eggs), toast and bacon (3 slices) then moaned because Caitlin had a snigle slice of chocolate spread on toast and he had none! I seriously wonder where that kid puts his food as hes a rake!

Pond dipping was fun, well it was fun for the kids I spent most of my time holding onto them and freaking out they might fall in lol. They loved it thought and caught lots of little wiggly pond worms and frog spawn. They also made some dragonflies which they had a great time playing with. As I was too busy trying to prevent a sudden swimming lesson I didn't get a chance to take any pictures then so got some when playing with the dragonflies :)

This is my plan for tonight :) Though the bowl of strawberries might be refilled with chocolate ice cream later on lol. The books were ones I read when I was in college and loved them. Somewhere between the many moves since then I've lost them :( Been looking ages then found the first and third one from a guy at a car boot (why he only had those I don't know) I was planning on continuing the search for the second and third but as I've almost finished the first I gave in and ordered them from Amazon. Was quite surprised as was only £5 for both and as I had some money in paypal from doing questionaires it didnt cost any 'real' money anyway :)

Still holding out hope Ill do some crafting this weekend lol

I WILL scrap

Well it was my Grandads funeral on Wednesday, and to be honest I've pretty much slept since then. I think it was more draining on me than I realised. It went well though, my Gran was pleased so thats the main thing. Was nice for all the grandkids to get together and remember him as we all live quite far apart. One big thing when we were growing up was Grandads garden, he would grow so many different things, peas, potatos, strawberries etc. There were loads more but those were the ones we helped with. The idea of giving the kids a huge bowl of pea pods and asking them to shell them seems insane but we used to love doing it. We also used to love when the strawberries were ready :) think we drove grandad mad as as soon as the tiny little green ones were out we were bugging him asking if we could eat them yet lol. He drove our parents mad in turn however as he showed us how nice strawberries dipped in sugar are! A nice healthy snack ruined :) As tribute to an amazing Grandad I took a huge bowl of strawberries and sugar to the wake. I bet I looked a little mental cutting up strawberries in Asda car park dressed all in black but it was worth it :)
Well tonight the kids are currently watching this. I LOVE this film and think its seriously underrated. The kids obviously agree and they've been in hysterics for most of it :) The dvd is seriously old and scratched to hell so based on this reaction Marks agreed its worth getting the Blue ray, yey!

Funny photo I took today, walked round the corner to find the neighbours seem to have a strange new plant, lol. Very odd cat we have.

Tomorrow we're taking the kids to a pond dipping lesson at the park, should be fun if the weather is as nice as its supposed to be :) Im also determined that sometime over the weekend I will scrap, even if its just one layout! Wish me luck lol

No willpower, but keeps me busy

Remember how I said the kids were NOT getting a birthday party because we were going on holiday not long after? Well that changed to 'a us only mini party so we didnt have to take all their gifts with us' which then changed to 'a small family only party so they can get their family gifts before we leave' which then changed to 'oh ok you can invite ONE friend each to the party' So it is now officially a party, lol. I plan to keep costs down to a minimum though in the following ways:
- Cheap piniata from home bargains, £5 including sweets. Entertainment, plus will put the sweets in their gift bags once done.
- Pancake decorating, want to keep costs down on food, so will make a pile of pancakes, some icing, sweets and fruit and let the kids decorate and eat them. Food and fun :)
- Decorate boxes. Got some little chipboard boxes from the Range for 30p each. Going to paint them all white and let the kids decorate them with my craft scraps. Fun and another thing to go in their party bags once done lol.
Did all the shopping for it today and including food, balloons, party bags etc came to just under £20 :) Not bad I thought.
On the subject of the kids birthdays, I got Caitlin a gift today :) She said she want's most of her gifts to come from Disneyland which is fine but I wanted something for her to open at her party. This morning she got her first piece of mail from my lovely friend Lesley and she was almost as excited about getting a letter as she was about the DVD it contained. So I got her this :)

Its a subscription to a new crafting magazine out aimed at little girls. I've seen it in shops but at £5 was a bit reluctant to try it. An ad popped up at the side of a screen tonight so I decided to have a look and they have an offer on for 3 issues for £6. Bargain!

Moisteriser review, simple vs E45

As some of you will know I'm a bzz agent. That means now and again I'm sent products to test. This time I was sent some E45 moisterising lotion. I usually use Simple hydrating light moisteriser so will base this review in comparison to that.


Packaging
E45 - Very basic and clinical looking. Looks more like something you would be prescribed than a day to day moisteriser. Large bottle which is good if you plan to use it for your body rather than one specific area. Squeezy bottle so easy to get cream out.
Simple - Much smaller but prettier. Has colour so more attractive and eye catching. Colour is still muted however to give it a 'natural' feel. however it is a pour top bottle so while its fine when the bottle is full, as it empties it is difficuilt to get out, often leaving quite an amount inside unaccessible.
Winner - Draw, Simple is prettier but E45 is easier to use.

Smell
Both are unperfumed but still have a slight sent to them.
E45 - Slight smell, reminds me of suncream. Not unpleasent and could be easily covered by perfume or body spray but did get a bit sickly smelling during use.
Simple - Also slight smell, reminds me of cucumbers. Crisper but still could be covered by perfume or body spray.
Winner - Simple

Price
E45 - £1.50 per 100ml
Simple - £2.40 per 100ml
Both from Asda so each may be cheaper elsewhere
Winner - E45

Apllication and use.
E45 - Cream is quite runny, again similar to suncream (or melting ice cream according to Caitlin) very easy to apply but takes a while to rub in, leaves a slight sticky residue for a while but feels noticeably soft (almost powdery) after that.
Simple - Much thicker, rubs in much quicker also but while it leave skin feeling smooth its not as soft.
Winner - Draw, E45 gives slightly better results, but is much harder to use.

Overall with everything taken into consideration both products are as good as each other depending on how you want to use them. If you only have slight problem areas, such as hands or face, Simple is a better product; however for all over use E45 is the best.

Long weekend!

So tired after a very long weekend! After Caitlin's dancing yesterday it was Cameron's turn today with his karate grading :) I won't even go into what a complete joke of an organisation I think it was but will instead focus on the positive :) Cameron loved it, as usual and it was so cute to see him doing all his kicks and punches. He took it so seriously!

Usually Cameron's by far the biggest kid in any group he's in, so you can imagine how much older all the other kids must have been when you see how tiny he is in this picture.

He did really well and was given his yellow belt at the end. He's so proud of himself and think he would have wore it to bed if we let him. We agreed he could take it to school tomorrow and show his friends in class so that's pleased him.
Gutted on the way home though one of my indicator lights burnt out! So instead of the relaxing morning I was planning we're off to halfords. Thouch wood its just the bulb and not a more expensive problem.

Seven years

7 years ago today this happened :)

Yep me and Mark got married. Can't believe its been so long already! We were supposed to be married on May 3rd but due to Marks health it was brought forward. Good thing too really as May 3rd ended up being Caitlins birthday.
Today I'm also a VERY proud Mummy :) Caitlin had her dance show and her award for passing her first dance exam. She was so tired she went to bed as soon as we got back but I will get a nice picture tomorrow. It was lovely seeing her doing all her dances and dancing with her friends, shes very co-ordinated though god knows where she gets it from!
It seems to be a weekend for my talented kids as tomorrow Cameron has another karate exam, this time for his yellow belt. Hes looking forward to it which is good but 2 hours of sitting and watching other kids might be a bit much I think. Fingers crossed he finds it entertaining!

Bad Mummy

I'm a bad Mummy today. This morning Caitlin started it off well with this cracking comment:
Cameron - Can I watch Mario on tv?
Me - yeah sure
Caitlin - But I don't want to! Cameron has a much better life than me!
Seriously Caitlin, it was 10 past 9! Bit early to start the drama! Then they weren't allowed out to play because it was raining (obviously my fault) then the computer game we rented for them from Lovefilm the other week (this one) they found out I got a bit addicted and completed it. Woops.

Finally after driving my Gran about all morning to various Drs appointments I was too tired to make mashed potato to go with the pie I'd made so I just got some chips from the chippy instead. i think this redeemed me a bit in the kids minds but not really the healthy dinner I was aiming for. Oh well.
Dreading this weekend, tomorrow Caitlin has a dance show and award presentation. Might be fun buts its on for 3 hours, she has to sit and watch all the other groups dance then do hers. Its a lot to ask a 4 year old I think particually 4-7 when she usually goes bed at 7. Its also 'bring your own food, drinks and glasses' Glasses?! Ok your own food and drink but they couldn't have put out some plastic cups or something?! Got to laugh.

Getting there :)

Today was a surprisingly enjoyable day :) This morning Caitlins friend Lucy and her Mum came round so the girls could play, you wouldn't have known there were any kids in the house! I was wrapping gifts in the bedroom and actually had to go check and they were so silent lol. Cameron and I left them to it and went to do jobs around the town. Lots of here and there jobs needed done, picking up medication for mark, prescription for Caitlin, few bits of shopping up town, going to the council for gran etc. Cameron bless him was an absolute star! Mum wanted to meet for coffee before I went home so treated him to a hot choc with whipped cream and marshmallows. You can't see too well in this picture but his face was covered in chocolate lol. I don't often get to spend time just me and Cam so I really enjoyed our afternoon together :)

Feeling better now that all those little jobs have been done and can be crossed off the list. Still no mojo though but enjoyed sorting through my stash yesterday so plan to sort this box tonight.

All my brads and pins used to be nicely organised but then I dropped the box :( Quite looking forward to sorting them out again lol. Next will be my alphas box :)
And look! A month later Camerons Karate uniform finally got here! irritated it took so long but doesn't he look cute!

Got to take Granny to the drs tomorrow, shes had a bad hip for a few weeks now but its getting worse so she agreed to go to the dr. Got to make a card at some point for Mark too, its our 7 year wedding anniversary Saturday :) We plan to celebrate with dinner and watching Britains got Talent, who said romance was dead :p

Long day

Last night I was so tired I ended up fast alseep really early. As a result I was wide awake at daft hours of the morning and had my exercise dvd done, dishes from day before done, washing on and breakfast ready before anyone else was up. As a result I think this day DRAGGED! This morning the kids drew pictures to give to their Grandad to take to heaven, I said to think of things that reminded them of him and draw that. They both drew lots of chocolate, flowers in a garden and a horse on TV (grandad liked racing lol) I wrote a letter to him and made a minibook to keep it all together. To stop my mind dwelling on things I decided it would be a good idea to sort out my 'junk' box. Basically all my paper scraps and any random embellishments I don't use get shoved in there to be sorted later. Later however doesn't come very often so it's took me almost all day. Its done now and I'm pleased with the organisaion, plus Caitlin has a huge pile of bits to use in her own crafting too.
Oh and this came.

This months 'Quirky kit' I think this will be my last as I'm not a big fan of the 'Quirky' bits lol. Theres another I've been looking at but will see how finances are after Disney.
Well tomorrow is a busy, busy day. One of Caitlins friends is coming over to play and by an amazing stoke of luck her Mum is one of the women who works at the pen green Dads group so knows Mark well. I'm jumping on the opportunity and taking Cameron with me, have to pick up meds for Mark, then for Caitlin, go town, go shops, go to Grans, ah well will get me out of the house lol.

Look what I got :)

I was very excited this morning to get a letter with the Disneyland postmark, and look!

Its only our eurostar tickets but still :) Also Disney related I rang up the dining hotline, that was a laugh! We booked the half board plus dining package for while we are there, but the princess lunch is only covered by the half board premium package. I'd been told before that we could use the value of our vouchers against the price of the meal and just pay the excess so I wanted to know what the excess would be. Conversation went like this:
Me - How much is the princess meal?
Her - 65 euros per adult and 30 per child.
Me - Ok, how much will it be if we use our Plus vouchers?
Her - Well the vouchers are worth 33 euros per adult and 12 per child, so it will be 45 euros per adult and 35 euros per child.
Huh!? No matter what I said she insisted she was right, so I rang back and got someone else and got a more sensible answer. Still wasn't the right amount by my maths but was a lot closer lol.
Well have my eldest niece staying tonight, I made some biscuits and they decorated them with sweets and iceing so they're quietly sitting eating and watching tv. Enjoying the peace while it lasts lol

Pick your precious

Its Pick your precious time again, Pick Your Precious is about celebrating the little things you love: those souvenirs, bits and pieces, things from your past you can't bear to throw out. You know, the special little something you have tucked away in a drawer or up on a shelf? Or the thing you love most in a room? Or the object you would save if you knew you had to leave the country? Your favourite things. It was started by Sian over at http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.co.uk/
This months pick your precious is a little different in the sense that the item itself isn't really that precious to me, but the memory behind it is. I'll explain, this month I've picked Caitlins Ariel photoframe from Disneyland.

Now this was originally mine. I bought it when I went to Disneyland with my ex-boyfriend years ago when I was 18 (too many years ago for my liking!) and I kept it in its box for ages. When I moved into university I was getting rid of a lot of stuff and found it again. I didn't have much room at uni but decided to put it in my Mums loft for when I had a Disney mad little girl :) When we were told we couldnt have kids, and my sister had a little girl I gave her SO much stuff. I'd gone a bit mad buying baby stuff when we started trying but being told it wasn't going to happen it hurt to have it all around so I gave it to Mollie. When it came to the frame though mark wouldn't let me, he said to keep it just incase a miracle happened. When we magically had Cameron I again said about getting rid of the frame but Mark still was having none of it. When I found out I was pregnant with Caitlin I finally took this beautiful frame out of the box and put her scan photo in. :) Its now in her room with a bit more of an updated photo lol.
Well today we went to the park and car boot. :) We said to the kids as they were really well behaved we would take them round the car boot to find a toy each. OMG the stuff we found! everyone seemed to be selling things off really cheap! Gave each one of them £3 which Cameron spent on two folders full of ben 10 magzines. Loads of stoires, puzzles and games. Gonna keep him busy for ages! Caitlin however found a great but rubbish thing lol. When we went to disneyland 2 years ago with my Mum Caitlin wanted a princess castle to bring home with her but we said no because it was too expencive (35 euros) and too big. Well guess what she found at the car boot for £2 :) She was thrilled, I was also thrilled I hadn't spent that 35 euros as it is so rubbish! Its a nice little castle with lots of bits but its such poor quality its amazing. My Mum and I thought it was a cheap market knock off but its got all the right logos and packaging so doubt it. £2 though I don't mind lol. We were plannign on having a picnic at the park but it didn't seem to be warming up at all so just came home and had a picnic in the livingroom :)

Well tomorrow we have Cams friend Jack coming round in the morning to play, then my neice staying over that night. Wish me luck!

Comments of the day, both from Cameron:

Playing a computer game - This baddie is harder than an electric hammer throwing water balloons at you!
Watching TV - I can hear it in my ears!

I worry about him sometimes lol

Boring!

When I said at the start of the year i would blog every day i don't think I realised just how dull I was lol. Yesterday I did mean to blog but forgot, not that i did anything anyway. We stayed home, I did housework and played some games with the kids, Mark slept most of the day then we watched some tv. Rock and roll. The highlight of my day was watching '16 Kids and coutning' and laughing my head off at the woman caught shopping in the market in a bright pink onsie. OMG I would DIE! There seems to be loads of people these days who just can't be bothered getting dressed, no joke I saw a Mum picking up her kids from school the other week in her PJs. I mean I can kind of understand dropping them off in her pjs but you've had all day woman! As dull as I am the worst I've done is pull a hat over my hair rather than brush it lol.
Today wasn't much more exciting, woke up, tidied up and went to visit my Granny with the kids. It's the first time shes seen Cameron in weeks and bless him he was so excited :) Was a nice visit, though Granny wasn't as lively as she usually is but thats to be expected. kids have gone to bed early tonight as we managed to sell pretty much all our stuff so are taking a trip to Wicksteed park tomorrow :) Don't go often because parking is about £8 but on Sunday mornings before 10 its only £1.50. So packed a picnic and keeping our fingers crossed for some sun!

bad start but good ending :)

This morning was RUBBISH! had a dreadful nights sleep due to my back so bribed the kids with DS's in bed to get an extra half hour. Then Mum rang and asked for help looking for order of services online. Bah. Then lots of little errands to run which HAD to be done today. Unfortunatly mark was having a good mental day but bad physical one, so while he was ok to stay home with the kids for an hour it meant I had to do them all on my own as he wasn't up to coming along. I hate going to town on my own as its so depressing and I think everyone's looking at me for some reason :s. I used to get panic attacks when I was in crowds so probably a lesser version of that. Anyway I came home, frozen and cranky to find two very happy kids, :) These came in the post today.

Remember the models the kids made, well these are the treats the company sent them along with a huge box of the packing peanuts (thats tomorrow sorted lol) so a cup of tea and a caramel cup later I was feeling more myself lol. The afternoon was pretty relaxing, the flowers for Granddads funeral were not exactly in my budget so more sorting stuff to sell was the order of the day. Luckily I've sold most of it (if everyone collects) so feeling less worried about that. Mark slept most of the afternoon and the kids played their computers so very chilled out. Until about 7:30 when I saw someone on facebook selling a brand new 3ds game for £3! She was moving and needed it gone so because so many people wanted it she said 'first to get there gets it!' That was it, rushed kids in pjs into the car and drive down, and yey I was first lol. Nice cheap little gift for Cams birthday :)

Family day

Today we took the kids out for a trip to the cinema and then Pizza, it's been a rough few days so thought this might cheer them up a bit. Started off ok, booked the tickets, drove over to find I'd forgot my purse lol. Luckily I had the card with me I'd booked the tickets with so just had to use that for everything.
The film was The Croods, and was really funny :) All of us enjoyed it and Cameron asked if we could get it on DVD as soon as we came out. After cinema was pizza, Mark as usual made a pig of himself at the buffet. 5 plates of pizza and 3 cokes plus some of camerons ice cream *rolls eyes* I think he takes 'all you can eat' as a personal challenge! Kids loved it too, Caitlin bless her made a kiss for me out of her cutlery.

Cameron as usual not looking at the camera.

Think all the food tired them out though as everyone fell asleep in the car on the way home. :) Caitlins upstairs having a nap with Mark now while Cameron plays on the tv. Its all quiet, very strange lol.

I feel so old!

OMG I feel old today! This morning the name of a child I used to teach in reception during training popped up on fb, so me being nosy had a look to see what he was up to these days, to be greeted by pictures of his wife and daughter! PJ and Duncan being back at number one doesn't help lol, every time I hear it someones saying '19 years ago when it was first released' OMG was it that long ago?! I remember buying their album from the market with my cousin lol. Also, and this pains me to admit it, I've actually been reading (and enjoying) this

Thats it, I've become my mother. *facepalm*
on a good note though the car passed the mot YEY! Was pretty amazed lol, another amazing thing was we walked into the waiting room to see our old couch we sold on facebook lol. Small world. really excited about tomorrow too, the kids must be picking up on the atmosphere or they're a lot sadder than they let on because they have been VERY clingy lately. They were watching TV today and I had Caitlin on my knee hugging me and Cameron sitting hugging my legs, so treating them to the cinema and pizza afterwards. Caitlin asked yesterday when Granddad was coming back from heaven to visit, when I explained he can't she got quite upset so think its sinking in to them now. Hopefully a nice day out with Mummy and Daddy might help :) Starting to organise the funeral, the crem doesnt seem to have an opening until the 15th which on one hand is bad because its so far away, but on the other is good because kids will be at school so that's one less thing to worry about. We'll see.
Funny comments from the past few days:

Cameron singing 'one way or another' - 'I will burn down your house, and break your door down!' Harsh son! lol

Mark after watching Dr Who, goes into kitchen and the lights flicker - 'They're in the wifi Gemma!!!'

Cameron explaining Good Friday to Caitlin
'Jesus got taken by some bad guys and stuck on a cross, then he went up to heaven for his new life where he became an alien!'
Nearly choked on my tea lol

Last ones :)

Im so tired! I'm not sleeping great anyway but last night my niece stayed over and I never sleep well when other peoples kids are in the house. Today is our last quiet day before our busy week so kids are happily eating chocolate and doing jigsaws so hopefully a minor nap for me soon. Tomorrow we have the cars MOT (fingers crossed its ok) wednesday we're taking the kids to the cinema, thursday we're going to the childrens center and after that we're keeping open to see when Grandads funeral is. Im dreading it obviously but really worried about what on earth to do with the kids. They can't go, the sight of seeing everyone crying will really upset them let alone the whole service, and obviously all my family will be there so can't ask anyone to babysit. :( I've often thought there should be some kind of service, nursery places or something that parents can use as a one off in emergencies, America seems to have babysitting services you can ring up and have people come round but we don't really have anything like that here. Oh well I'll figure it out.
These are the last layouts from the Sarahs cards retreat, really should do some of my own crafting now. Anyway, this was a class by Claire Wheatley, I admit I was dreading this one when i sat down as I don't do fiddly and this one had a very fiddly origami bow. However I loved it! The bow is SO easy and actually kind of relaxing to do, made a load more that night for the other girls who didn't want to do theirs lol.

Quite pleased with my bow :)

This was one I did myself. When Mark was staying overnight in hospital I couldn't sleep, so brought both the kids into my bed with me :) They looked so adorable and so alike I couldn't resist taking a picture :)

Love this little charm, its from a toilitries bag from boots lol.

Well suppose I better go try and get some sleep! Got the MOT tomorrow and Granny goes to get Grandads death certificate so need to start planning the funeral too.