Queen of the Hama beads

Last night it was odd as Scamp wouldn't leave my side. I figured that it was because the boys were in the house and the noise levels were through the roof lol. Then this morning I woke up and I felt dreadful! Think Scamp knew something I didn't :( My throat was all swollen and when I got up the room span. Not nice. I hate being poorly at the best of times but when I have a million things to do its even more annoying. I obviously wasn't up to baking so decided to start the Hama bead decorations for the kids birthday cakes.
First was Camerons, I'm making him a Minecraft theme cake so wanted to make a chest to go on top and fill with chocolate coins or something. After some planning I made this :)

Was actually really easy once I got started, these are the sides and the bottom.

and this is the top and top sides. I was planning on putting some form of hinge on but we'll see.

Next is Caitlins, which turned out a lot bigger than I expected :s Hers is a rainbow themed cake so Rainbow dash from My little pony seemed fitting :)

As well as Hama beads I was thrilled to get some happy post this morning. :) My lovely friend Jess sent me some magazines and some goodies for the kids. Got to love her :)

Happy birthday baby boy!

Today is my baby boys 7th birthday :) He woke up super excited at 5:30 and wasn't too impressed when I told him it was too early go back to bed! When he got up at a much more reasonable 7am I made him his special chocolate crossaint breakfast and let him open two gifts. Bad Mummy however I had got him a new Ben 10 Omnitrix toy. Turned out he already has it! In my defence theres about 14 different ones so easy to get mixed up. Did tell him I'll return it for something else though so he was fine with it :) Think I wrapped them a bit too well though as he struggled to open them.

Id made these lollies for him to take into class, Caitlin had butterflies so had to think of a boyish version. Cam was happy with them :)

As they're having a joint party Saturday we only had a small tea party style one today. My Mum, Dad, Mollie and my Gran came round and gave Cam his gifts, as usual he was spoiled :)

Love his concentration face.

One of the gifts my Mum got him was a 'All day breackfast' jigsaw. He opened it, gave my Mum a funny look and asked 'Why did you get me a tin of beans?!' LOL He found it funny when we explained it to him.

As Caitlin had her Rainbows group tonight we said Cams friend could come round and play for a bit. They both LOVED Cams new lego movie game. The 'everything is awesome' song is now firmly stuck in my head!

Think the noise was too much for Scamp. He decided to try and lie on the back of the couch, as far away from the boys as possible, and fell down the back lol.

I did get him out after taking this photo I'm not that mean ;)

Big gummy grin!

Well, I'm SO glad I got Cams hair all cut to look nice for his birthday photos lol. This morning another tooth came out so he's now lost both of his front teeth.

Another day of rubbish weather here and no big plans so Marks having a couch day. Scamp decided to join him :)

Well tonight I went shopping for party supplies. Rather than buy a cake I decided to make the kids one each. Yeah daft idea lol. Caitlin wants a 4 layer chocolate rainbow cake stuffed with sweets, covered in sweets. While for Cameron I've decided to attempt a minecraft cake like one I saw on Pinterest. A very good friend who obviously has SO much faith in me saw the one I want to copy and said 'Lol picturing one of those "saw this on Pinterest...nailed it" scenarios now' She knows me so well ;)

Yucky weather

Well we were going to go to a car boot this morning but woke up to horrible weather so decided to stay home instead. Had a nice relaxing morning then had Gran over for dinner which was really nice :) Made a huge Sunday roast as usual and was lovely to sit and chat to her. Since Cameron started Beavers on Fridays we don't see her as often so means a lot when we do.
Other than that was a pretty dull day :) Managed to photograph the other layouts I did the other day, this one of my Mum I love. :) When we were in Turkey there was a guy doing balloon modeling. We think this was supposed to be a sword but Mum decided it was a hat and opened the handle to put it on her head lol. Never a dull moment!

This one was from Disneyland, Caitlin decided she wanted to dance so Cameron sat down and started doing 'ring around the roses' No, Caitlin wanted to do a Waltz. So after letting Cameron jump up again she started teaching him how to dance 'properly' Poor Cameron with a little sister as bossy as her he has no hope!

Bad timing

My daughter has inherited a lot of things from me. My creativity, my love of reading, my love of the outdoors, and unfortunately my stubborn streak. If someone says she can't do something, by god she will find a way to do it.
We often joke that started even before she was born. We were first told we couldn't have kids, I fell pregnant with Caitlin, then we were told she wouldn't survive the pregnancy, she did, then when I was in labour there were complications and the midwife said 'She's stuck we'll need help' and Caitlin was born so suddenly the poor woman had to jump to catch her. Really it just carried on from there lol. She wasn't even born on her due date but came along on May 3rd, national scrapbooking day! Typical lol. Most of the time it's a cute trait to have, but sometimes its annoying! This layout is an example of this. Caitlin was refusing to have her photo taken with me, so my Mum sat patiently waiting pretending to look at the camera. When Caitlin walked past I grabbed her and mum quickly shot a photo. Actually love the result lol. I wanted the photo to be the focus here so added some of my fave paper, some washi and a few embellishments and was done :)

Now I look back at it I'm not fond of the corners on this one, what do you think? Love the photo, its form when we first got Scamp and he was still teeny tiny. We had bought him loads of toys but he didn't like any of them and much prefered to play with a roll of cellotape! The sticker down the bottom reads ' love cleaning up messes I didn't make, thats why I became a mum!' Very fitting for my furbaby lol.

I LOVE this photo of Caitlin in Turkey last year. We really lucked out with the weather and even though it was October it was beautiful all but one day. Usually when we go away we do lots of excusions and day trips, but this time we were happy to just laze around the pool, eat and drink. As you can see Caitlin enjoyed it :)

Well today is another busy one. Mark is with his friend for the day so just me and the kids. As my gran is coming for dinner tomorrow I'm trying to scrub the house plus make a picnic dinner for Caitlins dance party this afternoon. 3 hours of trying to keep her entertained before its her turn to do her dance then she gets an award. Not my idea of fun but she really wants to go so what can you do. Right better get on! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend :)

Altered letters

Remember the letters I started last night? Well they actually turned out pretty good :) I knew I wanted to paint Camerons green with green squares in a Minecraft kind of way, similar to the door hanger I did a while ago, but I didn't know what else to put on it. Then I walked into his room to see the Hama beads on the floor and decided to make an axe and a sword from the game to add to it :) Not to sound big headed but I'm so proud of the result and Cameron was thrilled with it too :)

Caitlins was easier but less impressive I think. Its more sparkly in real life and Cait likes it so thats the main thing :)

Other than finishing those its been a hectic day! This morning I was at the school helping with the opening ceremony for the new playground. The PTA fundraising helped pay for it so its nice to see the work coming to something. The kids had a great time and were dancing and singing even though it was raining lol. By the time that finished I ran home to meet my dad and help him with some paperwork, bathed the dog, tidied up a bit then realised it was 2:05 and I was supposed to be in a meeting at the school at 2! Quick run back to do that then collected kids, got shopping, got Camerons haircut, took him beavers, took my gran her shopping, picked up a parcel, home, shopping away, dinner, stories, bed! Whew! The weekend ahead isn't too bad, Caitlin has a dancing party/award ceremony tomorrow then I'm having my Granny over for dinner Sunday night which I'm looking forward to :) Also need to start trying to make the two, complicated birthday cakes for the kids party next Saturday. Think i might have bitten off more than I can chew with those lol.

Craft day

Well this morning I had nothing to do except phone people over and over until they actually did what they said they would do. Which didn't take up much time lol. So I decided to catch up with some of the many, many craft projects I've fallen behind on. Made a bit of a mess in the process lol

I actually tripped over my bits box and tipped it everywhere! Rather than sort it out, again, I tried to use up as much as possible and between that and my counterfiet kit I managed 6 layouts :) Hopefully my mojo is coming back a bit as havent had much lately. I have been enjoying making things other than layouts and tonight will be attempting these:

Got them from The range the other day and want to make something for the kids rooms with them. Have a kind of idea and have started Camerons but I'm still not overly confident so wish me luck!

First day back!

So the first day back was busy lol. By the time I'd dropped the kids off to school I'd done a load of washign, dishes, the floors and sorted out the clean clothes I'd brought in. Walkign to school we have the surprise that the shops were all roped off with police tape and a large puddle of blood visable on the floor. Turns out two women had been attacked the night before. Scary stuff! Luckily they're both ok based on reports but still scary it could happen so close to home.
The rest of the day passed in a blur of housework, errands and other jobs. Always surprises me how much I get done when the kids go back to school :) By the time dinner was done, the house was clean and the kids and Mark were sitting happily watching tv and to be honest I felt lost! lol. So I decided the best thing to do would be to hide upstairs scrapbooking ;) Managed to get 5 layouts done so not too bad!
Another milestone today was that Camerons wobbly tooth FINALLY came out! It's been hanging by a very stubborn thread for the past few days and I was worried it was going to fall out in his sleep so I yanked on it and out it came :)

Only issue is that the tooth fairy doesn't have any cash on her at the moment lol. So she might have to bring an early birthday gift instead ;)

Last day

Back to school tomorrow! I always feel the same on the last day of the holidays, worried I haven't done enough with them, sad I'm going to miss them but excited about getting back into routine. Cait seems excited to go back which is good as I was worried she'd still be upset about Evie joining her class. We've spoke to her about it though and seem to have reassured her so will just wait and see on that one. Cams quite happy about going back but annoyed hes at school on his birthday next week lol. Oh well!
s it was the last day, and the weather is poor, I didn't want to do anything too big so I let Cameron pick a few activities. Only fair as Caitlin had run of the household yesterday ;) Anyway first thing he picked was to make a 'volcano' in the bath. Simple enough with Caitlins new bath bomb kit! Love the scientist look lol.

Glad we did it in the bath, made a right mess! Kids loved it and lots of 'ohhhhhh look!!!!!' shouting later god knows what the neighbours thought!

Other activities Cam picked were minecraft themed hama beads, computer games and trip to the shops for more kinder eggs. They currently have boy and girl ones where the girls collect Disney princess' and the boys collect Marvel figures. Whoever thought that up is a genius as I don't know how much it's bloody cost me trying to track down Sleeping beauty and Spiderman!
By the time dinner was over the kids were both rubbing their eyes. Bless them I think they need a break to get over the break! Decided to cuddle up and watch Toy story 3 which I taped the night before. Now Cameron and I have been butting heads recently as he's been acting more and more like some of the ruder kids in class and I feel like all I'm doing recently is telling him off. It upsets me as I don't like feeling like my kids don't like me iykwim and it has felt like that with Cameron. Anyway we were watching the film and like a lot of other people I cried when the toys were heading into the incinarator. My cold hearted kids however wern't fussed! However, the bit at the end where the Mum walks into Andys empty bedroom and hugs him, Cameron burst into tears and jumped on me for a cuddle. Was so sweet to know he still loves me :) Told him not to cry, when he goes to university I'm coming too. :) He laughs now but wait 12 years!!!! ;)

Kiddie crafts

Got to love Pinterest for ideas during the holidays! Last week was full of day trips and sleepovers while this week is much more home based, my bank balance couldnt take two weeks like last week! So as Camerons run off next door to play I went on to find some simple crafting ideas I could do with Caitlin. So we started of junk modelling with her Easter egg boxes and made a boat, then painted some bread to make toast for lunch :)

Was milk and food colouring if you were wondering :) Looked good before I toasted it but she enjoyed doing it so that was more important. Afternoon was spent doing hamma beads and papercrafting before the wee man came home moaning he was hungry lol.

I also made these for Caitlin :) She bought the bag and the iron on transfers at the car boot the other weekend for 50p. But there were loads of transfers in the pack so decided to make a matching t-shirt too. Really pleased with how they turned out :) I messed up one of the mice on the bag so I stuck a felt flower over it. Got to love a flower for covering up mistakes lol.

Tomorrow is the last day of the holidays which as usual I'm in mixed emotions about. I love having my kids home but will be nice to get into routine again, and try and get my house in order again! Before I know it it will be the summer holidays anyway lol.

Happy Easter!

This morning was bittersweet. We went down to see my cousin and her family at my Grans which was nice but was a goodbye for a while :( Her husband is in the army and is being posted over in Germany so they move over in a few weeks. Understandably she's excited, nervous but glad shes doing it now while her son is young before he starts school etc and its harder to settle in.
After saying our goodbyes we headed home to count all the kids easter goodies lol. When I was a kid I got LOADS of eggs but tend to get small gifts rather than eggs now for the sake of not being surrounded by chocolate for months on end! They still ended up with a good amount though. The bunny is mine :) Marks friend bought it for me which I thought was really sweet.

The rest of the day was really laid back and relaxed. Cody and his mum Gemma from next door came to visit for a while while the kids played, then they decided they wanted to play next door (on the same game, no idea why lol) so we ended up round there for another coffee lol. After dinner the kids seemed sleepy so we settled down on the couch to watch Finding Nemo. Looks comfy doesnt it, lol.

So after a long day doing nothing kids ended up in bed early and I settled down with the bunny and the book I'm currently reading. I've had it on my kindle for ages but I was sure I had read it so didn't look at it, then started it the other day and turned out no I haven't lol. To be honest I read so much I do tend to lose track of what I have and haven't read. Anybody else have that problem or just me? lol.

Scamp loved his new collar ;)

Dont worry I'm kidding I took it off after I took the photo :)

Easter egg hunt

At the start of the year we shelled out for a annual pass to our local farm. Pretty sure its already paid for itself twice over as we go ALL the time! The kids love it and its great to take Scamp somewhere and not worry he won't be allowed in certain areas. Anyway today they had a big easter egg hunt. We were planning to take our two anyway but as Mollies visit with her dad (the second since November, grrrr) fell through we took her along too. Turned out to be a great day :)

Rather than finding eggs, the easter bunny (seriously creepy giant white bunny BTW) hid laminated coloured eggs around the park. Each child was allowed to find two eggs and depending on the colour would either get a lolly, a jelly lolly, a cream egg or a full sized easter egg. The our group got lollies and cream eggs and I'm very proud to say they were pleased with their prizes :) Had seen a few kids having meltdowns because they didnt get a big egg but no problems. :)

After watching the pig races, which for some reason Scam was terrified of! we went to decorate some eggs.

Cameron did a face, Caitlin our flag and Mollie a 1D egg. I did wrap them in tissue but they 'fell' into a bin on the way out. ;)

By now Mark was flagging bless him so after a short walk around the animals we rested while the kids played in the park. Scamp as usual making the most of all the attention and kids fussing over him.
We popped to Asda for some quick shopping then home to rest after a lovely day out. I love nice simple family days :) I think it's because we didn't have a huge amount of money growing up so trips to theme parks etc were rare. Mum and my grandparents however used to take us for walks all the time or to the park with picnics and I always felt spoiled and the same with Marks childhood. I think our two have inherited that as they both love walks and simple day trips too :)

A rare treat

Some foods the kids like but I can't stand, tinned hot dogs are one of these. I've never actually read the tin on these but I dread to think what's actually in them. Like I said though the kids like them so every now and again (maybe twice a year if they're lucky lol) I let them have some. Now AGES ago Cameron was going through a fussy phase. Seems amazing to think now as the kid eats everything that doesnt move but at the time he wouldnt touch any carbs besides bread. No potatos, pasta, rice, nothing. So I found a recipe for magic hot dog spaghetti online and gave it a shot. Cam loved it! He has no problems eating pasta now so can't remember the last time I made it but this morning asked Cam asked if we could have it for dinner and I agreed.
Armed with a butter knife and some hot dogs Cam set about making his culinary delight :)

Scamp waited patiently for any spillages lol

Cameron carefully sliced up the hot dogs and poked stands of uncooked spaghetti through.

Finished ones. He started to get bored at this point and made 'robots' lol with spaghetti arms and legs *rolls eyes*

Cams part done I boiled it all up and it was done!

Never had any myself but Cam scoffed the lot. Along with a big bowl of fruit for pudding to ease my Mummy conscience ;)

Yuck, but smells nice ;)

Today Camerons friend Jack came round to play so Caitlin asked for some girly time crafting :) As we'd got those kits from the car boot I thought it was the perfect time to give one a go and picked the perfume factory. Started out all nice and girly at first, made some sweet smelling perfume and had a giggle. Then Caitlin wanted to make the perfumed slime. WHY that was in a perfume kit I dont know but ok. You had to mix half a peck of powder with some perfume we had made and some water. Nothing happened, so I added all the powder and it worked. After much stirring we ended up with some discusting slime, which made rude noises if you pressed it in a pot lol.

Caitlin was supposed to add the colouring while I stirred but when I took the lid off this happened....

Caitlins exact words...'Well you might as well finish it you're a mess now anyway!' Charming! Besides looking like I'd sliced my hand open it was nice spending some time with Caitlin. Shes off to the cinema with Mum tomorrow so will be able to spend some one on one time with my boy then too :)
Speaking of which, I've no idea what I've doen but this boy hasn't left my side all afternoon! Seriously he's a little shadow. Nice to be cuddled up with him and my kindle too :) Felling very loved today :)

Cobwebs everywhere!

A while ago I started clearing out the garage, made good headway but one thing or another meant it all stopped and somehow got filled with even more junk. Yesterday I set about sorting it again.
5 hours later, and COVERED in cobwebs its pretty unrecognisable :) Everythings all organised and sorted and theres so much more space! Marks side is still a mess but can't have everything ;) Also need to make a trip to the tip at some point as both bins only got emptied yesterday and are now full! :S I was emptying a box of jars into the recycle bin when our neighbour pointed out it isn't recyclable in our area. I checked and he's right! Woops, I've been putting glass into the wrong bin for a few years now! Oh well lol.
So garage gutted, cobwebs all showered away I decided to have a go at a sketch challenge I'm wayyyyy behind on. My friend Jess and I take it in turns to set each other a challenge every month. Back in February she set this sketch, and I had to use washi tape.

I did think I'd done it when I went to meadowbarn in March, but turns out I'd done another sketch twice lol. So last night I sat down and did this one :)

I couldn't find any tags I liked so decided to use photos instead. My mojo has been missing lately so I was quite pleased with this one. :) Didn't take too long to do and I actually enjoyed it rather than feeling forced like the one I did the other night. Hopefully a sign I'll be scrapping more in the future :)

I've got a Tassimo!!!!

Today Cameron was at his friends for a playdate and Caitlin went out with my Mum and Mollie so Mark and I made the most of a child free day by going to the town, and shops and all the little jobs that drive the kids crazy. While on a trip to Tescos we saw their Tassimo machines had been reduced. I've wanted one for AGES so Mark offered to get it as a late anniversary gift :) I jumped at the chance! I was so excited to get home and set it up :)

Seemed pretty idiot proof so I set about making a Costa Latte. Tasted a bit milky at first but I'd read somewhere if you like a stronger coffee then use the coffee pod twice, I did and tasted much better :)

I can't see this replacing my usual coffee maker, as obviously the pods aren't cheap but great for a treat now and then ;)

West midlands safari park :)

A while ago Cameron asked if we could go to a zoo, trying to keep costs down I went onto the Tesco clubcard website and found we had enough points for a free family visit to East midlands safari park, which also offered a free second visit later in the year. Bargain :) Knowing how long the vouchers sometimes take to come I ordered them then and there and put them away for when needed. As my Mum had booked this week off work, and my Dad hasn't found a job yet we decided to go. All things considered it was a good day but I wouldn't go again unless it was quieter.
The first half of the park you drive around with the animals roaming wild around you. The website said to allow 45 minutes for this drive through, yeah took over an hour and a half. By the end of it I'd have drove over one of the flipping animals to get out of there. There was SO much queuing, with windows up so the lions etc couldnt get at us which was fair enough but it was so hot the poor kids were melting and most of the time there was nothing to look at except fences. Cameron turned his ds on and played a few levels at one point.
There were good points though, the animals you were allowed to feed were a highlight. Cameron loved the giraffe.

See how wet his hair was with sweat, though in retrospect the nutter really should have took his bodywarmer off lol. Caitlin took a while to warm up to the idea but got up the courage to feed the goats :)

The hightlight by far was this guy though, he stuck his head through the front window and tried to eat the map off Mark lap. I pulled it away just in time for him to leave a huge lump of drool on Marks leg which trailed right out of the window like a giant slug. Mark was yelling 'Eugh, eugh, eugh!' the kids were putting their windows up so fast I'm surprised they didn't shatter and I was pretty much peeing myself :) So glad we had a pack of babywipes in the car lol.

As well as the drive through part there is also a large zoo type area with bug huts, aquariums etc. As it was easter they had a big egg hunt on where the kids had to find giant decorated eggs around the park to win a creme egg. They loved it and gave them something extra to do which was nice.

Not included in the price was a large theme park type area. The wristbands were pretty pricey at around £10 each but as we got in for free we didn't mind paying it. The kids LOVED this area and spent around 4 hours going on and off all the rides. A huge amount of maintainance is needed as a lot of the rides had broken parts but considering how bust the drive through was this area was really quiet so it didn't make much difference to us. In high season though can imagine it being a nightmare.

All in all it was a great day out :) As the drive through took us so long we didn't see any of the talks or shows which was a shame but more reason to go back next time :)