Peppa pig world

Ok so we came back last week but been busy since then (nothing nice so I'll just gloss over it. lol) ell kids had a GREAT time at Peppa pig world. :) The drive down was horrendous. 4 and a half hours it took as we got stuck in traffic. Caitlin was a little sick bless her but was very brave. So we get there and obviously the first place we visit is Peppas house. :) Was actually quite realistic models telling a story about Daddy pig making pancakes and them sticking to the ceiling. Caitlin loved it here and we came back more than once.

Now before we went I was warned to take a change of clothes for the 'muddy puddles' section. To be honest I wasn't sure what it was but took the clothes anyway. Would have been better off with a swimming costume. lol. It was basically a big area with fountains and water toys. Each toy was controlled by a button, but not the one nearby. So you would press a button and a fountain would shoot up on the other side of the area if you know what I mean. Caitlin LOVED it!

Was really great, lots of things to do. She happily played here for most of the morning while Cameron played in Mr potatoes park next door. Which again was great with lots of peppa themed things to play on.

After drying Caitlin off and changing her clothes we went on a few rides. First was Grandad dogs boats, a simple ride which goes around in circles next to a duck pond (Not real ducks, yellow peppa pig ducks lol) then onto Grandad pigs train. The queues on all the rides were quite long, around 20 minutes, but there was lots to look at while waiting. The park had a great attention to detail, hills, flowers, building, all right out of the cartoon. Caitlin was in her element pointing everything out to me. One of Camerons favourite rides was georges dinosaur ride. Its similar to the horse race ride you get at most other theme parks. Was a nice relaxing ride showing lots more characters from the show.

In madame gazelles school house.

We went for lunch in Grandad pigs cafe. This is next to a big indoor play area which Cameron again loved. Now one thing about this park i cannot fault is how clean it was. I bought a coffee and walking from the counter to the table just outside I dropped the lid. In the seconds it took me to turn around to get it a member of staff had picked it up and put it in the bin. This was the same throughout the park. Despite its size and how busy it was I didnt see any rubbish lying around. After lunch we went into the main area of the park. This was MUCH quieter than Peppa pig world. The kids went on roller coasters, merry go rounds, the lot with no queues. But obviously its not Peppa pig. lol
Rather than drive back the same day we'd booked into a nearby hotel for the night. Cameron was very excited to see this desk and chair and made us all call him big man. God knows where that came from!

Back to the park the next day and more rides. :) These are some photos taken from Mrs Rabbits helicopters.



Cuddles in front of danny dog. :) At least I think it's Danny dog. lol.

All in all it was a great few days. The park is wonderful and plenty to do. :) If it was nearer I'd be back again in a heartbeat. :)

ok enough now.

Ok, I've been AWOL a while. To be honest things have been a bit crap. Well kinda. As most mums know when you have kids you struggle to still be a person. Theres the 'mummy Gemma' then theres just 'Gemma' and its been a LONG time since 'Gemma' existed. Honestly the last time I went out without the kids except for drs appointments or practical things was March for the Twilight retreat. And while I'm ok about it during the day, at night when the kids have gone to bed it gets me down. I honestly feel like I'm losing myself. I don't enjoy scrapping much anymore, and Mark (bless him) sold a load of his collectibles to give me £100 for my birthday. I took them all out for lunch then bought lots of toys for the kids Christmas. From that £100 I bought myself a bottle of water, I didn't even have lunch. lol. Not because I'm a selfless saint or because there was nothing I wanted (bubble bath punch comes to mind. lol) but because it just doesn't feel right buying things for myself. Theres no reason for it really. Not like the kids ever go without. Mark encourages me to go out all the time but I just don't have anyone to go anywhere with. When Mark first got sick so much of my time was taken up with caring for him and the kids (a baby and a newborn at the time) I just lost touch with them all. I did start going to a monthly crop but since crhsitmas one thing or another has come up and I've just not been back. Things came to a head on my birthday but I won't get into that as I've moaned enough really. Bottom line is I've had enough. I've got to try and get back into my hobbies and home and just get over the fact if I go out, I'm taking the kids. It's easier now they're older granted, and Caitlins starting to want to go cinema and places too, though wont't do me much good when new twilight film comes out but if needs be I'll go alone! lol. But I'll just have to accept this is my life, I'm a wife and mother and thats about it, women in the 60's did it, so can I, and it could be worse. I've just got to focus on what I do have. A loving husband and two wonderful, happy kids. :)
OK soul bared, lol, as it was nice yesterday we decided to 'clean' tha car. I say 'clean' because the kids insisted on helping, so it got about as washed as it would have done in a heavy rainstorm. lo. They had fun though and soaked everything in sight so I don't mind. :)

Love Mark in the background browsing his ebay. lol. Had a few bits ending last night so he was watching to see what they went for. Was gutted as he sold a HUGE star wars puzz 3d spaceship, took em bloody hours to build it to make sure all the bits were there and it went for £1.70. £1.70!! I think I should get a bar of chocolate and a magazine out of that. lol

Well Marks been told to force me to scrap tonight so hopefully will have some layouts to share tomorrow. :)

Wonderful news to wake up to. :)

Well this morning I woke up to a txt telling me my cousins girlfriend has given birth to their twins! So excited. Its a boy and a girl, 6lb each! Good weight really. Mum and babies both doing fine after a bit of a rough time, no names yet but can't wait to hear. :)
Thanks for comments yesterday about my holiday. :) The hotel we're going to is the 'Hotel tropical' it used to be the holiday village but is now split into two hotels rather than one huge one. Apprently still pretty big though. lol
Well managed a bit of scrapping last night. Mainly watched tv and did puzzles in magazines though. lol These two are of when we took the kids bike riding.
First time I've used my butterfly punch here. :)

ne of Cameron. Had no 's' left so used a 'z' lol. Still works I think. The wooden circle is actually off an old top but I threaded it onto a misted chipboard cog to make an embellishment. :)

Well today theres housework to be done in the morning, then helping out at a sure start fun day this afternoon. Hope the weather holds out as I'm giving out ice creams. Won't be too much to do if it rains! lol

ok no photos

its not often I do a no photo post but unless you want to see a photo of my freshly ironed clothes I've not got much to share. lol. Oh Wait I've got one thing. :)
LOOK WHERE I'M GOING!!!!!!!!

It's a hotel in Turkey. I'm SO stupidly excited and its not until next year. lol. I've had a bit of a rubbish time lately and we are skint, seriously skint for the next few months. Was so embarrassing last night getting the shopping in Asda and having to hand over a big pile of vouchers. Anyway. We haven't been abroad since our honeymoon when I was pregnant with Cameron (didn't know it yet though. lol) and I really miss the sun and the sea. Mum on the other hand goes away every year but was getting really bored just sitting around the pool and beach, so as a surprise she booked us all a holiday in Turkey next year! We have to pay the rest but she did the deposit which was a fair chunk of it, and was really cheap as both kids went free anyway. So I'm a very happy bunny. :) We've been busy getting more of Marks stuff ready to ebay to add to our dwindling funds so I spent most of last night building a Puzz 3d millennium Falcon. It was NOT easy! There were 800 odd bits and trying to get them to stay together when building it all up wasn't simple. It really was for someone with patience, god knows why I was doing it!

WOYWW

Ok, I've been a bad blogger. lol. Have been busy this time though so have an excuse for the days speeding by. Last friday we took the kids to Thomas land. We've been plannign to go for ages but were just waiting for a nice day. They had a great time. :) Took lots of photos but will show them tomorrow. Weekend was the usual stuff, dads group and housework. The weather was amazing so spent most of it outside. :) Then monday we went strawberry picking!

Was really sweet as one of the programes the kids like is Special agent Oso. Hes a teddy bear who goes around helping people and in one episode helped a young girl pick strawberrys by 'twisting them then pulling' so Cameron and Caitlin were telling everyone how to pick the strawberrys like Special agent Oso did. lol.
So whats on my desk this week. Um, a mess again. lol. Im hosting a stash swap on UKS so have a few parcels which have arrived waiting for the rest of the group. Ive also got some layouts which need finishing touches before they can be put away. :) You also might notice the take away boxes of letters are still out. lol. When going through my sheets of thickers I found lots which only had a few letters left on it. So decided to cut them up and put the letters into the boxes to neaten things up a bit.

So thats my job for tonight. lol.

Will blog more tomorrow. Weathers getting rubbish again so sure I'll be about more. lol.

WOYWW

Well thats a few days gone and I've no idea where! lol. I've been doing housework, painting and taking the kids about and the days have just flew by. This blog has came in handy as I've also been organising my phootos. I like to have them in folders on my computer based on what month they were taken. So I've been looking back at posts to find out. lol.
For those of you who were wondering how long my desk would stay tidy. Ummm, not too long. lol. With sorting out old layouts and my masses of thickers and letters its a bomb site again. Pile of boxes ot thickers (and my breakfast bowl. lol)

Pile of layouts which need titles and pizza box full of thickers and letters. lol. Will be working on this tonight. :)

I did manage a few layouts though. :) Like this one of me and the kids on bonfire night. I used an old piece of Core-dinations card I found. :)

Nice simple one of me and the girls at our twilight retreat this year. :) FBG stands for fat bottomed girls. Don't ask. lol

This was mainly to use up the many stickers I had sitting in a box. :) Love using things up

Cameron at Easter. It was a very 'white' photo so wanted the colours to be muted too.

Last one for now. :) Caitlin at the park. Really like this one. Very girly and love the butterfly sticker. :)

Well plan to do more scrapping tonight and maybe watch some nice relaxing tv. lol. Hubby is out again and last night I had to ring him to come home as I was watchign the crime channel and scared myself a bit. lol. Maybe just E4 or something tonight. :)

Thickers overload

So I finally got the boxes upon boxes of thickers and letters from the garage. There were a few more than I expected! So my aim over the next few days is to go through them, throw away the ones I dont like anymore and find ways to use up whats left. So will be getting my creative thinking cap on for that one. :)
In the meantime here are some more layouts I've done. :)
Super simple one of the kids at halloween last year. Caitlin was a fairy and Cameron was Thomas. Big surprise. lol.

This photo was taken while I was trying the get a nice picture of all the kids together. I love the look on caitlins face here, Lillie is crying and shes looking at her as if to say 'whats your problem?' Typical Caitlin.

I don't know why she did this, honestly. lol. The title pretty much sums it up.

Love the cheeky grin in this photo. The rabbit was actually off her finished hat. I'd thrown it away the day before I did this layout and actually went through the bin to pull it out and use it. lol. Luckily it was near the top. The things we do for our hobby. :)

The finished easter bonnet. Used the ribbon from Caitlins hat too. :)

Well I've spent most of the day going though old albums and adding journaling, titles and other bits needed. Still have a huge pile of layouts that need 'editing' but will hopefully be making dinner for my dad and Mark tomorrow so might not get a chance to do much. I say hopefully because if my stomach is no better might take a run over to hospital to get chekced out. Still really painfull and starting to worry me a bit now. Sure it's nothing big but better safe than sorry.

drugged up = mojo

Well the past few days I've had a really bad stomach. not sure what it is but feels like I'm in labour every time I eat. Good for the diet as I'm now scared to eat but not the best for everyday life! lol. Drs sending me for a scan on my liver based on my skin colour and something to do with my nails but I'm not too concerned. In the meantime however I've been taking Tramdol and paracetamol to help the pain. now Tramadol has a weird affect on me, it makes me slightly high. lol.
It also seems to have the strange affect that it makes my mojo go into overdrive! Over the past 2 days I've done 22 layouts. Most of which I'm really pleased with. lol. I think when I'm slightly out of it I don't over think as much and just slap it down where I think looks nice. Seems to work well. :)
This is part of a double layout of when the kids made their Easter bonnets. I need to go around the letters in black pen but still not got one yet.

Other side.

I LOVE this layout. While still on a mission to use up stash I decided to make some 'fireworks' from some of the cheaper bling I had sitting about. Took longer than expected but I love the result. Another nice photo of me and Caitlin. Cameron hates posing now so dont have many of him sadly.

Bit of a random layout from when the kids first had a Mr wippy ice cream. Cameron got more of it on his face than in his mouth. lol

Another one from fireworks night. The title reads 'Just a little wet'. It wasn't really raining much that night but it was the type of misty rain that seems to stick to you and soak you. Kids had fun though. lol. They had their wellies on so had agreat time splashing in puddles on the way home.

Another layout I really like. This one I was surprised at as what happened was I'd put away all my papers and scraps, then turned around to find I'd forgot these bits on the couch after cutting them off other layouts. Rather than put them away I just threw it all together to make this layout. :)

My mum has Caitlin tonight so Mark and Cameron are having a 'boys night'. So basically they'll eat junk and watch tv. lol. So night to myself, maybe more scrapbooking? lol.

WOYWW

Well I managed it. :) Over the past few days I've done around 15 layouts and used up pretty much all the bits and bobs on my desk. :) Looks MUCH neater now, and I've even managed to bring down all the kits I was hiding in the wardrobe because I didnt have the room for them. :)

More neatness

Half finished project. Got to be one hasnt there. lol. I love this stripy paper, some of it is embossed and shiny. Not sure whereit came from, think it was a really old qvc kit.

As well as being back into scrapping I'm enjoying doing the challenges on uks again. We used to have a challenge each month on our social group but it kinda fizzled out so I set one this month to try and revive it. :) The rules were:
Use something you've been saving - The ribbon slide is from my first SC kit in feb 09lol
use a punch somewhere - On the photo mat
Use something you've altered - Misted the chipboard circle purple
Use thread - wrapped around the circle.
Really like this layout. :) the photo of me isnt bad which is most of the battle! lol. I also did it with my bo bunny christmas papers which I'm sadly running out of now.

More layouts tomorrow I'm sure. :)

More layouts and movie reviews. lol

When Ironing I always watch a film to make the time pass more easily. As yesterday was a mamoth session I watched 3 films. lol. I now have an empty ironing basket though. :) The films I watched were 'The next 3 days', 'Morning glory', and 'The dilema'
The dilema was rubbish. Seriously. I thoguht it was a comedy but really it was just a film about how married people all cheat. Oh well. Morning glory was better. Was quite surprised as reviews wern't very good but I thought it was pretty funny. The next 3 days was another good one. bit slow at first but I really felt for the poor mum in prison while hubby tries to get her out. And I liked how it wasnt a typical action film there was real heart to it too. Didnt like the ending though but I wont say more on it incase someone reading wants to watch it. :)
Mre layouts. :) These are still more from what I did on Saturday and I did even more last night. lol. Not sure I'll meet my targer for having my desk clear and organised by tomrrrow but I've made a good dent in it. :)
This layout is still missing an S I admit. lol. Thing is I've got a huge pile of alphas in a box by my desk, but most have run out of the 's' and 'e'. In the garage however Ive got lots of takeaway boxes which each contain all the letters I started out with. One box for a, one for b etc. When I first started scrapping (and I hadnt bought TOO much) I cut up all the sheets of thickers and letters and seperated them in this way. However it soon got too big a job and now they just sit in the garage untill I'm desperate for a letter and I pull them out. I have yet to get the motivation to go and get the s box yet though. lol

This was taken again in Thomas land. Caitlin went mad seeing the dinosaur behind Mark and started shouting at him bless her.

Hopefully more scrapbooking tonight so might have reaching my target by tomorrow. :)

If it aint broke dont fix it!

Why must people fuss about with things that work fine as they are? Drives me mad! 2 big changes at the moment are my iphone blog and my internet banking. HSBC have came up with this 'great' idea of sending me a little calculator type thing, everytime I want to log on I now need to put in my username, two passwords then generate a passcode by tunring on the little calulator, putting my pin in, it will give me a code, then putting the code into the pc. And I need to do this EVERY time I want to log on! Keep in mind I do this at least once a day I'm getting bord of it pretty sharpish.
Next moan is that my iphone has changed the way I view my blog. Before I could see it in the same format as my pc, now its only my posts and comments I see. Which yes looks neater but means I cant see my list of blogs I'm following and whos updates recently! grrr, it was fine before!
Ok rant over, Camerons in a bad mood today which is putting everyone else in one too, so got to vent somewhere! lol. Been doing quite well on my mission to use the bits on my desk. While I didnt go to my crop on saturday (long story) I did manage to get a fair bit of scrappign done and did 9 layouts. Some were really simple like this one of the kids at a fete. I loved the bright background paper and wanted as many photos as I could. Simple as it is I like this one. :)

Another simple one scraplifted from sarah in the Sarahs cards dt booklet way back in March 09! lol. Yes I'm only just getting around to using this kit.

More from the same kit. Love the litte face in the bottom corner. It was actually a keyring we 'won' in Haven this year. I say 'won' because remember the little bear on my desk in my last post? Well that had a RRP of £4.99, I spent about £10 winning it out of the 2p machine. lol. I get addicted to those REALLY quickly which Mark usually just smiles and lets me get on with. I think this time though he got a bit bored as I'd only put 50p in the machine to win this keyring when he went over to a memeber of staff and convinced him to just open the machine and give us a couple for the kids. lol. Did I ever tell you Mark won salesman of the year 3 years running when he worked in Dixons? lol. You can see why. :)
I also used my ribbler on this one on the red paper. Havent used it in ages but like the texture it adds.

This is a bit of an odd layout. I dont think I like it much but oh well. I originally did the background for another photo ut ended up not using it so put it with this instead. The fairy wings are from a doll Caitlin recently broke. Waste not want not! lol. The journalling tags will read all the nasty/funny things shes said recently as I love the 'butter wouldnt melt' look on her face when shes really a little devil at times. Such comments I plan to journal are:
While playing a dancing game with the kids
Cameron - You can do it Mummy!
Caitlin - I don't think you can do it mummy, you're rubbish.
And:
me - Caitlin why are you stroking my back? Am I your kitty?
Caitlin - No mummy kittys are pretty, You're my doggy.
Shes lovley really. Honestly. lol

Will show more layouts tomorrow as just ironing and cleanign today so wont be anything interesting to blog unfortunatly. lol

My desk, the bomb site.

Well that's another week gone and I'm note quite sure where. lol. One place it certainly hasn't gone is on tidying up my desk.
My work desk

To the right, look at my poor letter holder. :( think it needs neatening up!

Albums I'm going through

Pretty little bear and the warhammer bloodthirster my strange husband put there so it looks like its attacking the pretty little bear. :s

Anyway, problem is that while my desk does need tidying, theres actually nowhere to tidy the stuff away to. lol. Stash is overflowing everywhere (I've even been putting it on top of the boxes on Marks side, shhhh don't tell him lol) So, rather than promising myself I'll sort it out, I'm setting the aim that by Wednesday I'll have USED all the bits and bobs that are causing the problem. I'll sort the albums, use up the kits and scraps and reclaim a bit of workspace. How realistic this may be remains to be seen but I'm going to a crop today (which I havent done since November, having 'what to pack' panic attacks lol) so thats a good start. :)
I've also managed to do these two tonight. :)
The Caterpillar here I actually found stuck to the side of my desk while going through the scraps, so thought I'd best use it for fear of it disappearing again. lol

I LOVE this layout. I havent used paints in a while but obviously with the photos being all about Cameron using himself as a canvas I the page had to get messy. :) So the backgrounds painted, chipboard in the corner painted and paint around the edge of the main photo. One of the few layouts that looked the same in my head as on paper. lol.

Right well I'd better get on with the impossible choice of what punches to take today. :) Hope everyones having an amazing weekend. :)

D-day, well part of it

Tonight we go for a meeting with cams school to tell us details about when he starts, what he'll need etc. I'm excited and dreading it at the same time. I'm not ashamed to admit I'll be a mess the day I drop him off. He's a baby! My baby! He shouldn't be going to school he was only born a little while ago!! At least I still have my baby girl. God help me when she starts school next year, I'll need to buy a puppy or something as I'm not having another baby lol.
Hopefully he'll be ok with it. He's been going to nursery since he was 9 months old though admittedly it's only one morning a week, but he still cries more often than not. It's strange he used to love it, then about a year ago he suddenly cried every morning. Hes fine when we've left and says how much fun he's has when we've picked him up but still hate seeing him cry. We're making a big deal of it, saying he's going to get big boy clothes and he can pick his lunch box so he's excited about the idea at the moment but long time to go yet! Luckily the school is really just round the corner from us and you cab actually see it from my mums house so we've been walking past it often so he knows he's close to home and seen all the kids comming out. We're hoping to get him his own blue ds xl for when he starts too and if he goes in without crying he can play for a little while when he gets home.
Am I going ott? Lol there won't be nearly as much worry when Caitlin starts, she loves nursery so I think she'll be fine with going to school, while Camerons so much more sensitive and hates crowds. God it's only june, I've got 4 more months of stressing out about this! Lol

Does my son have a death wish?

While I would never harm a hair on his head, my son is certainly pushing the idea at the moment. No hes not being violent, or rude, or breaking things, hes copying me!! Honestly, every word I say he follows me around and says the same thing back. Apparently its 'the shadow game Ethan plays at nursery' Yeah thanks for that Ethan. Ok it sounds cute but nearly an hour after he starts it really starts to grate on you. lol. At the moment Im sitting silently typing and hes standing staring at me with a joker like grin on his face waiting for me to speak. This phase ends soon doesn't it??
My daughter also came out with a gem this morning. Was lying in bed and she was pushing my top up and poking my stomach. I asked why and she replies 'I like your tummy Mummy, its all stripy!' Yeah Caitlin those are strecth marks, wait till you have kids your tummy will be stripy too! 1pm is too early for a glass of wine isnt it? lol.
Anyway, last night after I finally managed to get Cameron to sleep I did a couple of layouts. This was a scraplift from an old SC kit. I love this photo of Caitlin at a sponsored walk looking so proud of herself. :)

Another Thomas land photo here. :) A lovely photo of all the girls (at the time) cant believe Lilly will be toddling along next to them soon! i decided to do the layout based around the title tag which reads 'If friends were flowers Id pick you' so pretty much covered the whole thing in flowers.

I've also been watching the Breaking dawn trailer. :) :) :) see it on the movie website. ITS SO COOL!!!!! Honestly it's sad how much my heart was pounding when I watched it. Its too long until November, its just not fair!

Scrapping

Yes you read that right I have been scrapping! I kinda abandoned my desk and set all my bits boxes and non-kit papers onto the floor and for some reason this seems to have kick started my mojo. :) Ignor Bella who decided to come say hello. :)

These photos were in Thomas land the first time we went, long time ago now. Caitlin decided to share her crisps with a t-rex model. She was actually really sad when he didnt eat them bless her.

Another one from Thomas land but this was taken last July when we went for my nieces birthday. I think Henry looks really evil here when you can't see his smile. lol

One from the Movie world parade in Disneyland. :) Didnt turn out how I'd pictured it in my head, but I'd had a glass of wine and some strong painkillers (I've hurt my knee, lol) by then so thats probably why!

This is the first one I did before the wine and painkillers. lol. I love the colours on this one. The papers are lovely but SO busy so wanted to use them just a bit and quite like the effect. :) Again one from Thomas land first time we went. Evie was just walking by herself there! She'll be 3 soon, lol.

Planning some more scrapping tonight (children allowing as Camerons having none of this 'sleep' business!) so hopefully more to share tomorrow. :)