This is the balloon from the Christmas fayre that Olivia wanted me to take a picture for the blog, but because she took it to bed with her last night I could not do it so here it is, Father Christmas elf gave it to her for being patient and waiting in the que. Richard was so sweet he sent me a Christmas electronic message via Disney website as a reminder of our time in Disneyland and all our favourite films, here are a few snapped images I took as I played the video message, I wanted to remember it forever. Brendyn went swimming this morning was not too impressed he had to race today he said his rice crispies and toast was swishing around, argh sorry Brendyn. We went to Tesco and got Olivia and Brendyn some new boots/ trainers and a DVD we always get them a new film as an advent present as they have far too much chocolate ( personally one can never have enough chocolate but as far as kids go they can) We got grandads Christmas present and a few bits and pieces and went to nanny and grandads. Hurray!! Our first Christmas card!! We went to mum and dads had lunch and a cup of tea gave everyone our cards and went up town to meet Gary,Stacey,Callum and Cameron (my brother,sister in law and nephews) we had our photos taken feeling rather like the old lady in the Julia Donaldson Squash and a Squeeze Fab book one of my favourite children's book! The shop was rammed and after getting jaw ache feeling like a Cheshire Cat, 45 minutes later we had finally sorted the machine out and patiently waited for our order. Gary took the children to get a ice cream (you read right, I know it is winter but kids will be kids) Dad and I nipped off to a few shops for a spot of Christmas shopping rather crueley leaving good old uncle Rich and Gary with the little people - the old bit sorry pumpkin! A few purchases later and a bags of photos we went back to mums for a nice cup of tea and putting up of the Christmas tree. This is a pic of the sky by my parents house it was bizar it looked like rippling waves accross the sky it was beautiful had to snap it and show it. Richard popped to Jenny's house when we got back the children were cold from being up town and wanted to do nannys tree so Richard went to see Jenny and take the cards and advent for Anais and Roman, I really wanted to go up but time was running out, we still needed to see Diane and have tea at mums before setting back home, busy busy busy so much to do in so little time. We popped to see my friend Diane She is my long standing friend since I was 11, she had to have an operation on her ear to empty a gland that had got blocked, she was so brave she was cut and had been sewn and has gone through a lot for an operation. Diane I am so proud of you it was not nice but it is done now, love you loads (hugs) we did not take the children as they carry germs from school coughs and colds and she only had her stitches out Wednesday, stayed an hour and went back to mum and dads. Had a yummy Chinese at mum and dads the little people all tucked in eating around the coffee table while the 6 adults sat around the table, I had butterflys of excitement thinking next time we do this will be Christmas Day!! Children came home and left their letters by the fireplace hoping for fairies to come and collect the letter over night to deliver them to Father Christmas this a tradition from my childhood and we are so excited for tomorrow morning "first day of advent" I brought this transfer and was so pleased with it, it was so easy to do. I ironed it on, now I finally have an iron that works and hey presto! This is for Brendyn for Christmas. Messages! Thanks to everyone still reading and catching up with us daily I wish you all a happy run up to Christmas. Thanks mum and dad for still reading my blog I am very impressed!! Looking forward to catching up the weekend. Dad are you still candy crushing :0) Michelle love your blog! Richard Father Christmas needs your Christmas letter by tomorrow at the latest!! Children be good for goodness sakes! Jenny hoping to catch up with you the weekend at some point. And to myself stop making lists or I will be here till next year trying to tick everything off! Michelle is a star!! She always has a keen eye for a bargain and she kindly emailed me this offer today which I snapped up within the time my kettle had boiled! 3 issues from January for £1. If you open this link the info should be there. Thanks again Michelle. I wrote some of my Christmas cards this afternoon while I sat with Olivia she was enjoying watching postman pats Christmas DVD. I looked out of the kitchen window and thought goodness me what on earth is that! Can you guess what it is stuck in my bird box? It's a silly cat called Toby! No wonder there are no birds about! Poor thing think he was feeling the cold. We did our usual shopping rushed home unpacked it walking around two little people sitting on the kitchen floor playing buckaroo of all the places to play, it was sweet that they wanted to be with us and also waiting by the door to go out, that they could not waste a single second of life so filled it with a quick game. Once the shopping was away we went to the Christmas fayre at school luckily Brendyn was in the choir so we did not have to que in this horrible cold weather. The choir were so sweet all their little faces eyeing up the room looking for their parents as they sang. We had a nice pork and stuffing bap, visited Father Christmas played on a few games and brought their little gifts that they had made in class. It was a lovely evening that got us in the Christmas spirit although we are already excited and counting down the days and hours. On the way out we thought we would have a little treat and had a large bag of chips to share as the bap had not gone far, we don't usually go to the chip shop so it was a novality for them, they were very yummy. This morning I was in school listening to year 3/4 read, I also got roped into making costumes for Joseph production Oh my gosh what a nightmare the material was horrible stretchy licra think this was for some dancers, so I opted out and have asked to do waistcoats next week the material set my teeth on edge, kept moving and was just horrid! Never again! On a plus my new iron was a pleasure to use it glided over the clothes and my basket was empty in no time, ( probably a novality of having new iron) but it was a lot better then my other one. Olivia and I sat down and wrote her Father Christmas letter, I was pleased that she had a go herself, she has asked for something Doc Mcstuffins, Baby Annabell Interactive Doll and something dressing up. It was lovely watching Brendyn playing with the Christmas train today, then I laughed out loud as I opened my mouth my mother jumped out! "Watch the knees of your trousers!" I love Christmas FM we found this station last year. For anyone interested, if you go to Christmas FM.com you can either download this app, listen online or go to google play store to constantly listen to Christmas music on the go or at home, we love it, usually I listen to it when I am cooking tea. Brendyn went to beavers and discussed thanks giving and wrote something beautiful I just had to show you all. It says thanks giving for food Thanks giving for my family Thanks giving for god Thanks giving for the army that protect our country Thanks giving for my friends Thanks giving for school that help us learn. We put these yummy chocolate coins inside the crackers the weekend and am astonished there are still some left. I was in school today. Collected Olivia and then had lunch at Gemma's and Ted's was lovely, she inspired me again as had made some hand made fudge am dying to have a try over the weekend when I have raided the shops for ingredients. We watched this film after school and then after tea/evening. I just had to take a photo of our Christmas mugs as they looked so lovely, mine is the large snowman one I love filled with hot chocolate, my friend Dorothy who recently passed away brought me this one, Richards is the Santa one that I brought him, nanny Jenny brought Brendyn the Rudolph one and Olivia the red teddy bear one. Swimming and pe today was hoping would not be doing much more walking to swimming thought they might be rehersing for the play, never mind I suppose I can walk off last nights sticky toffee pudding. Came back with Olivia had lunch read her a story and changed the beds, then spent silly time writing lists I have a million things to do before Christmas and with 3 mornings a week in school now I only have 2 without Olivia and 3 afternoons with her, where bless her I can not get much done, so it is list time, time to stop faffing and get more organised. I made Brendyn this monkey while Rich finished off watching the hobbit, I name my monkeys this one is called "Mac" I wrapped some more presents up that we had brought the weekend and could not believe an hour had flown by, I quickly did hour of ironing and it was time to get Olivia. This is a Father Christmas monkey that I made Brendyn last year, I might show some things made over the year or last year as my blog was not running and so creations do not get forgotten as and when I think of them I might just randomly show you a little project. Typically now it is not the weekend my iron broke, I thought what a pain in the bum can not get to the shops until the weekend, so Rich thought if i ordered one from Tesco he can pick it up on the way home in the week, so I ordered one and apparently I had a £20 voucher about to expire on 30th nov so I have had it for free, was very impressed, thanks Tesco and thanks Rich good idea (got to wait till Wednesday) but I am in no rush to iron. Went to Beckys for lunch and the girls played until it was time to pick the boys up, they played teachers and dressed up as princesses running round us while we sorted dates in the diary for school plays, there is so much happening every day from next week with the run up to Christmas. Last year I made this little owl to hang on the Christmas tree, so this morning I will make some more for the children to put on their tree. We sat with Brendyn to do his homework he has so much now he is in juniors so it took an hour and a half to do spellings, maths, literacy and school reading book, I was in need of a cup of coffee after this and left Richard patiently explaining Brendyns time management in hours minutes and seconds. Olivia wanted to do homework to, but because she does not have any until after Christmas the teachers have said they can practice their names. But because she can do this she likes putting numbers in order, so we sat with 30 pieces of paper and she put them in numerical order. While she thinks its fun and a game I do this with her like I did with Brendyn, but once they get to year 1&2, they no longer want to sit and do this so as they are like a sponge I try to get as much information into them as I can, but by playing games and making it fun, she asks to do this as Brendyn is doing something,I do not sit and force her to do it, it is just an extra bit of help for school and for her. So with homework done, onto the fun stuff! Rich did a lovely bacon and egg sandwich for lunch then we all sat down and made Christmas crackers. I made Sunday lunch, roast chicken and for a while the boys had been asking for a sticky toffee pudding, I have never made one before only had shop brought ones, so today I made my first. Only half way through eating it I suddenly thought photo, blog! (Sorry) that's me and food if it is there has to be eaten. I attempted clothes for the doll, now named "Rag Dolly Anna" Rich watched some of the hobbit while I made Rag Dolly Anna's clothes. 9am watching brendyn swimming they are all like little fish swimming up and down I could not motivate myself for swimming in winter at this time in the morning. We went to see planes at the cinema it was a lovely film, we were in Disney land when it came out at the cinema and also it was Brendyns birthday so weekends were busy, with friends and family coming to see him, so originally we were going to buy it on DVD, as we had not had a spare weekend to watch it, we will sill ask Father Christmas for it, but when we noticed it was still on at the cinema and it is such a cold morning and we actually for once have nothing planned this morning other then swimming, we decided as we were already out it would be good to go and watch, I am so glad we did. Olivia loved the pink plane Rochelle and I like the one with flowers it was very good. Our friend Caroline's mother in law runs a craft club at the local church, where for a small donation they craft, play games have a cooked tea and lots of home made cakes from 3-5pm, they love it, they go with their friends from school, James and Emily, Jessica and Lexi, Toby and esme, Niamph and Kierran. Luckily for us parents patiently sitting the lovely ladies that are volunteering for this group, to raise money for charities bring us cakes and cups of tea, it is all for a good course, it is good fun and good for them to be with their friends, it is a place where kids can be kids and can run around and shout and play. This is what they made at craft club, rockets also a picture frame out of pasta which is drying, they can collect it next time 21st dec, 22nd they are taking part in a nativity play so they are looking forward to that to. The children decorated their tree all by themselves, it is a memory tree everything on it is from over the years, made or collected, every year they have a new bauble to add to their collection. Rich cooked our tea homemade curry was lovely, the day has gone so fast today Can not believe it has gone so fast and children in bed, now we are going to sit and watch something and chill. Having breakfast before school we all excitedly discussed putting the Christmas tree up tonight and this weekend as next weekend we are at mum and dads and busy shopping etc, we won't have time to put it up and we always put it up the first of December. Housework day I spring cleaned so I knew when the tree was up it was all clean for Christmas, mum has always said "end the year off well and spring clean for Christmas and in the new year to start the new year off with a good clean start". We have always done this since our first house in Penncricket lane it is one less job to do before the big day, so then it is just the usual housework I do weekly. We went shopping and then Richard got the Christmas tree out of the garage the children were so excited we got all the decorations from the loft, it is so exciting I recorded us putting the tree up, we like to do this so we have watched them over the years trying to put all the baubles on one branch and trying to only put their favourite on as far as they can reach, I wonder what we have tonight. We watched polar express and could not believe that it seemed 5 minutes ago we were at the cinema with Jenny, mark, Michelle, Anais, roman and their cousins watching this film it is scary that a year has gone by so quickly. I started this rag doll over Christmas last year with Jenny showing me the pattern and generally how it is done, but unfortunately I have only just got around to making her, (I got there in the end Jenny) just in time for Christmas,hooray!! I thought Olivia will love her, however being pink she looks as if she is in the nod, I think I had better clothe her. I was in school again this morning, I had been asked by teachers if I could come in and hear a few read for practice for them, it was lovely siting there being read to, my brain was buzzing though from one story to another and now I am waiting to hear the end of the stories. We came home and I read this book to Olivia she then played around the house followed me into rooms as I was sorting washing out and insisted on wearing her Dorothy from wizard of oz dress up dress to school, we did the "but it is too cold" and "if you fall it is a dress you will have poorly knees" and in the end she quite Sensibly told me " mummy I am wearing my dress with tights you see, my knees are ok I will wear my hat, scarf and gloves and my muff that Anais gave me, I will be very warm and I will wear my boots" looking as cute as could be who am I to say otherwise, so in winter with a blue gingham dress boots and plenty of warm clothes she skipped very happily to school we had a lot of funny looks but she was happy. |
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AuthorHi! Welcome to Brenoli's thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy reading and come back for more. Archives
July 2015
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