Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

We're waiting in the queue at Morrisons. E.M is sitting in the buggy whinging, complaining and generally being miserable, minding her sister's behaviour and shouting at her for walking away. I've already told her off several times and she's wearing me down. J.R to E.M:

"Do you WANT to go to bed?"

E.M "No."

"Then STOP SHOUTING at me and leave me ALONE or Mummy will put you to bed!"

Cue sniggers from the customers around us...

Boxing Day

We had such a busy day yesterday that today we actually lazed about in our pj's until midday, all four of us! Then to add to a perfectly easy going day (for me anyway) Daddy made us all a nice lunch :)

The house is cluttered with presents everywhere, there is a big pile of brand new clothes for the girls sitting on the table, bathtime goodies on the hall table and new pyjamas on the stairs ready to go up but no-one's had a minute to spare!

And to top it all off, two gift bags choc full of the girls' sweets and treats sitting in the living room - talk about temptation!!

I will get it tidy in here, no...WE will get it tidy in here. All it needs is a good blitz... but we're all so busy chilling.

Oh and the dishes need doing now too.

Alright, i'm going.

Making: Easy Festive Wreath

A really easy-to-make festive wreath. Which as E.M demonstrates, is so easy to make it can even be made by a 2 year old.

You will need: 1 paper plate, some white paper, green paint, PVA glue, red tissue paper and scissors.

Draw some leaves on the white paper, paint them green and leave them to dry.

Cut the centre from a paper plate - this forms the base of your wreath shape. (Of course the adult has to do this.)

When the 'leaves' are completely dry, cut them out and glue them to the paper plate base.

Tear up the red tissue paper and scrunch into little balls for berries.

Glue the 'berries' to the wreath. Messy this bit.

And there you have it - Easy Festive Wreath! My E.M is so proud of hers...i've put it on the wall and she returns to admire it every once in a while :)

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

Having just arrived home from a three hour shopping spree, we all pile out of the taxi and J.R turns to me and says:

"Mummy, I had a GOOD day today."

Aww how nice is that!

As One Of My Facebook Friends Put It...

"If this country was a business it would be constantly in liquidation.

The slightest bit of SNOW and it causes chaos!

The slightest ray of SUNSHINE and we have a water shortage!!

The slightest dribble of RAIN and we are flooded!!!"

All Dressed In White...Still

Despite all the blinding sunshine we're having, the snow isn't melting.

Our garden is still under a blanket of white, and although most of the main roads are back to normal again, the side roads are still dangerous.

Just this morning we saw two cars sitting at the bottom of the hill, hazard lights flashing, one had gone down the hill too fast and tried to turn left at the bottom - unsuccessfully - she ended up smashing into the car waiting at the junction instead. Daddy's been driving everywhere very slowly, not taking any chances.

You're not in a hurry, what's the point? Better to be safe than sorry. We already had two near misses on friday, when we went shopping. Not good.

Read what happened on Friday 18th December, if you haven't already.

It's Snowing!!

It seems the snow was waiting for the holiday's to begin! I woke up at 4am, desperately needing some cough medicine, and spotted the snow falling outside. J.R heard my footsteps on the stairs and asked me for a drink, lucky thing got to see the snow before her little sister. I pushed their bedroom curtain aside and lifted her up onto the window sill to get a better look. She got so excited. "It's a snow! Lots and lots and!" Indeed.

The snow was falling pretty fast. And now our garden has disappeared under a blanket of white. It's freezing, but it does look lovely.

Last Minute Xmas Shopping

Last minute shopping today, this is the last chance we'll have to get out and do any bulky shopping with daddy before christmas day. But despite the crowds it was surprisingly easy to get what we wanted. I've found if you do all the 'thinking' at home and put your final choices on paper, you can't go wrong!

Anything I think of later i'll have to manage on my own with the girls, and nothing is gonna be easy in this weather... The traffic is slow cos the roads are still hazardous, we ourselves had 2 near-misses in the car this afternoon. First one was coming down a very slight incline towards the junction at the level crossing, Daddy braked but the wheels crunched on the ice and the car kept moving. We were sliding slowly, but because of the traffic, the first car in the queue was unable to move back and Daddy had to swerve so as not to clip his headlights. No damage done.

The second instance was in the multi storey car park, we were on the 4th level and there weren't any cars around. We approached the down ramp slowly but on turning right (to go down it) the wheels crunched and slid on the ice again, meaning we slid left - towards the barriers. SO CLOSE to clipping the front of the car on the corner of the brick wall! But once again Daddy managed to steer us out of trouble and thankfully we got home safe.

Snow Forecast?

This week? We'll see.

But this is what we've woken up to this morning...

Ok so not really snow, more a light frosting LOL

But one thing's for sure, it's REALLY chilly!

The bookies have started putting the odds on for a white Christmas

- Now wouldn't that be nice :)

The Holidays Officially Begin!

Today the holidays officially begin for us. I had J.R's little Christmas Party to go to. It looked quite fun - they had a huge bouncy castle, which she's been looking forward to attacking all week - it's always nice to see her having a good time. Brought with us a punnet of seedless grapes and two boxes of chocolate covered cupcakes. Oh, and 19 mini christmas cards we spent most of last night writing out to friends J.R can remember the names of!

I am such a procrastinator, I always wait until the last possible minute to do cards and Christmas shopping, Lord knows as much as I enjoy shopping, I don't really enjoy the 'Christmas Shop'. But the four of us are heading off into town tomorrow either way, i'm sure it'll be fine!

Nativity Show @ Pre-School

We were so proud of our little Diva today, she did really well. Singing along she was, occasionally glancing at me and Daddy to make sure we're watching, but then lowering her head in embarassment!

When the children first came out and climbed the steps onto the stage, J.R saw us sitting in the second row and ran over babbling in excitement, and was equally disappointed when we told her to join the rest of the children! She went into a bit of a sympathy cry, bless her. (We just laughed it off!)

But she was fine after that, this is her second christmas at the pre-school, and just like last year they made up DVD's of the play and photos of the children all dressed up in their nativity costumes. What was new this year is they also made up a couple of photo baubles - I bought the lot. I love her professional photo, J.R was an angel again and although both this and last years photos are nice, this time she is smiling at least :)

This is gonna be the last christmas she spends at this school.

Next September she starts junior school... Where has the time gone?

Just a quick note to thank my mum and dad for the birthday cake AND unexpected mini chinese buffet this evening. Delish it was. Even after they left none of it went to waste ;)

A Real Birthday Treat

Aren't they beautiful!

Today after work Daddy got to the front door and the first thing he said to me?

Happy birthday? Nope.

The first thing he said to me today was "No, no no! Go into the kitchen, you can't see this." I did as I was told.

I did as I was told, there was a lot of bag rustling and fuss, and he called the girls upstairs with him.

After about ten minutes of waiting, I was then ordered to sit on the sofa. Ok.

Then, slowly but surely my family re-emerged.

First there was J.R, she came running up to me with a box of chocolates in her right hand and a bunch of pink roses in her left. "Happy birthday Mummy!" She exclaimed. It was perfect :)

Then came Baby E.M, with a card in one hand, and ANOTHER bunch of roses - white ones - in the other. I greeted her, she was excited for me...but rather interested in my chocolate too.

Then last but not least, Daddy emerged with A THIRD bunch of roses and another card. Apparently my face was a picture. I was holding three bunches of roses - pink, white and red - they were beautiful, I couldn't stop smiling. I still can't!

And tomorrow night, he's taking me out for dinner and cocktails at TGI Fridays...

A Million & One Things To Do!

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to follow your own advice?

Yeah well...here I go.

I know i'm supposed to be making time for myself, but I just CAN'T!

There is just NO TIME SPARE! I have the biggest To-Do list right now, I blame the run up to christmas. And it's my birthday in a few days. I can't remember how old I am, and I had to ask Daddy. Oh dear, that can't be a good sign.

Easy Like Sunday Morning?

Today has been - hands down - the easiest sunday i've ever had.

But don't get the wrong idea, I haven't been given a day off, i'm talking about my girls' behaviour. Regular readers will know, sunday is the day I dread the most, so i'll spare you the details.

But no, today was surprisingly easy going, compared to the usual conflict we find ourselves in every sunday.

I must have come across different today: she means business.

Cos i've definitely had a crappy last couple of weeks when it comes to handling these girls. Today something, somehow has clicked into place.

But I could bet money on it all being back to 'normal' tomorrow.

There Is No Way...

I would not NEGLECT my blog. It's ironic that as soon as we get our internet back up and running December kicks in and i've just been so so busy.

It's been absolute chaos round here, what with our windows being changed (to double glazing, well overdue) and christmas coming up, there's always something I need to remember for dancing or to bring to pre-school...

The list goes on and on! But now dancing has finished until January and the school will be closing soon too. Plus i've actually started my christmas shopping, things are looking a little more organised, and I only hope you can forgive me for not updating as much as I should - believe me when I say it will get done...it's just gonna take a while.