Operation Christmas Child

This week we have been collecting its together for http://www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk/ Which is a great charity that send shoe boxes filled with love, toys, certain items of clothing and toiletries to countries where children are not as lucky as ours. Emily and Lucy have really loved this, they have enjoyed helping me choose items and sorting the boxes. And i think this is a great lesson for children to learn that at christmas there are lots of children across the world who are not as fortunate as us, and of course that it is good to give as well as recieve.

We have made 4 boxes this year, 2 of them are for a girl aged 2-4yrs and one is for a boy 5-9yrs

some of the things we included were, gloves, toothbrush and paste, teddy, play doctors kit in a bag i made, stickers, colouring pencils and pad, sweets and a rubber.

in this one i made a crochet little bag with string!

Emily took two into school on tuesday and i will be showing the other two to my class to try and enthuse them to make some at home with their parents.

half term holiday catch up

I dont feel like i get to do many of the things i like to do much at the moment. I am spending a lot of time working -no not physically teaching but working all the same. Preparing lessons, resources, marking - oh my goodness the marking and all in all i am not accumplishing much at all i feel. If i manage a healthy meal on the table then i feel i have done something. Whether the girls eat it or not is something esle. I really should stop beating myself up about things. No one is perfect its the thought process you go through that is important. Letting them know that no one is more important than them to me.

I dont get to post on here as much as i would like. I am either too tired at the end of the day when i think "thats enough work for today" or when i do post i am quick and to the point because my train of thorugh is about 5 seconds long with little people running around.

so anyway here are a few things we have been doing recently and photos i just had to share.

runner bean seeds harvested and ready for next year

my favourite flower of the year and i am definatly planning on growing some more next year!

Ha! a little light reading!

poorly sleeping

A little less poorly sleeping but sleeping all the same

naked puppetshowing!

Pirate poses!

Heart pulling moments making me wish things were different

feeding the ducks at 7:30 this morning because the clocks changed and my eldest decided her body wanted to get up at 5 which was actually 4!!! oh i love it when the clocks change!

Quack!

Lorna came to stay this week.

This week we had my friend Lorna staying with us form Bimingham. She has been my penfriend since i was about 14 and she came to stay with us last year too. It was lovely, the girls really enjoyed her company and i did too. Its lovely having someone stay with you who is so on your wave length. both of us are teachers and are interested in similar things. It was just lovely.

We did some spooky skeliton making at Dads. This is my brothers little boy Aden and obviously Emily having fun together.

errrr Pumpkin carving

Roll on next year!!

Carnival weekend

This weekend was carnival weekend and saturday saw us wrapping up warm to watch the proccession go by. Thi girls loved it, Emily remembered last years and was excited about seeing the carnival princesses etc, for lucy it was her first time (well first time that she will remember) so she was very unsure as to what would happen. i explained there would be lots of princesses there and people banging drums (more to prepare her really).

apologies for the quality of the pictures but you get the idea!

In the beginning she was very weary and i thought i was going to have to carry her for the duration, then i gave her a bag of 2ps and she was away! she was putting money into anyones bucket that came past. when people said thank you, she would churp up "nat alright". honestly it was hilarious, thas shy child was waving at people, even a lady in an army truck, she said hello and she said hello back! so funny. she just loved it!

 Notice how Emily is in the buggy and lucy is walking! Also notice the hat Lucy is wearing.... latest crochet achievement!!! photos on another blog post when i have made one for Emily too!!

Daddy is 40 today!

Yesterday we successfully executed a suprise meal for Ian's 40th birthday in a local pub/restaurant. It was a total suprise as he thought he was just going there for a meal with his grandad and his friend Norah. Little did he know there would be 21 of us  there to greet him! shocked, yes he was but pleased all the same! it was lovely!

this is the moment he realised what had happened

Emily took the camera at this point!

Ian with his Grandad

lucy's first session at preschool

Today was lucy's first session at preschool. Look at her, all packed and ready to go. I say this but actually it was with an air of hesitation that we both set out this morning. Lucy simply repling "Nooooo" when i told her what she might do a there and the fun she might have. We took emily off to school (now staying for lunch!!) and drove straigh back to the preschool Emily used to be at. I love it there. It is very play based with only a few informal "structured" activities - not like a mini school at all. I was of course happy to stay for as long as needed but also had to balance this with not wanting her to think i would be staying everytime she went. I packed her a packed lunch also.

I am saying all of this because although i had given it all some thought - i had not thought about it enough... I stayed for nearly an hour and then said a quick goodbye and left her in the capable hands of her keyworker who is lovely. It was not until i got home that i started to feel bad and within minutes i was crying my eyes out, all alone with no one to look after but the dirty washing and the hoover! i knew she would be fine, i knew she would not cry but she is not as strong as Emily, emotionally, she is shy, she copes enough with being away from me when i have to work (which is far too much at the moment)

oh my i felt terrible. why had a sent her away? what was i thinking? she was staying for lunch with a room full of people she did not know! i kept myself busy for about 45 mins and then i phoned them and asked if it was ok if i picked her up before she had lunch. of course it was and they reasured me that she was fine, she had not cried or asked after me and was playing happily on the floor in the home corner. I was all ready to take her out and not put her back in until after xmas!

we walked home and she told me about her time away. She seemed 10ft taller than when i had left her. So there we are. another baby growing up. I had not realised until today how unready i was for it. So much is changing in our lives at the moment that this one just crept up on me without any real thought.

after lucy and i picked up Emily from school, we took a drive to a beach near by as the weather was so deliciously hot.

Lucy decided she wanted to play hide and seek (yer on a beach!!) and she found a couple of places to hide - under the steps and also if you dig a little hole with your hands and then put your head in it, no one can see you!!!!

The afternoon was lovely. just what i needed, some much needed uninterupted girl time where time did not matter. While we were on the beach a lady and her husband had been watching the girls happily playing and after a while she came over. she had been across the beach to find some different shells to show the girls. She told them exactly what they were called and how she had played on the beach when she was a little girl. It really was lovely.

She then said the most heart warming thing. When they were watching us she said to her husband "now there is a real mum, she is being attentive to her children and caring for their every need"  

life can be tough sometimes on us mums but we are all just doing the best that we can arent we. Lets just hope it is good enough.

Emily's first day at school.

Well today was Emily's First day at BIG school.... and she loved it! She went  in fine and made a new friend called Poppy, she played on the springything, and drew me a beautiful rainbow.

Oh my did she look grown up. Although she was only there for the morning, she would not take her uniform off until we went to gymnastics this afternoon! She is in love with her flashing black school shoes. Which she cant wait to clean every sunday.

Mummy faired well too;) no time to think about it too much, as it was raining she just went straight in. I did however have a little cry in the car on the way home. Thats it now, every year will go past quicker than the last and before i know it, both my babies will be there. I did however try to make myself feel better by thinking, at least i have left her with my friends and i know she will be well looked after and nurtured. That makes me feel very reassured.

This drawer has been pulling at my heart strings for a few weeks now. Every time I close it, I think, "where did those 5 years go"

We had a sneaky treat in a well known fast food restaurant after school!

Oh and did i mention she is in Octopus class!!