The Sophistication Of One's Friends!

So, you know how it is: you invite a few people round for a sophisticated evening; you discuss politics, the world economy, metaphysics, the annual Rotary Club ball.......and then you get the Wii out and it all goes to pot!!

Kay, I want you to go away and hang up your powersuits and briefcase in shame! And as for you Stevie mate, no more Dr Pepper for you, I'm putting you on something softer next time you come round (like vodka!)

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

Can you believe it? Emily is a whole 6 years old today!!

We had quite a hectic weekend for her birthday so today is just going to be quiet. Rob, Xander and I were all sat there waiting for her this morning; we thought she'd be battering down the door at 5am but she eventually rolled in at a very respectable 6.45. She'd opened quite a few presents over the weekend as she saw people so there were just a handful this morning. We bought her a guitar so she can practise at being Hannah Montana (Rob's going to teach her how to play) and Xander bought her the Sharpay doll that she's been nagging for forever!

I'm taking her shopping after school as she has a Disney Store voucher and a nice crisp tenner so no doubt by teatime we'll have the other half of the Disney Store that she hasn't already got! Then the 4 of us are having a birthday tea (fajitas and a chocolate Hannah Montana cake!)

Happy Birthday Emily!!!!!

Wedding Memories!

We've had a lovely weekend. My sis-in-law Zo has been to stay with us so we've had lots of fun: namely me and Zo drinking wine and watching old Guns N Roses videos!

Yesterday was a really nice (but cold) day so we decided to go for a walk. We went up to Oakwell Hall where Rob and I got married; believe it or not, we'd not been in since (nearly 9 years ago now) so we thought it would be fun for Emily to see where mummy and daddy got spliced! What was really nice was having photos with the kids where our wedding pics were shot:

And Emily thought the hall where we got married was lovely:

She had a great time with Auntie Zoe, looking at 400 year old combs and wine corks:

And Xander loved the gardens outside and spent most of his time running round them:

Unfortunately Rob's not very well so he's had a few early nights and so hasn't been able to enjoy it as much. But all in all been a lovely weekend.

By 'Eck, It's The 'Eks!!

We've had a visit today from my good pal Mariek and her little munchkins Gracie and Ewan. It was really lovely to see them, especially as Xander and Ewan haven't seen each other since September so obviously they had lots of catching up to do!

The girls were, shall we say, a touch temperamental! Cue lots of arguing, tears, fall outs over who sat on the yellow cushion as opposed to the yellow cushion; but hey, girls will be monst... er I mean girls!!! They did manage to be friends for long enough to have their picture taken...

and Marie managed to keep them calm for a whole 2 minutes without the use of a sedative or cattle prod...Marie was definately mummy of the day as far as the kids were concerned: as you can see, both boys were very taken with her mooing and quacking through Spot Goes To The Farm!All in all it was a lovely day and so good to see the 'Eks! Apparently Gracie cried all the way home because she missed Emily and I keep finding the balls from the ball pool in the dishwasher; goodness knows where else they'll keep turning up!! Thanks boys!!

Love Hearts!

So, yes today is Valentines Day, but it is also Congenital Heart Disease Day. It's basically a day to raise awareness about CHD and how it affects people (like yours truely!) so obviously I'm more than happy to champion it!

So, if you get chance, pop over to either:

http://www.guch.org.uk/

http://www.bhf.org.uk/

and help us doddering dicky ticker lot!!

Em & Xan's New Friends!

So, half term is upon us and, as well as costing me a small fortune, it's been fairly jam packed so far!

Yesterday, we went to Tropical World with Emily's BFF Hattie, Xander's buddy Izaak and their mum Caron. Emily and Hattie managed to bicker their way round the whole place (as per usual!), though they did manage to stop tearing each others' hair out long enough for a nice serene photo by the waterfall!

Xander and Izaak spent the whole time being sleepy; though they did get excited at the fish. Anyway, they did all make some new friends, a couple of white iguanas who semed very taken with the kids: as you can see from the video of Xander and picture of Emily...

Afterwards, we had some lunch then a lovely afternoon in the park, enjoying the winter sunshine. The girls teared around the playground and the boys napped while me and Caron caught up on all the gossip!

Today we went bowling with Jane and Maureen and the girls. It was really good even though Emily was bemused that she couldn't get strike after strike like she can on the Wii! Of course, I lost miserably, but I do have a bad knee at the moment (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). Afterwards we went out for lunch (like I said, small fortune!) which was delicious.

So, I'm in need of a sleep now! Hopefully the rest of the week will be quieter (though I do have a feeling Friday will be chaos: 2 little ladies and a couple of very mobile toddlers, all in the same room!). Better pop out for a litre bottle of gin!!

Night Out With My 'Andbag!

So, last night, I atually went on a night out! It was my old mukka Ally 'Andbag (don't ask, she's married to Stevie Sandwich!)'s birthday last week so we decided we needed a good old girlie. So, off I trotted to Ripon, to join the birthday girl with some light refreshments!

We started off with a trip to the Italian for a lovely pizza and a nice chilled bottle of white, then we sampled a couple of Ripon's finest licensed establishments, before we rolled up at Ally's to find Steve waiting up for us (bless him!).

I then got to sleep in with Ally (and Simba the dog) while Steve got his sleeping bag and slept on Elise's floor (again, bless him!). Apart from Steve's alarm clock going off 4 times at stupid o'clock, I had a lovely sleep and was woken by Elise armed with Rapunzel and Pooh Bear books that simply had to be read! We had a lazy morning, looking at Ally's wedding album (Vegas baby, one very young skinny Lou taking up the bridesmaid position) before I headed on back down the A1 to see if Rob had survived a night of the terrible twosome!

Today we've been for a lovely walk round the local reservoir, before a lovely Sunday lunch and a bit of Dancing On Ice. Finally, the kids are now in bed and I'm just killing time before Lost comes on.

So, that was my weekend. Thanks Al for a fab night and I even did the whole post without mentioning that you threw up 3 times when we got home! (oops!!)

Oooh, and for Marie and Rach, here's proof that I've actually done some scrapbooking this year!!

Shining Stars, Moos & Quacks!

That girl of mine I tell you, she's flying at the moment. Not only has she won the golden balloon twice at school since December; but now she's gone and won Pupil Of The Week! We're so proud of her, she's just coming on leaps and bounds at the moment! She had to walk to school this morning with her coat unzipped so everyone could see her POTW badge!

As for number 2, well, as you know he is a man of very little words (well, one to be precise: "Hiya!") but yesterday he learnt to say Moo and Quack! As exciting and amusing as this was, the worry now is that 66% of my son's vocabulary consists of animal sounds and it could prove to be a problem once we hit school age!! Again though, very proud of him at the moment, he's suddenly developing so well. The other day I took him for a walk (ie, Xander walking not being pushed in the pushchair). I intended to go just down the street but no, Billy Jim was having none of that! Half an hour later I had to drag him back up the road after going round all the houses and out to the motorway bridge to wave at the cars!

The other news this week is that I've passed my first course that ended a couple of weeks ago. I need the official confirmation sent through yet but think I got about 71%, which I'm more than happy with! Been doing a lot of studying this week, the degree is much harder and is taking a lot of brain power, which ain't in large supply these days!

The other shocker is that I've actually done some scrapbooking! Finished 3 LOs for my Xmas album yesterday and nearly finished a 4th that I started back in November! They're not brilliant (Rach, you really need to stop hogging that mojo!) but I think if I'm going to fit scrapping in these days it's going to have to be of the 'quick and simple' nature!

Right, must fly. Xander has a hot date with Poppy in the park this afternoon!

The Whole Tooth And Nothing But The Tooth!

It's finally out!! Yup, Emily's first tooth has vacated the front of her mouth, after weeks of wiggling! I've no idea how it lasted so long, on Wednesday morning it was literally hanging by a thread; she went through a whole day at school (with most of the class having a wiggle) and gymnastics, but still it hung in there! Eventually on Wednesday night we made her have an extra vigorous brush with her toothbrush and voila... one little tooth! Tooth fairy's been (no shiny sixpence these days I tell you!) so Emily's lisping away about her shiny new gold coin!