Why Are Pirates Called Pirates?

Because they AAAAAARRRRRR!!!!! ~ Joke courtesy of Annabel Davidson 2006 (Age 2)

LOL, love that joke!

Today is last day of term and, gulp, the school year. Deep breath mothers, we can get through this together! Anyway, for the last day, Xander's class were having a pirate party and so they were asked to dress up as pirates. 'Don't go and buy anything especially' they say. Er, yes, because little boys just have skull headscraves and cutlasses in their wardrobe. So, me and Xan went shopping the other day; couldn't believe how hard it was to find a pirate costume! Doesn't every boy want to be a pirate? Anyhoo, finally we found one and so a very excited Xander got all dressed up before school today:

So so so so so cute!

And, this is what I'm loving about Xander now, he has little pirate friends. First of all Pirate Sean turned up:


Pirate Sean is coming for lunch and to play next week, as if you've had a conversation with Xander lately you will know as it's ALL he talks about!

And then, in comes me old hearty Pirate Izaak:

Not sure if Izaak's mum knows what has happened at the school childcare but I zaak seems to be sporting a hook instead of a hand. Izaak and Xander are going to see Toy Story 3 together in the holidays. Bless, my little pirate boy is getting all grown up! ***SNIFF****

Right, now have to fly and pick up me old hearty after ye sugar and ye E numbers. Who'll be the first to walk ye plank?!

Pages From The Weekend and a New Favourite

As promised, here's the finished layouts from the retreat this weekend. First of all I scrapped the pic of me, Joolz, Ann and Ally from our BBQ a couple of weeks ago, using this month's kit:

Then a couple of pages using June's kit which consisted of some gorgeous welly and umbrella papers:

The 2nd one of these I incorporated into a challenge set by Ali yesterday. We'd all been coveting a lovely LO she'd done with a patchwork loveheart. So she challenged us all to do a LO with a patchwork shape and 1 photo on. We put them all to a vote and woohoo, I came 2nd!

Next up a LO using some jungle papers that were on sale last week when I went to the craft shop. Ideal for scrapping the Elephant Parade we saw when we were down in London last month:

Now, I started another couple of LOs, but got side tracked by a brand new project (and nope, it wasn't the wine, though there was a bit of side tracking on that front! ;)). Kirsty has been making little Fimo fairies and we were all admiring them at the last crop. So this weekend she brought her box of Fimo for a quick lesson. OMG, I am addicted! First of all, I got all pre-planning and made a couple of models for Xmas: here's Santa and Mrs Claus:

That was all I intended to make but once I'd done them, I couldn't stop! So, I made a fairy for Em and a pirate for Xander:

How blooming cute?! They only stand about 1 1/2" high and I can't believe that I managed to do something so fiddly with my big man hands! And best of all, the wonderful Kirsty gave me some Fimo to bring home so I can do some more.

So, have a couple of LOs to finish and I can see a couple more fairies popping onto the blog before the week is out! ;)

And....Relax!

I've had the most fantastic weekend!

On Friday, I dropped Xander at school and headed off to the Dales on my first ever scrapbooking retreat. It was for the girls at my local crop but as I've only been going for just over a year it's the first chance I've had to go. It's also the first weekend I've had away on my own in nearly 5 years, so I was SO looking forward to it.

Our crop leader Kirsty organised it and not only did a superb job, but also surprised us with treats on our beds and little crafty kits. She's one in a million that girl!

We got stuck in straight away to some scrapping and it's been non-stop crafting all weekend. It's also been lots of naughty food, wine, chatting and cheek aching laughter!

TBH, I've not really done as much as I could have probably got done with 48 hours of pure scrapbooking time, but who cares?! I've had a lovely chilled weekend with no 5am alarm calls, no 'Muuuuum, he just hit me!' etc etc!

Most are still there crafting away until tomorrow but I did come home today. It was lovely having a break from the kids but it was also lovely coming home to them, I really really missed them but feel all the better for having some quality mummy time.

I'll photograph and upload the stuff I did later, which includes my new craft obsession that Kirsty taught me; but for now here's a pic of me and all the fabulous girls that made my weekend so special!

Wooly Stuff For Special Girls!

We've not had a knitting post for a while. It's not that I've not been knitting, it's just what I've been doing couldn't be posted until recipients had recieved!

Yesterday was my friend Lauren's little girl Abi's 2nd birthday. I miss them all so much since they moved back to South Africa and was sad I wouldn't get to see Abi on the day, so decided to make her something special instead.

I just fell in love with this Alan Dart tea set pattern when I saw it:

How unbelievably cute is that?! I especially loves the jam tarts! Anyway, Abi very cleverly text me yesterday to say the tea set had reached SA and she'd had fun playing with it.

Then the other day I treated myself to a knitting magazine as I spied free wool on the cover. Coincidentally, it also had on a pattern for a hat to make with the wool, right on the day I'd been thinking 'I should knit the kids hats this winter'. An omen me thinks.

I've loved doing this and it's incorporated so many firsts for me: 1st time I've knitted a hat, 1st time doing a lacy pattern and 1st time I've actually conquered my crafting nemesis, crochet! Em's really pleased with it too:


Next: graduating bunnies! Yup, you heard me right!

Strawberry Fields Forever

I sometimes think about changing the name of this place to Procrastination House. We're rubbish the lot of us!

We've lived here nearly 8 years now, and every June we drive past the farm up the road and see the sign saying 'Strawberries Ready Late June'. 'Oooh,' we say, 'we should go and do that'. Late June comes and the sign changes to 'Strawberries Ready'. 'Must remember to go and do that' says we...and the week after...and the week after...It then gets to late July and the sign changes to 'Strawberry Picking Now Closed'. 'Awwww,' says we, 'we should have done that'!

However, yesterday something changed, there must have been something in the air or the water but we actually got in the car and drove the whole 2 miles up there! As we got out of the car the smell was amazing! We got our basket and spent a happy 15 minutes hunting out the biggest juciest ones we could find:

Emily got right in there, making sure no berry went unpicked:

Xander was a little unsure at actually pulling the strawberries, but he hunted them out well and so Mummy picked them and gave them to him to put in the basket:

Soon we had a healthy harvest:

Rob was mildly panicked by how many we'd managed to pick in the whole 15 minutes we'd been there, 'I've only got £20 on me'. However, got them weighed and it was a whole £6.98, bargain! Bet you couldn't get 2kg of strawberries in Tesco for that!

So, home they went, got them washed and after tea we had them with ice cream; well except Xander who licked one and swore they were yucky! We've had strawberries for breakfast and Em's begged for them as an after school snack, plus we'll have to have them after tea. And, they are DELICIOUS!

So, got the kids outside for some fresh air, got cheap food, got 3 out of 4 of us to eat healthy treats and found something that is within a 3-year-old's 15 minute attention span!

Why did we put it off so long again?

On Your Marks, Get Set....

There's nothing like being a mum, especially when it comes to beating other mums to stuff for your kids apparently!

When Em was approaching school age, I tried to get her into swimming lessons at the local leisure centre, only to be told that there was over a year's waiting list. In the end we never bothered and just took her ourselves. However, it's a bit harder finding things for boys to do at an early age so, when I heard that the newly opened leisure centre was doing enrolments today for swimming lessons, I thought I'd get down there and sign him up.

Now, the new centre has proven very busy since it opened, so as enrolment started at 8 I thought I'd get there for then as it may get too busy later. 7.50 me and Xander pulled into the carpark and there were cars parked up on pavements, on grass banks etc; however someone was just leaving so we got a space so thought we may aswell go in.

The entrance hall resembled this:

O...M...G!!! Oh well, I'd already filled in the form so I joined the queue to get a raffle ticket and wait for my number to be called. As I approached the front I saw a mum from Xander's class.
'Oh, did you get her in?' I enquire.
'Yes, just done it'. OK, so maybe things are moving quickly.
'Yes' says she' was here at 5.30 queuing'
'Er, excuse me?'
'Oh yes, took the day off work just in case'

Ahem. Now, I do want Xander to have a hobby, but getting up at the crack of sparrow fart and then queuing for 2 1/2 hours?

By this time I'd got to the front, it was 7.58.
'Hi' says I, 'I have my form all filled in, just need a number'
'I'm sorry' says she 'all places are now filled, he'll be put on the waiting list and we'll ring you when places become available again'.

Luckily, a pushy mum I ain't so me and Xan just shrugged our shoulders and set off to Morrisons to buy some things to make muffins (luckily, my son is very fickle and the he soon got over the lack of swimming with the idea of baking!). But, as we walked past the 100 or so people who'd turned up in the queue in the 10 minutes we'd been there, you could hear the news filtering down, and the faces getting angrier and we hot footed it out of there before the riot police turned up!

I swear there'll be repercussions in the playground today. May turn up in dark glasses and a hat; we're number 4 on the waiting list, I don't want to run into numbers 5, 6 and 7!

The Flump Cloud

So, this morning I decided I needed to tackle the ironing pile. If I put it off any longer I was in danger of Ranulph Fiennes trying to scale it!

Aha, but how to entertain the munchkin whilst I decrumpled the Gillard family? So, I took Xander over to the dvd cupboard:
'How about Jurassic Park Xan? Look big dinosaurs'
'Nope' replied his highness 'I seen it'.
'OK, what about Charlie & the Chocolate factory?'
'Nope, seen it!'
'OK, which then?'
'This one' he's pointing to Fight Club...
'Er, maybe not.'
'OK, this one'
'The Flumps?'
'Yes, I like that one' (note, child has never heard of a Flump, never mind seen the dvd).

Now, any self respecting child of the Seventies can not deny their child the right to a good old Flump episode. I loved the Flumps and used to sit every lunchtime with my Heinz tomato soup (with cut up bits of bread in) and watch it:



LOL, love that theme tune, an all time classic!

And low and behold, what episode does he pick? Only my favourite ever:

The Cloud! That was the one I always remember and often comment that I feel like Perkin with a great big cloud following him round all day!

Tomorrow? I'm between Trumpton, Chorlton & the Wheelies and Jamie & the Magic Torch.

OK, off to grow up now!