My kids :o)

Beth imitating a Monkey

Princess Sian sitting pretty

Rick just being his cheeky self!

Check out the cute little curl. That is SO staying as long as I can keep it!

My little Alien

my kids are too darned skinny!

Excuse the lack of dress. I gave him tomato soup (on bread) for lunch.
Anyway, right slots, maybe a little too loose for my liking, but he's practically nakey.
Britax Rock-a-Tot


Sian in a Britax Evolva 2-3. Narrowest booster on the market this time last year. They re-designed it and made it WIDER. I get that kids are getting fatter. BUT there are still skinny ones out there that don't need huge seats!

Beth in the FisherPrice Safe Embrace (Britax Trio), Tight as it'll go. Check the photo below for how darned skinny my "fat" kid is. She can get her hands and arms almost right through it.


Do NOT ask me how I manage to get all three kids in the back of a renault laguna. To say it's a struggle is an understatement! We need a bigger car and we so can't afford it. We can barely afford the one we have. If I had the wherewithall to do it, I would have Sian back in a harness (she'd prefer it), Beth RF again and Rick of course WILL RF till 13kgs either in this seat or the first class that is waiting for him to grow into (it won't really fit with the other two seats.)

I need some savoury recipes

I can bake cakes, biscuits & brownies to my hearts (and my families hearts!) content, and my waistlines detriment.

Savoury wise, the only things I can cook (from scratch) are:

• Macaroni Cheese (everyone will eat this, and have two or more servings)
• Roast Chicken Dinner (my oven at the moment only has one shelf and I can either roast the bird, or do the veggies etc!)
• Spaghetti Bolognaise
  

Of course if it's a matter of throwing it in the oven or in a pan and heating it that's fine, and I can do omlettes, pancakes, scrambled eggs, porridge.....

I need recipes that I can feed my veggie phobic 5yo (I can sneak a tin of carrots into my bolognaise sauce that's it!) and I can adapt for me (vegetarian) or add meat to a veggie base later.

We are BIG pasta fans. I don't like rice but everyone else does (DH makes it with oxo & veggies and Beth especially laps it up!). I would love to get the kids helping me but the kitchen is barely big enough for my fat arse, never mind adding a whirlwind child in there!
I can't eat much in the way of quorn (goodness knows why quorn doesn't agree with me but it doesn't) and I don't eat TVP/Soy/Tofu.

I wish I could find

a happy marriage between home schooling and school. I miss the independence that Sian had before going to school. She'd talk to anyone of any age. Now she's in a class room with children all roughly the same age as her (they have a LOT of year ones this year so aren't mixing years 1 & 2 like last year, although that was one reason I was happy to send her to this school)

She *asks* to go to the bathroom when we're at HOME. And Friday my friend and I literally LOST her as she decided to go and find some random person to tell she needed the toilet in Asda. She is SO lucky I didn't tan her hide as she was in my vision one second and *gone* the next.

She misses her BSL lessons (I miss her BSL lessons!), she enjoys reading and writing. She responded well to Miss Rosborough, I hope she does as well for her new teacher Miss O'Connell this year or I will be considering homeschooling again... I wonder if her head teacher would consider flexi-schooling. I would love to have the kids out of school on a Monday afternoon (BSL) and Thursday (home ed group) and they'd still be at shcool Monday AM, Tues, Wed & Fri. Of course that won't work with Beth's nursery schedule. Bumpers. Lets hope Sian manages to make the distinction between home (and being independent) and school (having to ask all the time).

To be fair to Sian though, she will still play iwth anyone of any age when we go to soft play. Beth is the problem there. She would rather stay with me in the toddler area than go and explore the larger area. In part I think cause her little legs are too short for the steps up. But she's getting there. Only two more soft plays left for her now before Nurser starts!

Sian's dressed herself in school uniform today. It meant that I could see how well her school coat fits over it (very well!) and discover that as well as school shoes, she needs new plimsolls. Fun, fun. Mums found her PE t-shirt though! Even found the sharpie so I can label things LOL.

What I've learnt this summer.

I can NOT make playdough! (here's the most simple recipe) It ended up as a gooey mess on my granite board! It took me 2 DAYS to clean up after that!

I also suck at baking muffins (2x chocolate chip, 1x blueberry) They were all a doughy disaster and ended in the bin. I followed the recipe to a T each time too. In future if I want a muffin I will buy it!

I can bake the most fantastic brownies (with or without walnuts!) They are soooo decadently chocolatey! And go fantastically with ice cream (Beth just asked for that for elevenses today)

My baby is growing up too fast. Mr Frederick does not like being fed. Give him the food, the spoon & fork and some fingers and he'll get it in him (on him, under him!) But on no account must you ever try to feed him now! Imagine the porridgy mess I was afraid of? Actually, a little in his hair was all. I got brave and let him try ice cream!

Sian finds work aimed at her age group rather easy (and in turn gets bored with it) While she had chicken pox I got her a KS1 dot-t0-dot book. She did half the book in about 30minutes and has left it alone since. She has read everyday though, but has been lazy about it if she can get away with reading a "baby" book she will! I need to find the library cards and get her to choose a chapter book I think. She's been looking forward to school starting again since about day 3 of our stuck at homeness!

Beth is a little monster LOL. If she can't get her own way she screams or whines until she does (or I lose my temper!) Like Sian she has a short attention span for things that are too easy.. or difficult for that matter. Apart from her DS I think nothing except Legoland (and Nick jr) has kept her engrossed for long this summer. She NEEDS to be at nursery at KMS, and hopefully doing a little reception work as well in a few weeks. Playbased learning at a higher level than she got at Grovely Hall... They were surprised at the things she knew that she'd known for months!?

We love legoland LOL. It's been a fantastic place to go seeing as we didn't get a holiday this year. And the passes last right up to the begining of August NEXT year. Best of both worlds. End of this season, begining of next! We're going to the amazing machines weekend on Sept 13th for Frederick. Little man is ALL boy when it comes to trains and cars LOL. His first toy that he ever interacted with was a little train that a friend gave him that came from the tomy choo choo loop. Somethign like this but it's now been redesigned as Thomas.

almost the end of the holidays.

And I've been mentally going through what I need for the begining of term.

Sian

Shoes
Yellow T shirt
water bottle

Beth

Shoes
Grey Tights
White Polo shirts

The trouble is NOWHERE can I find a single yellow tee shirt! In fact I've only seen ONE twin pack, and that was a size 8-9yrs! If it had been a 6-7 I might have bought it!

Mum is buying the girls school shoes, although I may suggest she gets them from Tesco or Asda if they are whole sizes as I know that at the end of the first day they'll be scuffed to high heaven!

And Beth starts a full week after Sian so I can get her stuff the week after (earning me slightly more interest in teh bank LOL)

Not long now till back to school!

legoland with friends

Gemma on the safari train

Julie, Beth, Clive & Sian on the log flume

Evie on the Safari train

Sian & Beth with a new friend

trip to swindon

It was a hot day but no shade in the park.

Beth by the flowers

The girls trying to fit together (they did!)

Butterbyes!

Garden Trampolines

Sian playing on the trampoline


Beth playing on the trampoline


Do you have a garden trampoline? What are your rules for it? I am one of the first people to say "don't do it" about a trampoline in the garden. So why do we have one you may ask. Because we can't get to a regular affordable trampoline class for the girls. And I have had over 10years experience teaching trampolining to all ages and abilities. Oh and I have trampolined personally for over 20 years too (including through two pregnancies!)

Here are our rules for the trampoline.

• 1 person at a time (daddy lets the girls break this sometimes but only if he is there with them)
• NO somersaulting
• No shoes
• No bouncing on just knees (walk down my back and feel it crack LOL)
• No other toys on the trampoline (the girls are still working in this one.. yesterday it was the toddler slide!)
• Stay in the middle- on the cross.
• HAVE FUN

Trampolining is great fun, good excersize and can be very, VERY dangerous! Before even considering one for your back garden, go to a sports centre and sign your kids (and you!) up for a class or several is even better.

3rd time unlucky LOL

Rick has the chickenpox too now. At least they all have it over and done with AND in time to go back to school spotless! They've all had the spots in different places though, it's been quite funny. Sian's worst coverage was the top of her back. Beth's was her lower legs and poor little Rick's are all over his face and head :o( Taking them all to Legoland (again) on Thursday anyway as Rick will be in his pushchair for the most part as he's too small for the rides.

Rick's 1st play at Snakes & Ladders

I took the kids here on Friday as a treat. OMIGOSH it is staying as a treat.. or that was the last time we're going I'm not sure. For the four of us to get in cost me almost £20!!! (S £6.90. B £5.90, R £4.90!!!!!! Me £1) It's a good job I have an inquisitive baby, cause we met a freind there who's daughter is a month younger but doesn't crawl yet- just a little rolling- and she had to pay that price too.

On the bouncy castle

Driving his own car ( I think he got jealous of his sisters!)

Being pushed by Sian in the swing

Exploring time!






Ball pit!





Time to get out for a drink and a snack!

Sian's 1st Lego land trip

Can't remember for the LIFE of me what this ride is called, but it involves pulling yourself up to the top as fast as you can and then either holding yourself up there or letting yourself down and starting again!

minature fairground ride


Rick playing in a marquee, the girls were watching a show

Learning to drive

OOps I crashed!

I got my license!

Spinning Spider!

Yay, We're No1!

2 down 1 to go!

Now Beth has the chicken pox. Sian and Daddy have gone to legoland without us today. To go on all the "grown up rides"

Beth and I are indulging in some vanilla fudge (yes, BEFORE lunch LOL) and then after lunch we're going to play some wii- I'm just charging up the wii mote. I think I need to re-synch one of them as when we added the wii fit board they both ended up un-synching.

As with Sian when she had chicken pox, Beth will be offered pizza hut for lunch (thank you vouchercodes!) with a hefty discount. OR we'll have pizza for tea and packed lunch in her lunch box for Beth as Daddy & Sian have picnic lunch at legoland

We just got a call from Clive, he and Sian have been on more rides in half an hour than I've been on in three visits to the park!

Yumminess. So bad for my waist!

We went blackberry picking and there is crumble waiting in the oven to go with Pasta bake for dinner. I will try not to give in to the desire to buy custard to go with it!

I have choc-choc-chip muffins baking in the oven. MMmmmm! Never made them before but I'm a good cake baker I keep getting told LOL

The chocolate brownie recipe is waiting for my next instalment in the kitchen (minus the nuts, I don't like them)

And I have a fudge recipe waiting for me to try when all the kids are in bed.

As I wait for the muffins to finish, Rick is sitting in the doorway playing peek-a-boo with me. He leaves one eye poking round the corner so he can see me. So cute and the digicam is out of batteries and my phone is in the other room. He gets a big grin everytime I pop forwards!

during chicken pox confinement......

Sian decided to use the pox spots to play dot-to-dot

We ate lots of (not really!) chocolate

And watched too much TV

Beth got even cheekier (didn't think that was possible!)

And after his treat I found Rick asleep in his highchair after fighting it for hours. Bathtime tonight!