Happy Birthday Tia!

Today we went to Tia's 4th birthday party at Wacky warehouse in Morecambe, it was good fun! Charlie was in a shy mood today, (he seems to be having a shy phase at the moment)he played lovely with us but wouldn't go off with JJ, Tia's brother, even though he asked him a few times!! He ate his dinner nicely, well, Chicken nuggets are always a good hit aren't they, LOL!!
This afternoon I have had a good sort out of Charlie's clothes, he's grown out of so many! I always find it sad having to put out clothes that hold lovely memories but they're no good to small on him so I was brave, LOL! Fortunately I can hand them onto Kathryn for Daniel and see them again when he wears them!

Carnforth High School Reunion

This year my old High School is 50 years old!! I attended when it had it's silver jubileee!! This morning they opened up the school to ex pupils to celebrate! It was fun to go back and see how the school has massively changed over the last 20 years! They've knocked down 2 outside buildings (block 1&2) and created a new extension to the rear of the school and you no longer have to go outside to get to your classes!(golly they have it easy now, LOL!) I saw lots of my old teachers too, there are 3 who still work there! All the girls above were in my year and it was fab to see them again, Julie, on the left now works at the school and has worked her way up to Deputy head! Kathryn is next to her, she's been my best friend for 32 years! then there's me in the middle, then Tracey and Nicola, funnily enough the 3 of us all went to college together after school and all qualified as Nursery Nurses in 1992!
I don't remember the photos below been taken at all, LOL! they were on display in the hall. Don't you just love the trumpet one, it looks like it's welded to my face!

Such a clever boy!

We introduced the idea of toilet training to Charlie when he turned 2, he wasn't ready at all but we just left his potty out and let him get used to it being around. We've kept introducing the idea to him and bought him a great book with a reward chart in the back. We read the book regulary to him and this afternoon we were at home so I took his nappy off! He's sat on his potty a few times, had 2 accidents on the carpet (which I reassured him were OK) then as I was tidying his toys up I saw him go to his potty and he wee'd!! What followed next was not so pleasant but being a good mummy I just smiled and said 'never mind' he picked up the potty, praising himself, and for some reason held it above his head then showered us both!!!! Fortunately the bath was running, I just had to get in it with him too!! Another funny, if he 'pumps' he panics and looks all around the carpet to see what he's done!!!

Lovely post day!

I love receiving post! It's such a funny thing but i've always liked getting post! (obviously not bills!) I remember when I lived with my Grandma as a teenager getting excited when a letter arrived for me! Now i'm in my own house I still enjoy having post! I would have to admit being a bit of a postie stalker! LOL! Parcel post is even better! It's so exciting when i've ordered something and it arrives! Today was one of those days and i'm really pleased with the customer service of the company as I only ordered them yesterday! A couple of weeks ago my friend Sarah was wearing a beautiful charm bracelet, it's something i'd always fancied having and after seeing hers I decided to treat myself! It's a Thomas Sabo one, it's sterling silver and quite weighty! So my lovely bracelet needed some charms! I want each charm to represent significant things in my life. As it's Mother's Day in a couple of weeks I had my eye on a lovely mummy charm, I love how it's got a boy and girl engraved into it, so precious! I am waiting until Mother's day to put it on as I would like this one to be my very first charm. The love charm is going away for my birthday in May from Mark and the teddy bear charm I have treated myself to! I'm an old softie and have a passion for bears! This charm is just perfect as I think it looks alot like my childhood bear 'Michael' he is one of my most treasured posessions as he was handmade for me by my Great Grandmother when I was born. The charm has moving arms and legs just like 'Michael'!! The last one is an aeroplane! This is to represent how I love to travel. For buying the 3 others I got this one free! There was only a choice of 4 free ones and i was delighted the plane was one of them as it was on my wishlist!
I am quite happy to wait for the others on my wishlist (although I might drop some hints for my b'day off other family members :wink:) There are only a couple more on my wishlist at the moment, a cat as we have 2 and they're very much a part of our family and the Statue of Liberty, this is quite an unusual one but I just really like the statue and my grandparents visited it when I was younger and brought me back a brass copy which I still have. I visited the Statue myself a few years ago too. It's one of those things that just means something to me if you know what I mean!



*photo of Michael was taken by my lovely friend Jen*

The picnic!

Golly, where did those few days go??? The weekend whizzed by and suddenly it's Wednesday! being Wednesday that means it was weigh in day! I only weigh myself at home but my scales have been fab whilst I lost the 2 stone 10lbs last year so i'm trusting them again this time! So this weeks loss was 2lbs which i'm happy with. :D

Now for the much promised Teddy Bear's picnic photos! My friend has a lovely one of all 3 children looking but i'm waiting on a copy of that one, I will add it when I have it. It was a great success, we all enjoyed it! Jessica and Daniel both brought a teddy to join in with the fun and look at Daniel, sitting up is his new party piece, bless him! He's 5 months old now and such a cutie! Jessica is 4 and is my gorgeous god-dughter, she's an absolute treasure, then of course there's Charlie with his ever so cute 'smile face' again, LOL!!

Sharing some craftiness!

First of all the Teddy Bear's picnic was a huge success! I have photos but need to edit them first before I can share! I was thankful of the picnic as I had a bit of a bad day yesterday, we were supposed to be going to panel for our adoption on Wednesday but we found out yesterday that it's no longer going ahead and there are 19 other couples in the same situation as us. Our own social worker is on leave until Tuesday (we didn't know) so had I not chased it up yesterday we wouldn't have found out until Tuesday!! It's such a minefield, having been through it once already we do know what it's like but still it does hurt when things don't go as we feel they should :( Anyway i'm not going to dwell on it, i'm going to share makes instead! I am a crafter, I love playing with fabric and scrapbooking with paper and digi!! Recently i've been having a real good cross stitch! I've just finished the Dolly Mama one this afternoon, I love her! She's so bright and colourful and completely different to anything i've stitched before!! there's supposed to be a chicken in the bottom left corner but i didn't like it so have left it off, i'm going to find a charm instead to stitch on, something like a cupcake maybe! Another recent stitch is the FaLaLa one, my lovely friend Tree introduced me to these little house needleworks ornaments and we're both stitching them every month! I've only done the first one so need to catch up plus she also introduced me to a series called My little Heart which again are monthly charts but alot simpler than the ornaments, I can't wait to start that one.
The other pictures i've put up are my 2 favourite cross stitches, both are huge! and mean alot to me! The cricket scene I stitched in 1998 in memory of my Grandad, he was passionate about cricket and he was such an important influence on my life, my Grandma absolutely loved it and that meant alot too. The Australia map hangs in our bedroom above our bed, Mark and I both love Australia and I bought this chart whilst on holiday there. I stitched it whilst sitting with my dad as he battled cancer, I sat up with him the last 2 nights before he died all night long stitching it, it was a good way of keeping me awake and offered the distraction I needed.
Another recent passion which interestingly Tree introduced me to too! is quiltling. This is my second quilt, I really like the colours of it. It's made up of Moda Authentic range. I've also included a close up of the block and trimmings, I promise never to use ric rac again on a quilt!! It was torture and had to be hand stitched on, it goes off in every direction!!!
This evening I am going to scrapbook! I subscribe to Scrapagogo kits and have seen a layout I like from one of their designers!

Sorting...........

Why oh why do I do this to myself!! I get an idea into my head and then I regret it, LOL! I've been wanting to have a good sort out of a few of my crafting bits and pieces for ages so tonight i've made a start! I've spent around 4 hours just sorting :wacko: i've enjoyed it though, I do like things neat and tidy! :D

Day 1 of the 'D' went OK, thankfully work kept me occupied most of the day! I only felt a little hungry once and a cuppa sorted that out for me! maybe I was more thirsty than hungry?

I'm really enjoying the winter Olympics, it's on at odd times of day though but i've discovered that if I press the red button on BBC2 I can watch whenever I want! The ice skating is always my favourite event and this year i've quite enjoyed the ski jumping! The luge frightens me watching it, they reach such speeds! I think I was partly put off already with the sad death of the competitor before the games started. :( On the whole though i've enjoyed watching and will miss it when it ends.

Tomorrow i've planned a little treat! My god daughter, Jessica, is coming to visit, she is, of course, bringing her mummy and baby brother Daniel but the treat is for her and Charlie! We'd originally planned to take then to McDonalds but as i'm trying to be good and that it's half term, therefore likely to be very busy, i've come up with a better idea! We're going to have a teddy bear's picnic! I can't wait, I think i'll be more excited than the children but hey! it'll be fun. I've even bought in party rings and jammie dodgers, for the kiddies of course, LOL! Hopefully I can load up some piccis tomorrow of the event!!

A new blog!

Let's see how long this lasts! There have been so many times where i've had moments that i've thought if I had a blog i'd have blogged that! Too many, so i'm doing something about it!!

So today is pancake day! We've had limited success in previous years, don't ask! but this year Mr Tesco kindly came to our rescue and we had ready made pancakes that just needed heating up!! They were much enjoyed, especially by Charlie!

After tea we had a play with Charlie's kitchen and he made us more pancakes! (luckily we had some drop scone pancakes in) He cooked them just like we did and even had a go at tossing them, too funny! I love this age the way he just copies everything we do! Maybe we need to watch what we do from now on, LOL!!

Here's the evidence! (I should explain, for a while Charlie has had a dislike of having his photo taken but recently he loves it and this is his very own 'smile' face!!)