M is for

This week one of the books S bought home from school was entitled 'Who has Claws.'A short book of 10 or so pages.
A beautiful double page photograph illustrated each animal, as in K is for Kitten, T is for Tiger, B is for Bird. S sounded out each letter, named the animal and talked about the photo with G.
All very simple and straightword stuff.
Until it came to a page with M is for Mouse. Picture a cute mouse sat with a cluster of juicy red berries he was just about to start nibbling.
S declared that M was for Matoes!
Priceless!

wrong?

Is it wrong to covet one of your 5 year old daughter's birthday gifts?
I very much like her new chunky bead bracelet.


I like it nearly as much as this funky flower patterned casserole dish I bought from a charity shop yesterday.

10 and 5

Our little boy has reached the first magical double figure.

Our little girl is growing up so fast too it seems.

Happy birthday to you both. We love you so much.

half term

A week condensed into a few lines with even fewer photos.
It's been so grey and gloomy at times trying to take photos has been pointless and on the couple of occasions the sun has shone I've not had my camera with me!
Monday we spent bodging about at home taking it easy although T had a more active afternoon as he went to the Common to take part in some conservation work with the Junior Neighbourhood warden team. Chopping down trees and generally getting stuck in and very muddy.
Tuesday I worked and G, T and S went to Salisbury. Unfortunately we all arrived back home far too late in the day to enjoy any of these




Wednesday we popped to see my sister to be updated on the house moving situation, it's been a very stressful week for her. Then in the afternoon T was busy yet again with the Warden team. This time they were helping to make raised vegetable beds for the retired residents living in sheltered housing. S was extremely pleased it happened to be near a playground so whilst T heaved around wood and soil S busied herself on the swings and climbing frame.


Thursday saw us pay a trip here.

Eastleigh museum is quite small but we visit during most school holidays as they put on some very good craft activities for the children. We normally have a wander around the plethora of charity shops in the town, have a picnic and the children have played for hours in the park and playground. But not this time. It was cold and tipping down with rain. So the children coloured and glued and I had a wander round the looking at the latest exhibiton which was another eason for our visit. On display were original works of art by Beatrix Potter, Quentin Blake and Mabel Lucie Attwell.

Thursday was an emotional day as Dad would have 70. A big round special birthday. Our second without him. We went to the church and took him flowers and had a little chat.

And on Thursday one of those happy co-incidences happen. Something to cheer me when I needed it so much. A parcel of sheer loveliness arrived from the very generous Lydia because I was the exceedingly lucky winner of her blog anniversary giveaway.

Just look at the cute cupcake wrapping paper. I left the parcel like this for ages just so I could drink in the prettiness of it all.

And here laid out in all there glory are the wondorous contents. Cupcake notecards with recipes on the back of them, a mini cookbook, post it notes, cake cases with Easter eggs on, CK tissues and bath powder, cupcake stickers, a cream hanging heart, L'Occtaine lip balm, chocolate, heart cookie cutters , pretty cleaning cloths, soap, a set of Easter masks to make and a truly gorgeous book journal for recording all the books I read. Thank you again Lydia from the bottom of my heart, it really made my day.

And so to Friday. We went to visit friends in the morning but due to a mix up we didn't actually get to meet up. After another hour's stint in another playground we went home and spent time cutting down overgrown greenery from our garden. Yes it was actually dry and sunny enough! Well until 2.25pm that is. I can be this precise as this was when we were due to get ready to wander round to our good friend G's as we were off to feed the ducks with her and her baby J.
It began to rain and then we it started to hail. Thankfully by 2.55pm it had stopped and we did go and feed the ducks although an hour later we got caught in another shorter burst of it on the way home.

Kind of summed up the week, mostly fair, just the occasional depression!

Right back at the start of the week before any of this happened I had a phone call from my lovely non-blog owning friend Sue. Hello Sue if you are reading, it was so nice to chat, thank you for calling me!

trip to town

Yesterday T, S and I went into town to see what was going on in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations.
We parked on the very top floor of the car park, T's request, and once out of the car spotted this fairground ride towering above the shops.



Never, ever, ever would you get me in something like that. It certainly was a crowd stopper though. Lots of people stood and stared just as we did at those who had to sit so high up, waiting patiently at the top whilst others first got on and then off again at the end.

S chose something a little more sedate.

And T had a go on this to win his sister an inflatable pink hammer.

We wandered along the market stalls

and I bought a set of Chinese lanters which we hung up around the dining room later on in the afternoon as we prepared our Chinese meal. This didn't involve any food preparation as such. More along the lines of just opening of plastic containers!

Unfortunately we were too late into town to watch the traditional Lion and Dragon dance held in the Civic Centre car park but we did encounter them as they paraded through the town.

Back home we baked 4 heart shaped cakes which T and S then iced and decorated with grated white chocolate.

One of the market stalls was run by a lovely lady who had made all the jewellery she was selling.Lots of REALLY LOVELY things and it was all very reasonably priced. I could have bought most of the items she was selling. Anyway in the end all I bought was a necklace for a friend of mine as part of her birthday present. As we walked away T asked if he could borrow some money from me, about £5 should do it, as he had seen something he would like to buy for a friend and for his Dad.

Did he buy something for them?

No he didn't. He went back and bought me the 2 things I had said I really liked.

As a Valentine's gift.

Did I cry?

What do you think?

What a lucky mummy.

presents

It's been a week for presents. A friend of mine had her birthday on Monday and when browsing folksy for inspiration I remembered she liked Russian dolls. I was really pleased to find one person selling the little Russian doll purse and from another I bought the little handbag mirror.
I was smitten with the badges and decided to buy those for myself!

S's teacher retired this week. Ever since T started his school career our farewell end of school year gift to the teacher has pretty much been the same. My sister-in-law was a teacher and although she always appreciated the gifts she was given she said there are only so many boxes of chocolates or teacher mugs you need! With this in mind I wanted the gifts we gave to be something enjoyable but disposable. So it runs along the lines of croissants, jam, juice or coffee/tea or hot chocolate depending on the person's likes and then some nice bath or shower products and sometimes a small bottle of wine. The note then reads 'A few treats to help your weekend get off to a relaxing start and end that way too.'

The last present this week was a wonderful parcel of goodies sent over to us from the ever kind and generous Lynn. Inside there was something for everyone. Stickers for S, a plane for T, a CD for G and lots of things for me! Don't you just LOVE the heart tissue paper and the ribbon? Excited as I was to find out the contents I didn't want to open the gifts and risk ripping the paper. I had never tried lavender flavoured chocolate before, but I have now and it was delicious. Below are a few of the lovely postcards Lynn has made from her own photos. Aren't they just beautiful, the creamy rose is so dreamy.

And how about this hand felted heart, it's just so beautiful.

Thank you Lynn from us all.

family time

It seems an age since we last spent a weekend like this one we've just had.

Saturday morning all 4 of us trouped off to the cinema to watch Fantastic Mr Fox.
Really enjoyed the movie and the fact it was the first time we had all gone to the cinema together.

Saturday afternoon we spent a couple of hours down at the shore. Thankfully the sun made a brief appearance.

I like the organic shape of the seats along the path.

G posing for the camera, surely not?!

T happy to be out and active.

S wearing her new favourite item of clothing with her pink Halloween tights and a pink coat!

Sunday was spent in Salisbury.

G's dad was 80 during the week and so there was lunch out with family and friends to celebrate.

After a very lovely meal we went to sit on the lounge where we enjoyed tea, coffee and Grandma's, extremely delicious, home made chocolate birthday cake.

In here Grandad's birthday helium balloon made a bid for freedom and ended up on the ceiling.

Being 6ft 5in G wondered if he popped S on his shoulders and then stood on one of the sofas their combined effort may have been resulted in it's retrieval!

But after a great deal of fun and giggles during the whole escapade the balloon was rescued by a far more sensible option as a member of the hotel staff provided us with a long pole which was used to knock it into a grabbing position.

S did help me with the selecting of a name from the hat for the red scarf, but unfortunately there are no photos as they were really blurred, must have had the camera on the wrong setting!

Anyway I'm pleased to say that the person I'll be sending it off to is diane. Will pop it in the post one day this week.

Hope everyone had as lovely a weekend as we did.

car boot, cath and clothes

All being well my sister is moving from a rented 2 bedroom bungalow to buying her own 1 bedroom flat next month.
My sister is a terrible hoarder. Those little tea pot shaped holders you keep on the kitchen side to pop your used tea bag in, she has 6 of those! Yes 6 and she isn't a tea drinker!
Anyway she needed to have a good clear out and to give her the push into doing it I nagged her into doing a car boot sale last Sunday.
She sold just about everything she took with her and made just over £100!

After we had packed the car up ready for home we decided a quick look round the remaining car booters was needed.

My purchases were this CK bag made for Tesco for 50p



this totally gorgeous picture for 50p

and this necklace for 10p. Worn here with the jumper I acquired at the clothes swap I went to the other week. Didn't I do well?!

This rainbow of colour also came home from the clothes swap. It's a size 8 skirt which is never going to fit me but i'm going to sew some ribbon on at the top to make straps so S can wear it as a dressing up dress.

Last new (to me) purchase are these polka dot scarves which I bought after my stint at the charity shop last week. I'm going to keep the black one but not the red I've decided. If anyone fancies the red one please leave me a message and if there is more than one person I'll draw a name out of a hat. Not the most luxurious giveaway ever held in blogland but if I've been nagging my sister about not keeping stuff I need to do the same I suppose and passing it onto a fellow blogger with good taste seems the ideal solution!

Edit to say.... scarf giveaway open until midnight Friday 5th, will draw a name on Saturday.