Holiday part one ...

Week one of our holidays was a week in the beautiful Cotswolds with my in laws, you'll have to wait for week 2 because, i can't find the lead for the other camera ! Anyway here is a selection of the best bits, i could have uploaded so many pics but it was taking forever so you just got the highlights!

Weeeeeeeee catch me Daddy.....

Despite it looking rather chilly , the kids absolutely loved the pool , they went in everyday, sometimes twice. Jamies confidence in the water just grew and grew , whilst the others were happy jumping in and playing , jamie practised and pracised his swimming. The better he got the more confident he became and the more confident he became the better he got.

Swimming boy in action.

Before swimming its usually best to do a bit of a warm up ( goggles are helpful apparently!)

Painting in the caravan, Sonny decided he would rather paint on the newspaper than the sketchbook. It worked really well , and we managed the whole week without one painty accident on the table, the chair, the carpet, the sofa etc etc...

The town near to where we were staying was so beautiful, the shops and the houses all seemed to fit in so nicely.

Another few pics from playgrounds i have known and loved ........

Just before we went on holiday we had started getting into geocaching a bit, although without much success. So it was with utter glee that whilst away Martin and the kids ( and Uncle Johnny and Ellie Mai , and sometimes Mummy, Granny, Auntie Laura and Theo) uncovered not one but two different sites with treasure!!!!

How brilliant, whoever came up with the idea of this is onto a winner ,a real life treasure hunt!

Found it !!!!!

Checking out the loot! The children took some gold coins from the first find , and replaced it with some precious article they had taken with them for such purposes. They then swapped their coins for some even more exciting treasure ( a bulldog clip and a little flicker book no less )

Maya wrote a little note in the log book.

A makeshift sling for our mountain ( hill) climbing attempt.

The views from Cleeve Hill were stunning, it was exhilarating climbing up , although i was a tiny teensy bit out of breath and did wonder if i might be going into premature labour ! ( melodramatic ? moi?)

A short break and a satsuma or two later we were ready to begin our descent. Which rather pathetically i found nearly as hard as climbing up.

And finally a blast from the past ....Fimo. Not done this since i was a teenager. It was a resounding success. We made dread beads, mice , golden snitch's

and a rather lovely little figure ...who seems vaguely familiar.....

Off we go

We are going on our hols this week, caravan with family in the cotswolds,we are a away for a week then back for a day then off again with my parents. See you all soon xxxx

Swings and roundabouts

The week started well enough , nothing particularly unusual happened , then as it progressed it seemed to get worse and worse . Now in the grander scheme of things everything is fairly minor , everyone is well , we are not homeless , we have food to eat. However in the pregnant hormonal hate this kind of thing way everything went tits up.
We have had a failed MOT hence muchos money to the garage, the day after car came back with new MOT the battery failed, the head broke off the shower, i had to walk with sonny to the midwife and back from playgroup ( a two hour round journey ..ok so it wouldn't take a normal person that long but i was achey and he was tired!) I then had to ring two different companies (naturally being left on hold for quite some time!) to find out if they would allow me to fly in a fortnights time ( holiday ) . After charging the battery on the car , the next morning it is flat agin , hence more phonecalls to the garage plus TWO yes TWO trips to the garage within an hour , afterbeing told it was a loose terminal ( it wasn't) going to pick up a prescription ( Thrush ...just what i need) and coming out to find the battery flat AGAIN ..AArgh. Finally get battery sorted then come home to find letter informing us our tax credits are being stopped due to an overpayment 3 years ago. fuckers. Hence lots of swears and some crying for good measure.

But..that was yesterday and today we have forgotton all the horriblness ( and are a bit embarassed by said swearing crying outbursts ) so are being grateful for loveliness that has happened this week. bounty from the garden , i feel we may be having courgette for breakfast lunch and tea these next few weeks ( Maya will be pleased!)

Not a jungle but actually the slightly overgrown garden.

This pretty little flower....What is this does anyone know? Is it chicory?? Don't laugh if its not !

A new friend...Bluey Louis and a BEAUTIFUL gift from a lovely lovely mama ( Cher from the gp forum)

This cheered me up so much , a fleece lined , rainbow striped , soft and lovely baby bonnet made from reclaimed materials . I can't wait to put my little babba in this .... Thank you mama!!

Happy camping

Firstly , although not strictly linked to our camping trip i had to share the rather lovely cake that we made for Martin's birthday last week. it was lovingly decorated with with lots of enthusiasm and rather a lot of toppings ......Mummy shall we put jam on it?. Ok then . .........Mummy shall we put some chocolate balls on it? ........... Ok then. .............Mummy shall we put some sprinkles on it ? ....well why not , in for a penny in for a pound!

It was DEEEEEELLLIICIOUS!!!!!! and the redcurrants were all from our garden. ( not the strawberries though. Our strawberries never even made it to the kitchen!)

And then this weekend a little trip in the lovely van. It was a really nice weekend, the weather was good the company was good and the camp was good. Jamie par took in a spot of whittling with the rather sharp knife he is holding in the picture ( Martins knife) . We showed him how to do it and how not to do it ...but after a while Jamie obviously decided to experiment for himself ....resulting in a wail of horror and the need for a plaster. He carried on afterwards though being a lot more careful having learnt for himself the right and wrong way to whittle a stick . ( his thumb is ok , still working and still attatched to his hand!)

The scenery was quite spectacular but as i didn't take the camera on our walks you'll have to imagine it.

It also wasn't really cold enough to warrant a camp fire , but really? camping without a fire? Where would we toast the marshmallows?

24 week bump

It seems to be going really quickly.....and the bump is really wiggly. I'm starting to feel a bit achier and a bit more tired but generally pretty good. I love my expanding bump and i'm really trying to appreciate every part of being pregnant , as this will be my LAST! Maya in particular is really excited about the arrival ,asking lots of questions , talking to the bump. Sonny thinks it can see him through my belly button and that he can hear it making noises. Jamie is a bit more reserved about the whole thing , but will occasionally give my tummy a little stroke ( when he thinks no one else is looking !)

We seem to have most things we need i.e clothes, nappies, a friend is giving me her car seat and i'm hoping to just do without all the other paraphernalia .I think it helps having been here before so i know just how little we will actually need ....however I do have a couple of slings which i'm looking forward to trying out with a tiny bundle ;-)

Dreads one year on....

So my dreads have gone from this at 1 week.......

to this at one year !!!!!!!!

Shorter , fatter , blonder ( obviously they had a bit of help with that last one!) they have changed so much. But there has never been a moment i've regretted them .

Its been quite a journey , there have been times when i've loved them and times when i not loved them so much... but it is a journey and an ongoing on at that. I used to wash my hair EVERY day otherwise it felt so greasy and looked awful but now i only wash it when i want to , which can range from anything from a week to a month . I've used one solid shampoo bar this year compared to god knows how many bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Not to mention time and water saved in the shower.

At the minute i like them .. although they are quite a lot shorter than i'd like , and i'm still abit torn about the colour...i like it but bleach is bleach maybe Henna is the way forward ...hhmmmn not sure it'd suit me.

Wonder what they'll look like next year ?

Sonny rides his bike

This very cleverest of four year olds has learnt to ride his bike without the stabilisers on . The momentous occasion happened last week and he has gone from strength to strengh. Here are the pictures from our second attempt at just ' having a go'

and we're off.... wobble......

That's it keep going.....

keep pedalling.....

I'm so impressed! I remember it took me AGES to learn without my stabilisers , i was rather a cautious child and a bit scared about falling off . But apparently when you are a fearless wonder as regards to , well just about everything really, bike riding is one of those things that you just take in your stride! The joy of seeing my littlest bear wobbling off into the distance filled me to the brim and hearing his siblings admiration at how good he was and congratulating him absolutely made my day !