Welcome to the madhouse!!!

Last week, this week it's been raining all day, but I never got a chance to post them because Juliette started coming out in spots and being grizzly !

Facepaints courtesy of the evangelists who were also giving out sweets and balloon dogs !!!

Water pistol that only lasted five minutes because she squirted Mike and it got thrown across the patio and broke !

Well at least she won't fall in and drown ! (Notice the black knee - the patio gets really skiddy when wet !)

Sophie proves me wrong - I said she'd never eat all that !

Hopefully the sun will come back soon - the kids (and me !!) break up for the summer holidays on the 4th July ! I don't know about the kids but I'm counting down the days (and hours) left to go !

Here's poor little Juliette with chickenpox - she must be ill because she didn't want to pose for once so the photos aren't up to their usual high standard !!!

Most of the spots are actually in her hair and (touch wood) she's been really good about not scratching them so hopefully she shouldn't have too many scars. She's back to sleeping through the nights again so I think she's feeling ok now (woke up 5 times last Sunday night, 3 times on Monday night so I was feeling shattered at the end of the week which was when it hit me !)

"Mum, what stops the nasty people from getting out of the TV?"

Ummm makes "where do babies come from?" sound like a piece of cake !

It's St Pol sur Mer bootsale today so we went along (Juliette's got a few more spots on her face but hasn't turned into a leopard yet !). Managed to pick up a few great bargains :

It's unusual that I find stuff for me !!! €2 each ! The question is, to ebay or not to ebay because I know they'd go for a bomb but I want to do them too !

Barbie lamp (bit bashed up !) and a Snow White jumper for €1 each

Then went to Babou and got a paddling pool and sun cream so guess what we'll be doing this afternoon ! Even picked up half a watermelon at the market so summer's well and truly here ! (Not sure how long it will last though !)

And I bet my freebie corner is full up already again !!!

They did a big story about Popi the clown going through different lands trying to find a friend amongst all the different creatures. Each class did two dances - Sophie was a duck and then a night monster (the ones in white bin bags were the day monsters - I was expecting nightmares after all the talk of monsters at school but it seems ok !!!)

The duck dance

The one in the green shirt is Stanislas the bully !!!

Sophie's teacher on the left

Getting ready to go stage !

The night monsters

The day monsters

With one of her classmates Adrien !

It was boiling hot in the hall

"Look, look, that's my sister up there !"

There's a blast from the past, remember that Granada (or whatever the company was called then - Box Clever?) advert on TV ?!! Anyway, Juliette had a bit of heat rash on her neck last week. This afternoon it turned into four or five big liquid-filled spots and as the afternoon progressed, a few more appeared on her face and tummy. No doubt about it, she's got chickenpox ! There's a bit of an epidemic here at the moment as various kids at Sophie's school have had it and I saw a kid on the bus with it too. She'll probably be covered head to toe in spots tomorrow when we get her up. (I'll skip over the bit about me clearing up a big puddle of bright orange sick because you might be eating your tea !!!)

I felt like something out of Sesame Street today because it was a gorgeous day so I told Sophie to go and grab her big chunky chalks and we went over to the car park to draw pictures on the pavement. Suddenly next doors kids stopped playing football and came over to join in and it turned into a big event ! You spend a fortune on expensive techie toys and all it takes is a tin of chalks to keep all the kids happy !

Did the laundry today, and decided to fold up one load while the other (half , to be on the safe side !) load was washing and it came out almost bone dry after the spin ... which meant that it came out of the tumble drier red hot and dry as a bone when I checked it "mid-dry" (going by usual time) so the filter must have been pretty clogged up for ages on the machine. Just call me McGyver. I bet we'll save on the electricty bill now because it's cut down the drying time by half. Hmmmmmmm I wonder what else I can fix now !!!

Sorry, too tired tonight to post any photos (I have to transfer them from the camera to the computer, upload them to photobucket, resize them and post them so it's a long job) but I'll sort them out at the weekend, promise ! You'll get some of Sophie doing her dances for the end of year school show ! (Bet you can't wait !!!) Good thing is, France is playing in the football on Sunday I think, so I should be able to hog the computer !!!

When I was a kid at school, playing games meant playing snowball, bulldog, running up and down the road with a skipping rope around our waists pretending to be horses ... the raunchiest it got was playing kiss-chase in the playground at infant school and it was only funny because we were all running away from each other so we didn't get kissed !

Apparently times have changed ... Sophie wanted to show the kids next door her bedroom the other day so I said ok, quickly, while I was chatting to their mum (the childminder) downstairs ... when I went back upstairs, Sophie's shorts had gone flying across the room ! I thought it was probably all innocent so didn't make anything of it but at bedtime, she told me they wanted her to let them "kiss her bum" and that they do it at their house when she stays for lunch on Tuesdays. She didn't seem overly bothered (but she did say she said no and they wouldn't stop) so I told their mum the next morning and she'll keep an eye on them !

At school, I've got a new kid in my form class. He's been moved out of one of the other classes because all the girls are complaining about him and three of his friends. Their "game" is that every time the teacher turns around to write on the blackboard, they have a race to see who can be the first to ... well, this is a family blog so if I say "hit me with your rhythm stick" you should get the picture. He was sent to the class with a message saying "make sure he keeps his hands on the desk at all times" !!!

When do kids stop being kids these days ?!!!

It's been a mad hectic week at work because it's the end of term (almost ... only 3 weeks to go !) so my job has been revolving around writing up reports, then going to meetings to decide who can go on to the next year and who has to repeat a year. As a form teacher, it's my job to meet the parents whose kids have to repeat. I phoned them all up on Tuesday and waited for the half time because I thought otherwise they wouldn't answer the phone !!!

... because it sounds like something a plumber's mate would be called. I decided to wash the floor mat from the toilet today which was a bad idea because bits of it fell off and clogged up the filter in the washing machine so it wouldn't empty. I managed to drag Mike away from the football long enough for him to mumble "don't know" so I had a quick look on internet for ideas then sorted it out all by myself (ok, with a quick phonecall home to my dad the washing machine engineer ... just remember that the next time you're falling asleep on your course, you'll have to use everything you learn to fix my stuff over the phone !!!) I did a test afterwards and heard water gurgling but even when I was peering through the porthole (is that what you call it ?!! I think I just translated it back from French !!!) I couldn't see any water going in the machine ... but it must have been going somewhere ?!!! (and no, not on the floor !) Anyway, I'll deal with that one another day (or maybe I'll let Mike do the washing this weekend !!!!) It actually reminded me of the first day we got the front load machine at home and we all sat on chairs in the kitchen watching the washing go round ... we must have been really bored back then, but it was in the days before internet !!!

Finished it at last !!! Just as well because it was getting too big to handle in the end and hopefully I'll stop keep pricking my fingers now (kept sewing while watching TV, bad idea !!) Can you spot : three pairs of jeans and various free samples of fabrics ?!!!

Covers up the rips the dog made on the settee anyway !

Don't think this one is going to last though - the staples don't hold it in place properly so it keeps ripping along the seams. Anybody want to send me the changing rooms team so they can sort it out ?!

Not very easy to give you an idea of Juliette trotting around the room in still photos but it'll give you an idea ! After a few months of taking a few steps between two people, she's finally decided to go it alone and there's no stopping her now !

Now try telling Sophie why she gets told off for "playing the drums" but not Juliette ! (PS Remember the red hand gagng? Sophie's part of the black feet gang !!)