Welcome to the madhouse!!!

Yesterday and today was St Pol sur Mer toy and games fayre and I managed to score some free tickets so I took her along to both days. Yesterday there was a Peter and the Wolf puppet show and today was a Moscow State Circus show. On both days, there was free facepainting, pottery, softplay, roundabout, crafts activities, remote controlled boats, etc. We stayed there until closing time on both days and I would say we'd certainly got our money's worth but it was free anyway !!!

Princess facepaint - yesterday

snail

"Sophie and a flower" (apparently ! )

dragon (oh, Nanny and Grandad, you might have to pretend you haven't seen these because they might get painted as xmas presents ... if they don't fall apart by then !)

butterfly facepaint - today

She made a clay fairy and two playmaize stick-on pictures too but I ran out of space on the camera (bet you're glad !!! )

The gymnastics club asked the members to colour in letters using pens, pencils, glue and anything else they wanted so Sophie got her crafts box out and spent Saturday morning busy with glue pens, sequins, glitter and stamper pens ...

This is possibly the last ever photo you'll see with the pink glasses because the dog just jumped on them so they are now very very bent (much more than last time when they were bent back into shape by the optician, don't know if they can be mended this time !) Good timing though as Sophie's got her eye test on Wednesday so she may have to change her glasses again ... more money !

Juliette now climbs up on the settee by herself and yesterday, while Mike was out, she took over his armchair ... and the remote control !!!

Sat Juliette on her potty last week for the first time ever, just to give her the idea. Did weewee/poo noises (Sophie started doing fart noises and Juliette was copying her, so I think she got the idea) ! She stood up going "oooooh bravo ! (well done)" and when I had a look, she really had done one !!! More luck than judgement though, I think !!!

This was Sophie's entry for the St Martin sugarbeet sculpting contest - St Martin himself !

Every entrant wins a €5 note and some sweets. We went straight to Picwic (toy shop) and I walked all round the shop so she could look at all the prices and see what cost something with a 5 or less on it. She opted for a Charoltte aux Fraises (Strawberry Shortcake) sticker album and stickers and was well chuffed !

He looks a bit drunk but the song says he was having a booze-up in the local pub which was why he lost his donkey ! (I told you the story last year - he asked the local children to help him look in the dunes, they followed the trail of donkey poo and to thank them, he turned the poo into "volaaren", little bread rolls, which are given out (with sweets) at the end of the torchlit procession ... complete with St Martin and a real live donkey!)

Well, it sat on our kitchen table until a week after Halloween before finally getting carved last night and Mike made a load (and I mean a load) of soup. Then I spent all night running to the toilet and throwing my guts up so I don't particularly want to eat the rest of it !!! Oh well, I get two days off work with Sophie at school and Juliette at the childminder's so I suppose I can't complain (and the tablets the doctor gave me this morning have sorted me out both ends !!!)

See if you can spot :

http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/bttt_2006/get_05.asp

Sophie and Juliette

http://www.benjerry.co.uk/gruesomeghoullery/ghoullery_page2.php

Mike (but it's got my name because I sent it in so I bet everyone thinks it's me !!! )

It's been non-stop since getting out of bed this morning !

- off to Babou for a birthday present for Axel's birthday party on Wednesday (Sophie's first ever birthday party !)

- dying pumpkin seeds (from last night's belated Halloween lantern/pumpkin soup effort) various colours with food dye : next project for some time next week will be making necklaces or seed pictures

- making banana bread

- making and painting little bells for the xmas tree with egg boxes (Halloween and St Martin have now been and gone so we're gradually building up to Christmas ... and I'm worse than Sophie usually !!!)

- testing out the smoothie-maker - banana/milk/vanilla ice cream was too big a hit, I only got a third of a glass once Sophie and Juliette had polished it off though so next time, I'll wait until they're in bed !!!

- started making the reindeer family (that I bought at a bootsale back in the summer)

That was all the fun stuff, then there was all the usual schoolwork, cleaning & tidying and cooking. Roll on Monday so I can have a rest !!!

Mike's mum and dad were up last weekend and Mike's mum was constantly taking pics, so you get to see things you never normally see when I'm the one behind the camera !

Drying off after bath time

Bedtime story (spot the dreamcatcher !)

Night night Juliette !

For the first time ever, we went trick or treating this year ! In France, the shopkeepers give out sweets too so we started off going around the local shops, then moved on to the houses ! Juliette soon got the hang of it and opened her little bag up every time anyone answered the door !!

Who turned the lights out ?!!

She was a bit grizzly to start with because she'd just woken up from her nap but I wanted to get most of it done before it got dark ! She was all smiley as soon as the sweets started pouring in though !

I did take a picture of Sophie with her loot but it won't upload for some reason - but she counted them, there were 200 individual sweets, 12 lollipops and about ten full sized sweets (M&m's, kinder, skittles, ...). The "handwoven Ugandan basket" (remember the competition win ?!!!) was overflowing with sweets ! I wonder if we'll manage to get through them all before St Martin (next week) , when it all starts again !!!

Juliette was eating chocdips very cleanly and tidily ...

then I remembered a "chocolate girl or boy" photo competition where you had to send in a picture of a child eating and getting covered in chocolate ... so I helped her out a bit !!!

What do you mean, it's child exploitation ! She thought it was funny too !

Sophie looked a bit bemused by the whole thing !!

They weren't really, they were jam buns, but she was dressed up as a fairy when we made them !!!

Jamie Oliver would be proud of me !! (There's a French version now - exactly the same idea, he goes to the schools and tries to change their way of cooking - but the dinnerladies had nowhere near as much character as the Irish one ! )

Whenever it's the holidays and I ask Sophie what she wants to do, she always says messy play, crafts and painting !

For my birthday meal, we went to "The Pirate" in Nieuwpoort (just over the Belgian border). It's huge (an old church), all decked out like a pirate ship and you pay €30 per person on the way in, then everything is self service, eat and drink as much as you like. Anything you could possibly want to eat, they have. For the starters, they have : ham on the bone, smoked salmon, king prawns, numerous salads, pâté, ... For the main meal, you go and get whatever (raw) meat you fancy (beef, chicken burgers, sausages, lamb, kebabs, pork, ...) then take it over to the charcoal grills and cook it yourself ! If you can't be bothered, there is cooked meat in sauce, chips, green beans, pasta on the go too. Then for dessert, you take whatever you want (as many times as you want !) - fruit salad, fresh fruit, various types of cakes and tarts, ice cream, chocolate mousse, freshly cooked waffles and pancakes covered in squirty cream and chocolate sauce. Oh, and beer, cheery beer, and soft drinks are on tap and you go and serve yourself as many times as you want there too. There's even a little TV room for the kids to go to when they've eaten their fill !

Hurry up and take the photo before Juliette legs it !!

Having fun, Juju ?!!

My cake on the 28th.

Ummm Nobody looks very happy !!!

Time for some birthday magic - I told Sophie to help me blow out the candles and we made a joint wish for no more moaning !!!

Juliette always likes sitting on the bottom step (probably because it's the only one she can get to with the stair gate closed - oh, she quite happily crawls up the steps to bed all by herself now by the way !). So Sophie quite often comes along and joins her and teaches her new tricks, like bouncing up and down and sitting down hard ! She's laughing her head off, not crying, in the photos, in case you were wondering !

Look, I'll pretend I'm giving you a kiss while Mum's looking but really I'm whispering "Juju, look, do this" in your ear !

Look, copy me !

BUUUUUMP !

Hee hee hee !!!

Well, the dead pigeon has gone, the carbon monoxide now drifts off into the sky through the unblocked chimney, the bloke from SANICAP has been back to put the safety device back on the hot water tank ....

... but now the man from EuroPVC has finally been to look at our garage door (we've been waiting since 1st September !) and told us we should avoiding opening it because it could fall on the car or anyone who happens to be standing underneath it at any moment. Adding, with a smile, "and with a door that big and heavy it could do some serious damage to a car, let alone a baby in a pushchair"! (Thanks for that thought ! )

When I phoned them back in September, one of the attachments holding it up had snapped but the other four were OK ... now two have snapped (on the same end) and a third one is barely holding on (according to the bloke) so he made me sign a bit of paper saying it was "urgent - children passing through on a daily basis. Door could fall down at any moment !!!". That was on Tuesday, he said they'd get back to me on Friday (today). They'll be replacing the fittings with stronger ones and putting more of them up to take the weight. The door must be about 3 metres by 5 metres ? I wonder how much it actually weighs !

Just to reassure you, I don't use it at all now, I manhandle the pushchair up the stairs and around the front door way, even if it's a pain in the bum. Mike, on the other hand, refuses to leave the car outside and still drives it in and out every day - but he's a big boy and I warned him of the danger so on his head be it (maybe literally !!!)