Welcome to the madhouse!!!

Children's carnival ball in St Pol, yesterday (3-7pm, back home, bath bed and straight off to sleep for both of them without a word !!!)

Big Cook Little Cook strike again !!

the decorations, while the cake was still cooking

the finished cake - bet she'll never get another cake quite like that (and that's probably just as well !!!)

Awwww just that look made it all worth it !!!

Never ever let your kids loose with knives (Not really, it was food colouring but Sophie thought it looked so cool and realistic, she wanted to keep it there for the next day to show the kids at school !!!)

Waiting for the cake !

Wednesday is my one day off this year, so in theory, it's the one day I get to unwind and deal with the housework and stuff. This Wednesday was more like a script from Desperate Housewives !!!

Leave the house at 10.30am for Sophie's gym class at 11am, stay there (with Juliette running around with the other little brothers and sisters) until 12, then off for a McDonalds with the girls because Mike wasn't coming home for lunch (work meeting). It decided to pour hard on the way, which didn't matter as I was organised (I thought !!!) and Sophie was kitted out in wellies and umbrella and Juliette was snuggled up in her big coat, but just before we got there, Sophie jumped in a humungous great puddle and got TOTALLY soaked !! As she's such a follower of fashion, she was wearing a skirt over her trousers so I managed to dry them off in the toilets under the hand-drier while she was playing in the softplay area !!!

After they'd totally tired themselves out and eaten their fill of Happy Meals, we got the bus home, stopped off at the roundabouts and bumper cars at the end of our street for a couple of rides (they're packing up and going as I type, we went and looked earlier !) and got home at 3.45pm.

Put Sophie down for a nap, headed back to the kitchen with Sophie to make a birthday cake for Juliette. Used up the Tate & Lyle goodies I won last year (the "playdough" icing, the food colouring, etc) to decorate it (Sophie was painting all the bits with a paintbrush and food colouring !!) and finally finished the cake at 5.30pm.

Just had time to sort out a birthday tea for the girls before Mike arrived, had a well-earned Bacardi Breezer, did the cake then packed the girls off to bed and settled down for a nice quiet night with piles of marking. Thank God birthdays only come round once a year !!!

OK OK, So it's bribery, but I still think it's a great idea ... and it keeps the magic of Christmas morning going all year long (for me !!!)

I bet you didn't know, Father Christmas has got a sister, the House Fairy - she visits children's rooms (after their mummies have signed them up) and if the rooms are tidy, she leaves a little gift but if the room is messy, she just leaves fairy dust ! Sophie's room has been spotless ever since (about a month so far) ... and I've just discovered it works for teethbrushing too ! As they say on the website, avoid all the nagging and get the chores done in doublequick time - and for once, it lives up to the hype. You only have to mention "oh well, I hope the House Fairy doesn't come tonight then" and Sophie's off like a shot !!! Just as well I've got a box full of freebies with her name written on to give out !!

http://www.housefairy.org/

self-portrait

Can you see a pattern forming here ?!!

Lock up your daughters ... or should that be husbands ?!!

Princess Sophie

Fresh from the Dot Cotton School of Seduction !!!

Another trip to goat park

"I am a cheeky girl, ..."

Looking even cheekier by the minute !

Big sister's not far behind in the cheeky grin stakes !

Just before Sophie found a brilliant new game of hurtling down a steep hill on her bike at breakneck speed, laughing her head off and nearly running over a couple of old grannies at the bottom. I put away the camera and decided it was time to go home at that point !!!

Juliette is now a big girl (two today) so, as she's still playing with all the new toys she got at Christmas, we decided to get her some disney bedding for Mike's old bed (from when he was a kid) instead of getting her even more toys. We set it all up a couple of weeks ago and she loves it ...

Unfortunately, as soon as the bedtime story is over and everyone leaves the room, she gets out of bed for playtime until at least midnight ! After giving me a heartattack by knocking really loudly on the door in the middle of the night, emptying all the clothes out of the cupboards, emptying a whole packet of nappies all over the room, and falling asleep for two nights on the trot on the lino floor, I took the (controversial !) decision of putting her back in her cot - she's got time for growing up and being a big girl later !!!