I think babbies must be a cross between babies and bébés !!!
Spot the sticky face from eating Tom & Jerry cakes !!!
Hmmmm, now which one's Juliette ?!!!
It's good to know that in this day and age of modern gadgets, things that used to amaze me - like magic disappearing-milk feeding-bottles still keep the kids amused !!!
It's on every two years and is always great fun. We went all together on the Saturday afternoon from 2pm-5.30pm then I went back with Sophie on the bus on Sunday at 1.45pm and Mike and Juliette joined us around 5pm until it closed at 6.15pm. The girls were asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow !!!
The Musical Garden - they look just like my saucepans !
Rasp-click-kerbonk-whirr - remember Windy Miller on Camberwick Green ?!! Sophie brought home her tiny little bag of flour which we used as "the magic ingredient" in the homemade bread !!!
We came home with seedlings of celery, round carrots, tomatoes ... a little bottle of water transformed into a "mini-greenhouse" with three little flower bulbs planted in it - and a grasshead man, made out of a pair of old tights and stuffed with sawdust and a sprinkling of grass seeds ! Oh, and a leek (which is still in the bottom of the fridge !!!)
making "nature collages" and sticking things all over pinecones
the day before she made/painted/decorated a really cool birdhouse (speaking of which, the bluetits have FINALLY started eating the peanuts and balls of birdfood that have been up there since after the summer !)
Sophie complains she looks "ridiculous because I look like Rémy from Ratatouille" !!! She made a little man out of bread on both days
What else did we get up to ? An ink tattoo on her arm, making a clay photo holder, "fishing" in the "dunes", softplay, ... oh and we bumped into an Irish bloke with his French wife and their two bilingual little girls so we said we'd have to try and meet up !
So what do you want to help me make today then Sophie ?
Toffee-apple pudding ... and before the health and safety people get on to me, I didn't really let her get it out of the oven, she just put the oven gloves on to pose when it had gone cold !!!
Homemade bread
Yummm warm bread straight out of the oven covered in melted butter !
Tom and Jerry cakes (out of a cakemix, cheating this time !!!)
I blame the slightly manic grin on all the E-numbers in that icing !
Juliette's so hungry she can't wait for me to take the paper off !
"Mummy - photo Juliette !"
The proof of the pudding is in the eating !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMV thsi one for anyone who probably doesn't know what I'm on about ( Emily !!! )
She had her eye operation a week last Wednesday to get her tear gland stitched back in place, and needs the collar on for 3 weeks. It's driving us mad because she keeps scraping it across the floor or bashing into the wall in the middle of the night ! She is booked in for next Thursday afternoon to have the stitches out under anaesthetic again.
In the last 2 weeks, I've worked 4 half-days !!! I went to school last week, worked Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday off, Thursday went to the bus stop as usual, expecting the worst because of the transport strikes, waited for 45 minutes in the freezing cold, even phoned the bus company who asured me there would be a bus along soon, even if there weren't many, then gave up and went home. Went to collect Sophie from school and intercept the childminder with Juliette - saw the childminder but no Juliette ! She'd been poorly all morning and had been sick everywhere so she was asleep on the sofa with her (grown-up) son looking after her. Called in sick for Friday too.
Back to work on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday off (seeing a pattern forming here ?!!). On Tuesday, the childminder had kept the girls at her house (Sophie's teacher was on strike) and spent the whole morning throwing up in a bucket in the living room !!! And on Thursday it was my turn ... so I called in sick again, but this time for me !!! I got loads of tablets from the doctor which seem to have sorted everything out so I'll be back to work on Monday ... I wonder if I'll get a whole week in this time !!!
Sounds like on The Good Life when Margot said it had just been delivered!!!
Anyway, we finish work on the Friday before xmas, the kids get to see Santa (I wonder if the headmaster will get talked into doing it this year !!) at my school's end of year do. Then on Saturday we'll all head down to Anne-Laure's for xmas (5 hour drive each way). We drive back up to Dunkirk on Boxing Day.
Then on to phase two ! We get the ferry at 11am on the 27th December so should arrive about lunchtime ... then just about time to dash off to the xmas sales I expect !!!! Although opening the bagloads of freebies might get in the way ! And we come back to France on the 4pm ferry on the 2nd January (even if Mike hasn't officially OKed taking that day off yet !)
The xmas cards have started arriving every day from my ttfreebies friends so I'm starting to fel all xmassy now !!!
On your marks, get set ... click !!!
http://www.babyexpert.com/Gallery/babyrusk-smiles-%21%21%21/gallery
Thanks !!
homemade pizza
animal shape custard creams
Making birthday cards for Mamie
"Bonbon Halloween ?"
It's amazing what you find when you have a dejunk !!!
Juliette's attempt at a colouring competition !!!
Sophie (and me !!!) worked really hard getting her room nice and tidy and having a big dejunk in the unwanted toys and books - two big black binliners of stuff to get rid of (otherwise known as "giving it to baby Morgane" !!! It makes it more painless !!!)
She wanted me to take pictures and send them to the housefairy's website (which I will do later !!!)
So far, it's stayed like that ... but it's only been two days so far !!!
Sophie wanted to do St Martin again !
Then when she was in bed, Mike came along and added some finishing touches to turn him into St Martin doing carnival !!!
Sophie had a right strop because he made changes to HER beetroot without asking her permission !!!
Made me promise I'd tell her she's got a wobbly tooth (she was convinced she'd pull it out !!!)Well the jam is disappearing quickly and the rest was made into 100% pure fruit iced lollies - can't get healthier than that !!!
Playing at doing grumpy faces !
If you run out of lolly moulds, plastic cups work as well !!!
This is the first stage in making the St Martin sculpted sugarbeet - washing off all the mud !
I didn't make her do the sweeping up, honestly !!!
Last year Juliette cried when I "forced her" to get dressed up - this year it was Sophie ...
... because she didn't like the blood stained teeth (she's more used to dressing up as princesses and fairies !!!)
Wiped off the lipstick blood .... and it was all smiles again !!!
Sophie counted them - 222, not counting all those that were eaten on the way !!!
Guess what Mike (and me) ended up doing on his long weekend off ! It only took an afternoon and even if the end result is a bit patchy, at least the wallpaper didn't fall off after being painted !!! Only problem now is I'll have to redo the plaids for the settee/armchair because they went well with the old walls but it's just too much red overall now ! It's the "paint your walls with blood for Halloween" look !!!
Sophie's got her first ever appointment at the dentist on Tuesday - complete with wobbly tooth number three !
Juliette is now copying big sister and brushing her teeth morning and night without us even asking her !!! And Sophie takes her big sister responsibilities very seriously and carefully puts toothpaste on Juliette's brush and shows her how to spit not swallow (hold the rude comments please !!!)
Sophie carefully dealing out the chocolate squiggles and gold hearts !
I wonder what we just said to each other !!!
Juju's got eyes bigger than her belly !!!
Helping in the kitchen
Doing the plaster cast picture frame
Yummm toffee apples !
A bit of holiday homework - writing, maths and reading.
More cooking !
It's a potato, courgette and tomato/bacon sauce casserole before you ask !!!
Sophie got a bit carried away with the chopping so there was enough for two lots - one for tea and one for the freezer !!
Peeling mouldy plums !!!
I'll tell you why in a minute !!!
(Was that song about something rude ?!! I'd never thought about it like that before !!!)
Anyway, look what happens when Nanny, Grandad and Emily go home !!!
I took the dog to the vet's on Tuesday for her annual visit and her rabies jab. I told the vet that she's been licking her bum non stop for the past couple of weeks so she had a good squeeze (eeewwwww !!!) and bingo, that's solved the problem !!!
For her eye, she's booked in for an operation on Wednesday. I have to drop her off at 8am, pick her up again around lunchtime and then she'll have to wear a big collar to stop her scratching the stitches for a fortnight. Price - €100 and they'll need to knock her out again when they take out the stitches so it'll be another €100 (maybe a bit less) then too.
The Halloween one looks like a non-starter, the others have rushed ahead, so forget that one
BUT the superhero Sophie one is looking pretty good, if I can stay in the top few - and despite my earlier comment saying you can only vote once, you can in fact revote every time you do a reboot !!!
