We picked up 3 out of the 4 pairs of new glasses today - Juliette's other pair will be a bit longer because they have the special "thin lenses" treatment - so I expect we'll pick them up at the weekend.
Juliette has discovered the dressing up box in Sophie's room and comes down in the morning in fancy dress for the day !!!
Don't worry, Sophie may be 6 going on 16 but it's not her turn yet !!! This was our little feathered friend from a couple ofmonths ago !
After falling out of the nest before being able to fly, he spent a few days living on our patio building up his strength (and hopped in the house when I let the dog out !!!)
Then he disappeared - pretty sure he managed to fly away because he was getting better at semi-flying across the patio and the cats were keeping well away !
Fighting over the flaps in the flap book !
Sneaky Juliette takes advantage of Sophie posing for the camera to get to the flaps first !!!
So what's for dinner Juliette ?
Spaghetti !
Sluuuurp !
Are you enjoying that ?!!!
No, they're Sophie's !
"Look Mummy, Pretty ! "
Strike a pose !
Give me a 3 !
Give me a 7 !
How old ?!
73 until I made them swap places !!!
Here we go again ...
http://www.hippbabyclub.co.uk/competition_search.php
Search for 5418 in the top box and vote for Juliette (which is actually Sophie when she was little and still a curly girlie 
)
It's supposed to be a one off click but at the moment, if you back space and refresh it seems to be accepting unlimited votes 
thanks everyone 
Time to pick up the blog where we left off ... so where better to start than a couple of voting competitions !!!
http://www.arc-international-cookware.com/en/op/photos.php?id_picture=26
You can officially only vote once but if you clear out your cookies, it lets you vote again !!!
http://www.forparentsbyparents.com/info_photos_contest.html?comp=9
You'll need to sign up - please vote using as many different emails as you've got !!!
This is where we won the toddler one for some books a few months back (so you should already have an account or two !!! ) but there's a lot more competition for the baby one (because the prize is better !!!)
Juliette's cottoned on to licking out the bowl now too !!!
Juliette with her new haircut ! (Sophie got the annual chop too ! )
she was laughing, not crying !
Same cardies (courtesy of Mamie), same Leappads ... !!!
Well it's been ages since I asked you to do any clicking for me so here we go !
Please click on the link below as many as times as possible ! I get points every time you do and the top 40 win prizes.
http://www.louisyjoseph.fr/missions/liens/link.php?m=1&l=1&u=812&k=1h5x4o2cgAmWkPzGqFp7PhLr0ClmqG
Well, we were on holiday for a fortnight a week ago so the blog should have been full of pictures of the girls having fun but nasty mummy was laid up in bed with flu and bronchitis for all but 3 days of it so we did sod all !!
Everyone's fighting fit again now though - just a shame we're all back to work and school !
Our house open day will be on the 10th or the 17th May so hopefully we might get some potential buyers through our doors then. We get kicked out (with the dog) for the morning so not sure where we'll go yet !
... but not the men in white coats !!! Don't blame me, it was in the Annabel Karmel kids recipe book I won (two slices of red apple and segments of babybel cheese - see, it's even healthy !!!)
before
after !!!
she wouldn't let me take a picture of her unless she could take one of me ... and Juliette wouldn't do it at all because she was scared !!! (but she did eat them !)
... inside because it's cold and rainy outside !!!
There must be something in Munchy Seeds that makes them addictive - the girls can't stop eating them !!! Oh well, they're supposed to be healthy and full of omega whatsits !
Sophie was getting really fed up because she couldn't eat properly !!!
It fell out a couple of weeks ago but she doesn't want me to take a photo because she says everyone will laugh !!!
It's on the market since Friday !!!
Life at the moment is a whirlwind of cleaning/tidying up the house for estate agent's visits, filling in school reports, having conseils de classe (end of term class meetings with all the teachers), next week is parent-teacher evenings, visiting houses ... so I haven't had a chance to put anything on the blog at all for the last month !!!
I'll see what I can do in the next hour or so before heading back to school for meetings !
(More)
Homemade cake - impressed ?!!
Head chef/chief taster Sophie !
First stop ... pizza !!! (which everyone ended up eating so I didn't have to cook dinner at all !!! ) Well done Sophie !
Next stop, one of the recipes out of the Annabel Karmel family recipe book I won (Sophie's already earmarked about half of the book !)
Sophie took a picture of what it's supposed to look like in the book (putting the pressure on !!!)
and our attempts ...
All got scoffed very quickly .... even if the dog pinched the last one when Juliette wasn't looking !
Because I finally gave in and took them to Quick (the French equivalent of McDonalds) !
After playing in the soft play for about an hour (time to get nice and worn out !), we set off on a big walk to collect "nature treasure" - which mainly ended up being brightly coloured feathers from people's carnival costumes !!! We had a quick stop at a little park on the way home then got home and stuck it all on a collage. Right, everyone ready for bed now ? (I am !!!)
Sophie says, "that's the thing grandad made me bonk my head on" ! Some things never change !!!
The shopping trolley from Babou car park ended up in the car park opposite our house. Next day, Sophie saw it out of the window and said : " Look, that's the trolley grandad wanted to get me in trouble with the police with" !!!
But depending on the light, it looks anything from light silver to metallic gold ! Sophie says it's a "voiture de star" !!!
This was Monday, the one day it's been nice enough to go out and play.
Ever since a couple of years ago when I let the girls scribble all over the windows as part of the xmas decorations, they've been wanting to get the WindowColour pens out again.
I finally had a brainwave the other day - they draw/colour in what they want on a couple of glasses (freebie plastic glasses, of course ! ) and then when they go through the dishwasher, they come out clean again so they can start all over again !!!
Everyon's happy !!!
After winning such fantastic prizes for the other cute baby contests, I'm on a mission to win some more now !!!
Please vote for Juliette brushing her teeth here :
http://www.forparentsbyparents.com/info_photos_contest.html?comp=4
Thanks in advance !
While Mike's been out doing carnival, I've been looking up the ancestors !!!
http://cheryl2003.topcities.com/index.htm
"Hello everybody, I've escaped from the local loony bin !!!"
"Oooooooh I say !!!" (to be said in a very camp Frankie Howard voice !)
Not sure if he looks scarier like this or a woman !
But he's not the only one - remember Bernard, Juliette's godfather ?!!!
News is in short supply so I asked Sophie what we could put on the blog today !
Charlotte aux Fraises (Strawberry Shortcake) for Juliette
Pucca for Sophie
Awwwww best mates today (most of the time)
You'd think butter wouldn't melt in their mouths (but you'd be wrong !!!)
Sorry, the Hastings photos are on the other memory card !!!
The fringe has now grown out so she can see again !
Look Mamie, Christmas clothes !
Is it me or does she look all grown-up without a fringe ?!
Juliette wasn't feeling well and promptly threw up all over me yesterday - but she's full of beans again today !!!
The accident doesn't seem to have affected either of them - except that if Mike isn't home on the dot, Sophie says "Is Daddy late because he's had an accident ? " ! She's extra extra careful about crossing the roads now too, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
See ?! I said I only had a little graze on my face - it healed really quickly too !
Sledging in Laval (the bloke is giving her a funny look because he's waiting for her to go up the slope !!!)
Wow !!! Presents !!!!
Everyone needed some time to regroup and chill out - and we managed to get out just before the flu germs !!!
Sledging in the town centre
Juliette wasn't happy and refused to go anywhere near Santa for any of the other photos !!!
Couldn't even tempt her with a sweetie !
Juliette was even scared of the mouse !!!
New Hello Kitty mittens because she lost her Pucca gloves ... except when I washed her coat, they were stuffed right at the bottom of her pockets under about a million tissues and biscuit wrappers (because they eat their midmorning snack in the playground at school !!!)
The balloon dogs didn't last long !!!
The "stick Juliette in the pushchair so she can't leg it" approach !!!
Crêpes at the Christmas market
Yes, she is sitting on the toilet !!!
It looks very impressive but it all came in a kit !!!
All we had to make was the icing
And it even survived the car crash !!!
Tada - the finished result ! I let the get on with it this year, I was snowed under with school reports to fill in !!!
But I DID decorate the dog (ok I admit it, for a competition !!!!) Didn't win either !!!)
Sophie won the tickets as part of her prize for entering the St Martin sugarbeet sculpting so I took her along.
Easy tiger !!! (old Swansea saying !!!) (It's a meringue, if you're wondering !!)
She got to meet *gasp* "the real" Snow White after the show !!
And even the wicked stepmother (who gives Mike a run for his money as an ugly woman !!!)
http://www.babyexpert.com/Gallery/babyrusk-smiles-%21%21%21/gallery
Voting ends in January, not sure when exactly
Thanks !!!
I know you've been missing it !!!! So here's a new voting competition for you - prizes for the top 15 at the end of the month !!!
Click here :
http://knorr.havassports.net/popup.aspx?id_soupe=1333
and vote for
| 5.soupe à la chilli con carne | 6 votes |
| cheryl59 | |
The leaderboard is here if you want to see how I'm doing :
http://knorr.pourtoutvousdire.com/soupes_party/Default.aspx?menu=8
Well, last year went out with a bang (sick joke !!!) so the first thing to do this year was find a new car. The hire car had to go back on Thursday - €220 for the few days we were in England *gulp* (but it was worth it, everyone would have been moping around and reliving the crash otherwise). Mike walked to work on Friday - and managed to talk some of his colleagues into dropping him off in the evening !
We had the insurance expert on the phone and the old car is being treated as a wreck - the procedure is to throw it open to see if any breaker's yards want to buy it. If not, they'll be sending us a cheque for about €16.200. In some ways, we'll be glad to see the back of it - I'm sure it was jinxed from day 1 !
Mike went to the garage today and "bought" a new car - another Scenic, this time "beige poivre" (pepper beige). It costs €22.000 which is basically the same price as the old car was when we bought it.
The car will be available next Saturday but we can't have it until we receive the cheque which could take anything from 10 days to 3 weeks - so they'll lend us a car for the interim from Monday night onwards. So only Monday will be a bit hectic.
I'll post a pic when we get it !
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 !!!
http://www.biboon.com/post_view.php?pt=75999354979542
Aha, none of them have got too much of a lead this time so lets see if I can keep her up near the top - think there's only one prize though, no idea what it is 
Only idea they give of closing date is "end of 2007" 
You can click once if you don't log in or 3 times if you log in - or sometimes you can cheat and vote once and then log in and vote 3 times !
http://superheros.rentrerenvie.fr/root/membre/?id_user=103&action=vote#
Closing date 19th November - not sure if you can only vote once or every time you reboot !!
Thanks in advance !!!!
"wowee, look mum!"
I thought we'd better make a bit of space in the cookery cupboard before my big prize box of Tate & Lyle cooking stuff arrived !
Or should that be Mike, Sophie and Juliette ?!!
They loved the potato, carrot and parsnip peelings from Sunday lunch, the freebie gluten free bread that tasted a bit strange ... and piles of leaves that Juliette kept feeding them !!!
I managed to drag everyone off to goat park last Sunday to make the most of the ast of the autumn sunshine
Quick ice cream stop !
There you go Emily - you can do one of your moving picture things, where it keeps flipping from one shot to the next !!!
I got fed up with the patchwork plaid and the blue plaids keep falling off (or should that be, getting pulled off ! ) the settee so they've now gone and have been replaced by a red one - bigger so it can't be pulled off !!!
Juliette thought it was hilarious to keep hiding every time I tried to take a photo !!!
I've found a new photo competition website with very few participants so I need your help again ! There are two pictures of Juliette to vote for :
http://www.biboon.com/contest_view.php?ct=566685&vp=48475885548788
scroll down until you find Juju at the beach
and
http://www.biboon.com/contest_view.php?ct=89514568
scroll down to the pic of Juju with her bucket
If you manage to create an account, you can vote 3 times for each every day. If you don't log on, you can vote once a day.
Thanks a million !
PS Last couple of weeks for voting for the banana bread recipe too !!!
http://www.elleadore.com/cote-cuisine/vos-recettes/desserts/pain-aux-bananes-par-cheryl59.php
one vote a week, still in the top 10 at the moment (for a voucher for an electrical appliance of your choice) but it's getting a bit hectic at the top now people are going voting-crazy for the last few days !!!
This is what Juliette's hair looked like when we woke her up on arrival at Disneyland !!!
Should hopefull have time to add the last photos, in between getting back from Sophie's arts and crafts club (first time - thought it was hard, they had to draw about Africa and she didn't really know what Africa was all about !!!) and heading off to the storytelling time at the library (where I said we'd look up books on Africa !!! )
Right, back to Disneyland !
Queued up for ages to see Winnie the Pooh ...
... then Juliette decided he was way too scary and cried her head off !!!
She soon got her smile back though !!! (We went mention the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, I'll have to do the "photo of terror" later because it needs scanning - it was so funny we had to buy it !!! )
awww with Pluto
on the carousel
Juliette on the carousel !
outside the Alice in Wonderland maze
