Stars in their eyes!

Happy New Year, everyone! Lang may all your Lums reek! 
I seem completely unable to take a picture of the children without red-eyes at the moment.

Wishing everyone a constructive and prosperous 2013!

Merry (Western) Christmas!

So, this year we had a "buy one, make one" present policy. Guy made solid hand cream bars to this recipe.

Phoebe did A LOT of sewing. And customised some flip-flops with stick-on gems and ribbons.

Tabby made tea cup candles (which sort of looked a bit like this, but not very much!)

It rained like you wouldn't believe, and the school was even closed one day because the road wasn't viable.

And then, it froze.

This was an old picture frame from a charity shop, which Tabby "repurposed" as a dry-wipe board for Phoebe's present. Here's the tutorial

Merry (Western) Christmas, everyone! We'll see you on January the 7th for Eastern Christmas! :-)

The Jedi of Footwear!

Overheard outside my bedroom this morning

Phoebe: Tabby, these are high heels, but you mustn't wear them on the stairs. 
Only I can do that, because I've studied their power!

And so, the pupil becomes the teacher! Use the force wisely, little one! :-)

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right; here I am, stuck in the middle with you!

Here we are walking to the church 10 (count 'em, TEN!) years ago;

And our crowning - there's a good reason why Orthodox brides don't have veils or trains on their dresses!

And here we are (falling about laughing) realising that we can't actually dance to "our" song (Never Tear Us Apart by INXS).

Happy Days, Folks! Happy Days!
In other news, our wall of boxes:

Has disappeared! Well, almost - there's two left at the bottom!

Conveniently, Paloma Faith has done a cover version (just for our anniversary, or so I like to think!)
So, here's to the next 10 years! :-)

Are we in Devon, yet?

So, yesterday, we drove for just over four hours, to visit our friends in Devon. And we went to the beach!

And then, we left Phoebe, who stayed for a sleepover; and we drove back. I am SOOOOO tired! I can do the term-time routine, but the holidays just break me!

St Giles' Fair

So, we went to the fair yesterday!

We went on lots of rides.

This is the monster on the top of the ghost train. It's not nearly as scary during the day time as it is at night! Phoebe got quite close to inspect it - but it's anamatronic and it moves when you least expect it!

Again, I don't usually put my children in cages. But this ride was brilliant value!

Quite cheap and the man running it got distracted with a conversation with a friend, so we had a VERY long ride for our £1!

And here's our haul! (All of which I could have bought cheaper at the Pound Shop, but that's not the point!)

And because it's St Giles' Fair, we took a break and went into the church to eat our sandwiches and listen to some bell ringing!

Free Food! Score, Phoebe!

The punnet of blackberries that Phoebe picked for us on the walk back from town (Tabby and Guy just ate theirs!),

And what we would have paid for a smaller punnet in the supermarket. Well done, Phoebs!

Blackberry and Apple Crumble with lashings and lashings of custard! YUM!