Happy Mothering Sunday!

Happy Mothering Sunday, everyone!
I hope you've been able to reconnect with whoever and whatever nurtures you and "mothers" you today!

My big treat was that I got to go to church on my own. This might not sound like a big deal, but it's HUGE for me! :-)

My little darlings playing dress-up!

After a week of everyone being very good; as a treat Daddy took the children to the cinema while I was at work on Saturday morning. Then we met up at a restaurant for lunch!

Daddy helping Guy with the word-search in the kids pack.

Phoebe listening with rapt attention to her mother. It's worth a picture, because it doesn't happen often!

Hope everyone had a lovely day! I'm off to scoff my Mother's Day chocolates! :-)

Monkeys in the trees!

Monkeys playing in the trees!

 And afterwards, warming up in the cafe. (Not quite sure why Tabby looks so grumpy?)

Happy 3rd Birthday Tabby-Kat!

So, yesterday was Tabby's 3rd birthday and we had a birthday party for her. Just a small party at the house, with some songs and games. Here's Emily singing a song about rain and getting everyone to use their shakers and tambourines to provide the sound effects!

And the tiger cake which Tabby requested.
I stayed up WAY too late making it, and you can probably see the effects of the coffee in how shaky my hands were when I was icing it! Ken was very kind and said it was "impressionistic", but Tabby was happy with it, which is the main thing!

And it must have tasted okay!

So, a late night, followed by a late morning sleeping in!

While I was out getting party stuff, part of the wooden panels at the side of the car park fell on to my car. The car park attendants came and helped me move it and took some pictures to back up my claim if I wished to claim on the insurance. But sadly, all of the dings and dents were there on my car prior to the panel falling on it! :-(

In other news, Phoebe saved up enough lizard cards (100!) at Explore Learning to get the book of 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl. Grandma has promised that if she reads it all from cover to cover, Grandma will take her to London to see the stage show! Lucky girl!

Snow! And Afternoon Tea.....

So, yes, it did snow! Enough to play in!

And enough to cause the maximum amount of disruption!

It would have been fine if we'd had the snow over the Christmas break. But, no; the weather waited until we at our most tired and run-down, trying to get back into the term-time routine; and THEN we got the cold weather!

Although, GrandDoug did come to take us all out for long walks, followed by afternoon tea at The Feathers

(Although the children cheated by having Hot Chocolate!)

The most beautiful sandwiches you EVER saw!

And the usual disagreement about whether the jam goes on the scone first with the cream on top, or cream with jam on top. It's a tricky one, and we usually have to have quite a few scones prepared both ways before we can make a decision! :-)

Cold, and getting colder! Brrrrrrrr!

The weather over Christmas was mostly mild and wet, but now it's getting colder. Sunday was cold but clear, so we went out on our scooters.

And we did lots of bouncing on the trampoline!

But it was -6 last night, and still -3 when we walked to school this morning.

It was funny not-quite-snowing. The moisture in the air was turning into little ice chips.

I don't feel like I've warmed up all day! Curry for dinner tonight! :-)

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! :-)