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!

Food for thought

I was looking after these six (yes, six!) children in the park on Friday.
Which was no hardship, except for the fact that there were 5/6 young teenage kids sat on the platform at the top of the slide, smoking, swearing loudly and generally being as obnoxious as they could. I pointed out that their language was unacceptable (I was helping two two years olds past them), and that they were way to old to be on a children's climbing frame. Their response was that they had nowhere else to go, and that everything else was ******* ****, and besides there was no age limit stated anywhere on the climbing frame.

My response was that there's no age limit on wearing nappies (diapers) either, it's just not something you would do if you didn't have to! And I questioned whether this was really the best use of their time. If, Heaven forbid, they were to get knocked down by a car tomorrow, would they really be happy knowing this was how they'd spent their last day? Seriously?

Anyway, they slunk off after a while. But, I read this today, which made me think of those teenagers.

  

(And also made my Mother's voice ring in my head. During my teenage years she often said "Well, what makes you so special? Why should life be easier for you than it is for everyone else?")

On a brighter note; these rhinos were decorated by different schools in Oxfordshire and placed in various places to raise awareness for woa-rhino.

Also, on Sunday we got to go out to Red Star Noodles - yum, yum!

 The staff at Red Star are so lovely! The service is unnaturally quick, our starter arrived before we had even finished ordering; and they love children! Yummy, fresh, oriental food with LOTS of veggie options! What a treat!

So far this week......

 So, this week we've been back at Rectory Farm. Picking their fantastic strawberries, and drinking their BRILLIANT fresh strawberry milkshakes. 

 

It was all going so well, until Phoebe tripped over on the timber trail and bashed her mouth. Luckily no teeth lost this time! But it did take a few days for her lip to go back to it's normal size.

As you can see her lip still hadn't gone down two days later when we went swimming.

On second thoughts, I shouldn't have let the children mess around with my phone taking pictures in the changing room. It slipped off the bench on to the floor and cracked the screen :-(
Thank Godness for the lovely Indian guys on the Cowley Road, who fixed it in an hour!
I've found that I'm a bit dependent on my phone!
In other news, there was a wedding at our church. Here's the beautiful bride who was so kind and gracious, and had long conversations with Phoebe when I'm sure she had many more important things to be doing! Many Congratulations to the newly wed Mr and Mrs Edmonds! Wishing you many happy years together!

And, apart from that, we're having lots of picnics. Got to make the most of the good weather while it lasts!

Apart from that, there's been the small matter of the Olympics. Did everyone watch the opening ceremony?

Camping in the UK summertime!

This is our tent:

It was last used many years ago in the warm and dusty climate of equatorial Africa.

We had a lovely fish and chip supper with our friends. And getting ready for bed in the tent was fun. However, we had the double whammy of a rain-storm, coupled with a very light evening (this photo was taken around 9pm) and dawn arriving at about 4.30am.

As it turns out; the tent leaks quite badly! Here is a picture of a puddle of water inside the tent. :-(

Can you see the water streaming through the walls of the tent.

The last straw was finding out that our milk had been knocked over in the night, and when we opened the food bag, our cereal spilled everywhere.
So, we packed up as quickly as we could, and went and had hot chocolate and coffee and fresh pastries at the service station! Definitely the high point of the weekend!

Oh, and my car got stuck in the mud and had to be pushed out.
This is what we call "character-building" apparently!