My Smallest Girl

Is seven today!!

This time seven years ago I was waiting for the jelly to start the journey of her birth. Elizabeth had convinced us that we were expecting a boy baby called Peter. Elizabeth, aged just 2, was with us in hospital and although at the time it was frustrating because that was not the plan, in hindsight it was magical and so special that after me Elizabeth was the first person to hold her baby sister, she never mentioned boy baby Peter again, she was so in love with our new bundle. Francesca was a whopping 8lb 9oz and was so perfect (she still is). I never imagined that I would love another baby as much as I loved my first but a Mummy's heart has infinate expansion room. Francesca explained to Nathaniel when we were expecting Sebastian that when a baby arrives so does a new lot of Mummy love so they all still have the same.

She is beautiful;


And a bit of a Rock Chick;


A wonderful big sister;

And I love her so much my heart could burst!

She is funny too, she spent a while the other night reassuring me that we'd be safe in the jungle because man eating lions don't eat women!

Happy Birthday Francecsa!

Ouchey Ouch, ooooooh And Ugh!

Francesca has been at home again today (she stayed in her PJs yesterday too), she has a very high temp, sore bones but nothing specific, lots of love and sleep seems to have made her much better. Nathaniel has been the same this week. There has been an outbreak of 'slap-cheek' at school, it's a viral infection and the usual reaction is becoming very very red down one side of your face, hence the nickname. It spreads like wild fire. My girlies have had it before. I wonder if this is what they have just without the red reaction? And today, after a week of administering paracetamol, cups of water and endless cuddles at all hours of the day and night, I seem to have it. My bones hurt so much. Francesca said her ribs hurt when she breathed, I assumed it was tired muscles from coughing but I have not been coughing and it hurts to breathe. I now feel very sorry for the pair of them in retrospect :(

But on the plus side of our poorly pyjama clad situation is lots of little helpers for the fair on saturday (have I mentioned it :));


My pictures seem to have been jumbled? So here is Francesca modelling the new hair slides we made this morning, Nathaniel turning the handle on the bigshot, francecsa choosing buttons and me burning my finger, bloody hot glue gun!!


Here threy are (some of them, we made twelve altogether);

I dug out the braceletes I made that didn't sell on Folksy and thought I'd try them in person, maybe someone will fall in love with one if they can hold and try on;

And this is how much Francesca likes the hair slides;

Unfortunately, I ran out of binding before I ran out of pretty triangles, no time to order some and expect it to come before saturday :(

I have a number of t-shirts stabalised and ready to sew, all my bags and t-shirts need ironing, I need to find all my little tags and get them stamped so I can price up items and really all I want to do is go to bed. Think a hot cup of tea and some paracetamol is in order.

Daisie xxx

500!!!!

This is my 500th post and I was waiting for something terribly exciting to share with you on this special occasion but sadly nothing of great note has been happening. Bits of knitting, cleaning, baking, boobie-ing, playgrouping, parking (green place with swings, not car parking), homeworking, eating etc but nothing amazing.

We've been out in the garden;


With our little friends;


We've had walks in the woods;

With impromptu hats;

Sebastian had a snooze with some buttercups;

Then something very exciting happened;

We built a climbing wall (after nearly melting while painting the new wall and re-painting the kitchen);

And I just love the sunshine and little girls in floppy hats and gingham dresses on school mornings;

And because it's sunny and the summer is soon to be here and it's holidays next week (wooooo-hooooo) and I feel a bit happier than I have done in a while and because you have all been here reading my blatherings for what seems like an age I am going to gather together some of my goodies and give them away to one of the commenters on this post. So say hello and I'll pick someone randomly on sunday afternoon.

Daisie xxx

Out Of My Comfort Zone

I went to a party last night, oooh, get me! Simon and I were invited but it just made more sense for me to take the girls and for him to stay at home and look after the boys. My very dear friend Mary turns thirty (she is only a baby) next week and held a huge celebration. First uncomfortabe bit (probably more obvious to those of you who know me in real life) no black t-shirt;


In fact not a black anything or even my comfy jeans, Simon took this pic of us just before we left.

Elizabeth posed wonderfully half way through the night, don't spill my pint;


She got to see her friend;

There were some funky rock chick moves on the dance floor;

And any sensible child knows not to argue with her slightly skwiffy mother when she asks you to pose for a 'self-portrait';

There was fun with sweaty-I've-danced-too-vigarously faces and table confetti;

And just before we came out Francesca pointed out that we had 'party feet';

So having not been on a night out in well over half a decade and going with no husband to hide behind lean on and being in an unfamiliar environment and not knowing many people and no black I feel I did rather well, I had a great time and would have stayed later than the eleven O'clock hometime if it wasn't for having to get up at a stupid hour and take Simon for the train to London this morning.

So Happy Birthday Mary, thanks for a fabulous party!!

xxx

Apologies To All In East Lancashire!

The freak hail storm this afternoon was all my fault! Bank holiday weekend, an extra day togehter, lets go for a walk and a run in the park;


It was a bit dull and a bit chilly, I made Nathaniel wear a hat to keep his small blonde head warm, it didn't seem so bad, the rest of us in warm cardigans;


Another small boy had his hat on in the sling, I even managed to take a picture of me and Simon with Sebastian, yes I have several chins and Seb does look a bit cross, I think this is due to his hat being pulled down too far (the cross look, not the chins, obviously);

Francesca was a brilliant big sister;

We found masses of wild garlic that smelled so good (think I'll be taking my little trowel in my pocket next time we go);

The children all 'conquered' a small bit of the wood and we had Elizabithia and Francescadom;

We found a butterfly;

And a woodpecker;

We took plenty of nuts but only saw one squirrel, there were just too many dogs about. The nuts may have been essential for our survival as we had to hide out under a bush while the hail fell, Elizabeth commented that we may be there for years (ever the optomist) and we would soon run out of things to eat!

The rain will have filled the river though so it's not all bad;

What did you do today?

Daisie xxx

Creepy Crawly Roadshow

It's been ages since I blogged. I have a new computer, but not yay! It died and with it took all my photos since Christmas :-( Thank goodness for Blogger, at least I have some of them stored here. We are looking at trying some recovery but I'm not holding my breath. A lesson to us all to do a weekly back-up! And the new 'pute doesn't yet have a photo package installed so I can move my pics from the camera to here but can't view or edit them so don't expect to many over the next week or so.

So we spent a day shopping for a new 'pute. We've done an Asda shop, we've dug up some stuff out back so we can level the stone floor in preparation for the climbing wall coming (very exciting indeed), Francesca and I did the baby clinic on Friday, we've been to see the creepy crawly roadshow at the Children's Centre. The guy was very knowledgable but kinda lost the smaller people somewhere along the way with his monotone voice and random blatherings. I enjoyed it though and learned some things I didn't know about small slimey things.

The girls got friendly with some snakes;

And that's about it for now. Must go and put a bra on before the man with the skip arrives, don't want to scare him away!!

Daisie xxx

Sleeping Beauty And The Wall

Although, maybe, that should read the wall and sleeping beauty as blogger seems to have put the pictures in the wrong way up tonight?

The wall is up and rendered, inside-out;


And outside-in;


It's all looking rather good me thinks! Can't wait for it to 'go off' as they say and we can paint it and make it all lovely and nice out there in time for the better weather.

We've had a lazy couple of days here, Francesca is running a bit of a temp and is oh so tired. It doesn't seem to be anything particular, just generally tired and under the weather. When I have asked her to tell me how she is poorly (sore throat/head/tummy/ear etc) she just says she is poorly all over. We have been out and had our hair cut today, both Francecsa and Elizabeth have gone much shorter and they look fabulous (will show pics at some point) and Francesca and I have spent some time this afternoon sorting through her wardrobe getting rid of things that no longer fit and making space for new hand-me-downs from her sister. I think it took it out of her a little as when she had eaten only a small amount of pasta she said she was going to bed. It was just 6pm. I went up five minutes later to make sure she was ok and found this;


My sleeping beauty! She is so big and clever and grown up and wonderful but when she goes to sleep she becomes my baby again and I could just watch her for hours.

Daisie xxx

Felt Goodies

Over the weekend I had out the bag that holds all my little felty scraps, Francesca designed a rabbit. I made the teeth so big when I helped her out with the face that she had to pin them up out of the way while she sewed on his tummy;


Needless to say, I was not allowed to help with the rest incase of anymore blunders, I think she did a wonderful job;

Elizabeth nicked some of the felt flowers that she had helped me cut on the die cutter and designed a little 'clutch' to hold her iPod and earphones;

It has a simple flap on the back with a red button. She learned how to do blanket stitch and was amazed by just how easy it was to do! Her she is showing off her creation;

And these are the little brooches I have made for the school fair;

Still got lots of little things left to do but have enough stuff to fill the stall now so not panicking!

The builders are arriving tomorrow to knock down an outside wall, rebuild it, knock off the render to the outside of my kitchen and then re-do it. When all is finished I hope it's warm enough for me to get up a ladder and paint it, all clean and lovely for the summer.

Nathaniel has been up all night with a terrible earache. A trip off to see the doctor (only after waiting an hour) got us some lovely antibiotics, hopefully he'll be feeling better soon, poor baby!

We have been snuggling in the warm and making yummy lemon cupcakes to take to my friend Claire's later. She's having the smaller poeple so Simon and I can go to meet with Francecsa and Elizabeth's teachers later on.

It's all fun and games here......

Daisie xxx

Still Here!

Life is a little mad;


And things are kinda upside down;


But also filled with loveliness;

I will be back when I have some time, there has been a big shake up of my peer supporter role so am attending meetings and discussing options and mashing my brain daily. There are lots of lovely developements in my role at the children's centre, exciting times. There is a teething baby. There are two busy school girls and a small boy with a sore throat. There is a mountain of laundry and the usual meals to make and mess to clean, there is also some knitting and sewing on the go.

Hope you're all ok?!

Daisie xxx
PS: there are some lovely yummy mummy and little mummy aprons in my folksy shop <----- if you are in need of something for the 14th?