(insert snide comment in this space)

And don't worry, I've heard them all (this was at our local Halloween party on Sunday - it's Sarah's hat, though)

Possibly the best birthday message, ever.

In amidst all the presents and cards today for Olivia's birthday was a card from our friends down the road. Thalia, who is 6 months older than Sarah (and very precocious), wrote the following message: "Dear Olivia, Congratulations that you made it to 6. Some children in Africa can't do that."

What can I say. I am going to save it to show her when she's 30 - along with Sarah's drawing of herself and a group of friends, all carefully coloured and with elaborate clothes, with Olivia off in the corner of the page, half the size of the rest, and in pencil. Maybe by age 30, they'll think it's funny. Who'd have guessed that one of the biggest challenges of being a parent was learning to keep a straight face?

Land of a thousand fairy cakes...

OK, it was only 3 dozen, but they did seem to take a long time to ice and decorate. We thought Olivia would rather have a lot of fairy cakes than one big cake, and it was fun making them, mostly (though it's amazing the number of things sisters can find to argue about). And it will be much more practical for her party tomorrow, as I won't have to slice the cake to put it into party bags - I'll just be able to grab a cake each and hand them out.

The Bald Truth

OK, so today's lesson is this: when you are using electric clippers to clip the hair of the men in your family - husband, son, etc - be sure to hold them the right way around or someone will get a much shorter haircut than originally intended. Sigh. At least hair grows back quickly!

"I not naughty"

I was hanging out washing today and Alex was helping (i.e. playing with clothespegs). I have a couple of giant pegs for hanging things like blanket, etc and he was messing with these - putting them on his nose and stuff like that, when he dropped one onto the patio and it broke. "Oh dear" he says - I looked up and saw the peg was broken so I said "Did it break, then?" and he immediately says "I not naughty". "It's ok, Allie, you didn't break it on purpose" "No, I not naughty". It was very sweet...

The pumps don't work 'cause the vandals took the handles...

Recently we watched the excellent Dylan documentary No Direction Home (the one directed by Martin Scorsese) - may I urge everyone out there who is the tiniest bit of a Dylan fan - or in fact, everyone who is not antagonistic towards Dylan, even if you don't really like him - to watch this if you get a chance. It was just really really really fabulous. We'll be watching it again in future, that's for certain!

Sarah's birthday party

from the left, Olivia, Amelia, Elle, Thalia, Sarah, Daria, Lucy, Flora, Emma. They went bowling. It was fun, actually.

"A monster eat me"

Alex woke up crying in the night, obviously having had a nightmare. When I asked what the matter was, his reply was "a monster eat me". Poor sausage. He and the girls have a great time during the day playing games about monsters - hopefully it won't affect his nights TOO much.

Well, here are the girls on the first day of school (last Wednesday). Olivia is very pleased because now that she's in Year 1 she gets to wear the regular school uniform, which allows dresses and skirts for girls (the Foundation Stage uniform is tracksuit bottoms or shorts only on the bottom). We found out yesterday that she's going to be on the school council this year - they have one representative per class from years 1-6. She's very excited, though I don't think she really understands what it's about. Still, she understands that it's an honour to be picked and that it's something special, so she's very proud of herself... 

Last of the summer whine

Feels like the end of summer today - lovely day, probably about 28 degrees - we had the paddling pool up in the back garden and decided to deflate it and put it away at the end of the day. (We're away for Saturday next weekend, so probably won't use it again before it gets to chilly - and if we have a freak heat wave, well, we have a sprinkler thingy). School doesn't actually begin until Wednesday, so we're off to the Transport Museum tomorrow - a trip aimed largely at the boys (we're going with Lana & her kids), but which I think the girls will enjoy too if they don't get all righteous and prissy about it. And if they do, well, they can just cope and console themselves with the thought of lunch and a browse through the shops in Covent Garden afterwards...

To swim or not to swim

Today was one of those days where you just kept wondering if you were ever going to actually accomplish anything...

The forecast was for 31C, which is hot, even by standards other than British, so we decided to have a walk in Richmond Park, feed the ducks & have a picnic (in the shade) and then toddle along to the Hampton Open Air Pool to refresh ourselves. Well, us and the rest of the universe, apparently. After getting there (about 30 minutes from our house) we find that they are full & we can wait if we want, outside the gate but the queue inside is an hour long and there's no guarantee we can get in anyway. Needless to say, we decided to pass on that. So I rang the local pool we usually go to (indoor) and their main pool is open all day but the little pool is shut from 2-2.30. Fine, we drive back, making a stop on the way, and get there for 2.15, at which point we are told that ACTUALLY, the training pool is closed until 3.30 for swimming lessons. Argh. Off to McDonalds for an ice cream and a quick browse in a few shops and we do finally make it to the pool, but small kids and being told "no" don't really go that well together.

Big rainbow out this evening - more impressive than in this photo, but it's hard to take photos of rainbows... 

Midnight in the bedroom of good and naughty...

I've just finished tidying up after the girls (which includes their friend Thalia, who is staying with us for a few days while her parents are showing longarm machines at a big quilt show) had a "midnight feast" - yes, I do appreciate it's not quite ten pm yet, but at their ages (8.5, nearly 8 & nearly 6), that's quite late enough. I expect to hear giggles for some time yet, though there's not nearly as much stomping and other loud stuff as I thought there might be. They seem to have finally resolved the issue of who has to sleep on the floor (Olivia), with no bloodshed. Which is nice.

Riding in cars with boys

Went to Oxford for the day yesterday - I put Alex in pullups for the day as he was going to have to ride in cars and I didn't know how easy it would be to find a toilet, so better safe than sorry. Anyway, he stayed dry the whole day - asked for a wee about 6 times, though he only actually went once or twice, but still, it's progress. And I've now used the last nappy in the house - we'll be using pullups from now on, since we only need one a day (at night), or occasionally one during the day, for instance, for our day trip. Hoorah!

Spam, eggs, comments and spam

Unfortunately, unlike some blogs, Blogger doesn't seem to have that option with comments where they let you approve them before they get posted. You either have to set everything so that only registered Blogger users can post (which eliminates legitimate comments from friends or casual readers who might not be) or you have to allow anyone at all to post, regardless (which generates lots of spam comments from people who are pushing their own spam websites). I've had three of these spam comments (now removed) in the past 2 days - they haven't been obscene, luckily, but still bloody annoying, so I'm turning off the comment feature.

If you have a legitimate comment, you can email me and I'll post it, but that does take some of the fun out. When I have a little time I might explore around and see if I'm missing something, or write to the blogger people and suggest that modification. Don't hold your breath!

Queen of the Wild Blackberry

Not quite so garish in real life - a little more purple than pink - homemade blackberry ice cream, made with blackberries gleaned along the side of the road on the way to Alex's nursery - we picked them today...

The Way To Amarillo

For some bizarre reason, my kids and their friends all adore that old pop song, The Way to Amarillo (ok, it's not that bizarre, it's because because Peter Kay did a Comic Relief video using it, but still, it's a strange song for kids to like - or maybe not, after all the words are fairly clear and not too obscure for kids). Anyway. I just found out that one of the women in one of my online quilt groups lives in Amarillo (Texas) - Sarah and Olivia would just thing that was SO cool. No idea what Amarillo is like (hot and dusty, perhaps, or maybe it's not in that part of Texas!) but that's not what's important if you are 7. Sha la la la la la la la...

Prima donna kids

Went to the pick your own farm today, in slightly dubious weather. It was alright through the runner beans and the peas, though Olivia had a (rather predictable) strop when she slipped in the mud while picking peas and insisted on staying in the car when we went to get raspberries. It was looking like rain by then anyway. We all had rain jackets on, but the minute it starts raining, Sarah wants to go back to the car. Alex, too, though I think that was more copying Sarah than really minding the rain. Of course, in the next row of raspberries, someone else's kids are running around with abandon and singing at the top of their voices: "We love rain, we love rain." WhenI was little there was almost nothing more fun than playing outside in the rain - we would have done it for hours. Sheesh. Sometimes I'm sure I must have got someone else's kids by mistake...

The boy with no pants

Well, Day 3 of Potty Training and we're doing ok. He had a little leak on the dining room floor today (no carpet - excellent choice of floors, though the kitchen one would be the ideal, being vinyl flooring, while the dining room is wood)but then later actually requested the potty and made a wee in it. Hoorah! He also did a poo halfway in the potty, halfway in his pants, which is a start - but frankly, it works better with no pants on him - if he's wearing pants, he tends to just go in the pants - I guess they feel too much like a nappy.

Under pressure

As though I didn't feel guilty enough already about not updating my blog, I've now been told that my blog has a fan - oh, the pressure - now I will have to be amusing on a more regular basis just so my fan doesn't feel let down. Of course, anyone crazy enough to be a fan will have got used to my irregular postings and assorting whinings already, I suppose, so perhaps I can still breathe easily...