Stephanie and Sportacus rock out.

Cooper's dream

On Friday we made it to the cinema and I actually had my wallet this time. I asked for three tickets to Madagascar 2 and the guy told me it wasn't on until Saturday. Argh! Luckily there was a kids club movie showing for £1.70 instead of the usual £4.50 so I grabbed the bargain seats for a movie called Tale of Despereaux. The kids didn't seem to mind as I bought them some popcorn and sweets. I don't think they mind most things provided there are sweets involved. I can now add a masters in child bribery onto my cv. Tosha M.C.B. (eebies)
So there we are and hour into watching Dustin Hoffman as a rat when the movie turns upside down and starts playing scenes backwards. The speech was backwards. It was totally Cooper's dream.


I found this hilarious and couldn't stop laughing especially as people seemed to think it was part of the movie for a few minutes. Finally someone came to the front to tell us what happened. Something about splicing the two films containers together incorrectly and it couldn't be fixed. They gave us all free vouchers so we will get to see Madagascar eventually. If I don't forget the tickets, my wallet, or to check the times.
Kids had fun though.

That wasn't the last odd thing I saw of the day though. We were on the bus and the woman in front of us got out a bottle of vodka and downed the last third of a bottle. It did make me wonder what kind of day she had.

And now I am going to join some girlies for a pub quiz...

An elephant and a tiger walk into a kitchen..

I do have some funny stories but the elephant made the tiger too tired to type today.

Live near Welney?

Get your own giant bathtub.

Um, who in their right mind?

If I had too much money and not enough sense, I'd buy it and paint it to look like a giant four legged spider.



In other news, I took Kalila in to the doc for her nasty chesty cough that makes her choke with mucus on the advice of the pharmacist and he prescribed her an inhaler for asthma, which she does not have. He said she had a virus which I believe she does have. I sat in there for ages trying to understand why whilst feeding him as much information as possible about her. He is a crackpot. I've seen him before and he was a crackpot then (and completely wrong too as he insisted my pregnancy ,the 2nd miscarriage, was just a delay in my period and to check back in a couple of weeks if I hadn't started my period.) I went ahead and got the prescription on the off chance but his words of, "this will be an experiment" did nothing to reassure me. I'll be consulting my preferred doctor, mr internet. *

Grrr and then grr some more. And one more grr just to be clear. Grr.

* Saw my friend who has 3 boys boys today and she said all three of hers got prescriptions for inhalers during viruses at some stage and none of them use inhalers now nor has asthma. We talked a lot more about it and she said she had another friend whose daughter was prescribed one this week as well. Did the NHS get a job lot? Anybody else have any knowledge I can steal?

I'll take that as a compliment

When Nik saw my haircut he said, "Wow! They've cut it longer (instead of shorter)." I think he liked it. Here it is in all it's scrunched up face glory. (well the cat had just wandered past and left a fragrant aroma.)

Language mrs!

I was going to take the kids to see Madagascar 2 as a half term treat. I got them all excited and we packed our sneaky snacks (because it's expensive enough without buying completely over priced snacks), and we made our way. I drove into Cambridge and just before I pulled into the car park (which again is completely over priced but park and ride wasn't an option due to time constraints), I had a vision. My wallet. Did I bring it? It was in our swim bag which I had taken out yesterday. I loudly declared, "SHIT!" to which Digi replied, "Mummy, why did you say shit?"
I didn't react to what he'd just said as I didn't want to make it obvious that it's not a word to use around old grannies. I just told him that I'd been very silly and I forgot my wallet. He was so sweet and understanding but Kalila cried. I gave them a lolly before driving off.

I'm a great mother. Eesh.

A Valentine cupcake for you

I've baked apple turnovers, cupcakes, and banana bread this week (with my pint sized helpers of course) and I don't think the gym session I had today made a dent in the sugar running through my veins.

some more memories for the memory bank.

I was playfully patting Kalila's bottom (lil tushies are so cuuute) before her bath and she said, " Stop that Mummy. You might break my bottom!"

Digi got accidentally scratched on the neck while play fighting at school (apparently all the boys are into this testosterone fueled play fighting now) and it took ages before he'd tell me what happened. I told him it was probably an accident but it's best not to play fight because people can get hurt blah blah and all that parenting stuff you should say. After we discussed it thoroughly, Kalila piped up and said, "somebody scratched me on my neck at school." She has to have everything Digi has even if it's scratches! Once she realized she had no neck scratches, she began scanning her body for anything remotely red and said, "I think somebody scratched my um um knee." Silly girl.

Kalila's names changes on an hourly basis. Now as well as Stephanie, Donna, Rose, and Baby, there is Hermione. I can't keep track.

New piccies are up. Links on the side--->

You want me to do what?

I've had almost the strangest request for work yet. I've been asked to quote for painting 100 children's faces on a private train to Torquay, stay the weekend, and come back on the train and do the same thing. How on earth do you quote for that?

The beat that my heart skipped

Kalila Boo is two years and eight months today. How can one person get so cute in such a short amount of time? There are so many nuances of her facial expression that I wish I could capture but there just isn't enough time in the day. I need to make more time and pull out that camera of mine as these kids don't ever slow down. Ever. I read something last week that I wish I could find (damn my tidying) but it was something along the lines of this:

When you are in the middle of (insert boring chore here) and your child asks you to come play a game or colour with them or even the nose holding task of reading a story while they have a poo, before you say (insert legitimate excuse here) think about what the 60 year old you would say. The 60 year old you would love the chance to play a game with your child again. The 60 year old you would adore a lingering stalling bedtime cuddle. The 60 year old you wouldn't mind one bit if your little one crept into your bed at night and put his/her cold toes on your thigh. Well, something like that anyway. You get the gist.

Last night I was tired and ready to slump and surf. Kalila didn't want me to leave her room. She was stalling. I had to go get a pillow for her baby. I had to cover baby with a blanket. And so on and more stalling. I just wanted to go back to my room and then she said, "mummy stay in here" and she reached out her little skinny arms and held onto my neck. I thought about the article I had read earlier and I relaxed. We had a brilliant cuddle and she was happy and I was happy.

What's led to all this mush talk? Well, she had her three year check up today. Getting out her little red health book made me think back to her first days. She's a gem and in the words of scroobius pip "I'm lovin every idiosyncracy"



Some of our fave Kalila phrases/words

Pixture-Picture
The down bit-the bottom of a hill
Me and Kalila and Digi-when referring to her and Digi

Because I'm doing other things

Check out our snow dalek!

regular service will resume after the snow melts.

The garden plan 2009

Digi had a little birthday party on Saturday. He picked out 10 friends from pre school and we fed them popcorn, sweets, and monsters inc. Parties are definitely better with fewer numbers unless it's an outside event. But that isn't the garden plan.
The garden plan has been taking shape for a month or two. It started with the idea to move the current veggie plot and raise it for less back breaking weeding.

From here (after we moved the sleepers)



to here (after we put in the bricks and leveled it)




Now I have room (but not money!) for the greenhouse I so desire. It will go perfectly where the old garden was. My favourite bit of the project has to be the area where Nik moved 8 years worth of compost out. He's a compost shoveling expert (not available for hire). Meet the future chicken run.

We're going to build a tardis chicken house...one summer day.



I want four to start with. The Nera, Goldline, The Amber, and Blubelle. I even have names picked out for our new arrivals! Suggestions welcome.