Death of the highchair

At long last the highchair is no more. Hollie is now big enough to sit at the table. Yupieeeee, I think she likes it too.

Emmaleighs Birthday

Even though it was over six weeks ago I really needed to share some of the pics from Emmaleighs birthday. Our little girl is now 9! I can't belive how big she is. I have to say that this was one of the most relaxed and chilled out "parties" we have done and there has been a few. I'd got all my hair, make-up and general girlie gunk out, along with a few foot spas all set up and ready to go. All her friends came over in their pjs and dressing gowns, we made some banana & honey face packs and then just spent the evening pampering them, giving them foot massages, doing their nails, giving them facials etc. The girls LOVED it. They were doing each others hair and make-up. It really was 100% girlie time. We then had nibbles and cake and I'd made 'party bags' of bright pink flannels, bath pearls and hair bobbles. They looked great but no pic, sorry. This is Emm preparing herself for her face pack.

All gunked up with banana and honey.

Some of her friends enjoying and foot spa and pedicure.

Abbs getting in on the fun.
The girls all making their own face packs from a selection on ingredients. Some of them looked absolutely gross.
Had to put this one in of Emms friend. I just thought she looked so funny.

Anyway great party, she was a very popular girl that week-I was just exhausted.

Before and After

I know two posts in one day but I had to just quickly do this before and after. With so much to do on the house I forget how much we've done in only a few months.

Beavers and Wall

Too much has happened since our last blog that I'm not even going to try and catch up! Anyway, tonight was Daniels Promise night with Beavers. He loves going and was very excited. His friend Callum was doing his promise tonight aswell, all I can say is I hope their leaders know what they are letting themselves in for with them two there.

All lined up ready!
Making his promise

When he saw he was getting a scarf, woggle and badges!

All done and ready to come home.

The other achievement of last week was that we made a start on re-building the wall in the front garden. We had to take it down to make the drive wider as you couldn't open the car doors. Quite ironic really as the car has died and awaiting a trip to the garage. However all that time shifting stones in Bel Air has paid off as I think we've (really Chris) has done a great job.

This is about the best picture I could find of the wall before.

This is it after.

We need to do some more work on the half towards the house which I think we'll do tomorrow. I really underestimated at how long this takes but I do think it looks infinitely better than it did before, especially as neither of us has done this before. Well done Chris, really proud of you.

Garden week

It's been garden week this week in our house (or should that be just outside our house?). Juli has been trying her best to focus on one room at a time but know wshe isn't even focussed on the same building!

Both back and front gardens have has a haircut for what must be the first time in years. It was devastation in the back garden as we took off all the branches of the huge conifer to about head height (I'm not convinced, but the boss likes it!) All the bushes around the side have gone and the garden is now noticeably bigger.

Round the front much the same with all the bushes and large stones gone and the starting of some borders forming.

In addition to the garden the outhouses have been blitzed and emptied of a decade of old stuff left by our predecessors.

Doesn't seem like much progress; especially as all the waste is still on site (even our car isn't that big!) but it had to be done.

Pictures to be added soon......

First finished room... well nearly

So the bedroom is just about done. Painting finished, feature wall papered, room tidied. All that is left to do is finishing touches with pictures on the wall and the mirror hung.

Here are some before and after shots. I forgot just how bad it was. Great job Jules!

Aliens

We had a competition a couple of weeks ago when the kids friend was over to see who could draw the best alien. Needless to say I (Chris) lost by a mile, I have great ideas what I want things to look life but my head and hand never seem to work in tandem.

Emmaleigh & Aimee both did a great job but I think that Em just sneaks this one. Anyway judge for yourself.

My poor effort!!!

I think Emmaleighs is great! Surprise surprise it has two mouths so she called it chat chat. The thought of Em with two mouths talking to each other doing bear thinking.

Aimees is just typical Aimee!

Birthdays, round tables and finally using our garden

So as you can see from the post below it was Hollies birthday last week. She loved the day, her cake, presents and cards. Anna-Belles birthday is this week so she was disappointed that she couldn't open any presents.

I say that Hollie enjoyed her cake, not as much as Anna-Belle. Here she is with the chocolate Peppa Pig from the top of the cake (that bit was hers apparently)

Juli was back on Ebay trauling for bargains again and came up with this for £12.50. Frees up quite a bit of space and when covered is quite nice, meals have been much more enjoyable.

We finally had nice enough weather to make it outside. Hollie didn't know what to make of it as this is the first time that she has been outside to play since she could really do anything.

Hollies Birthday

Decorating and puck

Honestly, since half term, which was about 4 weeks ago at least one of us has been ill. I don't think there has been a day when all three of the older ones has been to school and I've missed two weeks of church. I'm hoping that they will all be back on Monday as it's starting to drive me crazy! That said the better weather has been good-I have actually been in the garden and discovered that we have a veg patch-even if it is a little overgrown. We also discovered a path and that we have alot of work to do, but hey, what's new. The inside is getting there. I managed to strip the rest of the paper off the kitchen so the yellow is gone! When I painted the kitchen ceiling I was amazed at what a difference it made. This week however I've focussed on our bedroom which should be done by the end of today. I've stripped the rest of the wallpaper off, papered, painted, just need to paint around the window, paint the woodwork and paper the feature wall, o might finish next week!

This is Anna-Belle holding my legs so I don't fall! In truth she nearly pulled me off. Will put some more pics up when I find the camera.