Tree

Its been a while I know but life just seems to get in the way of everything at the moment - it has been a busy few months!

Our tree is up and decorated and looks stunning. We used our outdoor pea lights (50m of them!) rather than fairy lights and I think they look really pretty. The decorations are higgledy-piggledy and have no particular colour scheme - but thats the way I like it. I love the process of taking the decorations down from the attic, slowly unwrapping them, reminiscing about when and where we bought them and then hanging them up. I also love the smell of Christmas trees - brings back so many memories for me (I have a particularly vivid one of my dad getting a pine needle in his eye!).It was especially enjoyable this year as the boys are getting to the age where they understand Christmas and remember decorations/traditions from previous years.

The boys and I made some saltdough tree decorations today that have baked beautifully - just need to be varnished and threaded with ribbon (will share some pictures tomorrow).

Just need to wrap some presents now to sit underneath. I love Christmas!!

Christmas Idea No. 3

I love retro and vintage toys and have been after one of these for ages.
I have finally found and bought one for my son's stocking and I know he will love it. I've already had a play with it, it's strangely addictive!

Up

We all went to see Up on Friday for G's birthday and loved it. The thing I love about Pixar films is that they appeal to all ages - there are always small details/jokes included that go over the kids head but are designed for the grown-ups they know will be watching.

The film is extremely sad in parts - heart-tuggingly so, but there is an overall feeling of hope and optimism. As always with Pixar there are some great characters.
My youngest was scared during the storm scene - I think it was the noise more than anything and was a little wriggly in the middle, but other than that it kept us all entertained for a couple of hours.
Would definitely recommend - go and see it now!

Five

Happy Birthday my sweet sweet boy.

At five years old, you:

• Love computers
• Love books and being read too - favourites at the moment being anything by Roald Dahl, Mo Willems and Quentin Blake
• Are fascinated by mazes and optical illusions
• Eat very well and love anything wrapped in pastry (not especially healthy but you love veg too!)
• Love numbers and counting (you count to 300 every morning on the way to school!)
• Enjoy listening and moving to music and have the best dance moves I've ever seen by a 5 year old!
• Love school and are making amazing progress with your reading and writing (and you are so proud of yourself!)
• Love monsters and anything scary but still get scared by funny little things (like the school teacher in Beegu - although she is pretty scary!)
• Your favourite animal is a bat
• Love to explore and pretend to be Indiana Jones
• Still love to hide (same 3 hiding places everytime)
• Fight tooth and nail with your little brother but are fiercely loyal and protective of him when others are involved
• Still love to cuddle, kiss and sit on my lap (and you still insist you are going to live at home with us forever and come and work with me at school when you are grown up, when you're off duty as a super-hero of course!)
• You are my favourite 5 year old in the whole world and we love you very very much - don't ever change beautiful boy.

Vintage Ladybird books

I found three rather old, rather scruffy ladybird books in a charity shop this week, and I am very excited about them so thought I would share them with you one by one.

I have had a lifelong love affair with Ladybird books because as a child my Mum used to buy me one a week, so as you can imagine we had lots of them! I'm not sure what happened to them all - probably disintegrated form overuse, but have recently been on the search for vintage copies like the ones we used to have. Ladybird books are still going strong today of course, but most no longer have the original illustrations (which hold the most vivid memories for me)nor the original wording.

This is my favourite of the three - 'Talkabout Home'. When I first picked it up (the spine is completly worn away, so I had no idea what it was as I pulled it out of the shelf) I recognised it immediately and it almost made me cry, the memory was so sweet and strong. As I turned the pages I was faced with familiar image after image and it was a wonderful moment for me. I am desparate to show it to someone else who might also remember it so vividly (Matthew? Mum?) - my husband never had this particular one and therfore no memory of it.
Here are a few of favourite pages:








I won't say they don't make them like this anymore because they do - there are so many fantastic children's books about, it's just that this one has special memories for me. It honestly feels like I was reading it yesterday.

Christmas Idea No. 2

I have had an urge for a while now to start collecting and storing the boys artwork in a more effective way. It is currently all over the house and I would like somewhere to put all the best bits. To keep it safe so we can look back over it in the years to come and eventually one day for them to have to show their family.
I have got my eye on these A3 folders for Christmas - knights for son 1 and vehicles for son 2.
By Djeco (again! - I told you their art and craft range is fantastic) and in a range of styles, these A3 folders should do the trick and look good enough to be out on display.

Dylan

Dylan our house rabbit is 12 weeks old on Tuesday.

He is such a little darling - very friendly and (generally) well behaved. He is not quite litter trained yet - we are working on that - but is a perfect pet in every other respect.

I would definitely recommend a house rabbit as a pet.

Just look at his cute little face.