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Boo’s 12th Birthday Bash and a Hunt for Presents

July 29, 2019 by Anne Sweet 9 Comments

The Missing Presents

T’was the night before Boo’s birthday and all through the house…the adults were on a mad hunt for her birthday presents that I had lost.

The kid’s main birthday present this year is a Nintendo Switch and at £270 it was a shared present. So, on their actual birthday’s they will be getting smaller token presents to open. I had the Switch so that was okay but it was Boo’s smaller presents I’d lost. A cover for her tablet, a special drawing pen for her tablet and a dress to wear on her birthday.

I remembered wrapping them up and I knew no-one else was around when I did it. But I could not remember what I’d done with them afterwards. I knew they were not in the living room as we had to remove all the furniture for the new carpet. So they had to be somewhere else, but I’d no clue where.

Eventually, Graham found them under some clothes in a cupboard in our bedroom. I’d looked there but not deep enough to find them. It was 4am when he found them!

The Birthday

Initially, Boo had come into my bedroom at 5am and asked if she could get up. I told her it was way too early and she’d be tired by the time her friends came around so persuaded her to go back to bed. She re-appeared at 7am which was much better.

Boo loved her gifts and also had a fair amount of money in her birthday cards which she was thrilled with.

All three of my chldren had a fun day playing on the Switch and Boo loved trying out her new tablet pen.

3 kids playing Mario Kart on the switch showing on tv. — *Playing Mario Kart 8 on the Switch*

At 4pm her two friends arrived and I had food cooking for them so they could have a hot meal that I served around 4.45pm. It was mostly chicken strips and pizza, but they had lots of snacks too. And cake!

kids sitting around a table eating party food — *food time*

The Game

Being 12, Boo is way too old for party games and activities. So, we played a game that I had been gifted and will be reviewing soon. It’s called Jibbergiggle and is based on silly words like ‘Awooga’ and ‘Funkay Monkay.’ It’s so simple to play and causes lots of side splitting laughter!

kids and adult sitting around the table playing a card game — *Playing Jibbergiggle*

Cake

Finally it was time to light the candles on the cake and sing Happy Birthday to Boo. Then she blew out the candles and made her wish. The children were all served a piece of cake, and there was extra for them to take home to their siblings.

Happy birthday to my funny, sweet, kind, caring and beautiful little girl Boo.

I used a photo of Boo and her friends on her birthday for My Sunday Photo.

My Sunday Photo 28th July 2019 – Friends

July 28, 2019 by Anne Sweet 11 Comments

Three girls sitting on settee — Boo’s Friends

It was Boo’s 12th birthday yesterday and she had some friends around for food and cake. These two (Boo is far left) have been her friends since we moved here over five years ago. One of them went to a different secondary school but they still keep in touch.

We did invite two more of her classmates around but they didn’t turn up. This is so common when you have an older child who’s birthday is in the School Summer Holidays. We are used to it as all my three young children have summer holiday birthday’s. Star gave up on birthday parties after her 6th birthday. We’ve not decided what to do with the Little Man on his birthday yet. I’m thinking maybe a fun day out. He has decided that he doesn’t want party.

I’ll Be There For You

edited photo putting Boo and her friends in Central Perk Cafe from the Friends set — In Central Perk

I had a go at editing the photo above and came up with this! If you look closely it’s not perfect. But it took me ages to get the girls from UK to New York!

Friends was one of my favourite television shows, and I’ve been watching the re-runs lately and found that my kids love it too. So, I put Boo and her friends in Central Perk Cafe. If I could give them characters, then the one on the far right has to be Pheobe because she’s nuts. The middle one is Rachel and Boo would have to be Monica as she’s my little chef (And a bit of a control freak!)

The birthday months begins. In less than two weeks it’s The Little Man’s 9th birthday, then two weeks later it’s Star’s 14th!

You can see last weeks Sunday Photo Here

Word of the Week #30 2019

July 26, 2019 by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

Hello and welcome to the home of Word of the Week, a nice and simple weekly linky, with everyone welcome to pop by and share. The idea of the linky is to reflect back on your past week and share it with us. It’s great if you can sum it up in a word or phrase, hence giving us your Word of the Week. My word this week is Sleep and you can read more about that below.

I’m not totally strict on using just a word or phrase but please try to stick to the theme of summing up your week.

There are not too many rules with this linky, just remember to read at least another couple of posts in the link up after adding your link. I will read and comment on all posts and tweet them out for you. I also have a Pinterest board devoted to Word of the Week and I will add posts to Mix Please add the badge below to your post so that others may find us and join in. If you comment or tweet then please use the hashtag #WotW

Word of the Week is open from 6am on Friday Morning to 12 noon on Monday. Plenty of time to join in!

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

MY WORD OF THE WEEK.

Sleep

I’m probably not on my own when I say it’s been too hot to sleep lately. But I think I can go a little further than that.

First up, on Sunday night I managed to get an upset stomach. All night long! It meant I barely got any sleep at all. I was due in the hospital for my treatment on Monday but I had to postpone until Thursday. I can’t risk passing bugs on to other sick patients.

Monday night was a little better healthwise, but the kids rooms are East facing so they get the early morning sun an it’s waking them up at silly o’clock every day. Also, I did get woken up a couple of times during the night with complaints of being too hot. I can’t put a fan in the girl’s room so I’m thinking of getting them cooling pads for their beds.

Tuesday was the night of Storms. Now, because I’d been having such poor sleep I took a little extra medication to knock me out. I love a good storm so I wasn’t worried about being woken up by them. I didn’t account for it being so bad it woke the kids up, well, two of them anyway. So I had both Boo and the Little Man in bed with me because they were scared and I was barely concious. I saw a couple of flashes and heard a rumble or two, but that was it. Thankfully, the kids were quite happy just to be next to me and didn’t need any more. As soon as the storm was over they went back to their own beds. I don’t even remember.

Where was their Dad you may be thinking? (or not.) Well, he was part of the time outside with the neighbours enjoying the view, or stuck inside his shed making cool lightening videos.

lightening at night — *Photo by Duncan Maloney on Unsplash*

Early Mornings

Wednesday night was better, well, it began better. I remember waking up at 5am and feeling excited that I’d managed to sleep through until then, I’d not been woken by storms, kids, pain or even toilet needs! So, I curled up and tried to go back to sleep. This involved having to shove the husband on to his other side so his snoring was not right in my ear.

Then I was trying to block out the sound of the bird song, or my trick of trying to make it sound like a gentle melody to soothe me back to sleep. It didn’t work.

Then at 5.30am Star came into the room ranting that her room was way too hot to sleep any longer. I told her just try for 1/2 hour more. Then at 5.45am The Little Man came into bed with me. I did actually manage to go back to sleep…until 6.15am when Boo came in and told me that she and Star were getting up without me. At 6.30am the Little Man got up and I decided to give up and get up with them. So yes, I did manage 5 1/2 hours un-interrupted sleep which was good. But, I’m longing for those long dark winter nights and mornings already.

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you’ve been up to this week.

First the badge;

Raisie Bay

Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

My previous word of the week was Change

Summer Time, and the Livin’ is Easy

July 22, 2019 by Anne Sweet 10 Comments

One of these Mornings, You’re Gonna Rise up Singing

Not this morning though! The first official day of the school summer holidays and I was going to be spending it in hospital having my treatment. The kid’s were going to visit Grandma who lives near the hospital. And I was going to get the ‘juice’ that would keep me going for the next four weeks. But….

I woke up with a tummy bug instead and had to cancel my appointment.

No worries though, I’ll be there on Thursday instead. And then we can begin our Summer holidays properly.

And You’ll Spread Your Wings and Rise Up to the Sky

Hey, for someone who can’t walk, flying would be a great option. But as I’ve admitted before, I’m no SuperWoman.

But we will be spreading our wings this summer and we have some lovely activities planned.

On Saturday, Boo celebrates her 12th birthday with a party tea and some friends around. We will be making her a cake, which she’ll probably design herself.

last year's birthday cake — *Boo’s Birthday Cake from last year which she made herself*

Next week we have trips planned to the Wildlife Conservation Centre and then an afternoon meeting some exotic animals. This is all thanks to a local SEND Social group, so we’ll be meeting some new friends too.

Can I ask you a favour, it’ll only take a minute? Our SEND social group does such a lot for Special Educational Needs and Disability kids in our area and they are up for some funding from Love Brum. If you could please give them a vote on this page we would be so grateful.

Fish are Jumping, and the Cotton is High

Okay, maybe I’m pushing it a bit with the lyrics now. But we will be going on holiday just after The Little Man’s birthday. (we’ve not quite decided what to do on his birthday just yet.)

We are off to Cornwall, right down to the very tip were the sea will be blue and hopefully the sky will be too. We are also meeting up with some friends for a day on the beach, and I’m hiring a beach wheelchair so I can go right up to the sea.

I am hoping for a nice peaceful holiday. There will be plenty for the kids to do as we are staying on a holiday camp with lots of entertainment. But really, I just hope we can relax for most of the time. The kids are great at keeping themselves entertained and it can be hard work getting them to leave the caravan. But this year I don’t care, so long as I can relax with a sea view then I’ll be happy.

Hush Little Baby, Don’t You Cry

So, although we have a few activities planned. And a total of three birthday’s to get through. (It’ll be Star’s 14th Birthday when we get back from Cornwall…I mananged to squeeze the holiday in between the birthday’s this year.) I am hoping that the main theme this summer will be peace and quiet.

On the inbetween days we have a schedule of less screen time and more time reading books and playing board games. We have a new Switch as a shared birthday present so I guess the laptops will be ditched in favour of this. Also, The Little Man is getting some great garden gifts for his birthday (I can’t really say what here just in case he gets nosey.) And Star has requested a very interesting board game for her birthday. (Again, hush!) Plus, I’ve been asked to review a board game! I don’t think the screen will get much of a look in!

Oh, and we are also having a go at trying some new tastes throughout the holiday. We haven’t started yet, but I plan to as soon as I feel better. And I’ve challenged the kids to learn something new. Boo has already started by learning how to crochet. (Note how she’s still listening to her tablet. I can’t complain, I’ve normally got Audible playing while I crochet.

My Sunday Photo 21 July 2017

July 21, 2019 by Anne Sweet 8 Comments

Ash on the Carpet

Ash the cat stretched out asleep on our new purple carpet — *looks cosy doesn’t he?*

The living room is finally finished. I may take some photos at some point, but just because we’ve decorated it doesn’t mean that the house ever looks tidy, sigh. It took moments for the floor to be covered with toys and the shelves full of junk. Minimilistic our home will never be! I do love my new coffee table though. It has drawers to hide everything away.

As a family of five our house is very much lived in, and always has that ‘lived in look.’ Most of the toys have been taken upstairs, but we still have a cupboard full of board games and boxes of lego. Then there are the games consoles, I think we could open a shop with the number of consoles and games we have. Thankfully, they have put away the amiibos which adorned one of my bookshelves. (amiibos – interactive game figures that come in many characters.)

Back to the photo. Ash, was not impressed with the carpet for the first couple of days, maybe it was because it smelt different (i.e. clean and not of cat!) Or maybe it was too soft. But he didn’t want to spend much time indoors. Then we had a day of rain and I found him stretched out like this. I guess the carpet will soon be smelling of cat again. My Cats do not have the full run of the house. They are allowed on the landing but not in the bedrooms. Sabrina,Our older, mostly indoor cat, was not amused with the new carpet either. Someone had left and empty cardboard box on the landing and she spent most of the time up there.

My Little Prodigy!

In other news, Ive taught Boo how to crochet. She’s learning pretty quick and although she’s a long way to go I she’s incredibly keen and is working her way through my stash of spare wool. I taught her how to make a chain and do simple stitches, then I coached her through making her first granny square. If she sticks with it Im sure she’ll get really good, she’s very determined.

Holidays

The School holidays have begun and for us that means mostly birthday month! First up it’s Boo’s 12 birthday next Saturday. She’s going to help me make a cake and is having a couple of friends around for our own version of ‘afternoon tea.’

We have lots of plans for this holiday, and it’s only just over three weeks until we go away to Cornwall. I’ve set a time table to encourage the kid’s to use less screen time. One of the new rules is no screens before breakfast. So, this morning they got up half an hour early so they could have breakfast and get on their screens the usual time!! Oh well, if that’s they want to play it, I can always fetch them off half an hour earlier than their alloted time…’insert evil laugh!’