The Gallery - Still Life, My Life

The theme this week on the Gallery is Still Life. Now as you will probably know by now I'm really bad at taking photo's, no matter how much I try to make them look beautiful or breathtaking or even interesting it just doesn't work.

I live in quite a small house, even though the living room and kitchen is opened planned its still small, I'm grateful for the summer so we can extend the house into the garden.

I decided to take random photo's of things in my living room, kitchen and garden, I found a fancy application on Photo bucket (thank you Emma).

I'm hoping this works, this Still Life, My Life......

OMG BG is 18 Months Old!!

On Thursday BG turned 18 months, I really can’t believe it! She’s growing up so quickly, I know I say that every time I write one of these posts but she really is learning so much.

Her personality is really starting to show and she is growing in confidence every day. She is definitely a cheeky monkey, her new trick is to climb up on the sofa with her winnie the pooh, close her eyes and fake snore!!!  

The tantrums are coming thick and fast but I’m learning to cope with them and can deal with them much better now. Her sleep is so much better and she now goes down awake without any fuss, she’s in bed for 7 though she does like to get up early, anytime between 5 and 6.30!!

As BG’s birthday is at the end of November which is pretty close to Christmas I decided we will celebrate her half birthdays. To celebrate me and BG made cakes, this was the first time we baked together and it went really well....

I’m really looking forward to more cooking with BG, we might make cookies next time!

NM X 

BG Goes To Drayton Manor

The lovely Liz from Living with Kids was looking for a family to review Drayton Manor, so as OH had the week off and my brother and sister lived in Tamworth where Drayton Manor is I jumped at the chance.

We went down on the Tuesday and spent the night in the nice hotel in town so we could get to Drayton Manor at a decent time in the morning; we packed a lunch and was ready to go. Now there wasn’t enough room for two children and four adults in the car so OH had to drop me, my sister and my 10 month old niece off, then go back and get my brother, thankfully they are only 10 minutes away. BG went back with daddy as she had just woken from a nap in a foul mood and I had just broken my only pair of sandals I had with me!  OH brought me back a pair with my brother.

I was a little worried how BG would be as this was her first trip to a theme park but she had a great time. The first place we headed to was Thomas Land, which she just loved (trains & cars are her new favourite). As she is small there wasn’t a lot she could go on but we went on the Sodor Classic Cars

And she had her pictures taken with the trains. She spent most of the time shouting “choo choo”.

I’m not as brave as I used to be so I went on the more meek rides like Excalibur which is boat ride with twist, The Pirate adventure which BG liked as well and the Roller Coaster.  My Brother and sister who are more adventurous went on the thrill rides such as Apocalypse - The world's first stand-up tower drop and G-Force  A white-knuckle journey through 385 meters of rolls, tight camelbacks, high backed curves and loops at over 70 kph! I also went on an old fashioned waltzer that me made me feel really sick afterwards.

We took turns watching the BG and B and going on the rides.

The highlight of the trip has to be the Zoo, it has over a 100 species and BG and my Niece B were just fascinated. BG’s favourite where the tigers and the monkeys.

There is a Thomas Playground and Picnic area in the Zoo, we had our lunch there it was a lovely place.

We were only there 5 hours but my god we were shattered by the end of the day, it might not be the biggest theme park but there is so much to do there. It has something for everyone. I spent a fortune in the Thomas gift shop, but BG is now the proud owner of Thomas the Tank Engine and Bertie the Bus which she fell asleep holding!

We went midweek so were really lucky that there were no queues, I imagine it can get quite busy at weekends and in the holidays. We will definitely go back again; hopefully BG will be able to go on a few more rides and maybe I will

NM X

Secret Post Club - May

My Secret Post Club gift for May was from Not Supermum and what a lovely parcel she sent me I felt really spoilt.

First was this great book, which when I get time to read I think will be a great help.

Then I got some chocolates to say well done for making it as a finalist in the MADs.

I also got this great magnet and a lovely sample of perfume.

And if that wasn’t enough she also sent BG this copy of Dumbo, how wonderful is that!

So I would like to say a huge thank you to Not Supermum for my goodies they really made my day when they arrived

NM X 

Guest Post Day - Becky from Baby Budgeting

This is the second Guest Post Day organised by Erica at Little Mummy, basically we all swap blogs for the day. Our blog swap is a little different as its a three way swap I’m writing for Single Mummy, Single Mummy is writing for Baby Budgeting and Baby Budgeting is writing for me.

This is Becky from Baby Budgeting fantastic Guest Post 

My love is perfect even though my parenting isn’t

I very rarely get to write about my wonderful children as I focus my blog around budgeting for parents but they are the reason for the budgeting you see. They are the reason for pretty much everything I do. Carol writes so beautifully about her gorgeous daughter I often feel jealous. So please indulge me as I indulge myself and tell you a little about them.

My son is 5 and daughter is 2 and they are chalk and cheese. Frankie is smart, extremely lively, cheeky and serious and easily frustrated. He also has a huge sense of justice and ethics. He loves animals and knows way more than me about many things. Did you know a chow is a dog with a blue tongue?

Annalise is calm, happy, chilled out and loves people. She’s not really sure how to have a tantrum. She believes her true name should be Princess Dora Chipstick Ooo. She is mildly obsessed with ponies and doggie and is a big fan of fancy fairy cakes. She finds life very easy he finds it a bit tough but always, always exciting.

Lisi is nearly 3 and will go to school next year too.   Times are a changing and I feel a sense of countdown beginning already. It has been so wonderful. How precious our children and our time with them. I know indeed I have been very, very lucky being able to spend so much time with them.

In his poem Perfection, Walt Whitman wrote

Only themselves can understand themselves and the likes of themselves as only a soul can understand a soul

The feeling I have of love for my children is exactly this: it is perfect; undamaged, unconditional and absolute.

I could say I love them perfectly but obviously I don’t. i get it very wrong in lots of ways much of the time (Jam sandwiches when he wanted  cheese, favourite Peppa nightie still in the wash, mummy in a grumpy mood etc) . But I do feel perfect love for them. And that is the most amazing treasure and that’s why as parents I think we feel connected, we all l know about this glorious treasure this gift of loving our children.

Wishing you happy baby days

Becky x

Thank you so much for that great post Becky!

Don't forget to check out the other guest posts

NM X 

5 Reasons I'm Going To Hell

Jehovah Witnesses came to my door today, I was very polite to them and thanked them for calling but I wasn’t religious so goodbye. They wouldn’t leave so I explained that I had studied Jehovah in the past (I actually have) and I don’t believe in god myself. I was then told is I didn’t believe in god I was against him and would perish when the time came, basically I’m going to hell.

I was still very polite said goodbye and shut the door, then laughed to myself. You see me and OH often joke we’re going to hell, not because we’re evil (well not all the time) but because we have a really bad sense of humour and laugh at really inappropriate things.

If there is a Hell here are 5 reasons I’d be going there:-

1. I sky +Comic Relief and Children In Need so I can forward past the clips of children in Africa etc and before sky + I would change the channel
2. We only watch the Winter Olympics in hopes that someone will fall, trip or slip. If there are no accidents then it’s not worth watching.  The ones when they all crash are the best.
3. When BG was really small we would make up songs to sooth her, one is called “BG smells of poo”
4. I laugh too loud when people fall over in the street or walk into things, even better if they walk into something then fall down.
5. I avoid charity collectors in the street; I’m really good at ignoring them

There are more reasons but I fear you would never look at me in the same way again ;)

NM X 

BG Goes to the Science Museum

BG has had a really busy week and has been and done lots of new things, this started last Saturday when we took a trip to London. We were invited to a family fun morning, I took my best friend N along and her daughter. We decided to make the most of the day and visit the Science Museum in the afternoon.  

I was dreading the trip down on the train, me and BG had only been on short 20 min journey’s before this was going to be two trains and then the undergrounds, you can understand why I was feeling a bit nervous.

I shouldn’t have worried BG was pretty good and I took plenty of snacks and made a fun bag up for her to keep her occupied, my God Daughter E played with her as well. The undergrounds wasn’t a total nightmare like I feared, a lot of the stations have lifts now and N helped me up and down the stairs, to be honest we were offered help at every set of steps we came to.

The Science Museum is much bigger than I remembered, It really spacious and bright. We only had a few hours there so only got to do a few things but you could spend the whole day there.

We headed for the Basement first and once we have found it (we got a little lost) BG went wild. There is section called the Garden, which is full of things for younger children to do, the main areas are construction, water, light and sound.  BG found the water and it was hard to tear her away, we spent a good 40 minutes there and I was glad I remembered to bring a clean set of clothes.

While N and E went on a tour around the Exploring Space exhibition, I took BG around the Energy Hall which if full of trains and engines etc. We walked through it to get to the basement earlier in the day and she was fascinated. BG pulled me around the hall for 30 mins pointing at the trains and cars shouting “what’s that?, what’s that?”, you should have the look of pure joy on her face, I had to buy her a toy car and train for the journey home, she fell asleep holding them.

We also went to the Launch Pad on the 3^rd floor which is an interactive exhibition, which E really enjoyed.  There was thermal imaging, light table and pedal power where you try and get electrical items to work by peddling to power them; we only saw a fraction of the exhibition as we had to go home.

We had a great afternoon and we didn’t even get to see a quarter of the museum, me and OH are going to take BG back before the summer holidays.  Most of the Science Museum is free, though they do suggest a donation of £3, really worth a visit for children and adults and it’s close to the National History Museum.

BG fell asleep on the tube ride and stayed asleep as we went up and down stairs and in and out lifts and the whole train journey home, she had a really good day!

Next time BG goes to Drayton Manor and BG goes to the seaside.

NM X