SO THIS IS SUMMER!

Well I am sure you are all as sick of this weather as we are. At least my boy enjoys his walks in the rain. I find it so comical when I see him jumping through the fields. The summer holidays have started and so far, cross my fingers they are going well. We have had trips to build a bear, play dates with friends, swimming trips and play at home days. Today we have had a friend's twins for the day and after a very wet but fun walk over the fields, we have had a quiet afternoon watching Bedtime Stories. The boys were desperate to get on the x box which worked nicely to bribe them with when it came to tidying Euan's room up. I am suffering from another head cold (isn't it always the same when you stop!) but am holding on to the hope that it wont affect my surgery scheduled for next week. Right I shall head off and dig out the pizza from the freezer for tea and then I might allow myself some time to surf the net.

Forgot to post a picture of the party bags. I had Maddie draw a teddy bear for me so that I could scan and print the tags out for the bags. She did a wonderful picture complete with party hat. I used publisher to change the colour and re size and then stamped the names in the turquoise to match the ribbon on the sweet boxes. They turned out simple but cute.

I have been trying to make all my birthday presents this year, or at least all the ones for the kids parties that mine get invited to. It was getting ridiculously expensive with 3 or 4 parties each month. I seem to have stuck on the theme of pen rolls which I try to match to said birthday girl or boys taste. The above roll was for a friend of Ellie's who liked lions and I loved the result.


Spiderman for the boys of course.

Tractor for a friend of Maddie's. Boy did this bring back the memories of Euan and his love of tractors!

Another lion and this time I wrapped the tail around to come inside the pencil case.

Batman as a commission for a friend.

Pretty flowers for another of Maddie's friends

and a little butterfly bag which I added a butterfly notebook and pen from Tescos to.

and before I forget, the picture from Saturday night's Ball. We do scrub up okay occasionally. Right today has to be a garden day. The Lavender is getting to long again, you know you are upsetting the post lady when she leaves you a little note on your post asking you to cut the lavender back a bit! I haven't been in the garden out front for months and you can tell. There are rape plants growing, massive weeds and everything is looking rather unkept and messy.

I cannot believe that my little one is 6 years old now! I know every one seems to say the same thing but wow time has flown by. She is definitely my cheeky monkey, always quick with a smile and a hug.

She had her birthday party at Build a Bear this year with 10 of her little friends and it was a massive hit. They each got to choose, make, name and dress their own bears. It was the first time mine have ever done this and they loved it. They got to choose a sound, and a heart to put inside their bears before they were stuffed. I managed to keep them all to a strict budget so they had to choose whether they had a more expensive bear with only a sound or a cheaper bear with a sound and clothes. It worked out really well and I would definitely recommend it to anyone with smaller kids.

This years cake was of my choosing, I wanted to stay along the teddy theme but also keep it simple. I have to say (not blowing my own trumpet) but it was really effective. I got the idea out of a cake decorating book and just altered it to suit our pink and polka dot theme. Each child got to take home their own individual cake in a party bag that just had a little box stuffed full of gummy bears. Since they had their own bears to go home with I thought that was more than enough.

The Thank yous came from a close up photo of the cake with a little bit of a tweaking in photo shop. I am currently in the middle of a course with Jessica Spraque which I cannot rave about enough. I am slowly learning about all those techniques I have seen on others blogs and silently craved to know myself.

Maddie's actual birthday was today, so we had a quiet family tea and have promised to take her out on a birthday trip to see ice age three on Thursday. She has been thoroughly spoilt and her room is full of even more Littlest pet shop and Build a Bear clothes!



I have also been learning about masks, frames and TTV files this week so watch this space for a few more glitzy photos as I slowly attempt to take on board all this new technology.

Saturday night saw John and I head to Shrivenham for the Purple Ball. We had a lovely time but unfortunately I made the fatal mistake of eating a curry and then going on the waltzers. Ah! I did manage to keep things down but boy did I feel mighty rough for the next hour or so :(
John obviously didn't laugh much as I was screaming my head off on the ride. I think at one stage I sounded like Maddie on Big Thunder Mountain at Disney - I do not like this ride, I want to get off. Thankfully the dodgems were more tame but that was the end of my fairground activities for one night.

Sunday saw us head to the village green for the annual Strawberry Fayre. Other than that we have just been ploughing on with life and trying not to fall of the fast paced treadmill.