5 things I want my kids to know about me

I saw this blog prompt on http://www.frugalfamily.co.uk/ and thought I would give it a go, so thankyou for the idea and introducing me to this site .

Ok so here goes 5 Things I want my Kids to know about me.

1) I love you all, I know you hear some people telling me I must have been mad to have such a large family but don't ever listen, You are all your Dad and I ever wanted and each and every one of you is loved just as much as the others. You are the best time of my life and I cherish everyday (yes even the stressful ones) . I am amazed by all of you and the way you are all so different from each other, I find it hard to believe that I got so lucky to get you all and most of all I am and always will be proud of of you.

Right have you finished with the sick bucket,  Then lets move on shall we?

2) Before I had you I worked in a nursing home and I almost got sacked for taking a couple of residents out, one of them was a 100! We went to  the pub down the road where they got riproaring drunk and had the most fun they had had in a long time and although I got into trouble I don't regret liberating them for the day.

3) I wish I had been more confident when I was younger and not just followed the crowd, I would have ideas and thoughts that I knew were worth voicing but not stick my head over the parapet because I was scared of what others would think of me. I'm not so scared now and don't really care what anyone thinks of me but I wish I had been a bit more bolshy in my younger days.And I hope you  are all brave enough not to be sheep and follow your own path rather than the loudest person's in the room.Your Dad is confident and will talk to anyone about anything and I want you all to inherit his confidence.

4) I hope you grow up and are happy when you think back to your childhood.I worry all the time that I am doing it wrong or that you will think it was all a bit rubbish, just remember I am human and you lot didn't come with a manual so I am going to screw up sometimes but I always try my best for you.

5)When I watch you all now playing,hugging,reading and your endless pretend games giggling away with each other I really hope the closeness remains when you are adults and dosen't get destroyed by petty rows and jealousy. Please don't fall out and lose touch with each other.
So many families are eaten up by arguments and I would hate for my children to be like this.
.

Monday

So the week from Hell continued with the washer breaking and my lovely mother in law was rushed into hospital and she was quite ill for a couple of days -fortunately she is on the mend now and should be home soon.
I am hoping this week will be better although I got woken up this morning by Brett telling me "Your iron's broken" Erm it's not my bloody iron and I can't believe something else has broke.
At least yesterday was fun I did some drawing with the girls and have discovered that I am quite good at giraffes but if I draw a dog it always looks like a pooing dog [blush].
I did some more baking with the girls fairy cakes and cornflake buns. The mess was quite something as we went wrong with the icing and ended up with deep blue and pink sugar water!



Colourful

Lego Victorian schoolroom

 Me and Lucy did some more reading and then ended up talking about The Tudors I think she was mainly interested in the gory bits as she was  fascinated  by Anne Boleyn .We watched some clips on YouTube this Horrible History's clip is very funny.
Back to the Victorians today I have all the kids at home because of half term and Alice has teamed up with Lucy to do some work. We have been learning about Florence Nightingale and then the girls decided to make a Lego Victorian village complete with a graveyard (told you they were gory) they have just took a huge cardboard box upstairs and are drawing another village on that I would like to say all is calm but I can hear a row about one of them not drawing people  properly ..sigh.

Naked Egg

We did this with all of the kids over the weekend it was simple to do and really interesting to watch over a couple of days.
 This is where we got the idea from but we decided to put an egg in water and one in coke aswell just to see if anything happened to them.
A fun and easy one to try.

MEH

Meh, this has turned out to be a bit of a rubbish week in all honesty filled with puke, poo, teething babies, broken things and too much noise.

Lola is still teething and follows me round patting me on the leg crying until I pick her up or feed her.
The dryer broke (the new dryer only bought in November I might add) but thankfully was fixed today which means I won’t end up like the old washer woman in the Magic Faraway tree!

Dylan came down with a sickness bug and is still at home today slightly recovered and sulking after an x-box ban for getting Lucy a 24 hour ban on Club Penguin …you couldn’t make it up, are siblings just designed to torment each other throughout their childhood or have I got a particularly nasty bunch?

We made some chocolate orange marshmallow muffins this morning and even though they were a bit misshapen they taste nice Lucy is going to have a go at making some fairy cakes later.

She has asked if we can do some work on Witchcraft and Witches through history [hmm] I don’t know where to start. Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

I will  upload the photos from the naked egg experiment we did over the weekend it was really easy to do and kept me them interested.
I’m really tired anyway so going to have a cuppa before the fairy cake making begins.

Valentines Day

Lucy has abandoned me today for Club Penguin [sigh] . Yesterday was good though we had a lot of fun.
We started the day by doing a Valentines Day maths worksheet she did really well and is really into subtraction at the moment and keeps asking me to ask her to random questions!
We had a chat about the origins of Valentines Day and watched an intresting powerpoint on it.
Heart shaped bicuits were made and decorated and we had heart shaped egg on toast for dinner.
We had a  lovely hour of reading aswell yesterday we took it in turns to read pages then when Lola woke up we decided to make marshmallow stick models (cocktil sticks and marshmallows) this model making took an evil turn when Lucy started making marshmallow Voodoo dolls!

Weekly Review 7 -13 Febuary

We have had a few crappy days due to various kids been ill and Lola teething like a good un so she hasn't given up on the crying much and is very clingy.
So I thought I would share a few photos of a few of the things we got up to last week..











Lucy & Lola did some reading together



 

Lucy made spag bog



And a recipe card



 

Teething :(



Poppy did her own hair

And Lola was fascinated with the colour wheel Lucy made

We are in the middle of doing the naked egg experiment

And I found this Pic that Gaby had taken of herself ;)

Collages

The material we bought from EBAY arrived today. We bought it so we could start off a craft box and Lucy wanted to make a Victorian Maid for her Project.


We did the maid together and she is called Annie (but her dress keeps falling off) .

Then Lucy seemed to really come into her own and made some amazing pictures while I caught up on some housework.

She searched the net and found inspiration after seeing a dog collage and decided to make her own.



Buddy The Dog

Lucy was really excited by doing this she was chatting away and talking about other ideas she could do. She has had a brilliant idea for some Valentine cards.



Bursting With Ideas



Working Hard



Lola Joined In Too



A Mornings Work



Saturday

I had a lie in today it was lovely,last night was lovely too because the neighbours decided to have a normal party rather than their usual Friday night rave [hmm]. We had a take away and watched True Blood and for once toddlergirl decided to sleep.

She has started talking all of  sudden and has quickly changed from this screaming wanting baby into a cheerful little girl. She dances, she smiles,she chats  and best of all she cuddles constantly you will be sat on the floor and she launches herself at you for a huge cuddle.

The other kids seem happy today Poppy and Gaby are dressed up and sat under the table which is covered in sheets ...it is their den they have supplies some books, Disney princess perfume and a pillow. Lola keeps going under too but forgets she is actually under the table and tries to stand up.
Lucy and Alice are upstairs on their DS's and Dylan is out for a friends birthday.

I am dyeing my hair later I know I will probably regret it but I have a box of red hair dye and the temptation is too strong and I will probably post later bemoaning my red bathroom or asking for tips on how to get my ears back to skin colour.

Room -Emma Donoghue

WARNING SPOILERS!

I read this about a month ago and was a bit wary at first after  reading the synopsis but I am so glad I decided to read it. Rather then the story focusing on the horrific situation the two main characters are in it tends to concentrate on the strength of  a Mum;s  love  and how accepting and trusting small children are.

So Room is told from the perspective of a 5 year old boy Jack who you quickly fall in love with. He has never left the room he is in and thinks that everybody lives in the television.

He is very innocent and happy with life. His Mother of course is not happy but keeps Jack safe  from their kidnapper and finally comes up with an escape plan.

The escape had my heart pounding I had to stay awake until I found out what had  happened  I really did care about what happened to Jack and His Mum.

I have to say I enjoyed the first half of the the book more than the second . It was good  but I think it may have been better switching and  being told from Jack's Mum's point of view ?

But all in all an amazing book I know a lot of people have compared it to the Fritzl case and found this distasteful but to me this was a feel good book, horrible and scary in parts but the power of love between Jack and his Mum shines through on every page.

Meal Plan

In No Particular order

Fruits of the Freezer x 2
Chicken and Mango Casserole
Cheesy Veggie Tagliatelli
Spag Bog

A moment to remember

Listening to Poppy this morning singing her heart out to her Princess And The Frog album.

Slowly but surely

The rabbit died :(. It was Lucy's bunny and only 9 months old we think a fox may have spooked him. Lucy was very upset she spent the day yesterday crying so not much was done.
It was however a busy day for me firstly I had a planned visit with a lady from an organisation called  Parent Partnership. I did  think she was going to give me some advice about groups in our area but the conversation soon turned to "Getting Lucy back into school" Hmmm ok then.
To be fair she did give me some good advice about statements but the rest of it was all tied in to help Lucy could only recieve  if she was in a school. She also told me I HAD to be a member of Education Otherwise in order to home educate.
During the afternoon we had an unexpected visitor from the LEA I was half expecting it so it wasn't a real shock and she seemed very nice and told me straight away that it was perfectly fine to be doing what we were doing she just wanted to check that we were ok and were sure about deregistering. Once I told her we were sure and everyone was happy she went on her way.

I am letting Lucy have a couple of quiet days and surprisingly she has started just doing things by herself rather than asking me every two minutes if she can do this or go on that.

She seems to be enjoying working on her Victorian Project most of all -we spent some time yesterday on the BBC History For Kids site and it really captured her imagination she was full of questions and ideas  She wants to make a collage of a scullery maid which I think sounds lovely.

 To tie in with the Project we are reading Hetty Feather http://www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk/the-books/books-9-11/hettyfeather/ she got it for Xmas 2009 but it seemed a bit old for her then but now seems like a good time to give it a go.

Lucy and Alfie.

So slowly but surely we seem to be creating a routine for ourselves and enjoying going at our own pace. Lucy is enjoying learning rather than looking upon each day as something to get over and done with everyday. I am very very proud of her.