Biiiig cats!!

Today we took packed up a picnic and went to Paradise Wildlife Park for the day :) We haven't been there since the girls were young but they still remebered lots about it!

I am so pleased with some of the photos I managed to get ! There are lots of 'high' viewing areas to see the nimals from, plus we were just lucky being in the right places at the right times!

So big cat photo overload tonight!

Holly isn't well at the moment, think she has an ear infection :( She was awake quite a bit last night and it seems to have flared up again now . So it's off to the docs for us in the morning! I'm guessing it could be all the underwater swimming she's been

doing.....



I'll be back with some more photos soon!

BBQ's, Bowkis's and badminton!

We got up early this morning (well early for the holidays!) as we needed to take Em to the Dr's about her ears, where they have been pierced.One has gone very swollen and was very gungey this morning :( Managed to get an appointment at 10am and she's been told just to keep using surgical spirit to clean them, and they should heal up properly soon.She is so disappointed...it's been nearly 9 weeks since she had them pierced and she is longing to change her earrings!

So this afternoon we had guests!Anna,Peter,Lilly and Izzy to be precise! Izzy was in the pool with Holly within about 5 miunutes of arriving!The weather looked decidedly dodgy when they arrived but luckily the sun came out again and we stayed warm! The girls played happily in the pool while the grown ups chatted and drank beer (well, the men did!)Geoff was in charge of the barbie and we ended the day with a game of badminton!We discovered that Geoff and Peter both love Dirty Sanchez...whilst both Anna and I just don't 'get' it! I mean, why skid on ice with a bare bum (and much worse!) ?! All four girls got on brilliantly as usual :) And whilst she didn't go in the pool Anna did have a quick bounce on the trampoline!

We had a fab afternoon...thank you for coming to see us! Slightly blurry photo of us is courtesy of Em.bless!

Gigi in the house!!

The fabulous Gigi is our GDT over at Pencil Lines this week! I love this sketch and it was just perfect to use to make a layout about our recent trip to Anna's with Lyzzy and Beth :)

As i said a couple of days ago, I absolutely love Gigi's work and am so excited that she agreed to join us at Pencil Lines this week!

Supplies this week...it's a long list!

Scenic Route Laurel paper

AC Thickers chipboard, inked

Queen & Co heart brads

Chopped up Angel Kiss blooms!(An idea inspired by how Annie used aHeidi Swapp floral!)

Bazzill spotty brads

Heidi Swapp chipboard

Charlie & Lola confetti hearts

Jolee swirly stickers (free from an ebay seller!)

Doodlebug paper frills

Hedid swapp acetate flower

And this is what we have been doing the rest of the weekend! Yep, the pool is finally up and working (long story!) The girls absolutely love it! I even ventured in myself this afternoon....after the initial shock of the cold water, you do warm up quite quickly, honestly!

I can't believe it's the last week of the school hols already though...:( We have a few things planned for this week as Geoff is still on holiday.On Tuesday we have the Bowkis family joining us for pool fun and a bbq! We also have a trip to Paradise Park planned and lunch at Frankie & Benny's.

Enjoy the sunshine!

A sneak....

...and a whole one!

Here's a little smeak from my Pencil Lines layout for Sunday :) Loved this sketch and I think I may use it again!

The sunshine finally materialised at about 4.30 this afternoon! So we went out this afternoon to get those elusive school plimsolls for Holly...what is it with them this year?? Hardly anywhere has them in stock (and I have been looking since the beginning of the hols!) I think we have everything now...all new lunch bags and drinks bottles , all new uniform for Holly, new shoes for both of them! We haven't got Em much this year as most of hers still fits okay and as it's her last year at this school I'm buying as little as possible!

And here is the other layout I finished off yesterday.Made using Love Elsie Betty papers & rub-ons, Dunelm bloom, Angel Kiss flower and KI Memories Ice Candy dot. And yes , the title is long, but it's the line Holly came out with one Saturday when Em was trying to get something done in her room.That photo is not posed, she was in a real grump and stropped about the garden for quite a while!

Fingers crossed for some sunshine tomorrow!

I am here.....

...just not on the PC much at the moment!

Hmm...so what have we been up to this week....Geoff's mum & dad came down to visit us from Sunday to Wednesday.The idea was that by coming down in August , the weather would be good (they normally visit around October time)....err...not so! It has been miserable here for I can't remember how long now :( Each day the weather report seems to promise sunshine for the next day, but it never quite materialises!

So today we dragged the kitchen table out and had a gane of table tennis! Please don't let this lead you to believe we have a huge kitchen - quite the opposite! So you can imagine how many near misses we had! Other than that the girls have been amusing themselves really well,we've been playing on the Wii...and this evening *gasp* I have scrapped! I've done my Pencil Lines layout for this week and finally finished off a layout I started at last months crop :)

I am very excited about our GDT on Pencil lines this week...as I 'asked' her!I started reading her blog whilst doing Emily's 52 week art journal (which I am waaaay behind on...)and she is now a bit of a scrapping 'hero' to me! So make sure you check us out on Sunday evening :)

Due to the rubbish weather I have hardly been using my camera plus the light is too bad to take pics of my layouts.So instead I will share the yummy wrapping paper I got from Paperchase on Tuesday.This shop is like heaven to me...so many notebooks,pens,gorgeous papers...you get the drift!! I managed to restrain myself to just three sheets of paper...this time!

I am off but will hopefully be back to share my scrapping tomorrow! And if the sun shines, maybe a photo or two!

Who stole summer?

This evening Pencil Lines has gone live with sketch 46 :) Yet again,I'm not sure about mine.My scrapping is sort of bothering me at the moment...I have so many layouts in my head that I want to do and never seem to.And the layouts I'm doing don't 'meaure up' to the ones in my head...does that make sense?!Hopefully once the girls are back at school I will get a chance to scrap 'freely'.

So this week I used
Bazzill scalloped and white cardstock
Love Elsie Betty alpha stamps
Lil Davis ric rac
Angel Kiss flowers
Jazzy brads
buttons and gems from aWHSmiths cardmaking kit
Hambly overlay


Yesterday wasn't a good day...lots of things were just aaaargh! Rotten weather, arguing kids,and a whole host more! So in the evening we had takeaway pizza, I had a relaxing bath, opened a bottle of wine and watched I am Sam.

Thank you to Shirl for giving me a blogger Schmooze award! I will upload the blinkie when I can suss out how to!!No one ever thought me cool enough to be a Rockin' Girl blogger...sniff sniff!
And I leave you with a picture nicked from Lyzzy of the cupcakes from Thursday - yum!! Need a bright photo to lift this boring post!!

Cameras and cupcakes!

We have had a fab day today! Lyzzy and Beth took us all over to spend the day at Anna's:) All five girls got on so well together...yes, I know I say that every time, but it's true!

We went for a walk to a park where Anna gave Lyzzy lessons on how to use her camera (auto is my best friend so I didn't take any of it in!!),the girls played and posed....and then we were asked to move along by a miserable old sod!! So we obligingly moved on to the path up the field and took a few more pics.I think Beth was probably the most co-operative,Holly is fairly anti - photos at the moment and Em is more into daft poses!

Lyzzy supplied the cupcakes (of which she took the best photo too!) which were yum! Though the girls were made to wait for them until we'd finished taking photos...yes, I know...we're SAD!! Sadly the rain put paid to another photo shoot but we got some good ones on Anna's step (just to make a change from a wall;) ) I think the best photos are all on either Anna or Lyzzy's cameras though .I'll still share my attempts though!

This evening Em has gone for a sleepover at my mum & dad's and then hopefully they will all be going to the zoo tomorrow (minus me....:( )

So huge thanks to Lyzzy for driving us and the Bowkis's for having us...see you again soon hopefully!

I keep...

...losing days! Was just thinking I hadn't blogged for four days...but it's only Wednesday , not Thursday!
So what's been happening...
Monday Holly went cheerlading and had a great time! They did a routine to the music from High School Musical, Holly's current obsession, so she was very happy!
Yesterday the girls spent the morning at my mum & dad's making cakes and jam tarts.We iced them in the afternoon and they are now covered in lots of E numbers!
Yesterday evening I met Shirl for the first time and Lyzzy, along with Beth and Sam and we went for a very civilised (!!) drink at the local sports stadium.Photos were taken...you're not seeing mine! Another lesson learnt, 10 year olds are shorter than me...they will always take photos looking up at my double chin!It was lovely to finally meet Shirl having 'known' her for nearly three years (that long!) through different forums.Just so she didn't feel left out, I rang Anna and she had a chat with Shirl & Lyzzy too!
Today's planned visit to the zoo was cancelled due to the rubbish weather report...needless to say it didn't rain after 8.30am until 5.30pm.....not impressed!
Tomorrow we are going over to see Anna , this time with Lyzzy and Beth in hope of decent weather for a photo shoot - fingers crossed! So glad to be part of Lyzzy's 'meet a scrapper' week !!:)

week 45

Sorry, I couldn't think of a more imaginative title !

So as you can probably guess, week 45 of Pencil Lines is now live and our GDT this week is Nisa Fiin I really wasn't sure about my layout this week...not sure why! And I couldn't keep it as 'clean' as the sketch so I chucked some flowers and ribbon on too :)


My supplies were

Basic Grey Phoebe papers
Heidi Swapp flowers
Stamps Away alpha stamps for the title
Scalloped bazzill
Doodlebug paper frills
Ki ribbon
other ribbons!

The photos are of Holly and Izzy at the park together on Tuesday :)

I did mean to blog last night but whilst Geoff was repairing a friends PC ours decided to stop working too!

Yesterday saw two rather sleepy and sometimes grumpy girls, recovering from their sleepovers! Holly was up at around 6.30am and whilst I was hoping for a lie-in, she rang to say good morning at about 8am!Em and her friend had a quick photo shoot in the garden and then set about making themselves diaries each, complete with photos on the front.

Today has been spent filling and emptying the 10ft pool in the garden.It's a long story...but if anyone ever offers you a pool, check it doesn't have a puncture in the inflatable part and holes in the part that holds the water before filling......

Tomorrow Holly is off to a cheerleading workshop in the morning.She is really looking forward to it and hopefully I may get a pic of her shaking her pom poms!

I have been over on UKS a lot the last couple of days ,checking out all the layouts and mini books for Anna's two cyber crop classes.It was great to see so many variations and ideas!I think I will be having a go at the mini book myself too :)

Right, I am off ...there is a bottle of wine in the fridge with my name on it :)

Water babe

Gotta laugh at this photo! We picked both girls up a snorkel set each in Asda on Monday...for a bargainous £1.47 each.Typically, there was only one pink set left...which Em kindly offered to Holly.Just a shame she denied all knowledge of said offering once we returned home....!However, with three witnesses telling her otherwise, she reluctantly stood by her offer and Holly retained ownership of the pink set.As it was so hot again this afternoon I put some water in the slowly deflating Princess castle pool.Holly jumped at the chance to try out the snorkel set and spent the rest of the afternoon peering into the water through her goggles!
This evening Holly has gone to her Nan & Grandad's for a sleepover, Em will have her turn next week.So tonight Em has her friend here for a sleepover...it's now 11.10pm and they're still awake!Which is fine as long as they don't wake up early tomorrow morning!
Anna has now jetted off to sunnier climes (SOB!) but has a little RAK giveaway going on over at her blog.Check it out!

Flying by....

Isn't it funny how at the beginning of the holidays 6 weeks seems like such a long time and you have all these things planned to 'fill' the time?And suddenly we're almost half way through and we don't seem to have seen half the people we were meant to!

This morning we went shopping for school shoes.Luckily it was a bit of a breeze this year and both girls are happy with the shoes that they were fitted with.As Em gets older, her feet are thinning out and shoe buying is getting a bit more enjoyable!I love the ones she has this year :)

We then went into Claire's (I know, glutton for punishment!) where Holly treated herself to this new spotty headband.We also had Em's ears checked as it's nearly six weeks since she had them pierced.They don't seem to be healing so we have to go back again in two weeks time.After that we walked over to the library where the girls both chose a few books each.

The afternoon was spent with Holly being moody and 'having no-one to play with' whilst I got on with some ironing and hoovering etc and Em lost herself in a book!

As the weather is good and we're all home, I have been subjecting the girls to having their photo taken a lot! Yes, I know, it's that wall again....but believe me, junk gets in the background when ever I try and take a photo somewhere else in the back garden!

Hmm...I have no idea what I pressed to make half of this post blue..and no idea how to fix it!

Lessons to be learnt...

...from today:
It's not a good idea to also take two scooters and a bike when taking four children out...
Always check your camera before leaving the house for batteries and cards (yes, that one's for you Anna;) )...
Bikes can cause BIG bruises....
Rabbit poo gets in the holes of your Crocs......

But despite the above lessons, we had a great day :) The girls played wonderfully together as always whilst Anna and I sat and gossiped in the garden.We then moved inside for lunch before venturing out to the park for a photo shoot and ice creams.Well, we would have had a photo shoot if a certain someone had come fully equipped! None the less, I still grabbed a few good shots on my fave setting of Auto!(No, the books aren't sinking in yet....)

Everyone managed to tumble , trip or bash themselves in some way except me...so I'm just waiting to fall! Holly had a fall from her bike (on the grass) though we're not quite sure what happened.As a result her legs are a mass of very sore looking bruises :( It didn't stop her though and she was back on the bike a few minutes and tears later.
Once home Anna and I inspected the photos, moaned about the size of our bingo wings and bums and consoled ourselves with some Hazelnut Galaxy....hmmmm, another lesson to be learnt there somewhere too I think!
Anyway, thank you so much Anna ,Izzy and Lilly for coming to see us and we'll see you soon!

She's got wheels....

Today we finally got Holly the new bike she should have had for her birthday last November! We did go looking for one then but she was a bit too small for the size they recommended for her . However, now she has grown fair bit , we found the perfect bike for her (apart from the fact that it wasn't pink!).She has done amazingly well on it so far :) I took her down to the lakes and she did so well, didn't fall off once! To make up for it not being pink, it's been accessorised with a pink Barbie hooter!

This afternoon was spent buying and building said bike plus a trip to Asda for more school uniform.Also stocked up with the essentials for our visitors tomorrow....the lovely Bowkis ladies!! As is the norm for when they visit, rain is forecast! Not to worry, we have mini choc chip muffins for the littlies and Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream for the grown ups!

week 44

of pencil Lines in now live :)

Here's mine!

My supplies this week wer

Scenic Route Metropolis papers

Heidi Swapp ghost heart stamped with Stazon

Rhanna farrer stamps

Heidi Swapp 'Moment' stamp

Stamps Away alphabet stamps

Loads of Angel Kiss flowers

Not much else to share, another day just lazing about in the garden.And we also got to use the new 'big' barbecue :)Love having a corner shop so near we can pop in for burgers and sausages on a whim!

I am off to my my bed...if I can sleep in this heat!I went to bed way too late last night after spending ages talking to Shirl and Lyzzy on MSN :)

Hot hot hot....

..but I'm not complaining :) Didn't get chance to enjoy the sunshine yesterday as I was working and then we went shopping for school uniform and other bits. The girls had a fab afternoon at their/my friends, spending most of their time in the pool.So thankful that I have such a good friend just around the corner from me!
Today we have been very lazy, just hanging out in the garden! Our faithful Princess castle pool decided to get a split today so I'm just hoping I can mend it! It's not really big enough for both girls but still handy to have.
Picked up these fab hair bobbles in Primark yesterday for a huge £1....yes, you guessed it !The elastic is going to be chopped off and I'll just keep the buttons!
I can share a sneaky of my Pencil Lines sketch too....:)

Big thank you to Annie for sending me some more Reese's Pieces today - mwah!

Holly is having a 'sleepover' in Em's room tonight! I have instructions to supply a midnight feast! I dread to think what time Holly will be waking poor Em up in the morning...

Thankful for the Wii...

So the sun has disappeared again as you can guess by the title! Holly and I had a few games of cow racing this morning and then Em and her friend, boxed, raced and bowled this afternoon.
We waited in all morning for the NTL/Virgin engineer who didn't appear.When I rang to complain I was told the appointment was booked as a pm call not am.I don't think so.....So when engineer does finally arrive he has been given completely the wrong information yet again and the cable still doesn't get fixed.So I have now wasted three afternoons/ mornings waiting in for them and I now have to do it again next Wednesday......
Lots of fab stuff going on at the moment (well not for me personally, I am just basking in other peoples glory!!) Anna has secured the fabulous Lucy to teach at the Scrapping Angels retreat.This girls work is truly amazing, I've seen some of it for real!We also have some fab sponsorship coming up Pencil Lines..I am expecting some happy post very soon!:)
Tomorrow the girls are off out to a friends for the afternoon so we are off to hunt out new school uniform supplies .
I leave you with a photo of Holly in her new cheerleaders dress up outfit!
Right, it's late and I am outta here!
Caz, I will do my tag tomorrow!

Woohoo...

...the last two days have finally felt like the summer holidays...lazy days spent out in the garden with the kids playing in the paddling pool :)

Em has discovered that having a tidy room pays as she finally got her mitts on the last Harry Potter...and promptly decamped into the now tidy area under her desk to read it!

Yesterday my sister and nieces came round, trying to get a photo of three children in a small castle shaped pool is not easy...actually it was impossible, without getting somebody's arm or hat in the way of every shot! Holly obligeds though when she popped back into the water on her own after tea!

Today I worked in the morning and we spent the afternoon back out in the garden.I strimmed the front lawn and cut one of the hedges in the back garden as well as painting Em's nails and making gift boxes with Holly.In between that I tried studying the photography books I got from the library last week.What with questions like 'Have you learnt much yet Mum?' and being chief sun cream applier, drink maker and towel finder....I didn't take much in!! I'll persevere....:)

Tomorrow we have to wait in for NTL yet again in the morning (third time lucky maybe?) and then Em has a friend round for the afternoon and teatime.Em's already asked if they play on the Wii and Holly's hoping to get a look in too! Which reminds me, I haven't had a game of cow racing in ages.....!