New beginnings

Today Holly started a her new senior school :) It was a bit of a strange day...once she'd gone ,part of me wanted to run and sob into my pillow while the other half me was like 'oh, that wasn't too bad actually'! Considering how anxious and worked up she used to make herself a couple of years back,she did so well today.She had a few tears and butterflies but soon got her happy face back on,and happily went off down the road with her friends and one their older sisters.Em is doing work experience this week at her and Holly's old junior school so they are going in opposite directions this week! Once I came back from work I hoovered the house from top to bottom,cleaned & tidied and then started to clock watch until Holly arrived home! She is shattered but had a good day :) I'm feeling slightly redundant in that I no longer have a school run/walk to do any more!

My little girl is growing up too fast :)
Em enjoyed her first day of work experience,which is good as she was a bit worried about it! She had booked to do it at a local ballet school (the closest thing available to something theatrical!)but it turned out that they don't start back til next week ,and she has to do her work experience this week :( Today she was with year 6 and her teacher from when she was in that year and had a really good day :) Let's hope the rest of the week is as much fun!
Starting to get slightly excited now about seeing Wicked again on Thursday :D :D :D

Final few days ...

All too quickly the holidays are nearly over :( I wish we could have done more as due to Geoff's back we haven't done our usual bowling,shopping trips or family London trip this year :(
On Wednesday last night we had a very wet and cold day at Whipsnade Zoo :( I think it was the worst weather we've ever been there in! Typically the rain went off around the time we headed home :( I think it's the first time we have seen all the lions together like this though!

On Thursday afternoon Anna and the girls came over,just squeezing in a visit before the holidays finished! The weather was much better than the last few tomes they've been over so we went for a walk to the fun fair at the lakes :) All four went on the Dodgems which was hilarious to watch! Whilst Izzy and Holly screamed and laughed their heads off the entire ride,poor Em looked terrified!

Can't quite believe these two start senior school this week!

Starstruck....

On Tuesday Em and I went for an early birthday theatre trip for the pair of us:) We both wanted to see Chicago ,but when they announced it was closing on September 1st it got moved up our wish list of things we want to go and see! I booked the tickets as part of Kids Week.This, and Get Into London Theatre are great ways of booking great value tickets as you can see where the seats are available and choose them yourself :)
Anyway, Em was very excited when Robin Cousins came out to see her before the show,after she'd tweeted him earlier in the day!We also spoke to a couple of other cast members before and after the show and they were all really friendly :)

As we had gone in to London early we had time to go the stage door at Wicked ,to see if we could get Em & Holly's programmes signed (I didn't have one of the current cast :( )We did feel a bit daft and at times a bit like stalkers! But it was worth it as we met all three leads ,one of which is Rachel Tucker who currently plays Elphaba,and who is Em's theatrical 'heroine' !! To say she was over the moon would be an understatement! Needless to say the photo she took of me is totally blurred from her shaky hands!

Seeing Chicago is the start of a 'musical' month for me :) Next week I am off to see Wicked as an early birthday present with Geoff,tickets were booked way back earlier in the year :) And at the end of September I am going to see Blood Brothers with Em as my birthday present from her :)Just a little bit excited :D

Wowsers....

Last week was results for week for Em :) I will admit to finding the whole exam thing totally confusing as it is so different from when I was at school! Back then it was two years of work and then one of results at the end of it,far simpler! Anyway, although Em got lots of results ,only one of them was a final one,for her Graphics,and the rest all go towards next years final results.She did really well,getting 2 A's ,7 A's and 2 B's :) To say we are proud is an understatement! Em is not someone who walks into an exam room and gets full marks,she has really worked her butt off for these results and I am so proud that all her hard work paid off :)

Whizzing by

As per usual the summer holidays have whizzed by and the girls will be back at school in less than two weeks :( I have been juggling working and making sure the girls see their friends and trying to do stuff with them.The last two weekends the weather has been way too hot to do anything though - I know,you just can't win!
Last week we took a trip to Hitchin Lavender field with my dad :) As with last year it was really sunny so I have a fair few 'squinty' photos from the sunshine! Sunflower picking is now included in the admission price so we came home with loads! My photos really weren't that great,but here are a couple :)

The school shopping is now all done - thank goodness! Tomorrow Em gets her Year !0 results including her final grades for her Graphics exam - yikes!
We have finally got Holly sorted out with a proper phone ready for the new term.I honestly don't think I've ever heard her scream as loudly as she did today when Geoff gave it to her! (It was a surprise!) It's the first time she has had a new phone as her others have been hand downs (not that she has really needed or used them much!)Just need to sort her out with a door key and she will be ready for independence....sort of!!

Getting into the Olympic spirit :)

Today i decided to take a trip into London with girls to join in with the Olympic spirit the nation is currently enjoying :) WE usually do a day trip to London during the holidays but as Geoff isn't up to walking far we hadn't planned one this year.However it seemed a shame to miss out on everything that is going on so I decided a bit last minute (yesterday!) that I'd take them to Hyde Park today as it was my day off and the weather forecast looked ok :)
The train and underground were pretty much the quietest I have been on ,this afternoon Kings Cross was almost deserted!
Anyway,going today meant that we got to watch the cycling part of the Men's Triathlon :)My photos are pretty rubbish as I had my camera on the wrong settings,but I did manage to get the Brownlee brothers both in one picture ,albeit it slightly blurry!

I hadn't realised that all the big screens and Cadbury House were all enclosed and classed as a 'venue' ie they had the same rules as the Olympic Park.This meant not being allowed to take any food or drink in with us :( Fine if you're only there a short while but if you were there all day it would cost a bomb ! (£7 for a cheese burger,£2 for a bottle of water!)Also the queue for Cadbury House was almost 2 hours by the time we got there!

Instead we decided to walk to Victoria and visit McDonalds for lunch which was decidedly cheaper! From there we got the tube to Tower Hill to go and see the Olympic rings on Tower Bridge :) I had a nightmare with my Canon camera which refused to focus on anything :( I realised when I got home that the focus button had got knocked in my bag from auto focus to manual focus - oops! Luckily I had my trusty Fuji with me which I still always take out with me as the zoom is so good!
I'm glad we went as the girls can say there were there,when they are older :) We came home with loads of maps which the London Ambassadors freely hand out everywhere you go :) You can't fault the signage on the tube and train stations or the helpfulness of the staff and Ambassadors :)

Finally!

After a fair while not doing anything vaguely crafty I have done a layout! When Holly left school we made a little mini book for her best friend full of photos from each year they have known each other :) Stupidly I forgot to take photos ,but rummaging through all my stuff made me want to actually sit down and use some of it!Having bought the new Echo Park collection,I thought I;d better try and use some of the This & that range that I bought a while back and hadn't yet touched.

I even added lots of writing,as I am trying to move away from the 'pretty picture,no details ' type layouts I have so many of!I'm still looking at it thinking it needs 'more' on it,but I just don't know what to add so we'll stick with the less is more attitude!The photo is one I took the day after Holly had finished school.Papers are all from the Echo Park This & That Girl range and the title is a mix of Thickers :) Hopefully I will get round to catching up on my 2012 album soon and scrapping some holiday photos :)

More holiday stuff :)

AS we had such good weather when we were away it seemed a bit daft to pile in the car and go out >Holly's main 'to do' was build sandcastles so on the Wednesday morning we went to the beach:) Needless to say the paddling also led to wet shorts so we did a quick walk back to the chalet for a shower and clothes change before going for lunch.

We went down to the beach each evening as the tide was low and waited for the sunset,It also went a lot colder on this evening so Holly and I were a bit shivery by the time we got home!

A few days away :)

This week the girls and I went away with my mum & dad for a few days:) Geoff's back is not up to him going far so we hadn't made any plans for a holiday this year,so this was a real treat :) We went to Cromer in Norfolk and a lovely time :)We stayed in a fairly small chalet but we all survived,though we didn't get much sleep! Summer finally arrived in time for our trio and the first two days were gorgeous :) The third day started off a bit hazy but had brightened up by the afternoon.
On our first day we took a boat trip out to Blakeney Point to see the seals on the beach which was fab :)

There were lots of seals ,all laying in different positions ! Not surprisingly I caught the sun a bit on this day!
We then made our way back to Cromer and found a lovely cafe for lunch which we liked so much we went back to for the next two days!
I have so many photos that I think I will have to do a few smaller blog posts rather than one huge one!
A couple of other photos from the first evening when the girls and I went off in search of the beach :)

End of an era!

I think there a few possible titles for this blog post ! Yesterday was Holly's final day at Junior school and as I now have no children there it really is the end of an era :( I have been going to the school since 2000 when Em started at nursery there so it will feel strange for a while not'needing' to go there! I won't get away completely though as it's only ten minutes walk away and mum and dad live almost opposite it!
Yesterday morning Geoff and I went to watch the year 6 leavers assembly.They had done a performance the night before which my mum,dad and Em went to see.I had so many lovely comments on what a beautiful singing voice Holly has ,before I got to see her I was a bit overwhelmed! She sang a solo at the beginning of a 'You've got a friend' and yes, I cried through the whole song!
It's tradition that the leavers get their shirts signed and Holly also took an autograph book with her :) The message from her teacher this year is so lovely and really special :) On the way to school we gave the lollipop man his present,a pair of Kermit socks ,as he wears jazzy socks and shows them off to the kids each day!Sadly it was raining first thing so I didn't really get any decent photos of Holly before we left home,but we did get some with her friends before school sorted,and a load more once they finished at 2pm.
She has gone from this

to this

We are so so proud of both her and Em :)

We celebrated the end of term with tea at McDonalds...and a trip to John Lewis to try on the bits of new school uniform that I still need to order! Well it was a lot quieter than it will be in a couple of weeks!

Em also came home from school with the news that she will be a leading Prefect from September,another proud mum & dad moment!

The final countdown....

The last week of term is finally upon us and I am still a bag of mixed emotions!Holly's induction day at her new school went really well and at the open evening I couldn't help but think how nice it would be not to have back to junior school again!
On Friday night she had her school leaving party.In Em's day this was a simple trip to the the local roller rink,with the teachers going along too.This year however it was a party at a local golf club complete with red carpet entrance,disco,buffet and as the letter quoted 'non-alcoholic' drinks....well they are only 11 and 10 years old so I wasn't expecting alcohol! I really did have my doubts about the whole thing being a little OTT for year 6 children but it wasn't as bad as I had imagined :) We found Holly a lovely dress a couple of weeks ago,and matched it up with a very cool pair of Primark trainers complete with some Vans laces that Holly bought a couple of years ago in Florida :) Em was in charge of hair styling and did a fab job :)Holly flatly refused to wear make up which is fine by me as she doesn't need it anyway :)Although we were forecast rain it stayed dry so we had a little photo session :)Photo overload ahead!

This weekend I have got lots of little jobs done around the house :) Yesterday Holly and I cleared off the bookshelves in the living room and packed away all her old faves to go up in the loft. My shelves are now empty of Charlie & Lola and Kipper (you can see how long we've been putting it off!)It does mean though that we have been able to put out my Grandpa's old Corona typewriter though which I've wanted to do for ages :)We also sorted out all the hair pony's and clips and have a huge bag to get rid of.I also went shopping and got myself a couple of nice tops in the sale :)Today as the weather has actually been fairly decent I have cut the hedges,mowed the back garden and strimmed the front garden.
I also ventured up into the loft,I place I hate going due to the huge cobwebs (and the fact that I think I may fall through the ceiling!)! I cleared a few bits out,re-discovered some old treasures (more on them soon!) and put a lot of the kids stuff away.
Well that was a bit of an essay! I am off to bed to prepare myself for what will probably be an emotional week!

It's becoming real...

Tomorrow Holly has her induction day at her new senior school where she starts in September.I'm feeling a little cheated this time round to be honest...! When Em left junior school I felt really emotional.With Holly though I will feel a huge sense of relief to a certain extent and that makes me feel a bit sad :( Year 6 girls can be a strange breed and Holly has learnt the hard way how to tell who your true friends are.However,she can leave with her head held high knowing she was never involved in the bitchiness and trouble making ,which makes me feel very proud :)

I'm sure she will be fine tomorrow,she has packed her bag (her school map,tissues and a pencil case!)and will be going in with two friends.We then go back in the evening to buy uniform,meet the teachers and listen to the headteachers talk.And no doubt after I have kissed Holly goodnight and watched her sleeping,I will have a good cry!

Our turn...

...for the torch! Today was the day the Olympic Torch relay came through Welwyn Garden City :) The weather did not look great and typically it poured with rain just as we left the house and again just as the relay was due to go past us. WE weren't sure how early to start waiting so we got to our spaces about an hour before it was due.We live about 5 minutes away from part of the route which was also likely to be the quieter part too as it is beyond the main town centre.

It all seemed to be over very quickly but I'm glad we went,at least the girls can say they were there! :)

Stop the clock....

...time is whizzing by too fast! In my head it's not long since I last blogged but in reality it's a month - oops!
Summer seems to be giving us a wide berth this year so far,I'm glad I haven't gone mad investing in anew summer wardrobe as most days I'm in jeans and boots still!For each rare day of sun we seem to get a week of rain in return,the slugs and snails have eaten my bean plants and the garden is full of weeds and over grown hedges...oh hang on ,no change there!
So now I need to try and remember what we've been up to...
Two weekends ago I had the best weekend in ages and apart from the train fare it was free :) There is a huge event run in Trafalgar Square called West End Live,run over two days,and this year every musical currently showing in West End performed live :) It was the first time we have been but I am definitely going again! As Em had stage school on the Saturday morning she decided against going that day as she also had a final exam on the Monday too.But as Wicked were on on Saturday I went and took Holly with me :) We managed to get fairly near the front after a very early start and long time queuing, where we stayed for about an hour.We then moved as Holly couldn't really see much . The whole day was so good ,highlights being Wicked,Rock Of Ages and seeing one of the War horse puppets :) Plus the weather was lovely all day:)

I could go on about it so much,but I still have Sunday to cover too! On Sunday I took Em and her friend :) This was an even earlier start and even longer queue as they wanted to get a near to the front as possible...our early rise and the lessons I learned from the previous day meant that they were right up by the barriers! I took the more sedate option and sat at the top of the steps where I had a perfect view of the stage and a more importantly a seat for the day :)
Some more photos :)

The weather wasn't quite so good this day and I ended up with a both soaked bum and...sunburn!!
I think the highlight of Em's day though was meeting her theatre idol Louise Dearman who we saw at the Olivier awards and Wicked at a meet and greet session :)
Ok so this post looks huge already so I will finish it now and be back soon!

Jubilee...what Jubilee?!

So the Jubilee pretty much passed us by! We drove up to Widnes to see Geoff's family on Sunday afternoon,and I have never seen the motorway so quiet! I think everyone else was at home watching the Floatilla on TV!As we were doing other things, the only thing I watched on TV was most of the concert on the Monday evening (I was very good and did a 3 mile walk on the treadmill whilst watching it!)I have everything recorded though (hopefully!) so we will get round to watching it at some point.I was also hoping to have a tea party for the girls but so far the weather is not playing along and we have heavy rain and howling winds.If all else fails over the weekend I'll put the flags up indoors instead! (My outdoor ones blew down while we were away and were rescued by a neighbour!)I did persuade the girls to go outside and smile in front of some flags on Saturday afternoon though just in case no other oppurtunities arose!
We were in Widnes for Geoff's dad's birthday so there were lots of photos taken :) I hadn't realised how colour co-ordinated the girls and Geoff were until I took this photo!

And I love this one of just the girls :)

And finally, one of the reasons the girls love going there - Nando :) (He has just been groomed in this photo and is really soft and fluffy!)
I am feeling the need to do some scrapping soon so maybe some of these photos will end up on a layout!
I am off to do some tidying, my house seems so much messier when its half term and every one is home!

Half way through 2012

I can't quite believe we are in June already and half way through the year yet again.
I am way behind on my 2012 album -boo :( No crop means I haven't had the incentive to get on with it! My camera seems to be spending most of its life in its bag too :(
This weekend is the Jubilee weekend but as we won't be here I'm not really 'feeling' it :( I have (much to Geoff's horror) put the union jack bunting up outside that I bought for the Royal Wedding last year :) And I'm thinking that I might do an afternoon tea for the girls at the end of the week once we are back home. Good excuse to make some cupcakes :D Holly's school have been their typical selves...whilst most have celebrated this week in the run up to the weekend,hers have decided to have a Jubilee afternoon the second day that they go back...which means that we will no doubt spend half term designing a hat ,doing a piece of Jubilee artwork and perfecting our cake recipes for the the Bake Off! And I won't even get to take any photos...hmmm,can you tell I have pretty much had enough of junior school?!
Anyway,I need to re-cap May before I forget what we did!Holly had her first trip into town with her friend on their own,shopping in Claire's for friendship bracelets and lunch at McDonalds :) She

She planned her outfit and even wanted her hair straightened! I feel sad that she is growing up so quickly but am also so proud at how well she is dealing with all the stuff that goes on at her age (namely bitchiness and nastiness!) She keeps well out of all the arguments that go on and knows who her true friends are.
We have also had all her paperwork come through for when she starts senior school in September -yikes!
Last week she also took and passed her Cycling test (it was called cycling proficiency when I was at school but has a new name now!)
Holly also took part in the maypole dancing display at the school fete :)
Oh and she made a cake for my Dad's birthday at the beginning of May ,will share photos next time!
Em has started her GCSE's and is working hard on her revision.She tends to groan every time my camera comes out or refuses to let me take any of photos of her :( I'm hoping that may change this week though and she has had a long overdue haircut which she is really pleased with!
Hmm, this has turned into an essay so I will sign off for now!

Here's hoping....

....that I have done what I was supposed to do to make sure my blog doesn't disappear into a black hole in cyber space and is still here tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I have been meaning to post for a while but after weeks of miserable weather that made me feel grumpy and we've had a bit of a heatwave and I've forgotten to blog!
Hopefully I will be back soon !

Um...did I break it?!

So after the very weird layout of my last post, I was put off posting again, but really I need to check what I have done!So this will be like a test post before I get my blog technical advisor (ie Anna!) to check what I have done wrong! The problem with my blog is that I didn't set it up myself all those years ago,and I didn't do any of the template updates either (yep, that was Anna!) so I don't have much of a clue what to do if it goes wrong! So I am going to post this and add a photo and see what happens this time.....

Random photo of Holly when we went back to the bluebell a couple of weeks ago :) They have been no where near as lovely ones last year ,due to such rubbish weather for the last month!
Anyway, I may be back soon depending if I can get the layout problems sorted!

How to wear out an 11 year old...

Last Friday Holly had a very busy day:) At school she took part in a sponsored welly walk to raise funds for the PTA.Then in the evening she took part in swimming a smile for Sport Relief with Guides.We very rarely go swimming,so although Holly loves to swim underwater when we have the pool up in the summer,she is not used to swimming up and down lengths of a large public pool.So you can imagine how proud I was of her on Friday when she managed to swim 54 lengths!! She didn't quite make it to a mile but she didn't want to give up and they had to almost pull her out of the pool!She won a prize her for her perseverance and persistent! And promptly slept for 12 hours once we were home!

The weather was pants almost all weekend,wet and windy :( Yesterday it managed to stay dry til late evening,it made such a change! And then today having been boiling hot walking back from town at about 3pm ,I got totally drenched picking up Holly from her after school club! I actually gota layout done a couple of days ago using some of my photos from when Em and I went to Covent Garden a couple of the weeks back.I used some of the new Amy Tangerine papers,which I love with the colours of the photos:) The star border along the top of the photos is some self adhesive KI Memories ribbon which I got in Florida,I'm glad I've finally used some! The tag looks a bit wonky as I realised after taking the photo that I hadn't stuck it on and it had slipped - whoops!

Sad day....

Oops, my blogging roll seems to have hit a quiet spot!
Last Sunday was a bit of a sad day :( After about 7 years and  three different premises  I finally held our last crop in Southoe. I have been running the crop since Anna has been concentrating on her photography business but sadly it's not really practical to run a crop 40 miles from where you live when you can't drive! This was proved on Sunday when my train journey took an hour compared to the normal half hour and my train home was cancelled completely! Huge thanks to Kerry who drove me to Stevenage where Geoff came to get me.
Anyway, we had a lovely day, scrapping and reminiscing about people who had come and gone over the years.It seems very weird that I will probably never see most of them again! And then there are the wonderful friends I have made along the way :) Boo hoo.....  Anyway,I did my 2012 pages for March (and no I haven't done February's yet....!) and that was pretty much it .I did an extra 6 x 12 insert this month though as I seemed to have lots that I wanted to remember.
All in all it's been pretty quiet recently.The weather has been hideous with rain every day for the last two weeks.I will be glad when it's May and there will be no more April showers (read down pours...) I think that Holly and I have probably missed the bluebells by now :(
This week Geoff has had his wedding ring cut off in preparation for his MRI scan in a couple of weeks,as there is no way he could take it off .Holly was a bit concerned and suggested that we write 'I am married' in the dent around the finger left by the ring in case people didn't realise...bless!
During the Easter holidays the girls and I went over to Anna's on the train for a quick visit. We had a very nice afternoon tea with cupcakes courtesy of Holly (Hummingbird black bottomed cupcakes - yum!) ,cucumber sandwiches and scones,jam and cream :)Slightly concerned at how grown up these two are starting to look though...!

I have no idea what is going on with my blog layout as it's looking all over the place when I preview it so apologies in advance if things are where they shouldn't be!