18

Today my "baby" turned 18!! How did that happen so quickly?

 

I hadn't had a chance to decorate last night so came down early this morning to get the balloons blown up and the banners put up.

Fortunately, this year Emily doesn't have any lessons on a Monday so she was able to get up in her own time.  I popped out to Waitrose for some baking supplies and to drop a car seat off at Claire's and told her not to come downstairs until I got back.

I don't think she was expecting quite so many balloons ;-)

 

 

She had had most of her presents before her birthday but there were still a few for her to open on the day.

This afternoon Claire, Alice and Megan came round once Alice finished playgroup and my Mum, my niece Theresa, Tyler, Alyssa and Brooke came round after school for a birthday tea. 

When it came to blowing out the candles, only Alyssa wanted to help.  Good job!!

I can't believe Emily is in her final year of school and will be voting in the general election next year.  All my children are now adults! I must be getting old ;-)

xx

Emily's Prom

Today is Emily's Prom and we spent the afternoon at her friend, Natalie's house as the four friends got dressed together.  Emily, Charlotte, Natalie and Ella have been friends most of their Senior School years and it was fun to listen to them banter with each other as they got dressed.  I took over 130 photos but have edited a few to put up tonight. There may be more over the next few days.

 Emily, Charlotte, Natalie & Ella

 Charlotte & Emily

 Emily & Natalie

 An hour before the girls were due to go to the school to catch their buses, another four friends arrived and we took a few more photos.

I will be staying up till 12.30am to go and pick Emily up again. I really hope they had a lovely evening.

xx

Tuesday at The O2 Arena

Fortunately, Tuesday dawned bright and sunny - no snow, no grey sky but, unfortunately, no warmer either ;o)  The Sat Nav set and it was time to go and pick up Emily's friend, Emily and head up to London to The O2 Arena for the girls to see One Direction.

 My Emily is definitely more sensibly dressed in this photo - she takes after her mother and doesn't like the cold!  We stopped for a quick photo with the Dome in the background and then headed inside to get some lunch before the doors opened.

We ended up in TGI Fridays because we know we'll enjoy the food and each time we've been we've been lucky enough to get seated straight away. Unfortunately, this time we were seated outside and it was still really cold because although you're in the dome, it's not much warmer than outside - you just don't have the wind chill to contend with.

We finished our meal around the time that the doors were due to open so, after a trip to the Ladies, we headed to the doors where they were to go in. I saw them into the queue and then left them too it.  This was their queue waiting to go in (and it did stretch a bit further back too). 

 I decided I'd take a walk outside and had seen the signs pointing down to the river.  We had been going to walk down to the river once before but by the time we'd eaten it was dark outside so we had to abort that idea. This time I just followed the signs and was there in no time.  I'm not sure what this sculpture is meant to be but it was quite interesting to look at.

 The cable cars come over the river to the other side but that's not something I'd be bothered about doing (I don't like heights!).  I don't know what I'd expected but there certainly wasn't much to see at the river so I just had a little walk and then turned round to head back again.

 One of the buildings next to The O2.

 A few boats moored off shore.

 The covered walkway down to the river cruise.

 The Dome to the left and walkway to the right.

 As you can see, these reeds were being blown quite strongly. I think I was out there for about 3/4 of an hour but was so cold I was more than ready to get inside again.

There were a lot of Mums who had dropped their daughters off and the coffee shops were doing a roaring trade.  I went in to Starbucks and as I got served a table became free and I was able to get a seat. Another Mum came over and asked if she could join me - we chatted for a little while and then both settled down to read our books.  We were able to spend a few hours in the warmth of Starbucks before going out to wait for the girls to come out of the concert.

I took this photo as I waited where I'd said I would. the people in front of me were all waiting for children to come out. It was interesting listening to the languages being spoken, there must have been people from all across Europe. I certainly heard French, Italian and Spanish as well as other languages I didn't recognise.

The girls had had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed the concert. We hit rush hour traffic as we headed home and it was about 7pm by the time we got back. Watching/listening to the videos Emily had taken was quite amusing - there was a lot of screaming going on as well as some singing along. I'm glad they had such a good time!

xx

Deb and Carrie come for lunch

On Friday Deb and Carrie (who were here from Arizona) came down to East Grinstead to visit us and have lunch. Claire and Carrie have got to "know" each other through blogs and Facebook and I know Claire was really excited to get to meet both Carrie and Deb in person. Emily knows them through their blogs and also from hearing us talk about them. So, great excitement when Friday finally arrived!

Deb and me

Deb had mentioned before that she liked the look of our town so after Emily and I picked them up from the station we headed into town for a quick sight seeing trip. Our town isn't that big ;) and with the weather as cold as it was, we weren't going to be out for long.

 We walked through St Swithun's church yard where they were able to see the old graveyard and the tomb stones for the East Grinstead martyrs who were burnt at the stake in the market place.

 The High Street in East Grinstead is made up of Tudor properties (some of which can be seen in this photo) which are full of history. If I remember correctly, East Grinstead was the stopping point (about half way) for people travelling from London to the coast in times past.

Our little tour over and we headed to Claire's house and then back here for lunch.

 Our girls 

(Emily, Megan, Claire and Carrie)

 Alice took a shine to Carrie and came to be in the photo too

 Carrie, me and Deb

And one last one to finish (love that wink!)

The afternoon went way too quickly but was great fun. It felt like good friends coming over for lunch and not only the second time we'd met. What a pity we live so far apart but I certainly hope we'll meet again in person one day. 

xx

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the UK mothers. I hope you've enjoyed time with family and loved ones.

I am fortunate that I get to see all my children most days - Claire has her own house but is only a short drive from us and I see her and the girls often.  I had hoped to get photos of me with each of my children today but, unfortunately, by the end of the day I'd got photos with Hugh and Emily but not Claire. We'd talked about it and wanted to take them and then forgot until after Claire had gone home :(  I'll have to get one at some stage this week. In the meantime, here are a few photos from my day today ....

                     

 I managed to get Hugh to pose with me before he went to work this morning. Thank you Hugh!

I spent time at home this morning, chatting to Norma on Skype, talking to Emily and catching up on a bit of quick blog reading.  I popped round to Mum and Dad's to give Mum her Mothers Day present and as I left, Claire phoned to say Alice had woken from her nap so I went round and picked her and the girls up.

 Megan is getting so big, another couple of weeks and she'll be 3 months old.  She is so cute to watch, when we're lucky we get the cutest smiles and if you talk to her, there's a fairly good chance she'll babble back :)

 She loves Alice and Alice loves her right back. Here Alice is showing Megan the little duck and shaking it so she can hear the rattle.  She gets upset if Megan cries for too long - though she likes to look at the photo of Megan crying in my Project Life album. It's a series of photos where Megan was quite happy in the first two and then is crying in the 3rd one. You turn over the insert and Megan's having her bottle and then smiling. Alice will now tell you that Megan was hungry in the crying one (true!) and then we fed her and she was happy again. So cute!

Alice is still very much a Grandma's girl.  Today we had the chance to sit and read books.  She likes this counting book and especially the page with the Teletubbies on it. She finds it quite funny when I sing the Teletubbies song on that page - especially when we go through all their names.

 Although we're not reading it here, another favourite book at the moment is It was you, Blue Kangaroo!  I love that she takes in the stories and is able to answer back when I ask her what either Lily or Blue Kangaroo says next.  Looking forward to getting another few Blue Kangaroo books soon.

 And finally, after having taken Claire and the girls home after dinner, Emily and I realised we hadn't taken the photos of Claire and me and of Emily and me.  We rectified the latter - not the most flattering photo but I have one :)

Hope you've had a wonderful day with your family too

xx

Sick Week

Well, what a week this last week has been!  Things had been going well for a while and I guess we'd got used to it.  However, that changed last week ...

 On Thursday morning Claire phoned to say that Alice had been sick a couple of times.  Looking after a sick child isn't always easy and even less so with a baby as well. I offered to go round to help out and spent most of Thursday like this, with Alice on my lap dozing on and off.  I hate when little ones are sick, you feel so helpless. Alice was so good though and never made a fuss at all. Even when she was sick she let us hold her hair back and stroke her forehead, then when she was done she'd settle back on my lap and sleep some more. :o(

By about 2pm, after she'd had a fairly long sleep, she woke up and seemed much brighter. She hopped down from my lap and was chatting, playing and asking for some juice. What a relief, it was so good to see her feeling a bit better.

 Unfortunately it didn't last too long and she'd been sick again during the night. On Friday Claire and the girls came round to the house for a while and Alice was fairly quiet and spent time sitting quietly on the sofa.  I took them home again around 4pm as Emily had an appointment at 4.30.

Just before 10pm I got a call from Claire to say she had started being sick too.  There was no way she was going to manage on her own so I packed a bag and headed round to help look after the children.  I did the night feeds and got up with the girls in the morning.

 We had a very quiet day on Saturday. Alice continued to be unwell and slept on and off through the day. Claire was feeling drained and washed out and we took turns with the girls depending on who Alice wanted to be with. Fortunately, by Saturday night Claire was feeling a lot better but still quite wobbly as she hadn't eaten much all day so I stayed another night to do the feeds.

 Sunday dawned brighter all round. Alice did some finger painting in the morning and Claire was starting to eat again. We thought it would be quite nice for them to get out of the house so we packed some stuff together and came here for a change of surroundings. Although Alice still wasn't 100% she was so much better than she had been on Thursday and Friday.

Aunty Em was happy to have cuddles with Megan (who fortunately didn't get the virus) who is growing so quickly - can you believe she's 7 weeks now!

 Claire tried to do a bit of Project Life, though Mac had other ideas about that.  He REALLY thought she should be paying him more attention!

  And another one of Megan, just because she's cute :o)

Claire was happy to go home again that evening and I told her to phone if she needed anything.

 Monday was a bit of a surprise as we woke to more snow! The weather reports had said it was going to miss us but when we woke on Monday morning, there it was.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for a snow day so Emily donned the wellies again and headed off to school.

 I popped out to Waitrose for some shopping for us, for Mum and Dad and for Claire.  The trees in the car park were so pretty with their coat of snow but it doesn't really show up as well in the photo.

So, Monday night after dinner Emily says she's feeling queasy. I had felt the same myself but thought it might just be because I'd had a bit more milk than normal (I have an intolerance).  Emily was sick before bedtime and decided to have an earlier night. I thought that was a good idea myself and headed off to bed myself. Jon said he's sleep in the spare room and let me get a decent night's sleep.  Ha ha!! By morning Hugh, Emily and I had all been sick and by Monday afternoon Jon had joined us.  So, Emily's been off school since Tuesday and I can honestly say that today was the closest to normal I've felt since then. Let's hope that's the last of it.

 I popped round to drop off some Valentines chocolates at Claire's this morning (as well as a present I'd missed at Christmas for Alice).  It was so good to see them all again and I think we could say that Alice had missed me :)  I got big cuddles and was invited to play. She'd got a Playdoh set earlier in the week and wanted to show it to me - though she wasn't quite so keen when I started playing with it!

Claire said Megan must have also missed me because when I got to hold her I got LOTS of smiles.  I felt very privileged because although I have had a few, today the just kept coming. What a little sweetheart she is, so cute!

Here's to us all continuing with good health now. On the plus side, my Project Life album is right up to date! I really must take some photos sometime to share. I also realised I never got round to posting my December Daily - feels a bit late for that now though ;o)

xx

Quick roundup



 On Thursday when we went in to visit Dad we were told that he had been assessed and the hospital were happy for him to come home as there were no beds at the rehab unit coming up any time soon.  Dad had been having physio at the hospital and they said he was doing well.

So, on Friday Mum and I went and did a weekly shop in the morning so that Mum had enough food for Dad coming home that afternoon.  He was brought home by Patient Ambulance and got back to the house just after 3pm.  I popped round a little bit later to check up on him and he was settled in his chair. The transfer had been a bit traumatic as Dad had been taken down to the patient transport waiting room at 9am where he was left sitting/slipping in a chair until after lunch time. By the time he got home he was quite tired and cold.  But, he's home and that's the main thing. Now to get his physio at home up and running again :)
 one of Megan
On Saturday Claire and the girls came round in the morning and we all (Claire, the girls, Emily and I) went round to see Dad in the afternoon. He finally got to meet his youngest Great Granddaughter :) although he had seen photos of her while in hospital.

Sunday was spent quietly at home and a visit to Mum & Dad's.

I don't have many photos from the weekend but I'll leave you with this one of Megan asleep on her Aunty Em :)   Can you believe Megan was a month old on the 25th - doesn't the time go quickly!

 xx

Lazy days

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, Claire's boiler wasn't working and with the weather being as cold as it has been we decided it was best that she and the girls come and stay with us until her boiler is sorted. They arrived on Sunday evening and stayed until yesterday morning when Claire needed to go home again because the gas people were due to fix it.

Below are a few photos of what our days were like while they were here ;o)

 Claire working on her Project Life album with Megan watching her and Mac close by.

 Alice playing before breakfast (again with Mac close by)

 Emily had a snow day on Monday and here Alice is showing her one of the pictures she'd drawn.

 We had sleeping children (love her little hands in this photo)

Once Megan is asleep you can generally hand her over to someone else if you need to do something or pop her down wherever is handy and she carries on sleeping ;o)

Alice was extremely busy while she was here - she played, drew, read books, watched Netflix and just generally had a good time. I love that both the girls are so comfortable when they come here and we all just slot together and get on with things.

Things are getting back to normal, Emily is writing exams on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Hugh has managed to get to the gym and will be back at work tomorrow. Mum and I are able to get to the hospital to visit Dad (and yesterday heard that he should be coming home again soon) and life continues.

I'm now off to Claire's to drop off the few bits that were left behind and have some cuddles with my granddaughters :)
xx