My Birthday Celebrations

I’m a bit late writing this up because we had a bit of a week last week with poorliness and I just wasn’t in the mood for blogging really. We are all still pretty poorly but I wanted to write again so here we are. Last week was my birthday! I turned 33 and honestly while on the one hand I don’t care, age is just a number and a birthday is just another day, on the other hand I do love birthdays. It is nice to have an excuse to treat someone you love (or be treated) and to celebrate and get together with the people you love most. So I will always celebrate my birthday.

The day before my birthday my stepdad baby-sat LM for me so I could get my hair cut which is always a real treat. My hair actually looks nice as it ha been styled by someone who knows what they are doing haha. That evening hubs and I went out for a meal. A Christmas present from my brother and sister in law was vouchers for Carluccios and the offer of babysitting for the evening. As we hadn’t used it yet we decided to use it for my birthday! PhotoGrid_1462218721835

We had a lovely time, yummy food, prosecco, wine, and really enjoyed ourselves. My sister in law was very surprised to see us home by 10 but let’s face it that is late for us haha! We had a nice catch up with them for a bit and it was a lovely evening.

The next day was my birthday and quite a lot of time was spent preparing for a bbq with lots of family and friends coming over. It was hard work and stressful and hubs did ask at one point of it was worth it. The answer? Yes of course!

We had wondered all week whether the weather would be kind to us, and for the most part it really was. There was one or two showers early on but they didn’t last long and for the rest of the afternoon the sun shone for us. Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoyed the food and it was just a lovely afternoon with nearly all of my favourite people. PhotoGrid_1462219213038PhotoGrid_1462219571416

The house was a tip afterwards and we write all shattered but it was so lovely getting everyone together and I was so glad the weather held out for us.

So that’s me another year older (even though I am sure I stopped aging at 24…that was a good age haha). Do you celebrate birthdays? And do you enjoy hosting get togethers, even with all the work that is involved?

And then the fun began...
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Celebrating Life

There is no getting away from the fact that death has featured heavily over the last week. Both in our personal lives with the recent death of hubs’ Grandpa, and in the wider world with the hideous and terrifying acts of terrorism in Paris, Baghdad and Beirut. The consequence of this can be to make things seem rather grey and sad, let alone scary, but instead I am choosing to celebrate life.

I have seen some wonderful things from media across the world this week that remind me that we cannot let the terrorists win by living in fear, hiding away and mistrusting each other. This wonderful daddy had a fantastic lesson for his little boy, and I love this advice from an Australian reporter. Both remind me that focussing on the good is even more important at times like this, so my word of the week, is celebrate. Here is a snapshot of our week, celebrating the little things and the ordinary moments amongst the sadness and usual everyday challenges.

Saturday with the Paris atrocities looming large Hubs and I headed to Cambridge to do our Christmas shopping. We had prearranged for my parents to look after the kids for the day and we very much enjoyed a day spending time just the two of us and getting excited about celebrating Christmas in just over a month! I was also celebrating at the end of the day as apart from a few bits for each other we are basically finished wth Christmas shopping! Hooray, I have never been this prepared before!!

The big event of our week though was the funeral for Hubs’ Grandpa on wednesday and the wake which we hosted at our house. Grandpa Bill was 93 and had a wonderful long life so the line with have given to Monkey is very much that we were celebrating his life, rather than focussing on the fact that he is no longer here. I am not sure how much he understands but I think Monkey just about gets that Grandpa isn’t here anymore. He had been declining for the past year so Monkey hasn’t seen him for a quite a while as we didn’t want him to remember his great Grandpa like that but we know Grandpa was so so proud to have lived to see 2 of his Great Grandchildren.

All went as well as can be for a funeral, obviously with tears and sadness but there was smiles too remembering some of his adventures. Funerals are funny things as they are so sad but they do bring people together too and it was lovely to see some family friends we haven’t seen since our wedding and relatives who live a bit far away to be seen very regularly. The wake was nice though filling the house with people can definitely make it feel a bit small!

I had spent much of the week prior to the wake cleaning and making the house probably cleaner and tidier than it has been in a long while, evidenced by the fact that my Mum almost fainted with shock at the sight of it, and my step-dad asked if we had got a JCB in to do the cleaning – cheek! hehe It was nice seeing it so clean and tidy but there is no way it will last as it took so much effort and I much prefer to spend my time having fun with the kiddies as much as possible!! (I may just be a bit lazy too but the kids are a much better reason not to be tidy all the time than admitting that!)

Other than that it has been a pretty normal week. I am having a bit of a saga with Ikea over the purchase of a new kitchen cupboard but I won’t bore you with any of the details here. The kids and I have had some truly lovely moments and I would like to share some of those with you just to celebrate the happy ordinariness of our week.

Monkey snuggling up in his bed under just about every soft and cuddly toy or blanket he could find! 20151115_090640

LM enjoying playing in the tunnel for the first time. She has shied away from going in any tunnel before but had a whale of a time with her big brother this week.tunnel fun

Mummy and Monkey time while LM was out with my parents fro rhyme time on Tuesday. Lots of painting and chatting and laughter, especially when he decided he must paint my nose! Cheeky thing 🙂20151117_094522

Monkey copying his sister. She randomly enjoys lying on the floor kicking her legs and this week Monkey decided to join her. It was so cute watching them play together chuckling away doing such a daft thing!20151117_122808

Monkey beng a superhero…. I have adored this, what a cutie.superhero monkey

Monkey taking a break from being a superhero to have snuggles with his Mummy and sister… though LM was less cooperative!snuggles1

LM looking adorable in her dressing gown after bathy. Rubbish quality photos as I have been using an old phone but you get the idea.dressing gown

Other celebrations this week are that my phone is back from being repaired and has a new screen, hurrah, so nice to have good camera back again, and we have a new car. A new second hand car at any rate. Hubs’ car cost us £1500 2 1/2 yrs ago and has done really well for an old banger but lately is more reminiscent of a tractor than a car, making the house shake whenever the engine is on. The radio is falling off and basically it is a heap so it was time to get hubs an upgraded car. His new car is not much newer but an updated model with lots of boys toys and gadgets and we haven’t spet a lot again but it is a nice car and hasn’t done too many miles, so hopefully it will last as well as the previous one.

So there we have it, despite the sadness that threatened to overwhelm the week, there has been lots of things to celebrate too.

What have you celebrated this week?

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Birthday Celebrations

My word this week is a great one, it is Celebrations, because we have had a week full of birthday celebrations!

Last week my little big boy Monkey turned 3! Sadly the poor thing was terribly poorly (believe me, poorly could easily have been this week’s word too as we have all been suffering) with a stonking cold and conjunctivitis, so it was a very chilled out birthday at home with a visit from his grandparents for lunch and an uncle & aunt in the early evening.

Monkey birthday 1

Saturday was the big celebration though with lots of family round for his party. He was so excited bless him and even though he was nowhere near 100% he was feeling a lot better, though by then poor hubs was really suffering. I made a Lightning McQueen cake, which didn’t work out quite as I hoped it would, but you could tell what it was meant to look like and Monkey loved it (and everyone said it tasted nice) so that’s all that matters.

Monkey's birthday party

It was a lovely family day with yummy food and lots of fun 🙂 Monkey was a lucky boy with lots of very lovely pressies and lots of attention from all his favourite people. We spent most of the time inside until Monkey commanded that we all went outside. “Let’s go outside, with Mummy and Daddy and Lots of Family!” When people weren’t forthcoming he stood in the doorway shouting “come on everybody!” lol love him.

Sunday was a fairly chilled day at home then Monday saw more birthday celebrations for my Father-in-law’s birthday. Another lovely happy family day at Grangranny and Granddaddy’s house.

Before we left we had got out a bag of hand-me-down clothes for LM who is growing all the time and found this gorgeous little tutu. I just couldn’t resist dressing her in it and she looked so cute in it! Granny loved her little pink princess and LM was so good even though she was really coming down with the cold by then and had conjunctivitis too.Granddaddy's birthday

Thursday saw the celebrations continue with one of Monkey’s friends turning 4 and a birthday party at a soft play centre. It got off to a very bad start with Monkey throwing the mother of all tantrums as he didn’t want to go. He screamed continuously in the car and made himself sick. I was so stressed and so angry…. but thankfully he perked up a little when he saw some friends and a piece of cake later he was much better and had great fun on the soft play. All that stress and hassle for absolutely no reason, toddlers eh?

Thankfully two of my best Mummy friends were there (we missed our very heavily pregnant friend that makes up our foursome but at nearly 40wks pregnant she understandably couldn’t make it!) and they helped remind me that they have had days like it with their kids recently too and as always it’s just nice to support each other. LM was cute again in her tutu and it was fun, though obviously ever so slightly chaotic with a bunch of kids at soft play! I was shattered by the end of it but Monkey was happy and we did have a lovely time so I am very glad we went.

soft play party 2

This marks the end of a couple of months full of birthdays of family members and friends. In April we have 6 and in May there are 8! (there may be a 9th depending on when my friend’s baby arrives) So it is full of fun but also is a lot of birthdays in a short space of time. There are only 2 in June and none in July so I have to admit it will be nice to have less birthdays to think about for a while.

Do you have a time of year where there are more birthdays than any other?

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Birthdays!

My word for this week is Birthdays.

In actual fact this could have been the word for the last couple of months as April & May are full of Birthdays! Up until recently we have celebrated 12 birthdays across those two months. This week however saw the birth of the second daughter of a very good friend of mine. So happy birthday and welcome to the world little baby Eloise! Ooh it’s made me so broody. Good job we already have another little one on the way!

So that makes 13 birthdays across April & May – it is expensive and full of celebrations, but lots of fun! This week I have felt it in particular, largely because of course it has been my lovely little Monkey’s 2nd Birthday! We started the celebrations last Friday with a mini party at the park with two of his friends who also have birthdays this month. One a week before Monkey, and one a week after, although they both turn 3 this month. They are 2 of my very good mummy friends’ kiddies so we decided to have one joint celebration rather than 3 little ones. Sadly due to a very poorly little tot the other mummy in our quartet wasn’t able to make it at the last minute. We really did miss them but we also had a lot of fun at the same time! We had party hats and bubbles and choccy biscuits and a lot of fun in the sun!

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Then on Sunday it was Monkey’s Grandpops’ birthday! Nanny and Grandpops have been away on holiday for the last couple of weeks and we’ve really missed them so it was nice to see them for his big 60th!

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Monkey very much enjoyed helping Grandpops unwrap his presents!

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It was also Monkey’s first ever chinese and he did quite well – mainly prawn toasts and prawn crackers but he did try a few bits so we can’t complain.

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He was also just a very good boy as we were in the restaurant a long time, though his uncles and aunties were definitely happy to help keep him entertained. Thank goodness!

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My step-sister had made Grandpops a fantastic racing car themed cake – complete with racing cars! Monkey was very lucky, and thrilled, to be allowed to keep the yellow one!

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He did do really well but it was quite stressful keeping him busy and he was very much enjoying decorating the restaurant with his stickers, though I think we found them all in the end! (Hope so anyway!) It was a lovely family lunch and a very nice Sunday.

Wednesday was Monkey’s actual birthday so we had pressies first thing in the morning, then he and I spent most of the day at the park with friends, it was a really gorgeous and relaxing day actually and he very much enjoyed himself 🙂

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The celebrations are set to continue this weekend with the family all coming round Sunday afternoon for a bit of a buffet and a present-fest! 🙂 So this week has been very much focussed on birthdays 🙂

What word sums up your week?

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