Happy Birthday Tania XXX

****In celebration of her birthday and also her 100th blog post ~ the birthday girl Tania over at Little sweethearts is having a give away! Tania is giving away 2 sets of her wonderful christmas decorations ~ all you have to do is visit her lovely blog and leave her a comment on todays blog post!! ***********


Today is a very special day ~ it is my friend Tanias birthday!!

Here is a picture of the birthday girl ~ with her two sweet children (I hope you don't mind me stealing the picture from your blog Tania!!)



In honour of Tanias birthday ~ I have baked a special cake!! It took me hours ~ but I think it turned out ok (tee hee!!) ~ hope you like your cake Tania !
Here are some chocolates....................... and some birthday flowers too!!
AND ~ no birthday would be complete without a bottle of wine for you to toast your special day!!

Happy Birthday my dear friend ~ I hope that you have a day full of love, laughter and happiness.

Sending you much love and big hugs XXXXXX

A little bit of everything!!

This weekend can basically be summed up in one word ~ WET!!
We have amused ourselves indoors mostly ~ the children have been playing on the Wii and reading books ~ I have been a mad cleaning woman ~ and have blitzed the kitchen and the bathroom ~ which are both sparkling and clean (for a few hours at least ~ until my 2 mad chidren mess them up again ha ha !!!!).

Lauren has been busy writing her birthday and christmas lists ~ which are made up of EVERYTHING HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!!! She is eagerly awaiting the new HSM3 film, which is out here on 22nd October ~ and as part of her support she has been wearing her badges with pride!!

High School Musicals biggest fan (maybe!!!!)



We have also been doing a small amount of retail therapy this weekend ~ but I had a slight dilema!! I went out this morning to buy a clothes rail for my bedroom as I have too much stuff to hang up and NO storage space (I had lots before I had to give my nice bedroom to the children boo hoo!!) ...........anyway ~ we got slightly side tracked (and when I say WE I mean Lauren and I ~ as Dan was at his Judo classes!)

We managed to come home with 3 of these little fellas ~ which I thought would look nice on the fireplace at Christmas...............
I bought a pair of these (they are fleecy PJs ~ very sexy I know ha ha !!!!!!)
BUT ~ believe me people it has got very cold here and I went to bed last night wrapped up in about 4 layers ha ha !!!!!!!

The children needed new Christmas stockings this year ~ the ones they had were getting a bit old and had seen better days ~ Lauren wanted a 'high heel boot' this year ~ so we got Dan the male alternative!!!! I am sure that santa will find lots of goodies to put in here!!

I had to have this little fella for my front door ~ I had one with santa on last year ~ but couldn't resist this one!!I know ~ I know ~ it is only October and I should not be shopping for Christmas ~ let alone being all Christmassy on my blog ~ BUT as I write this it is only 80 days ~8 hours~3 mins and 39 seconds until Christmas ~ and that means I had better get my act together!! Those 80 days will be gone before me (and my visa card) know it !!!!

The funniest thing of all is that I came home without the clothes hanger that I went to buy in the first place ~ I totally blame Lauren ~ she made me buy all the other stuff (honest!!) ha ha !!


On a totally different note ~ my children now have one of these each......................................

They are chore charts ~ and have things written on them that the children have to do each day ~ such as cleaning their teeth, getting dressed, making their beds and keeping their room tidy ~ each time they complete the tasks they get a star!! Each star is worth 5 points ~ which is changed into 5 minutes on the Nintendo DS or the Wii or the computer. At the end of the week I total up the stars and write how much time the children have to play (not all at once ~ but in half hour blocks) ~ on their games etc!!!!

At the end of each month the total stars will be added up and depending on how many they get ~ the children can have a treat!!

So far it is working really well ~ hopefully it is teaching them some responsibility and teaching them that they have to work for things in life ~ treats don't come free ha ha !!!!! (I am such a mean mummy!!!).

Looking out of the window we still have the rain ~ it is almost dark (at 5pm) and I am thinking of putting the heating on!! We have a small amount of local flooding ~ nothing too bad ~ just a few roads and the local river is a bit high ~ it has been far worse than this in the past! I hope that the sunshine comes back again tomorrow ~ all this rain makes my hair frizz and we can't have that tee hee!!

Hope you have all had a nice weekend ~ XXXXXXXXXX

BRENDAS PHOTO CHALLENGE .....

It is photo challenge time again ~ and this time round I am very excited ~ BECAUSE I AM THE HOSTESS!!!! I chose the theme YELLOW as I could really do with some cheerful and colourful photos ~ in the midst of all this Autumn greyness!!!

I have asked my dear friend Donna over at MADE IN HEAVEN to be the next hostess and Donna will let us all know her theme and the next challenge date !!

The rules for the next hostess are as follows ~

1. If you are chosen to host the next challenge, and you accept the mission ~ you must pick a topic for the next challenge ~ it can be anything that tickles your fancy ~ then set the date (usually 2 weeks ahead ~ to allow everyone to gather their pictures together).

2. Post the rules and the next hostess on your blog ~ and the next hostess has to do the same!!



Here are my YELLOW pictures!!




Beautiful yellow roses that were given to me as a Thank you!!



A rather out of focus yellow pepper ~ I tried and tried to get an 'in focus' picture ~ but they were all like this!!
La la ~ the friendly yellow Telly Tubby ~ my little stars decided that this would make a great yellow picture!!

I have enjoyed hosting this challenge ~ thank you very much to Amanda over at Penny n pounds for asking me!! I will be over to check out all the other YELLOW pictures soon!! XXX

Another note to self!!

Note to self (yet again!!)...........

Please leave a key with at least one of your neighbours ~ so the next time you lock yourself out of the house (for the five hundreth time this year!!) ~ you don't have to wait for a locksmith to let you in and pay the astronomical price that he charged ~ even though said locksmith was really rather very nice!!

Remember to put the child lock on the washer/dryer ~ so that sweet cute little child that you look after does not press all the buttons and put the washing (that has just tumble dried) ~ back on for YET ANOTHER 2 hour wash ~ which has already started and soaked said dry clothes before you have a chance to stop it!!

Don't ever ever go down the Christmas chocolate and biscuit aisle at the supermarket ever again when you are 21 weeks into a diet ~ as your willpower will be tested to the max and you may find yourself sniffing the boxes of chocolate coated gingerbread!! (yes folks ~ I nearly ripped the box open and scoffed the lot ha ha ).........

And most of all ~ never ever ever ever ever ever try and take a 'short cut' when you are in a hurry ~ because you can almost 100% guarantee that it will take you 5 times as long to get there (because you will get stuck behind farmer barley mow in his bloody tractor ~ and have to follow him on winding country road ~ for 6 long and torturous miles!!) ~ and then be late picking kids up from school!!

That about sums up my day ~ how was yours!!!!! XXXXX

Wednesday update and a little suprise!!

Here I am again ~ another Wednesday ~ and that means weigh in day (I don't know whether to cheer or boo ha ha !!!) ~ This week another 2 pounds have shipped out (yippeeee!!!!) ~ meaning that I have now lost 4 stone 2 pounds (which is 58 pounds!!). Needless to say ~ I am quite happy with that. It is getting harder ~ my willpower is being tested to the full ~ but I am determined and that is that!!! So hopefully I will be here with another loss next week.

On another note ~ the father of one of the children that I look after is a soldier ~ and left today for a tour in Afganistan ~ we will be keeping him in our thoughts and prayers and are counting the days until he returns safely.......

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET????

Today I booked a christmas suprise for my 2 sweet gorgeous little children ~ if you want to know what it is ~ CLICK HERE!!!!

I am really excited about it (I am such a kid ha ha !) ~ I love christmas ~ and everything that goes with it ~ and I know that the children will absolutely love this suprise!! I haven't told them ~ and I hope that I can keep the secret from them until the day ~ then see the look on their faces when we arrive there!!!!

I have just been watching the Pride of Britain Awards ~ and there are sooooo many brave and courageous people in this great country of ours!! I have spent most of the time crying my eyes out though (ha ha ~ I am such a softie!!). One of my favourite TV programmes is on tonight ~ Silent Witness ~ being an ex police officer ~ I love anything to do with forensics and crime (ha ha ) ~ so I am off now to put on my PJs and watch some decent TV (for a change). Have a great evening ~ see you tomorrow XXXXXXXX