Olympic Dreams
Several months ago we entered the Olympic draw in the hope of securing tickets for London 2012. Usually an unexpected withdrawal in our bank account would be greeted with suspicion, however on this occasion the disappointment of a balanced account was palpable and with that our Olympic dream was seemingly over. Okay this may sound a little dramatic, as in reality I have never wanted to compete in the Olympics but I had hoped to be a spectator, and an enthusiastic one at that. Last chance saloon and we secured tickets for the rowing at Dorney. It may not have been our first choice or even our second or third but we were going to the Olympics and the kids were coming too.
A few weeks ago in an attempt to build the excitement for our offspring, we watched the Olympic torch arrive at the Madejski stadium in Reading. Dinner from a burger van, loud music to dance to and some fire (the lighting of the torch). What more could a 3 year old and 1 year old ask for?
As parents of young children we’ve had our fair share of sleepless nights but a 5.45am wake up call following 4.5 hours sleep was pretty harsh even for us. We (Andy and I) had stayed up to watch the entirety of the opening ceremony but had I known Paul McCartney was going to be rolled out yet again to sing Hey Jude, after the athletes had been presented, I may well have retired to bed earlier!
Anyway kids dressed in their Team GB t-shirts and we were safely installed in our car. We had expected to queue today but for the most part we were pleasantly surprised – excellent parking and shuttle service, followed by a lovely 2km stroll in the sunshine to the venue and a very slick security process (Heathrow could learn a thing or two). Only slight complaints were the long queues for free water and expensive food which meant we missed the first two races. Kids lasted a good couple of hours in the stand. All in all a lovely day where we got to talk freely to perfect strangers (wish it were possible to do this more often) and were welcomed warmly by some very helpful volunteers. Definitely a day for GB to feel proud.
‘I Did It Mummy’ fundraising for BIBS – https://www.justgiving.com/IDidItMummy
Crafty ambitions
About a month ago I decided that it would be nice if Ava made a present in honour of her brother’s 1st birthday. Ava is never one for passing up the opportunity to get crafty or should that be messy. Anyway, she chose to make a car. Materials for such projects are no longer in short supply in this household. I’d like to say that recycling has moved up my priority list and I chose to be greener off my own back but my honest streak won’t let me take credit for this. New restrictions on waste collection from the council have fed my hoarding tendencies (it’s a family trait) and much to my husband’s chagrin, I now have quite a collection of cardboard boxes from cereal packets, paper towel rolls, lids etc so no project is too big or too small for this family.
Materials required for this little project included; Easter egg box (car body), soap box (car bonnet), chocolate box plastic insert and paper towel rolls (wheels), plastic sleeves (windows), straws (chassis) and blue and orange paint, newspaper, glue, stickers, and address labels (purely cosmetic!).
From the picture below, you can see that the project morphed into a monster truck, more by accident than by design.
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- Crafty Little Lady
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- Crafty Car
Now that it is Day 2 of the Summer holidays the little lady & I will be on the look out for new ways to get crafty. Any suggestions?
‘I Did It Mummy’ fundraising for BIBS – https://www.justgiving.com/IDidItMummy
It’s ‘my’ birthday and I’ll eat what I want to
So 12 months ago today Andy and I were welcoming a bouncing baby boy into our lives for the first time and today he celebrated his first birthday. What a 12 months it has been. In some ways it feels like yesterday and in other ways it feels like Benjamin should have turned five today, as it is difficult to remember what life was like before he arrived.
Like the day he was born, the sun shone but unlike the day he was born, his diet has somewhat moved on from milk. Today for the first time Benjamin tried crisps, chocolate, ice cream and birthday cake! The little chap may get quite a surprise when fruit and veg return to the menu tomorrow.
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- Birthday Boy
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- Present Unwrapping
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- First Crisp
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- First Chocolate
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- First Ice Cream
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- 1st Birthday Cake
‘I Did It Mummy’ fundraising for BIBS – https://www.justgiving.com/IDidItMummy
1st Birthday cake DONE
Perhaps there is a little guilt behind the reason why I decided with the utmost stubbornness that I must without fail make my son his first birthday cake. This is not something I did the first time around for my daughter. On that occasion I found Costco was more than able to meet my needs. However tomorrow there will not be the first birthday party with the 50+ guests celebrating my son’s birthday. He will have to make do with Mummy, Daddy, big sis, Nana and Grandad (plus a Skype! session with his Uncle, Grandma and Grandpa who are currently residing in California). Of course I’d like to think that my daughter remembers all the fuss we made for her 1st birthday but I’m prepared to admit now that the party was more for me and there was a special reason that we wanted to thank a lot of people for what was one very challenging year ( have a look at this for more details – https://ididitmummy.com/please-support-bibs-babies-in-buscot-support/). Anyway as a stay-at-home Mum (one day I’ll get used to writing this as my ‘job’ on forms), I have fulfilled my duty and the cake is done and I’ve got to admit it’s turned out pretty well – so as the title of my blog says, ‘I Did It Mummy!’. To my 3 year old’s dismay the cake is not a George Pig cake which according to her was the wishes of her little brother. With her next birthday only a couple of months away, she can put in her request then and if I have got over the cake fatigue that has set in over the last couple of days, I may consider making her one too.
Mummy’s Little Helper 1st Birthday Cake
‘I Did It Mummy’ fundraising for BIBS – https://www.justgiving.com/IDidItMummy
Sitting is so old school Mummy
It would seem with Benjamin’s (or ‘Benjamini’ as I like to call him) first birthday fast approaching that he finally decided that sitting was not enough for him. Like an Olympian he has trained hard to achieve these milestones and after almost 6 months sat firmly on his bottom, Benjamin in the last week has now perfected the art of crawling, pulling himself up (the cot definitely needs lowering again) and cruising, not to mention tearing pages of his big sis’s favourite books (oops Mummy forgot all about that stage!) and the best one of all being able to drink from his bottle all by himself (very useful for those 5am wake up calls). The one small issue with all these great achievements is that Mummy had got a little complacent about child proofing the house and it would seem nothing is safe in these little hands. Time to hit the floor myself on my hands and knees and start moving the prized possessions once again!
‘I Did It Mummy’ fundraising for BIBS – https://www.justgiving.com/IDidItMummy
I Did It Mummy 