Birthday time....

Sunday was birthday day for my God-daughter Kira, and her twin sister Hannah. The weather held out, and everyone seemed to have a good day. :)

This was Amy, in her pretty pink dress:

And this was Bethany, in her England top! LOL

However, a few days previously, Mandy had picked up a new kitten, and he kinda stole the show! This is Bilbo playing...

And this was when it all got too much...

I'm afraid that after that I got carried away watching the England match, and forgot all about my camera! Hope you had a great birthday, Kira & Hannah!!

I'm still here....

I've not had much chance to blog recently, as I've busy dealing with some problems on my forum. Unfortunately it didn't stay on the forum, but spread elsewhere as well.

I won't bore anyone with the details (some of you will know them all anyway!), but I have learnt quite alot from it, both as an admin, and as a person.

I've learnt that some people can't be trusted, and will turn on you.. I've learnt that some people are just plain childish, no matter how intelligent or better they think they are.. but most importantly I've learnt that there are people who I can rely on for support and help.. and they're the one's that matter! :D

Aside from that, life ticks over.. Bethany has become quite involved in the World Cup, and is insistant that she wears her England kit to a party on Sunday, because we will be watching the next game there, and Amy is as cheeky as ever!

I should be back next week.. with photos from the party. :)

Summertime!

Finally we have some sun, and some warm weather. Although, I'm going to be very British, and say that's it's a bit too warm right now! (We are never happy with our weather, are we? lol)

I thought I'd post some pics of the girls:

This is Bethany, deciding that if her mum was
going to read in the garden, so was she!

Bethany again, sporting her
brand new England kit!

And finally, Amy, looking rather
cute in her summer dress!

Here we go....

So here we go.. the World Cup starts today. Are England going to make us proud, or are all those flags soon going to be ripped down in disgust?! lol

That's the trouble with England, as far as I can see.. you can never tell how they're going to play. When we think they're doing great, they get beaten, and when we're all saying how rubbish they are, they beat Germany 5-1! (I lOVED that game!)

My first memories of the World Cup must be Mexico in 1986.. not only did my mum watch it, but my best friend at school was a big football fan, so of course I became interested too. I remember being so disgusted that Maradona could get away with that 'hand of God', and of course it was all his fault that we got knocked out! ;-)

1990.. losing the semi-final to Germany in a penalty shootout. :-( What else is there to say?

1998 I remember for a different reason.. I was pregnant, and feeling rough! I'm pretty sure we were on holiday in Devon when Argentina beat us on penalties, but I remember more feeling sick and tired! :-(

2002.. knocked out by Brazil (who went on to win) in the quarter finals.

And so, what lies ahead for us in Germany................??

Amy's move to a 'big girl bed'...

I thought I'd share this little experience with you....

When we go on holiday in the summer, Amy will be too big for the travel cot, and will have no choice but to sleep in a bed. I therefore decided that I should get her moved to a bed at home. She has a cotbed, so I assumed it would be a simple enough transition for her.... wrong! lol

On a Friday evening, I had to take Beth to her nans to stay, so I took Amy for the ride. I informed hubby that this would give him time to get the bed ready. All he had to do was to remove the sides, and change one end piece, so it should be simple enough.

However, when we arrived back, he was still half way through. Amy toddled up the stairs, saw her cot in pieces, and informed me 'Daddy broke it'. I tried to distract her, but this idea carried on all evening.. daddy had broke her bed!

So, along came bedtime.. and the new bed was greeted with tears, and howls of dismay! We had to bring her down for a while, and at 10pm, Glen eventually settled her.

From there, things were fine.. no night time waking, and no falling out!

The same thing happened the next few nights.. she was most distraught when faced with bedtime, but eventually went off to sleep, and slept right through.

Finally, on Wednesday night, we seemed to have a breakthrough. Although she had fallen asleep over her night time drink, as I put her in bed, she opened her eyes, said 'goodnight mummy' and fell asleep. Then... she made up for it! Awake and crying 3 times in the night! Argh! And we had more or less the same thing on Thursday night.

I had kept the same blankets on the bed, hoping it would help the transition, but a few people suggested we try something different. So, I dug out our thinnest duvet, and a Tweenies duvet cover that Beth had had. We made a big thing about how nice it was having a 'Tweenie bed', and when I got in it at one point, Amy said 'no mummy, Amy's bed'.

And yes.. it has worked! She's back to being really good at bedtime, and she's back to sleeping through the night! :)

Now, if only I can stop Bethany crying in the middle of the night, because she's having some sort of nightmare.. that she has no recollection of the next day! :(

She can do it!

After much frustration and hair pulling, today Bethany easily swam a width of the training pool, and would have done a length, if the woman at the end had moved out of the way! It's not the smoothest swimming in the world, but that can come.. the important thing is that she can do it! :)

June already?

Is it really the beginning of June already? Another year seems to be rushing past.. by the end of the month, we'll be half way through the year.

Bethany has half a term left, and then she would have finished the equivalent of Infant School. She's been doing her SATs recently.. with her practice papers at home she's been reaching level 2 in the English papers, and level 3 in Maths, so we're waiting to see her final result.

Amy is now almost 27 months, and learning all the time.. she amazes me with the things she knows - she can count to 10, plus recognise most of the numbers, she's great with shapes and colours, and she can name loads of objects. :D

Louis has settled in well, and is getting fluffier.. photo below. Plus Hannah seems to have accepted him, so he's here to stay. It's nice to have 2 cats in the house again.

I wonder what the rest of the year has in store?