Pictures

I have to admit. I'm not a real picture person. I mean I like pictures but don't take a lot of pictures, print out picture or feel the need to capture every moment in pitures. I am trying to get better with the kids, but Phil is the reason we have most of them.

Anyway, I have been looking at a few peoples pictures on Facebook and the replies to ours from Corsica and I am struck by how fake they can be. Fake might be the wrong word but I mean rarely do the accurately represent a situation. For example- when we were on holiday we took some BEAUTIFUL pictures of the kids. It looked like we had a great time! AND to anyone who has young kids now knows what I mean, but in honesty there were lots of tears in between these beautiful pictures. Just going to the beach is a HUGE effort and there was sand in the picnic pasta (mostly my fault), my sweet little English kids aren't used to so much sun and broke out in heat rash, and we covered them in thick glue sunscrean only to have it run into their eyes they- cue more crying . Joel loved building the sand castles! However, we learned that building sand castles is more of an art that we remembered so 50% of the time the castle worked and Joel was thrilled and 50% it didn't work and he was heart broken. Every time he went to lift the bucket off we held our breath! Anyway, the trip was great fun, but I don't know that the pictures we posted accurately capture our experience. But I'm not sure you would want to capture EVERY moment=)

However, if he had some how captured all this would anyone want to look at these photos? Would we proudly share them on Facebook?

That was a bit of a bad example cause I don't mean it all has to be what a picture captures. But I don't really get why people like to have pictures of themselves looking.. well.. when they think they are looking good. I think capturing a fun/special moment is great but not just cause "hey we look good lets show everyone how good we think we look!" Again that sounds harsh but I just don't get it!

Domestic Goddess

Growing up I always imagened I would be some sort of Domestic Goddess. I don't really know where this came from, but I thought it would just happen when you had kids. Well it didn't!! I am still very challenged. With baking you need to be at least a little artistic and I don't have an artistic bone in my body. Saying all that I still insist on making birthday cakes. I don't know why I do it. Joel's brithday was a few weeks ago and I spent hours making his cake. And yes he did LOVE it and he still talks about it, but I am still debating if it was worth all the pain. It involved multiple trips to different shops and I ended up having to make two separate cakes and sticking them together. Although I think I am getting better. Here is what you've all been waiting for...

Not the best pictures. But I think you get the idea. The thing in the middle is "George" Joel's monkey.

Here's to hoping they improve over the years and Domestic Goddess is someday achieved!

Fun together=)

Joel has always adored Alice. He really is the best big brother. He is so excited that Alice is now crawling and moving about. They have started playing together.

This was the first time I caught them really playing. Or I should say it was the first time I found Joel let Alice into his wonderful world of play. They were "driving to the balls" (balls is our local soft play).

Then later that week I found Joel teaching Alice how to do "planting". He was talking her through what to do and letting her help. Very very sweet!

too much time on my hands...

Phil was away for a few weeks with work so I got up to a few jobs around the house. We had this old set of drawers that we couldn't find a place for and I couldn't be bothered to take them to the rubbish tip so I came up with this...

My dad made a trip over and he helped but I am proud to say just about everything was stuff that we had around the house. All in all it cost about £10. The kids LOVE it and I fee very proud. Thinking about taking orders=)

Fresh hair?

Joel and I were talking over breakfast about how nice it is when we eat outside. I said something about the fresh air and Joel waited a minute then shoved his hair in my face and said "mummy do I have fresh hair?"

haha- that was a fun one to break down=)

i got told!

Joel has started asking "why" to everything! So I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Joel- I'm hungry

me- why?

Joel- cause i want something to eat.

me- why?

Joel- stop being ridiculous mummy!

Didn't go so well.

Life in Leicester

I was in Sainsbury's today. For those of you who don't live in the UK I think of this as a nicer grocery store. Its not your super wal-mart so you get a different type of client. EXCEPT on Mother's day weekend! Then the hoards set out trying to get mum something special but not expensive. Cause its the thought that counts=) Anyway, tomorrow is Mothering Sunday and the shop of full of dads with little ones trying to get something for mum. I was loving it. There was one pair in particular that I found hilarious. The dad was clearly annoyed and said to his son "well, you've not got any ideas!" The kid was only about 4. I so badly wanted to follow them to the check out to see what they ended up with.

It got me thinking about this "holiday" in general. Is it a good thing that we need a special day to celebrate? Are things so bad that we need to be reminded to say cheers mum? Well, that's what the English cynic inside me says.

Then there's the American side of me that LOVES it. I am excited about my little ones running in with breakfast. And I think that there is a lesson in there for kids that its good to say thank you and to step back and make mum feel special.

Well, thanks mom for all that you've done for me over the years. I will try to remember the US one this year. Sorry about last year, lets say the English side of me took over=). Love you.