Just keep swimming...

I think my brain has turned to mush. This no deadlines, no essays, no thinking required has been great but I'm now really looking forward to going to University in a few weeks! I have even started my stationary purchases (three pads and an academic diary for fellow stationaryphiles)in preparation.

I finally chased up SAAS to find out what was happening with my funding as I hadn't heard anything - turns out my application was processed the day after I applied way back at the beginning of June but a letter had not been generated. Odd, but I now know how much funding I'm getting. On top of that I have been looking into other funding I can apply for. After the debacle of organising childcare funding last year I am going to be much more prepared so that I do not break down in tears in the Funding Department office.

Despite looking forward to getting back into studying, I am thoroughly enjoying having more time with the children. Elise is absolutely hilarious at the moment and comes out with the funniest things. Example: 'I'm playing at crocodiles...ribbit ribbit ribbit'. due to the typical Scottish summer holiday weather we've been partaking in one of our favourite family pastimes - watching movies! I now know Finding Nemo off by heart.

Anyway, it's that exciting part where they get swallowed by a whale! Must dash!

3 things February - 9th February

1. Due to holidays, an inservice days and ANOTHER timetable change, I'm off college for a whole week! Wahey!

2. Had Philosophy today and really beginning to enjoy it - I even went and got a book out the library to read while we're off! That's dedication for you.

3. Elise kissing everyones heads, then making everyone kiss hers - was very sweet and adorable.

Manic Monday

Andrew's not well today, he has a sore throat and a barking cough. So he's home from school today, which is fine as it's catch-up week at college and we don't need to be in today. Because there's no college, I didn't see any reason to take Elise into nursery so she's home too. And poor wee Lewis had to go to school so I though it would be nice to let him come home for lunch and cover his uniform in tomato soup for the afternoon.







I've been listing things on Ebay this morning and discovered as my account is fairly new, there's a 10 listings per month limit til I get my Paypal verified. Frustrating!
Anyway, I *should* be studying for two NABs we have on Wednesday.

Holidaaay!

Hurrah, it's the October week! Now it's Tuesday it's slightly less than a week til I go back to college but never fear, we have been given a mountain of homework lest we forget about it!

Finally finally got the childcare funding sorted out - unfortunately it won't cover the after-school care for the boys and it's just too much for us to manage ourselves so they're finishing up there in a couple of weeks and my Mum is going to help out with that side of things for the time being (thank you Mum).

Our assessments start in November (eek!). Sociology is finally beginning to make more sense to me now, so I'm not so panicked about never being able to figure it out. It's getting there, slowly but surely.

Anyway, hope you're all enjoying your half-term break.

Back to School

Okay I'm slightly late with this as the boys went back to school on Monday, but it's still their first week! So that's okay. Here they are in their uniform:



I've had a few people comment on how early it seems for them to be going back to school - here in Scotland the schools break up towards the end of June and they go back in mid-August. I have no idea why it's different up here but perhaps it's because August here is more like Autumn than Summer, and we're more likely to get better weather in July (HAH!). Ironically our best weather was back in June when they were still at school, wee shame.

A whole new world

Well the boys went off to school this morning and Elise had her first nursery visit - which, in all honesty, could have gone a little bit better. To start off with, the woman I had been dealing with was off on annual leave. No-one else knew we were supposed to be there today and after some gentle enquiries we managed to get a tour... of the wrong room!
We got a very in-depth tour and explanation of the room for the 3-5 year old's, despite me saying she was only 19 months. As I was getting shown the miniature toilet block I was frantically trying to calculate the logistics of toilet training a 1 year old in 2 weeks. I finally managed to convey to our tour guide that I thought we were being shown the wrong room - we got a look around the younger kids room and are now booked in for a proper visit to prepare Elise for starting at the end of the month - so we go back tomorrow morning and I will try not to cry as she shoves me out the door and turns her back on me.

Sunshine on a rainy day...

Yesterday I was perusing a few blogs and came across the perfect rainy day crafting project to do with the boys - so I had a wee practice (nothing worse than them slaving over something only for it to not work out, nothing to do with my childish sense of impatience at all) and posted a little teaser picture on Twitter to see if any of my followers could guess what it was. I thought it looked like questionable scrambled eggs, however I did receive one correct guess (and a few wrong ones) - it's a PVA glue/tissue paper window sticker, as inspired by this blog post over at Cooking, Cakes and Children by Amy Lane. If you check out Amy's post, it tells you exactly how to make one if you or your kids fancy having a go at it.


This morning my practice sticker was all finished, and it was fitting that it was pouring with rain given that I had made a sun.




Here are the boys busily working away on their own stickers. We all decided to make rainbows.




And here they are waiting to dry. There is a lot of PVA glue on these bad boys so I'm expecting them to be ready to stick up around about November.



The boys thoroughly enjoyed making their own window stickers and it was very easy for them to get on with and do themselves. It's a nice, simple little activity for a day stuck inside and takes up enough time to keep them occupied for a while but not so long that they get fed up. Definitely one we'll be filing away to do again.


In other 'sunshine on a rainy day' news, Elise's nursery called today to make a date for her first nursery visit (16th August) and to confirm what date I wanted her to officially start on (30th August). So in less than 4 weeks my baby is going for her first nursery visit then at the end of August she will be officially attending nursery! I explained all this to her earlier, and her response was to laugh in my face and say 'Muummaayyy' in a slightly condescending fashion. I have a feeling we're going to have to take Important Big Girl Nursery Business a bit more seriously than that! Like the 86 forms I have to fill in before she starts.

Have you had any rays of sunshine on this rather grey and dreary day?

Baby got Back

We're home! Had a truly lovely two weeks in the sunshine of Normandy but I'm glad to be home.

We stayed in La Vallee, Houlgate through Keycamp and I think we would definitely do this kind of holiday again - the kids loved it and the park itself was lovely.


I flew out with Elise and my sister Sarah - long story short - the rest of the family drove/ferried over and once they arrived my brother was meant to come get us from the airport. It was all timed to perfection. So of course something went wrong - my brother was late to the campsite so we had to entertain an 18 month old who had had NO SLEEP from around 6-9pm in the stifling heat and metropolis that is Beauvais Tille airport (shop count = 1). I also informed my sister 'Oh it's okay I've got enough money to get us some dinner while we wait' before realising it was all Sterling. We had muffins and went for a wander (or 6) around the airport.

That evening, we got lost and eventually arrived in the campsite at 5.30am. I should point out we should have been there for around 9pm the night before if everything had gone to plan.

So that was exciting. Apart from that neverending nightmare of a start, the holiday was a great success I think.



We went to the beach!



We wore our special holiday purchases that Mummy had been getting stressed about arriving in time (and looked adorable)



We met some interesting creatures.



There were waterfights...



And games of cricket on the beach.



And sometimes it just all got a bit too much...


Are you going anywhere nice this year?

*The observant amongst you may have noticed theres a heck of a lot of extra children in these pics - they are my nephews as this years holiday was a big family affair with my brother, his wife and their kids, both my sisters and our parents.

We are victorious!

I just got some truly excellent news - we have a nursery place for Elise! I am so happy - and it proves a little determination pays off as I have no doubt my phone calls pestering them probably helped (we're all best mates now). So I have one less thing to panic and stress about!

Join me while I do a little jig of victory why don't you?

An Introduction to... Lewis

I'd like to introduce you to my lovely second born, Lewis, today. Lewis is 5 at the moment and just coming to the end of his first year of primary school. Despite being incredibly intelligent (I've been calling him Baby Genius since he was about 5 months old), he's not into blowing his own trumpet - that's my job. On numerous occasions recently he has managed to work out a mathematical problem before me, which is beginning to become a bit of an embarassment.


My mum is so silly. Everyone knows that 457x23 is 10511. Sake!

He has also been on the receiving end of Head Teacher awards in school for his fantastic story writing - in fact his writing has been compared to being of the level expected of a child in P3! We're incredibly proud of how he is doing in school.

Last year we discovered that Lewis has glue ear and he had to go in for a wee operation to have gromets put into his ears and his adenoids removed. He recovered really well and we've noticed a huge difference in him. He's not called Lewis...Lewis...LEWIS...LLEEEWWIIISSSS! any more. Just Lewis.


SORRY, WHAT DID YOU SAY? WHAT?

Lewis loves swimming - he's like a penguin. Slightly awkward on dry land and beautifully graceful in the water. Although not the sportiest of children, this seems to be his activity of choice as not only does he have a knack for it he really enjoys it as well.


You're still here?

So that is my little Lewis - not that he's all that little any more. After the summer he will be going into P2!

An Introduction to... Elise

I thought it would be nice to take some time to introduce you to the important people in my life, starting with the children. First off, allow me to introduce you to the little diva of the house - Elise!

Elise is the baby at only 17 months old. She was induced 11 days early due to oligohydramnios on the 3rd of January 2009, a beautiful little girl to complete our family. There have been no lasting effects of this condition (it can sometimes indicate kidney problems in the baby), and has never been explained (my waters hadn't broken). It was a very quick labour (44 mins in established labour) but this was preceded by 2 days of NOTHING happening. By the time she was born at about 7.45pm I was desperate to get home and managed to get them to let me leave the next day - I went to the local supermarket to pick up some pink things (we hadn't found out the gender) and the checkout girl asked how old she was - I'm not sure she believed me when I told her 22 hours!


She is the most sunny natured little thing for the majority of the time, however she has also mastered the art of tantrumming perfectly and a lot younger than my boys ever did. Stay on her good side though and she'll keep you laughing.


She started suffering from eczema in the winter there which at times was quite bad, thankfully the better the weather has got the more her skin has cleared up - and we hope that she will grow out of it altogether as she gets older. It doesn't hinder her cool quotient in any way though


Anyway, that's a brief introduction to my gorgeous girl! Stay tuned to meet the rest of the madhouse over the next few days.