One Hot Mess

One hot mess indeed. Our bed is one hot mess. Marc & I are pushed out by a cheeky almost 2 year old who wakes inconsolable in the wee hours, refusing to go back to sleep unless brought back in with us. (I know, I know, rod, back etc but middle of the night and half asleep means weak! All promises to train her go out of the window!) Sadie then delights in spreading her full 85cm as far and as wide as she can.

This is often accompanied by kicking. And general wriggles oneness. So we get pretty poor quality of sleep. Yet can't muster enough wakefulness to sort her out. Yikes. No wonder Bloss takes herself off to bed early to enjoy some spread eagle alone time of her own!

But when this cheeky little face greets you in the morning it's hard to feel cross 💗

Linking up with Blythe at The Fike Life. Singlehandedly convincing me I am not alone in having hot messes. Regularly. 

http://thefikelife.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/one-hot-mess-vol-2.html?m=1

(Someone PLEASE teach me how to do the link thingy???)

Eleven Years

We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary yesterday! (I have just told Marc that I am writing about our marriage and he should try not to annoy me while I so it.) 

Such times. Tony Blair was Prime Minister, we saw plenty of Iraq protests and 'another' Iraq war, with a LOT of talk about weapons of Mass Destruction. Christina Aguilera was beautiful and R Kelly was remixing ignition, and we still watched CD:UK with hangovers on Saturday mornings. 

We got married May 3rd 2003 in Christ Church Clifton, Bristol. We had a huge bridal party of many little cousins, sisters and friends, and my mum gave me away. We talked about my dad a lot, but only two of my half sibling attended. My grandmother and three of Marc's grandparents were there. None are with us now. I was teaching my first class that year and so many of my little Y3 lovelies trooped from Whitehall to Clifton to be in the congregation. That makes me smile even now, those children are 19 and 20 now! We were so young and naive and made so many silly decisions in those first years. 

(look how much hair Marc had!)

The thing is, I cannot believe that was 11 year ago as I still feel as silly, young and unable to make sensible decisions. Only now I have two innocent little girls affected by all our silly decisions! 

I hope we are doing our best by them. And by us.

SUYL kids lunches

Linking up with Kelly!

www.kellyskornerblog.com

I feel like when it was only Evie eating lunch and it was just she & I at home I was more creative with her lunches! Lots of ideas were pinned on Pinterest and she enjoyed many banana slice faces on peanut butter toast, or little mice made of cheese triangle with carrot slices for ears 

Or spagghetti threaded through sausages... 

So much fun! So much time! These days work, school and an extra chiddler mean we are often left with less than inspiring lunches! Evie takes a packed lunch to school, I usually pack a ham sandwich (sometimes in a cute shape with a biscuit cutter, sometimes in a brioche roll) fruit, a yoghurt squeezie and a fruit snack. At home we often do a finger food platter (grapes,cheese cubes, apple, cold cuts, bread sticks, raisins etc) and the girls choose a selection to put on their own plates. Or we mix it up a bit with breakfast-for-lunch. Pancakes at lunchtime is always a hit! 

We love eating outside, and often make picnics, even when it's cold! 

Even better if we can share with friends!

Five Favourites

Five Favourites

I wish I knew how to link to something, I am such a newbie blogger!

http://moxiewife.com/2014/04/five-favorites-vol-55/.html

Linking up with Moxie Wife for 5 Favourites!

1. Evie's new big bow school hair band 😊

I don't know how much longer she'll tolerate big bows so I am making the most of it! I see these bows a lot on kids in the South of the US and they seem to be gettingore popular here in the UK. I can't bear the fake hair accessories that Evie always wants! Ugh! 

2. My breadmaker! 

I got an Andrew James Premium breadmaker for my birthday from my

Mum and my sister. I love it!

I feel like such an earth mother with my family sitting round eating fresh baked bread and jam (even if all I did was tip in bread mix and water and flick a switch!) I could even make the jam, that's one of the functions! (Which I am yet to try out, bet I never do!) And the smell... Wow, so may make bread just to sniff it!

3. Crimson Fields on BBC1. 

The perfect mix of 20th c. history, wartime drama and pretty things/people to look at. In the absence of Downton and Call the Midwife this will do nicely.

4. Bank Holidays! May Day approaches! A whole 3 day weekend with my girlies :-) 

Marc is doing the Isle of Wight Randonee on Sunday (a cycling event) 

So I am planning to do something lovely with my little girls. Maybe something really simple like a beach picnic, weather allowing. It's also our 11th wedding anniversary!

5. My mums lemon meringue pie: 

No one else's recipe even comes close.