Birthday Parties

Saturday morning was my lie in day and Rob kindly brought me up some bacon rolls and a cuppa at 9:30.  I got up short after and eventually got the boys ready for the party.  Ellis didn't like his costume to start with but as soon as he was given the sword, he was much happier.  Leo on the other hand loved it all.  He looked so cute!

The party was in a hall on our road so we walked down and arrived just as the music was getting started.  They played games, ate some food, ran around, had play fights, danced a little and ate lots of sweets.

At bath time I grabbed the camera as they were all sat in a row and I thought it would make a great picture, but I was too late.  I did manage to get these though and I love them!

Once they were all tucked up in bed I went to Sophie's house for a takeaway and a chat.  Lush.

I did the early shift the following day and I took Ellis to his tennis lesson and I sat and watched.  I wasn't that impressed actually as he was pretty much left to do what he wanted.  He was supposed to try and bounce the ball on his racket but he just wacked it, chased it, wacked it again etc.  No skill training really.  I'm going to take him again next week and see if it's any different.

Straight back home and changed for another party.  This time a swimming party.  Rob went back to bed while I got everything and everyone ready, including loading the car.  He got up and dressed and straight in the car!

The swimming party was excellent and we all really enjoyed it.  Leo was off floating around not nervous, Oscar had a permanent grin and Ellis was just constantly practicing his new skill of going under the water.  It was ace!

We had a ball fight at one point with my sister and Chloe.  It was quite funny and I got hit with a really good shot on the side of my face.  Ellis got hit too and I was expecting him to be unhappy about it but he was as cool as a cucumber.

Usually going swimming is quite stressful.  The stressful bit is the changing room.  I try to make it as easy as possible.  I give Rob his own bag so he can sort himself out, I try to keep everything in neat piles and I generally have an order as to who gets ready/changed first.  With Rob there that can get a bit mixed up as he helps to undress them, sometimes when I'm already undressing one etc and it gets a bit chaotic.  This time however it wasn't too bad.  I think it helps that they are all getting older and can help us out a bit too.

We stayed behind for a while after to have some cake, sing Happy Birthday, feed the kids and to let them have a play in the park area.

Ellis wanted to show Daddy his bike he wants for his birthday so we popped over to the shop so he could have a look.

We then went straight up to my Mum and Dad's house to borrow some things for our bikes.  We are going on holiday soon and we wanted to take our bikes with us but we are trying to sort out what we actually need to take.  We now have options though.  We have a single trolley, a double trolley, a bar to connect a child's bike to an adult bike and a seat on the back of a bike.

We came home and Rob went out to sort out something on my car and I sorted out the boys dinner and bed stuff so that I could go to yoga with them all sorted, ready for Rob to just put them to bed.  It was chaotic to say the least, but I got it done and managed to leave on time.

There was only 2 of us at the yoga session but it was really good as we managed to get a lot done, and Vivien practiced too.

I got home and Rob and I sat up chatting about stuff into the wee hours and I knew I would pay for it for the next few days.  I just hoped I didn't take it out the boys too much.  I'm not good when tired.

Black Eye

Busy, busy as always!  I actually have a social life now that Rob doesn't work away, which is great and I'm loving it.  This does mean that my evenings are tied up and I end up not being able to do any blogging.  I tend to go to bed quite late too and the kids are always up early.  Pretty tired most of the time at the moment but I just can't get myself to bed early as I feel like I'm giving up too much me time.

On Wednesday, Mum and I went to Ikea.  It was good fun really.  Mum talked me out of buying some shelving units for the play room then about 20 minutes before we needed to leave, decided to talk me back into buying them again.  Mad rush later, and it was all sorted, but I had a head ache.

Oscar was quite moody going around the shop.  I eventually got him to sleep but it didn't last long.  I soon worked out what the problem was when I got home as his promptly filled his nappy!  Poor thing only wanted to have a poo.

That evening I went to see Angela's house and to have some tea and biscuits her sisters, Lucy and Jaimie and mine too.

Oscar hasn't been quite right recently.  I think it is the MMR jab as he has had a slight rash, raised temperature and isn't eating that well.  He is also sleeping loads!  On Thursday he eventually woke up at 9:30am then went back to bed at 11am for 3 hours!  I just let him sleep as I knew he wasn't feeling well.

Because Oscar wasn't well and was sleeping a lot, we didn't go swimming this week but I wasn't worried about that as I knew we had Ashlee's swimming party coming up on Sunday.

I put Leo down for a nap too, which was a bad idea in hindsight, but I used the time to put the shelving units together.  I found it quite hard work really and managed to pull something in my back, which is still hurting now (10th May).

I was quite grumpy by the afternoon and was pleased to have stayed in my pyjamas all day.  I even picked Ellis up from school in them.  Leo and Oscar were in theirs too! HAHA!  No one noticed and I wouldn't care if they did.  I just wanted to stay comfy so I stuck my wellies and coat on and went over.  Not that bad really, is it?

I didn't take Ellis to football as I didn't think it would be on and we didn't go to Nanny's either as our day has changed to Tuesday so we all just chilled out at home.

That evening Rob was away seeing friends and I had invited my Mummy lot over but only Charlotte could make it.  I managed to get all the boys in bed at a reasonable time, to clear up in 20 minutes (I have no idea how I did that!), ordered Chinese and got the kettle on.  Charlotte arrived at 7:33pm as planned, 3 minutes after the food arrived, and not long after, Leo woke up for his first wee.

I was up and down the stairs like a yo-yo!  It was ridiculous.  The boys are never THAT much trouble but they chose the night I had a friend over for food to kick off.  Oscar was not a happy bunny and I couldn't work out why.  I thought it was wind but I eventually gave him a bottle at about 9:30pm and he went off to sleep by 10pm.  If only I had thought of that sooner!

Leo was on and off the toilet and then eventually he filled up his pull up which then overflowed and got the bed soaked!  So I had to change him and his bed too.  Crazy timing!

I did, however, manage to have a lovely evening chatting in between running up and down the stairs and apologising to Charlotte.

Oscar obviously slept in the following morning!

After dropping Leo off at preschool on the Friday morning, I stayed behind to have a look at his learning diary.  I looked at the whole thing with a great big grin on my face.  He is doing so well and I couldn't be more proud.  Here are some pictures I took from the book.  You might not be able to see them.  One of the pictures is of Leo shaking hands with the tarantula!

Feeling rather drained from the last couple of days of a grumpy Oscar and Leo weeing every 3 seconds that I tried not to do too much.  That lasted for about 30 minutes.  Oscar was fed up and as soon as I sat down he would moan at me so I actually ended up doing loads and finished off the playroom.

Before...

...after.

For some reason I did 2 videos!

I picked Leo up and helped Sophie get all the kids home that she looks after as well as her own, and went straight back to pick Ellis up.

Leo wanted to take his buggy with him to pick Ellis up and I thought it was quite a nice idea.

Not long after getting Ellis I noticed that he had a dark area around one eye. On closer inspection, I realised that he had a black eye!  He said a boy at lunchtime hit him with his head, by accident. He was very brave.

Uncle Dave came over to watch Leo and Oscar for me so that I could take Ellis to his swimming lesson.  He is doing so well!  He spends most of his time with his face in the water now.  It's all happened so quickly.  I'm very proud of him and I love watching him practicing.

After swimming I took him to the local shop where he tried out his bike again and picked out a fancy dress costume for Alfie's birthday party the next day.  He is going as a red Power Ranger but he doesn't even know what that is!

I was supposed to be going out in the evening, but it got changed a couple of times and then eventually cancelled.  I was so tired I didn't complain and was quite happy to sit at home.  Still didn't get an early night though.  Silly me.

Phobia

I'm hurting.  HAHA!  I know I pushed myself, and I probably shouldn't have on my first time doing any type of exercise in about 3 years, but I wanted to make the most of it.   I've just worked that out and can't believe it's been that long!

Been a busy old day but at least I haven't got wet today.  It's done nothing but rain recently.  To be honest I'm not that bothered about the rain.

The boys, and I, for some reason are totally shattered today.  Leo had red eyes this afternoon and kept saying he was tired.  He had a nap this morning too.  In fact I couldn't get him up! It was actually quite funny as I jumped on him, blew raspberries on his belly and he just laughed, stayed in bed and then shouted downstairs to me that he was still in bed, laughing.  Very cute.

He was really good at Jolly Babies today too.  He packed his ruck sac full of stuff from the play room, put it on his back and rode on the buggy board to the class.  He was so proud of it.  He put it next to him on his mat and took part in the class, singing, doing the actions, playing with the instruments and dancing.

Back at home he sat on the iPad for a bit and I got Ellis some food.  Then suddenly, Leo started screaming like you wouldn't believe.  He was crying, shaking, wet himself and couldn't stop screaming.  I soon worked out what it was, the tinniest fly you have ever seen.  I mean it was smaller than a green fly!  I tried to show him that it was okay, I had it on my finger and I tried talking to it and stuff but it didn't work.

I calmed him down, took him to the toilet and as I went to get him some new pants, it all started again!  The poor thing had spotted a bit of fluff on one of his socks and thought it was another fly!  I have no idea where this phobia has come from but it's pretty extreme.  Throwing up and fainting are the only things worse that I think he could do.  Lots of cuddles later he settled down but had wiped himself out and complained of being tired from then on.

We were early for Ellis' dance class so I whipped around Sainsburys, twice, (I forgot something) then went to the park which was really nice for Oscar too, who sat in the swing for ages.

We had some time after dancing before bedtime so I used it to deliver thank you letters for Oscar's presents.  It was quite nice really and Leo and Ellis got out the car to post them.  I managed to catch a couple of people home so had a little natter too.

It worked great, as we got in and I put them all to bed.  They would have taken a couple of minutes to go to sleep but Rob came home and went in to see them so of course they got up for a wee, then they were hungry so they ate and drank, which meant we had to put them on the loo later on and then it took them ages to go to sleep.

They were good this morning though, only coming in to get me at 7am.

Oscar is a bit poorly with a cold but has a raised temperature too so I think it may be to do with the MRR jab a bit.  I've been giving him paracetamol but he isn't very happy, poor baba.

Sophie came over this morning with Ted and him and Leo trashed the place while I tried to put the food shopping away.

I've just left the mess and I'm hoping to go to Ikea tomorrow to pick up a storage unit and boxes.

We went straight up Nanny and Grandad's after school where we ate my favourite meal of sausages, mash, peas and gravy, yum yum.

I got home quite late as I wasn't in any rush but Ellis and Oscar were hanging.  Ellis was slurring his words and struggling to keep his head up on the way home. Bless him.

Leo on the other hand was still crying and going to the toilet every 5 minutes, at 9pm!  He has preschool tomorrow so will be extra tired tomorrow night, yay!

Because of coming home late and sitting doing my blog I've used up my whole evening in a blink of an eye.  It's 23:05, so much for my early night!  I'm off for shower and bed.  Night x