Carpe Diem

I know that these mild autumn days won't last much longer and soon it will be too cold for the Podlings to spend much time playing outdoors. We are trying to make the most of these final pleasant days and get outside when we can. I took these photos at the end of our walk this afternoon as the sun was starting to set and the light levels dropped. I don't know what it is about these pictures, but I love them. I feel like I have captured a fleeting moment of their childhood on camera. I can't stop looking at the top one for some reason.
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Branching out

It was a beautiful autumn day today, so the Podlings and I went for a walk this afternoon. Next to the local park is a small coppice that Tom and Lily have Christened the tree house and they currently prefer playing in there to the park itself. I usually stand outside their little den with the pram, but today I took a little peek at them while they were playing and found the scene above. Yes, Lily is up a tree! It was only a matter of time before my adventurous little girl started her arboreal adventures. Despite her preference for dresses and all things girly, there's no denying a tomboyish streak in her. I've always said Lily is the sort of girl who will be climbing trees in a tutu, so I guess she's made a start!

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Last minute mini-beasts

Lily the social butterfly!

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Last night, the whole family attended a fancy dress disco held by Lily's playgroup. We had known about this for some while, but Tom and Lily were adamant they weren't going to dress up...until the day before the party! I spent much of yesterday cutting and hot-gluing felt in an attempt to throw together their requested costumes at the last minute. They are fascinated by all kinds of mini-beasts, so it came as no surprise that Tom wanted to be a ladybird. Lily initially wanted to be a slug (!!), but with a little guidance from me she agreed that a butterfly costume might be nicer! Emma didn't get much say in her costume, but I thought it would be sweet to have the girls both dressed as butterflies. The costumes aren't great and were put together very quickly with things I just had lying around, but the Podlings were thrilled with them nonetheless. For some reason all my photos are a bit blurry, (I think the batteries in my camera need changing) but you get the idea!

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The Podlings had a fabulous time at the disco and you couldn't get Tom off the dance floor. Emma had a little snooze when we first got there and then woke up and just took it all in. She wasn't remotely bothered by the loud music and took great pleasure in looking at the disco lights. Lily had spent all day showing me how she was going to dance at the disco, so she had a great time when we finally got there. She tends to get tired in the evening though, so she ended up sitting at the table and chatting to us. We all had a lovely evening and everyone went to bed with no fuss when we got home just after nine.
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Lily wore a dress with an all-over butterfly print (a gift from her Great Aunt), to which I attached the wings from her fairy costume. Her antennae were made from pipe cleaners and pompoms attached to one of her headbands.

Tom's ladybird costume was an old red sweatshirt turned inside out to hide the print. I simply glued some black felt to the back to make it look like a ladybird. He also had antennae made from pipe cleaners, pompoms and a headband, but he refused to put them on for the photo. He wore them all evening at the disco though.
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The littlest butterfly! I hot-glued Emma's antennae to a strip of felt. I wanted something soft and light that wouldn't bother her or make her hot. She seemed to be completely unaware she was wearing them.
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Emma sporting her pink felt butterfly wings. It's quite hard to get a picture of her back now because if you put her on her tummy she makes it her mission to roll onto her back. Here you see her in mid-roll!
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Emma enjoying her first social function!
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My Spidey sense is tingling!

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Despite being married with three children, Mark still has a fondness for the comic book heroes he loved as a boy. As Spiderman was one of his favourites, he is thrilled that Tom has started showing an interest in the wall crawling web slinger. As Mark is still known to partake of the odd 'graphic novel', I thought it would be fun to make him a Spiderman themed cake for his birthday. I should point out that this cake was more a gesture of love than a display of skill. I decorated it in a rush as I prepared tea, knowing Emma was due to wake from her nap soon. I probably got the whole thing done in ten minutes, but I was still quite chuffed with how it turned out. I would have liked a blue background instead of black, but I had to work with what I had in the cupboards (I don't drive and there isn't a convenient shop nearby). I used the leftover fondant icing from Tom's cake, so there wasn't quite enough black to completely cover the top of the cake. It didn't turn out too badly though and I think Mark was pleased with his Spidey cake.

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Happy birthday Mark!

This picture was taken by Konigsee in Germany, possibly our favourite place on Earth

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Wishing a very happy birthday to a wonderful husband, a fantastic father and the greatest of friends...

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I love you Mark!

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You are my sunshine

A large foam sun hung above the party table and smiled down at the birthday boy.

Tom had asked for a sunshine themed birthday party several weeks ago, so I had time to think about it. In the end, I thought it best to keep it simple on the grounds that I have a three month old baby about the place! Given his age, I thought that Tom would prefer a cartoon style sun, so I based the party around this image. I made all the decorations from foam and stuck them on the wall with blue tack, or hung them from the light fitting. Above the table, suspended by cotton thread, white clouds floated around a large, smiling sun. The walls sported large foam '5's and small yellow suns. We had yellow and red balloons and I made small sun-shaped place cards and stuck them to the back of Tom and Lily's chairs.

Tom's birthday cake was the obligatory Victoria sponge, sandwiched with raspberry jam. To decorate it, I coloured some white chocolate blue to represent the sky. I made the sun from brightly coloured fondant icing...the perfect cake for a five year old!

For the birthday tea, I made a sunshine birthday cake and sunshine cupcakes. Party food also included strawberry and pineapple jellies, arranged on a glass cake plate to look like the sun. I used sliced red grapes on the jelly sun to make a smiley face. Tom was quite thrilled with his sunshine party and I think I got it just right for him without exhausting myself in the process. It made my day to see how happy it made Tom to have his party request realised.
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Tom's 5th Birthday

The birthday boy

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Tom had a wonderful birthday on Sunday. We all came downstairs when he woke up and he opened his presents in his pyjamas. He was thrilled to be allowed a packet of Haribo sweets for his breakfast...a special treat for the birthday boy. He had a quiet morning enjoying his presents and playing with the marble run that Mark and I gave him. My parents arrived in the afternoon, bringing more gifts with them and Uncle Ryan turned up a little later with even more presents. Sadly, Mark's mum and dad were struck down with illness and were unable to make it on the day.

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I spent much of the afternoon in the kitchen whilst other people entertained the Podlings. I made a sunshine birthday cake and sunshine cupcakes to go with Tom's requested birthday party theme. Much food colouring was used! We all sat down to his birthday tea at 5.30pm and enjoyed lots of delicious children's party food.

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Tom was rather reluctant to go to bed and end the fun, but he had a lovely day with family and really enjoyed himself. We all had a great time!

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Opening his presents

Playing with his Quadrilla marble run. This is a fabulous toy and Mark and I had as much fun as Tom with it!

Enjoying another one of his gifts.

Blowing out the candles on his cake

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Three months old

Emma at three months of age

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Emma is three months old today and weighed 9lbs 14 oz when I had her weighed last week. The poor girl has been suffering from colds for almost the entirety of the last month and as a result her weight gain has been quite slow. She has suffered through her sniffles with good humour and remained as happy and smiley as ever until a couple of days ago when she came down with a really nasty cold. I was a little concerned at the time, but she now seems to be on the road to recovery.

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Emma is a very alert baby and during her waking hours is always looking about and taking things in. She has started grabbing at objects with some accuracy but hasn't yet worked out that she needs to move her thumb out of the way in order to grasp them. She continues to smile at everyone and everything. She laughed for the first time just after she turned two months old and now seems to find life quite amusing. With a little effort you can get the most adorable baby chuckles out of her and I find myself doing all sorts of ridiculous things just to make her laugh.

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She was sleeping through the night until she started getting poorly, but even with her colds I have usually only had to give her one night feed. We have settled into a nice routine during the day now and she goes to bed quite happily at seven. She is such a happy, contented baby and is such a joy to have in our family. She is such a little treasure.

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Happy 5th Birthday Tom!

Tom at one day old. As he was six weeks early, he had to be tube fed for the first few days. He wasn't a big fan of his tube and pulled it out himself on at least two occasions!

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The little boy that made me a mother turned five today.

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Happy Birthday Tom!

Tom at five years old playing with his new marble run
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Busy!

A completely unrelated photo of Emma, just because!

I don't seem to have found any time for blogging this week. I've been quite busy what with playgroup photos, school assemblies, doctor's appointments and getting ready for Tom's birthday and my parents' imminent visit. Life seems to be much more hectic since term started, but I am somehow getting more done with three Podlings than I ever managed with two. Very odd! Suffice to say, we are all ticking along nicely here and everyone seems to finally be getting over the colds they have been suffering from for weeks. I should have lots of pictures to share next week as my little boy turns five. He has requested a sunshine birthday party, so I'm going to have fun putting that together.

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Sleep, Baby, Sleep

There appears to be a Moses basket in the corner of my bedroom, let's get a little closer...

Nothing says 'New Baby' to me like a frilly Moses basket and I love ours. It was a gift from my parents when Lily was born and I think it is absolutely beautiful...perfect for baby girls. I suddenly realised the other day that I hadn't taken a single picture of Emma in the basket, so after her last feed of the night I tucked her up in bed, fetched my camera and went snap happy!

I think there might be a sleeping baby in there...

May angels watch her through the night and wake her sometime around seven!
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Fairy cake fun

A mini muffin tin is a useful way to present lots of decorating options without lots of mess.

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Lily isn't a big one for playing with toys. She loves art, crafts, physical activities and being read to, but more than anything she likes to be involved in whatever I'm doing. She particularly likes to help me in the kitchen and loves to bake and decorate fairy cakes. We generally have to have pink icing and then I fill a mini muffin tin with various edible decorations and let her get on with it. We made some fairy cakes yesterday morning and decorated them after lunch. When Tom got home from school, he obviously thought he'd missed out on some fun. He pulled a chair up to the side, pulled the decorations off two of Lily's cakes and then redecorated them himself. He's saving his favourite one to give to his Nanny, but as she won't be here until his birthday I'm not sure she'll want to eat it!
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The creative process

Lily decorates her fairy cakes rather sparsely as she knows she gets to eat the leftover decorations. The crafty beggar has worked out that the less she puts on the cakes, the more she gets to eat!

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Caught red-handed

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No, I do not have blood on my hands! This is what happens when you are rooting around in the back of your baking cupboard and discover too late that your bottle of red food colouring is upside down and leaking! I've tried scrubbing the colour off, but it looks like I'm going to be red handed for a while! It's sure to amuse the Podlings if nothing else!

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Party Girl

Lily attended her first non-family birthday party today. Ever since she received the invitation she has been asking me daily if it is Macie and Charlie's party today. The fourth birthday party of the twin girls she knows from playgroup was held at a local ball pool that we often take the Podlings to. We took Tom along too so he could play while Lily was at the party, but when we got there the twin's family very kindly asked Tom to join the party too as a few children hadn't turned up. The Podlings had a great time, but Lily was a little unclear on the concept of gift-giving when attending a friend's party. She asked me this evening if we could play with the gifts we'd given and looked mortified when I explained that as they were Macie and Charlie's birthday presents, Macie and Charlie will have taken them home. I think the poor girl was under the impression that you got to go to the party and keep the presents!
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All dressed up in her party frock.

I'm glad I took pictures before we left because she didn't look this neat for long. Still, what outfit isn't improved by a large red jelly stain!
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Gallivanting

All dolled up and ready to go!

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Last night Mark and I went to see Cliff Richard and the Shadows in concert. Mark's parents had very generously given us the tickets and an evening's babysitting as a gift and we have been looking forward to it for a while. We left The Young Ones in the care of their grandparents and drove down to the Birmingham NIA for an evening of Sir Cliff. It was a little strange to be Podling-free for the evening, especially as it was the first time I have been away from Emma, but Mark and I really enjoyed just being a couple for a few hours. The concert was wonderful and I can't get over Cliff's energy at the age of 69. It was my first non-classical music concert and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We were a long way from the stage, but I managed to get a few, admittedly blurry, pictures.

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It took us an age to get out of the car park and then we stopped at the good Colonel's establishment to pick up some fried chicken. By the time we had driven the hour's journey home (I slept in the car!), we didn't get to bed until half one this morning. I was up in the night to Lily and then up early for the school run, so I'm incredibly tired today. It was certainly worth the tiredness for the chance to get dressed up and spend a wonderful evening with my husband, but we are definitely having an early night tonight!

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Hank Marvin plays some mean guitar

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Sir Cliff has more energy at 69 than I have at 32, but I figure he isn't running around after three children under five on limited sleep!

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.. 50 years of practice means these people are GOOD

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