A proper haircut

.
As you could probably tell from recent pictures, Tom was long overdue a haircut. This afternoon we took him for his first trip to a hairdressers (I have always cut his hair myself). He was a bit nervous about going and certainly didn't enjoy having his mass of curls combed out before the haircut. He was very good though and endured it all quietly. He seemed a little happier once the cutting began and he realised the worst was over. He watched the procedure quietly in the mirror and was basically a little angel. He looks like a proper little boy again...I probably shouldn't leave it so long between haircuts!
.

Podlings and their presents

Emma completely failed to get the concept of presents and was totally uninterested in any gift given to her with paper on. She couldn't even be tempted to tear the paper. Once someone opened the present for her however, she never failed to give a smile at the gift inside. One of her favourite toys was the new humming top we gave her to replace the old one that broke a few months ago. She loves books at the moment and this picture shows her engrossed in 'Hug' by Jez Alborough.

.

Lily looked absolutely gorgeous in her red Christmas dress for approximately one hour. At that point she opened her Snow White costume and immediately wanted to put it on. Not long after, she decided to change into the bride costume she received. She ended up in her new dressing gown (long before bedtime!). Here she is playing with the new barn we gave her for her Schleich animals.

.

Tom was thrilled to get lots and lots of Mr Men and Little Miss books for Christmas. He spent much of the afternoon lining them up in the hallway. He has never outgrown his desire to create orderly rows of similar objects! He did a lot of drawings with his new pens and had a lovely day playing quietly with all his new things. He is such a delightful boy! Here he is playing with his new extended marble run with his daddy.

.

Christmas morning

.
Lily and Emma woke up at a fairly respectable 7.45am this morning and since I was already awake they both came into our room to open stockings. Lily opened Emma's stocking first and then her own. She was rather enamoured of the harmonica Father Christmas left her. The rest of us were slightly less thrilled!

Tom woke up about half an hour later and opened his stocking downstairs. The Podlings were keen to get on and open their bigger presents, so we let them open a few before stopping for a big family breakfast. We are all staying with Mark's parents over Christmas and his brothers and their ladies came for a lovely cooked breakfast. The main present opening came after we'd eaten. Father Christmas was very generous to the Podlings this year...they must have been very good!
.

 Emma had no idea that the pretty parcels had anything in them, but she did appreciate the lovely obstacle course someone had placed under the Christmas tree!

.

'When can I open my presents?'

.

Podlings in pyjamas

.
It has become the tradition in our family that on Christmas eve, the Podlings get new pyjamas. Tom and Lily loved their new nightwear and Emma, though largely indifferent, looked very cute anyway. It was too much to hope for a picture of all three of them together, but I did manage to get quite nice individual photos.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas 

Lily has wanted a nightdress for rather a long time and was over the moon with the one she received this evening. She looks like an angel in this beautiful nightie...don't be fooled!

 .

I couldn't find any nice Christmas babygros at a price I was prepared to pay, so I embroidered a plain white one with Emma's monogram, bullion knot roses and stem stitch round the neck and cuffs. I will put up a more detailed picture of the embroidery at some point. The best way to get a picture of my active little Emma in her pyjamas was to turn on the cartoons and snap away while she was mesmerised. I swear she didn't move for at least 10 minutes!

..

Sneak peek

.
A glimpse of what my girls will be wearing on Christmas day...red needlecord pinafore dresses by Sarah Louise with matching embroidered blouses . I love Sarah Louise. They make very traditional clothing and if I were a wealthy woman my girls would be dressed in Sarah Louise outfits all the time!

Peter Pan collars, bullion knot roses, smocking, Christmas reds...could these dresses be any more perfect! I can't wait to see Lily and Emma wearing them on Christmas day. It's enough to melt a mother's heart just thinking about it!
.

I feel I should point out that I never pay full price for my girls' designer dresses. eBay is my friend!
.

Cuddles with Grandad

Lily and her grandad watching 'The Princess and the Frog' together on Sunday evening

.

Shameless plug

.
The lovely lady in this photo is none other than my younger sister Elaine, taken on her wedding day in 2008. She is a woman of many talents, not least of which include having to put up with having me for a big sister. She has always been the artist in the family and I greatly admire her skill in this area. Elaine has recently combined her talent for drawing with her wonderful dry sense of humour in a fantastic new blog. It's called Mindless Receptacle and you have to go and read it right now. Seriously...why are you still here?
.

Dear Father Christmas...

Tom's letter

Lily's letter

.

Off to the fayre

Santa baby!

This afternoon the Podlings and I went to the Christmas fayre at Tom and Lily's school. There aren't many places where I can give the children a pound each and expect to get much for it, but a pound will buy you quite a lot at the school fayre. Tom couldn't believe his luck when he found a Mr Men book he doesn't have for a mere 10p. We had a pleasant time and came back with a selection of goodies, not least of which was the very box of sweets we sent in for the fayre ourselves. Tom was rather thrilled to win them in the tombola since he rather fancied them when he took them in!

I have to confess to feeling incredibly guilty that I didn't make anything for the bake table. I had planned to make a batch of my fairy cakes, but with the whole family being ill this week and preparing for a long business trip for Mark, I simply didn't have the time. When I saw how little they had on the bake table I felt really bad. I'll have to make a double batch for the summer fayre to ease my conscience. I hadn't actually promised to bring anything, I just like to contribute where I can and I'm good at heaping guilt on myself!

I put Emma in a cute little Santa hat for our outing to the Christmas fayre. My mum knitted it for Tom's second Christmas, along with a matching cardigan. All the Podlings have now worn it, though it was a bit big for Emma when she wore it last year. It matches her red coat and dress so perfectly I couldn't resist taking her picture before I put her in the pram. I can't resist dressing the children in red in December...it's so Christmassy!
.

Lily, being Lily, had to take a turn wearing the hat too!

.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Tom and Lily decorated the Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon, shortly before Lily came down with a nasty fever. I haven't actually rearranged any of the ornaments as I think they did a really good job this year. I put on the lights, the ribbon and the angel and Mark and I put a few decorations on the higher branches to balance the tree out a bit, but they did the rest and had a lovely time doing it. I took a gamble and put the tree in the lounge, but thankfully Emma isn't as obsessed with it as I thought she might be. She already knows she's not supposed to take the baubles off the tree and tries to get away with merely tickling them when she thinks no one is looking! So far no breakages!

Emma loved exploring the box of baubles.
.

A walk in the snow

.
Mark has been working from home this week because of the bad driving conditions. This meant that when I put Emma down for her nap today I was able to head out on my own and take my camera for a walk in the snow. I only went for a walk round the back of the house, but it was blissful. There was no one else around and I relished the opportunity to be alone with my thoughts as I tried to capture some of the beauty around me. I'm no photographer, but I wanted to share a few of my favourite pictures from my walk.

 Frost on catkins

.

.

 I wasn't the only one out for a walk this afternoon!

.

 Rosehips in the snow

.

As I walked home I startled a flock of starlings. I pointed the camera and hoped for the best!

(You can click on the picture to make it larger. You'll have a better chance of seeing the birds if you enlarge the photo!)

.

.

Pygmy snowman

.
The school was closed again today, so Lily and I got to build our snowman after all. We waited until Emma went down for her nap, left poorly Tom in the care of Daddy and headed to the garden to pile up some snow. Lily tends to get cold and fed up before we make much progress, so any snowman we make together tends to be on the small side. I think this might actually be one of our smallest yet, but Lily loves it. We used berries to make the face and buttons...I think our usual stones and carrot approach might have been a bit over the top for our pygmy snowman!
.

 .

Lily wanted a picture with her Daddy and the snowman, so Mark braved the cold in just his shirt to oblige her.

.

Lily's snow day

.
It didn't come as any surprise that Tom and Lily's school was closed today. This didn't make any difference to Tom who is very unwell at the moment, so wouldn't have been going to school today anyway. Lily, on the other hand, woke up thrilled to discover that not only was it snowing, but that she got to stay home and play in it. Lily had a lot of fun today and I took a lot of pictures of her and Emma in the snow. Poor Tom spent most of the day in bed or on the sofa and didn't want me to take his picture. My poor boy is not at all well!

Lily and Emma had some playtime in the garden before lunch and Lily had a lot of fun making snow angels and throwing snowballs at me. After lunch, with Emma safely tucked up in bed, Mark and Lily took the sledge out for its maiden voyage. Lily has never been sledging before and she loved it. They were out for quite some time before the inevitable returning home in tears because her hands were cold. I well remember that feeling from my own childhood!

I stripped off her wet clothes, wrapped her in a blanket and plied her with hot chocolate and Lebkuchen. Before long she had warmed up and was smiling again. I really hope they close the school again tomorrow as I love having my Podlings home. It will give us a chance to build the snowman we didn't get around to today too!

 Sledging with Daddy

.

 I think her face says it all!

.

Back up the hill for another run.

 .

Baby, it's cold outside!

 .

Hot chocolate in a special cup, Lebkuchen and a warm blanket...all is well with the world!

.

I can't hear you!

I've been rather fancying a pair of ear muffs. I love hats, but hate the resulting flat hair you end up with afterwards. Ear muffs provide the perfect solution...warm ears without the resulting hat hair, These aren't quite what I had in mind, but they did the trick. They are the ones I bought for Lily last year, but she said they hurt her head so she wouldn't wear them. Waste not want not!
.

Emma's snow day

Please, please let me out!

Freedom! Mummy said I should wear mittens because snow is cold, but I know better.

Oh my, It is rather cold isn't it!

Wow, white stuff is falling from the sky! I wonder if I can eat it.

I wonder if you can skate on snow.

.

Emma's snow day would have lasted longer has she consented to wearing mittens. After about 10 minutes she started crying because her hands were cold. Not as loud as she cried when I make her come inside! Emma hates being indoors when she could be out!

.

Cooking with mother

Emma has recently taken to wanting to help me out with the cooking. One might say she insists upon it, which makes meal preparation somewhat challenging. I was trying to fry some onions and garlic for the start of the pasta sauce I was making this evening when my littlest lady started her shenanigans. I used to be able to fob her off with a saucepan and wooden spoon of her own, but she has recently twigged that real meal prep involves food. I was suddenly struck with the notion of giving her a few broken biscuits to play around with while I cooked and popped some Digestives in her saucepan. What a hit! Lily came out and wanted in on the action, so before long the two girls were sat happily on the kitchen floor crushing up Digestives with wooden spoons and having a ball. Kept them occupied until tea was ready, though I did have a few crumbs to sweep up afterwards. Okay 'a few' might be playing it down a bit, but at least we were all happy!
.

 Emma samples her 'cooking'

.

 And that's why I can't let her help me!

.

Lily pops a batch of biscuit crumbs in the oven.

.

It's very...ummm...pink!

.
Lily is a typical four year old girl, which for anyone who doesn't have recent experience of four year old girls means that she loves Disney Princesses and pink. Preferences which lead us to the current solution to the toy situation in Lily's bedroom. Behold, the new delight of Lily's heart, her Disney Princess drawer unit!

Lily likes toys that have lots of bits. Lots of bits that were spreading their way all over her floor and stopping me from getting in there with the hoover. Something had to be done! We saw this drawer unit in Tesco the other day for the rather reasonable price of £12.48 and thought it might be the solution we were looking for. Now in an ideal world, The Solution would have been something tasteful in white and pastels with Beatrix Potter characters on it, but then I'm not a four year old girl so what do I know!
.
This unit is working really well and Lily is able to keep her room tidy without help. Her play food is in the bottom drawer, the middle drawer contains her Disney Princess dolls and their accessories and the top drawer is for everything else. 'Everything else' mainly consists of bags and purses of various sizes, though mostly in pink. Lily has a thing for bags. She has a couple of boxes of toys under her bed and everything else is in the playroom. I crave order and if bright pink Disney Princesses will help me achieve it, then so be it!

.

Naughty, but nice

.
Tom went to the dry cleaners with his daddy yesterday afternoon. The dry cleaners is next to a supermarket with a lovely bakery, so I told Tom he could choose 'something yummy for pudding' while he was out. I thought he might come back with some cookies or gingerbread men, but instead he chose this rather amazing strawberry gateau. Yes, it does taste as good as it looks...the leftovers in the fridge are calling to me from here! I think I'll send Tom to pick out the puddings more often!

Delicious, if a little on the pricey side!

.