The Lego Movie

Tom has long been a fan of Lego (you may remember his sixth birthday party), so when he read about the upcoming Lego Movie in his Lego Club magazine he was very keen to go and see it. The film came out the Friday before half term, so when my parents came to stay with us for half term week they took us all to the the cinema for a treat. Going to the cinema is a really big thing for us. With a family of five it is normally prohibitively expensive, so it hardly ever happens. We normally make do with our family film nights at home! In fact, although the Podlings have all been to the cinema before, this was the first time Mark and I had gone with them as they normally go with their grandparents. We were all very much looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, on the day my Mum was too ill to join us, but my Dad and the five of us went. We were well-provisioned with sweets, popcorn and drink and all thoroughly enjoyed the film. Lily and Emma sang 'Everything is Awesome' (the song in the film) for much of the way home and Tom has already asked if we can get it on DVD as soon as it comes out! We stopped off in Tesco on the way home and bought pizza for tea and Dad treated us to a tray of Krispie Kreme doughnuts, much to the Podlings delight. Tom finally got to try the strawberry glaze doughnut he has wanted for months and it was every bit as delicious as he had anticipated. It was a wonderful day and we all had a great time.

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Big Girl Bed

 

Emma has been sneaking into our bed every night for weeks and Mark and I keep waking up in the middle of the night, balanced on the edges of the mattress, devoid of covers to find a small person spread out in the middle of the bed. For a small person, Emma manages to take up an awful lot of space in a double bed. Mark and I were becoming somewhat sleep deprived and with the prospect of an even smaller person waking us up in the night in a few months' time, we really needed to find a solution.

 

Her toddler bed, in addition to becoming too small for a very fidgety sleeper, was not exactly in the best state of repair thanks to an unsanctioned bouncing on the bed incident a little while ago. I had tried my best to patch up the bed, but it left a lot to be desired and I know she wasn't amazingly comfortable in it. Before ordering a new bed for her though, we needed to sort out the sleeping arrangements for after the baby is born.

 

Emma is currently in the biggest of the children's rooms as we had always planned on having four children, so knew that she would have to share one day. Who she will be sharing with has been the issue for the last few weeks. Lily is currently in the smallest bedroom and I wanted it to be her choice whether she stayed in her own room or moved in with Emma. It had to be her choice as I don't want her to feel that the new baby is kicking her out of her room. Lily has been agonising over the decision for weeks and has finally decided to share a room with Emma. We then had to decide whether we wanted bunk beds or two singles before we spent any money on a new bed for Emma.

 

After much deliberation, we all decided that two single beds was the way forward, so Emma's new bed was duly ordered. We can't move Lily into the room yet as there is some heavy furniture in Emma's room that needs to be moved out and we can't do that until we can enlist some help. The girls are so excited to move in together though and they keep asking when it will happen! I am so glad Lily chose to share with Emma as they are very close and neither of them like being on their own at night. I think they will have great times together and I know they are very much looking forward to it.

 

For now, the new bed has made a slight improvement to Emma's sleeping. When she wakes up, she still comes in with us, but she isn't waking up quite as often now that she is in a more comfortable bed. She hasn't been well this week either and her cough is waking her at night. I'm hoping that when she is well again, she will wake up less. I think sharing with Lily will reduce the need to come into our room even further, so there is some hope that I may get her sleeping in her own bed most nights before the new baby arrives to keep me awake all night instead!

Emma looked so tiny in her full size single bed!

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7/52

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2014"

Tom, this week you enjoyed watching trailers for 'The Lego Movie' with your sisters, in anticipation of our trip to see the movie next week. That and playing Angry Birds of course...you LOVE Angry Birds!

Lily, this week you really loved playing with the toy you bought from eBay last week. Your despair at finding the toy had not arrived when you got home from school, followed by your unbounded joy when it turned out that the post was just very late that day are so typical of your roller coaster personality!

Emma, this week you slept in a BIG bed for the very first time! Your toddler bed had grown so uncomfortable and a move to a single bed was long overdue. You love your new bed and its pretty covers and canopy. Now you can't wait for Lily to move in with you!

Podling Number 4 ( 27 weeks pregnant), this week you continue to wriggle, stretch and kick a lot. Your brother and sisters love to feel you move. You seem to be awake more than you are asleep, although that's probably just my imagination! You are by far the most active baby I have carried, though what that means for your little personality we have yet to discover. Keep growing little one!

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Valentine's Roses

I adore roses. They are my favourite flower, so I was over the moon when Mark brought these beautiful cream 'Sweetheart' roses home for me on Valentine's Day. It was obviously my week for fresh flowers, because when we were shopping a couple of days after Valentine's Day, the store was selling off their luxury Valentine's potted roses at half price. These beautiful deep red, velvety roses came home with me and there are still several buds on the bush still to open. Lucky me!

The colours are all off in my photos. These 'Sweetheart' roses are actually cream, not the yellow they appear in the photos.

Again, the colours are off in the photo. These roses are actually a much deeper, richer red than they appear here.

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Valentine's Day

The Podlings always look forward to Valentine's Day. I've been laid low with a cold this week, so we didn't do lots of Valentine's crafts like we normally do, but I did have some lovely treats waiting for them in the morning and we still had our Valentine's tea in the afternoon. For their Valentine's treat, I gave them each a mug with hearts all over them and half filled them with chocolate coins. I then put a cookie pop, a packet of love hearts and some Thornton's strawberry hearts in the mug and placed a single chocolate rose alongside. A lacy table cloth (with hearts of course) and a pot of flowers later and it all looks rather lovely for them to come down to.

I made a raspberry jelly, some chocolate chip cookies and Valentine's krispie cakes over the day and after school, the girls and I made pink heart-shaped fairy cakes. Lily and Emma decorated them with pink icing, Love Hearts and sprinkles. Tom isn't really into baking these days, so he was busy doing other things. Once the cakes were finished we laid out a simple party tea and we enjoyed a lovely Valentine's tea together.

Our Valentine's tea

Pink, heart-shaped fairy cakes, made by Lily and Emma

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6/52

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2014"

 

 

Tom, this week you:

• Fell over and bruised your hand at school. It actually hurt enough that you consented to take Calpol.
• Were extremely excited to earn enough coins on your Nyan cat game to get the pumpkin skin pack you so desperately wanted.
• Have been brilliant by now carrying your own school bag to and from school all the time. Such a big help to Mummy!
• Have drawn lots of pictures and been designing a Star Wars version of your Tackle Fire creations.

Lily, this week you:

• Have been really enjoying David Attenborough's Planet Earth documentaries and were excited to share the jungle documentary with your class for your rainforest topic.
• Agonised over whether or not to share a room with your sister or keep your own room. It's been really tough for you, but you finally came to a decision.
• Had fun helping Emma decorate cakes for her Star of the Week party.
• Discovered the thrills and spills of bidding for a toy on eBay. Asking us to check regularly to see if anyone else had bid on it, counting down the minutes and literally jumping around the room in excitement when you won the auction!



Emma, this week you:

• Loved every minute of being Star of the Week.
• Fell over and badly grazed your knee on the way home from school.
• Sneaked into our room and slept in our bed every single night!
• Have been really cheerful going into school every morning. You really seem to have turned a corner!

Podling Number 4 (26 weeks pregnant, so no picture yet obviously!), this week you:

• Should be opening your eyes for the first time.
• Are approximately 35 cm long and weigh around 760g.
• Continue to be incredibly active. You are far more active than your brother and sisters were!

A Note:

I've just come across the 52 Week Project concept. The idea is that you take a portrait of your child or children once a week, every week of the year. The pictures can take can take any form, the idea is to just have a weekly record. I think it is such a lovely idea that I wanted to do it myself. I'm not sure whether I have the staying power to see it through, but I hope that if nothing else it will make me do at least one blog post every week! Obviously I'm coming rather late to the party, joining in in week 6, but 'better late than never' I always say!
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A Little Party

To celebrate Emma's week as her class Star of the Week, we had a little Star of the Week party for tea last night. This is something I always did with Tom and Lily and I knew Emma would love it too. Over the day I made some gingerbread biscuits in the shapes of stars, teddies and little girls with big smiles. Emma requested the little girl with a big smile biscuits because she was awarded the Star of the Week for coming into school with a big smile. She has been showing her daddy and me her big smile all week and it is so wonderful to see her going into school happily.

When Emma got home from school, we made star-shaped fairy cakes and she and Lily decorated them with yellow icing and lots of sprinkles. We had lots of lovely party foods and used Tom's star blanket as a table cloth. Emma kept coming over to me during her party, giving me kisses and saying 'thank you'. She's so sweet!

Emma has loved being Star of the Week and has taken the bear to bed with her each night. I know she wasn't looking forward to taking him back to school, so I was really surprised that we didn't have tears this morning. Other than a slightly pouty 'It's not fair!' as we left the house, she was fine. You'll always be my little Star Emma!

Making fairy cakes

Emma's Star of the Week party

The gingerbread biscuits I made for Emma's little party

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