Catch up time :)

Phew! We've had a really busy few weeks!

As an in depth review of all the time that has passed and how we've filled it would take absolutely forever, I've voted for the simple option of a whistle stop tour of the highlights of the past few weeks at the Wishes household....

Last day of term at Toddler Group

This was both a relief (cos I'll get a break) but also very sad. Sadder this year than past ones because it will be the last time the small person gets to go. I've been taking her to this group since she was 10 months old and now she's too big :( There were other goodbyes to be said aswell, and all of our little leavers got a card like last year with the rhyme which reads:

Although we're sad to see you go,

We know it's time for you to grow.

You've made new friends, had lots of fun,

but now your time with us is done.

A new adventure is on it's way,

as you start at big school to learn and play.

We also had to say goodbye to Christine who has been helping us from the Children's Centre. She has a new job, so we'll get a new helper in September. The kids all got to decorate biscuits as planned. They had initial biscuits for their names and also stars and hearts. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the biscuits because they were all gobbled up too quickly!

Alexandra's Pre-school Summer Concert - The Princess and the Pea

I finally got to find out where a Mexican comes into the story! When the Prince goes travelling in search of a Princess he goes to the 4 corners of the earth, and apparently, Mexico is one of those corners :) My little Mexican performed the best little dance you've ever seen, but the Prince still didn't believe she was a Princess (shows what he knows!). The whole thing was lovely :) Mr Bogert was on camera duty again, so we got there early to take the portrait pics of the kids in their costumes. I love this bit, because you really get to see how everyone is dressed up. I filmed the concert as best as I could (the chairs were a little close to the action) so that my mum, nan and grandad can watch it, they were on holiday at the time. The whole performance made me realise 2 things: 1-Alexandra is a born performer and we really should enrol her in some dance classes because she'd love it. 2-I must make a Princess and the Pea play set to get it out of my system!

My mini birthday celebrations

The night after the concert, Mr Bogert treated me to grown up cinema time (Mother in Law babysat) and we went to watch Eclipse (not as good as the book) and we had a giant popcorn tub and drink to share and a mini tub of ice cream each (Mmmmmm, Cherry Garcia......). The next night which is normally Mr Bogert's manly bonding pub night, I got to go :) But he additionally surprised me by taking me, his best friend and his best friend's fiance out for a meal to a gorgeous Indian restaurant I've been wanting to go back to for ages. Yummy!

The small person's Pre-school Graduation

This was so sweet. I love that they do this for the kids moving up to big school. They all looked so proud :) The kids make their own mortar board hats with the nursery name on and they each go up to the headmistress when they're called, shake hands, get a reading book and a certificate that has a photograph of them on the other side (dressed in a robe and the mortar board). Again another sad moment. My little small person isn't so small anymore. She has to go to big school :( I asked her if she'd mind very much stop growing and she just looked at me with a mix of sympathy and "my mummy's so silly" look, and said "I can't stop growing Mummy. I just like wheating my food". Mr Bogert was on camera duty again which is good for me because it means we've got pictures of all the kids Alexandra played with at this point in her life and we can show her when she gets older.

My birthday BBQ

Yes, my birthday did get dragged out across the week, but hey, I'm not complaining. We kind of do this every year. It works well with my birthday being in the summer. All of our friends come over and we eat, chat, drink, the menfolk do silly things like this year competing with each other to see who could do the most repetitions of weight lifting. It turned out to be one of the wives! :D My lovely friend Heather managed to come all the way down here (from up north) to see little old me, and we gave her a birthday cake because it's her birthday 2 days after mine. Her and her Andy stayed the night.

My ACTUAL birthday

This was the day after the BBQ. Heather and Andy were still here so they had some breakfast and watched me open presents. Look what Heather made for me.....

Now I want a dedicated craft room even more so that it can sit above my work desk :D I had lots of other lovely things aswell including some ace new weighing scales, a garlic crusher (you have no idea how much easier this makes my life) and a shiny colander which when it sits on my kitchen counter, makes the room look finished (It makes sense to me). I also had lots of money to go towards our bathroom project. Can we get a new bathroom installed before the baby arrives? Probably not, but Mr Bogert's going to give it a damn good go!

The rest of the day was spent at a pre-wedding shoot Mr Bogert had booked. (He asked me if I was OK with this, but as you can see, I had plenty of fun over the week, so I was quite happy for him to work on my birthday) The lovely couple actually invited me and Alexandra to go along and meet them and their family (parents and kids) and have dinner at a restaurant with them. I thought that was so nice of them. They really are a lovely couple and the food was yummy. They've even invited me to the evening reception of the wedding! I might be a little too large by then though.....

More boat building

The boat building has been an ongoing thing in between all these other activities. I must admit, he's done a pretty good job (not that I'm an expert on these things) and he and his boat partner took it for a test paddle this last weekend. Not only did it float, it moved as it was intended. He's still got a few modifications and some painting to do, but it's looking good. He's also made his boat partner want to build his own boat now too. Mr Bogert in all his enthusiasm suggested exactly the same design so that they "can attach the 2 together, add a sail and have a catamaran". Boys.

Other

I have been making Folksy plans. Hopefully I'll be able to restock my shop by September, I've even pre-made a few xmassy things to go in around November time.

The small person was ill for most of the first week of the summer holidays, but she's all smiles again now, so we're well into our summer activities (more on that in future posts), but Mr Bogert is now unwell. He occasionally puts in an order for room service, but what's bothering him the most is he can't finish those modifications on his boat.

So I think that's all of the highlights, and here we are back at present day. Expect some crafting show and tell and some great kids holiday activity commentary in the coming posts!

*It should be noted that this post was written before "the hiccup" (see next post) hence the delay in posting it.