Happy birthday, Nana!

Now, it's not that I forgot it's my Nan's birthday today. I hadn't forgotten at all. I had it in mind to go round for a visit with the small person today while Rob's at work. See, I was well aware of the birthday. I just forgot it's customary to give a gift and card. Told you I'd lost my mojo.

Well it must be slowly coming back because after an extremely quick stop at Dunelm yesterday (1/2 hour before closing time) I managed to get the bits and pieces required for our gift. Alex chose a lovely porcelain tea light holder to give her and I bought a feather filled cushion and some lace and fabric to make a cushion cover to go with it for her.

I used other bits I already had and once started, it didn't take too long to finish.

Nan seemed very pleased with it, so that's what counts.

Card from me and Bogert.

Card from the small person.

This weekend has been really busy. It was the Carnival in the town where Alexandra goes to nursery (and where most of our friends are from), so after finishing work on Saturday, the 3 of us went straight there. We browsed the stalls, had a go on the tombolas and we even found a dance school suitable for the small person! (she loves dancing and wanted to go to lessons, but we've been struggling to find one I can get to without a car, that caters for her age in the types of dance we thought she might like to try).

We sat in the old High Street to watch the floats go by. We had friends on 3 different ones, and one of them won overall first prize! They did Alice in Wonderland. I really wish we hadn't been in such a rush and forgotten the camera, because our friends were dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb! So funny! After the last float passed, we headed back to the field to take Alex on some of the rides at the fair. She went on the tea cups, the merry go round, the car ride and went in 2 fun houses.

Later, we took Alexandra on her first ever trip to the cinema to watch Ice Age 3. She loved in and was very well behaved. In fact when asked what she thought about it all she said "I think cinemas are cool!". There we have it, a rave review.

Yesterday we met up with 2 friends at Coombe Abbey for a picnic. One is an old school friend of mine and the other friend is her partner. They now live up north, so we don't get that much chance to see each other. It was lovely to have a catch up and she makes and ace potato salad!

So today I'm back to my deadlines and the real world, and apart from this little trip into blogland, I've mostly been cutting out parrots and parrot feathers for the Noah's Ark costumes. Something which I really should get back to right now!

Happy Daddy's Day!

Well, the flower festival went off without a hitch. We had some splashes of rain earlier in the day, but it stayed dry once the festival was open. Unfortunately the turn out was a bit disappointing. There weren't as many stalls as advertised in the newsletter, and the signs to draw passers by in were far too small to read. Oh, well. The flowers survived the night and still looked as they should, Everyone else's flower displeys were very pretty, we spoke to people we know from around the village, Alexandra bought some dressing up things with some pocket money from Grandpa, and we all had lovely cake and tea at the old rectory. Mmmm, lemon cake. Love it!

Anyway, getting to today. Little bit and I took Rob a cup of tea in bed and his prezzy and cards (that's right, more than one). Alex gave him a box of homemade marshmallow fudge (from her Usbourne cooking cards kit) and a book entitled Things-to-do-with-Dad.

Despite the fact we only have the one child, Mr Man was given 3 cards! The handprint card was made at home with Mummy, the boat was made at nursery with the teachers, and the picture of Daddy card was made at toddler group, again with me. Can I just state for the record, Rob does not have ginger hair, Alex just thought it would look nice :)

Having been the super organised (and very tired from early mornings, and over worked from volunteering to help with everything - but loving it) wife that I am, I did not get the bacon out of the freezer for his special fathers day breakfast, so we piled in the car and went for breakfast at the supermarket cafe. Very filling. (Little bit only stole one egg from daddy, one rasher of bacon from mummy, and baked beans from both of us, so not too bad! It's all about the food with my girl.)

These are the cards I made for my Dad and Grandad. They were a little bit last minute. There I was thinking about how organised I'd been, getting the fudge made with Alex and her cards etc, when I suddenly realised I'd been so busy helping her with her fathers day things, I hadn't done any from us! woops!

We called in on my Grandad (Alexandra's Grandpa) when we got home to take him his gift and cards. Alex made him a coaster to put his mug on from those little plastic beads you iron together. He started on his home made fudge straight away. He has a sweet tooth (or twenty).

Rob's choice, we took a trip to Coombe Abbey (again) for a picnic. It was quite busy, but we found a bench at a nice spot near the lake by the hotel. We stopped for dessert at the ice cream van on the way back to the car! (Yup, that's me sitting on the steps looking all moody. I wasn't, I swear!)

We finally managed to catch my dad in (for once) on the way back from Coombe. He also got fudge and a homemade coaster from Alexandra. They were all trying to juggle, quite unsuccessfully.

I made maple pork medallions and mash for proper dinner at tea time. I haven't washed up. I have no intention of washing up. Instead I'm going to curl up with my hubby, the best daddy in the world, and watch a movie. I can get back to the real world tomorrow.