Harry Potter night, or, how I am a massive Potterhead.

So about two weeks ago Rich noticed that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - part 2 was coming onto Sky Premiere last night, so, like the HP geeks we are, he set it to record at 4pm and we made plans to watch part 1 and 2 once the boys were in bed. Not too geeky you might say. Except in the two weeks in between, we slowly made plans.

First it was an off-hand remark from Rich that, since there is always a Christmas scene in Harry Potter, I should get some mince pies in (I love them more than is normal). Then I thought I'd make some, because hello, it's August. Then it was what food we'd get in for a treat. Then yesterday morning I thought, stuff it, we're doing Harry Potter night right!

From the top, Butterbeer and Firewhiskey, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, mince pies, cauldron cakes, and Chocolate Cockroach Cluster.

 Mince pies, made by my own fair hand from this recipe. I added an egg after reading the comments so I could roll it out. It wasn't exactly pretty, but tastes amazing and had I had some icing sugar to sprinkle it would have hidden a multitude of cracks, wrinkles and uneven egg brushing.

 Cauldron Cakes. By this point I was really running out of time, and so again, not the prettiest, but to be honest I was looking at it more as a practise run! I piped melted white chocolate into swirls for the steam, let them harden in the fridge, then poked them into the (delicious, cheap, shop bought -gasp!) mini cupcakes. In transferring the swirls, all of them warped a bit, and several flopped completely. I'd recommend using a high quality white chocolate, or milk or dark, as my cheap white chocolate did not re-harden well at all. If I'd had more time, I'd have removed the cake cases and dipped the entire thing in chocolate - hello sugar rush - to be more cauldron-y (it's a word), but as it was I just piped a rim around the top. The cheap cakes (Sainsburys btw) already had mini sugar stars on which fit the theme.

 Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. Simple this one. I found this image via google, printed it off and cut it out, then stuck it on a sandwich bag full of Jelly Bellys. No risk of earwax flavour, though there is a rank liquorice one. I picked them out.

 Chocolate Cockroach Clusters. AKA Mars bar cakes. These are simple and delicious. 4 mars bars, 4oz butter, 4oz rice crispies. And a whole bunch of chocolate for the tops. Melt the mars bars and butter, and mix in the crispies. Makes 18 cupcakes, chill, top with chocolate. It's actually better done in a tray, but I wanted easy access! These ones look slightly grey from condensation by the way, they aren't gross. I ran out of time (surprise!) again and so put them into the freezer to harden up in time. It was unnecessary, we nearly broke teeth on the chocolate.

 Butterbeer, AKA white grape Shloer. We decided against concocting actual Butterbeer, as every recipe I've ever seen looks like it tastes disgusting. Also the time thing again. And we love Shloer. Bonus - it was on offer. I downloaded (free) the label here.

 Ogden's old Firewhiskey. AKA Rosé Shloer. I found this label on Aviary, at first I was annoyed because it was really too big for the bottle, and I couldn't find a (quick) way to shrink it, but I actually like the way it made the bottle look a different shape. I simply taped the pictures onto the bottles. I do not own these images, obviously.

I had more planned, Fizzing Whizzbee's for one, but I couldn't find the supplies I needed in the short time I had.

So there you have it, quick and fairly easy Potter night. Again, a lot more attention to detail would have been possible if I hadn't decided to go for it with only 5 hours to do it in, while parenting two small boys. But a small bit of geekdom is better than none :)

Neville, for no real reason except it's him :)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Cannon Hall Farm

 Amy and I took the kids here yesterday and had a blast. They had all sorts going on, sheep racing, ferret racing, hamster racing, and a falconry show. They had a cute petting area with the fluffiest bunny in the world -

 And Sam squealed over and over in delight at being allowed to touch a guinea pig, though I managed to catch a sane-looking expression.

 

There were plenty of birds and animals to see too, but I didn't get many pictures as I was a little busy shepherding Sam, as I decided to let him out on reins rather than be stuck in the pushchair the whole day. There was an especially cute runty piglet keeping up with his siblings, and some pygmy goats with giant pregnant bellies who I sympathised with.

 We only had one proper ouch incident, Austin poked a finger through the cage of giant chickens and got pecked, poor thing! There are also lots of great play areas which the kids were desperate to get into. Then, at the end of the day we decided to go back to the falconry holding area to see all the birds on display, and one of the handlers had one out for kids to hold! eek! Amy and I the kids were really excited, and got to hold Bubbles, this small owl whose breed I don't remember.

 Clearly only meant for short distance letter deliveries ;)

Then Amy and I were talking about holding one (he brought out a medium sized one for the older kids to hold) and Amy said "you'll never get your hand in that glove" and as I was saying "I'll make it fit!" (anyone sensing my desperation?) The guy said he'd get out a big glove and oh, by the way, did I want to hold that one or any of the others? *Inner squeal!* And I could even hold Claude if I wanted. GASP. Seriously. Here's Claude -

 

Isn't she gorgeous? look at those eyes! 

And here am I, holding Claude

Do ignore the body, and focus on the face, can you tell that inside I'm squealing and flailing? I loved it.

After the birds we went for ice creams and headed home, just as raindrops started falling. All in all, a pretty awesome day! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone with kids.

Today's plan, errands and maybe fitting in the park, but basically getting out of the house, as the boys are not in a play well at home mood. Wish me luck.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

The things you see when you're out without a gun!

This is one of my Granny's sayings. Usually it referred to someone who was dressed eccentrically or revealingly, or behaving ridiculously or inappropriately. We saw a few instances where she'd have said it today!

Amy, Mum and I were in town and first saw a girl probably about 18 with her (presumed) boyfriend and mum. She was wearing patterned tights that looked kind of lacy, and double denim-ing it up like a pro. Only, from the back you couldn't tell there were 2 kinds of denim, as her denim shirt was butt-skimmingly low enough to completely obscure her denim hot pants. I say hot pants, more like the most uncomfortable knickers in the world, they were that small!

Now, we actually didn't talk about the girl much, we were busy chatting about the dynamic between her and her mum. Mum was absolutely agog that anyone would allow their daughter to wear such (a lack of) clothes, and suggested that had we tried to leave the house like that she'd have had a fit. At this point Amy and I burst out laughing at the absurdity of the idea of leaving the house alive dressed like that, and Amy said we'd never have tried, at which point I said in an imitation of mum, "Oh, you want to wear that? fine, you can be buried in it!"

I tried to get a stealthy picture a la daddy cool in Asda as the shorts were absurdly tiny, but my phone camera wouldn't load fast enough and they were gone. Plus, mum said she wouldn't want to put a picture up anyway, as it was too much!

We had a lovely time shopping in Created in Yorkshire, a fab craft shop in The Ridings in Wakefield. It's a small co-operative that we were tipped off to as a friend is selling her wares there! Everything was gorgeous, and I bought this stained glass angel Christmas tree decoration. Yes, in August. We love Christmas in our house!

It was all so lovely though, I wanted to buy ALL the things, including a gorgeous canvas with embroidered poppies in black, with red felted petals, it was beautiful, I was very tempted to ask for the price. I've got a feeling I'll be back there again.

Then we came across crazy incident number 2. As we were getting in the lift to leave, a very elderly lady in a wheel chair was being pushed out, by a FIVE YEAR OLD girl. She was on the wrong floor so we tried to steer her right, but it turned out she was in the wrong lift too. It turned out that her son (the little girl's dad) had refused to go in the lift (a fear) and the little girl needed the toilet. He got the Grandma to take her, only she was in a wheelchair that couldn't be self propelled as it had little wheels, and she looked as if she couldn't have pushed herself anyway. So the 5 year old - who seemed younger even than that - was pushing her, and had gotten in the wrong lift. We managed to figure out where they needed to go, though only because she knew she'd parked in shop mobility, and only one car park has it. In the end we took them right to their car, as we couldn't find the son who'd apparently waited by the lift. It's scary to think what could have happened, as they were both clearly quite vulnerable. Let's just say we weren't exactly thinking too kind thoughts about the Dad/Son guy in that situation!

After we finished our tour of the lifts and car parks, we went to Lidl so Hayley could spend her birthday money on Dolls house sets, and I picked up some bargain birthday presents for a couple of Ethan's friends. However the best part was spotting this on the sign outside - apologies for the terrible reflective picture:

 

The Ultimate Zombie Apocalypse Weapon! Cut down the undead while maintaining a safe distance from the splatter of unwanted zombie juice! 3 year Guarantee, if you live that long! Also chops down trees for fortifying your home/bunker. Buy now and be prepared!

We also had plans to visit the Hepworth Gallery, but it was shamefully cast aside to fit in shopping for the adults, shopping for the kids, and an eyebrow threading for Amy. Another time perhaps. 

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Roundup

 So in the last little while we've had:

  Sam waving back at Sir Chris Hoy on his lap of honour after winning gold.

 My sister Amy and I making pool noodle horses for the jousting at Hayley's (my niece) birthday party.

 "I call it Nude Descending a Staircase" Sam thinking he is Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes

 Ethan and Sam meeting Peppa Pig in Asda. Sam was completely amazed, Ethan was amazed and slightly scared!

 My boys cuddling :) of course 30 seconds from this they were wrestling like you wouldn't believe, but there we are.

 Sam and his amazing climbing abilities. I keep having to find new 'out of reach' spots! Here he's waving about a homemade wand (yes another one!) that I thought I'd tucked away on a blocked off windowsill. He climbed up a chair, then a table to get to it. This one was destined to be a surprise for another child, until I found out they already had one!

So once again I had a sad lonely wand sitting about my house! I was just waiting to see if anyone wanted it when today we went to Rich's parents for dinner and to celebrate Mel's birthday (sister in law). She'd asked for no present (what?!) so we'd just given her some money - you can't have nothing! Only then she mentioned that she'd seen the other wand on facebook and really liked it. So I snuck out and went home, did a quick age wash to finish it (luckily it dries almost instantly) and hastily wrapped it in brown paper and a ribbon. 

She actually squealed when she opened it, I love that part!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Ollivander Update!

The magical post made it through the muggle system, Hooray! Seriously, sometimes I think it'd be more reliable to invest in (and then train of course) an owl.

Robyn was, I'm told, absolutely thrilled :) I love it, I got to make kids happy with just normal (ok, slightly on the geek side, but that just makes it better!) childhood things!

To be honest, the pictures speak for themselves without my waffling, so here goes...

 Look at that grin!

 Finding the wax seal

 

Is that not the happiest excited face you've ever seen?

After doing Robyn's wand and letter, I saw on facebook that another friend, Rachel, was doing a Harry Potter week in the summer holidays with her kids and they were making wands, so I offered to send them Ollivander letters too, congratulating them on their wandmaking.

 This is Izzy, who also happens to be friends with Robyn, so in her letter I mentioned that she shouldn't tell muggles, but that I'd already written to Robyn so it was ok to tell her ;)

And this is Alex (7), who apparently, along with his little brother Sam (5) was completely taken in by it all, love it! Rachel told me that Sam also quietly asked her if the wands would work when they were finished, bless him!

While pilfering (with permission!) these pictures from facebook, I've also seen that Robyn has instructed her mum to buy a frame for her letter! Makes me feel like I really did a great job!

Thanks to Rach and Mel for letting me share pictures of your gorgeous children x

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Being Garrick Ollivander

So, I have a bit of a thing about making stuff - I love to fiddle, make, draw, paint, sew, pretty much anything that keeps my hands busy. Not long ago I found Instructables and I love it! So many projects!

One of the first ones I spotted that I wanted to make was the Harry Potter wand tutorial. I am a Potter Geek, I had just finished the whole set again (I've lost count how many times, I just love them!), and I loved the idea that I could make it in under an hour, and with stuff I already had around the house - Those kinds of crafts are great, impromptu quickies. So, I got cracking a couple of weeks ago and...

Ta-da! The tutorial is really easy, and I think an older child would be more than able to manage it, Though it does use hot glue, so they'd probably need help with that. Basically it's a long thin cone of paper filled with the hot glue. The filling part was tricky trying to work the glue right down into the cone as it does cool quite fast - I held the outside of the wand against a hot iron to remelt some of the glue and forced it down with a spare glue stick from the packet, and still had a small air pocket in the middle!

The tutorial was for a generic wand, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I went online to find pictures of the wands from the movies. I wanted to make Neville's as I love the character, but it looked quite tricky, so I chose to try Hermione's first:

Which was really really easy. The pattern around it is just glue gun glue squirted round it And then I painted the whole thing with acrylic paint, and did a dark wash (watered down paint painted on then rubbed off so the crevices look darker) to age/distress it a bit, and basically stop it being one flat colour. It's slightly greeny brown, because that's what the pictures looked like!

Now here comes the fun part. A friend, Mel, tweeted that her daughter Robyn is Harry Potter obsessed, and was spending the day being Hermione (her favourite character) having plaited her wet hair the night before to make it curly. It made me smile as it was totally something I would have done on a whim as a child (Had HP been around then!) and I kept remembering it for a day or two. Then I remembered my Hermione wand sat on the top of the kitchen cupboard, not quite finished, looking a bit abandoned. So I offered it to Mel, and offered to do a letter from Mr Ollivander to go with it. Cue craft number 2, wizard's stationery in the Oven! All I did was print up a letter unique to Robyn, including how the wand she had was broken by her sister, and the properties that her wand has - Mel checked what wand had chosen Robyn on Pottermore and I matched it as well as I could (I had to change the length slightly as the wand was already finished and a bit long). Then I soaked the paper in very strong coffee. We don't drink coffee so it was good to get my moneys worth out of the sad little jar that I'd bought to have in the cupboard in case of builders and parents of the children's friends, but had never been opened!

I actually tried 3 different letters (again, perfectionist). The first I soaked and tore the edges slightly to age it, then tried to dry it on a baking tray. The raw edges baked to the foil and it ripped coming off. Rubbish. I tried a second torn edged one and dried it on the oven shelf like this:

 But it just didn't look right, and I tried again with the straight edged version you can see up there. The problem with putting it straight on the shelves is that the water evaporates unevenly, giving you stripes from the rack, which I really did not like at all. Gah! I actually re-soaked that one - I'd run out of copies as we've got no printer at the moment - and dried it on an upside down baking tray, and huzzah! It worked! But I still wasn't done, as it dried quite warped and wrinkled, and very brittle. I was actually too scared fold it into the (also coffee stained) envelope! I tried steam ironing it, so it was flatter and not quite so totally dried out to a crisp. It worked really well and left the paper just feeling like stiff paper (or parchment, which was what I was going for) rather than crunchy dried out leaves.

 Then I decided I wanted to put a wax seal on it. Much harder than I thought. It's incredibly easy to do, if you have a stamp for the seal, or something you can improvise to a stamp. I did not, but I couldn't not do it after I'd decided I wanted to! I spent maybe an hour melting wax and shoving stuff in it to try and find something like the design I had in my head, and had to keep simplifying it or changing it, but I'm happy with how it worked out. If I do it again I think I'll go rubber stamp shopping first to see if I can find anything I like, because I made this with 3 different implements (read household objects) and was a right faff. In the end I wanted it to look at least vaguely like a wand casting a round spell, as the circle would therefore also be an O. I think it turned out ok, I did the same seal on the back of the envelope as well.

 So, there you have it! I wrapped the wand in a piece of purple velvety fabric and made a cardboard box (not nearly pretty enough for a picture) to protect it in the post, then put both the box and the letter in a jiffy bag, which I made 2 more 'parchment' labels for, adding a HP twist to the address with the location of Robyn's bedroom, and a scrawl on the back saying "Owl injured in transit, use Muggle post" and now all there is to be done is take it to the post office.

I'm really excited to hear and hopefully see in pictures how Robyn reacts when it gets there, I really enjoyed doing it so hopefully she'll love it!

Things I have learnt:
Don't use your ironing board as a surface. I practised making the wax seal on it as our table space is limited, and I slipped and smeared crayon wax on it. I needed a new ironing board cover already so I'm not too cross, but now I really need a new one.

Don't use crayons for wax seals. They melt to a very thin liquid which doesn't led itself to stamping, as it cools hard quite slowly. Candle wax is better. Sealing wax is obviously best, but you'd have to buy it, as it isn't the kind of thing that is just lying about the house. And I'm cheap ;)

My next planned project:
Thor helmet for Ethan and Loki costume for Sam. It's for Halloween so likely won't be finished for a while and probably not started for a bit either!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

The last wedding

 This is my 'little' sister Jess, and her new husband Jonny, They got married 2 weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be able to spend the week beforehand at my parents with all my sisters, which was lovely (95% of the time - siblings understand ;) ) We worked hard all week preparing the hall, and our dresses, and ourselves! There may have been some shopping too - absolutely essential wedding shopping of course. (Again, about 95%...ish..)

 Bridesmaids' shoes

Reception tables

These took an unbelievably long time for 22 tables! The hall was gorgeous, paper globe lanterns strung from the ceiling with also had a fabric canopy. Simple and gorgeous, though not exactly simple to put up!

This was halfway through, only half the chairs are out (now that was a monotonous job, almost on a par with ironing the tablecloths) and no cutlery, but you can see the lanterns!

All the girls together - Sheri, Me, Becky, Jess, Amy, Sam and Cathy. 

Each of us chose our dress patterns, and Amy and I even made our own (a whole other stress of it's own, if I'd been able to find a dressmaker with the time I'd have used one!) Cathy, Jess's absolutely lovely friend and Maid of Honor, originally had hers made by a friend, but it never showed up, so she took Sheri and Becky on the Thursday into town to buy one, which also then had to be altered, but they were blessed with finding one the exact colour of the other dresses and fabric we already had, and Sheri made it modest.

 

 Becky, Sheri and Me

The reception was great, the food was gorgeous and thankfully my boys behaved themselves most of the time. The speeches were good, except for when my Dad made us all get up at the front and talked about us in front of 200 people, like it wasn't bad enough having to walk down the aisle! He did give us all a present though ;)

 With Dad. He held in the tears for most of the day :)

It was a great day, filled with a LOT of laughter, including some inappropriately timed giggling. Which the bridesmaids may or may not have been involved in. It was perfect for Jess and Jonny though.

As you can guess, they were at least involved in all the giggling, and sometimes leading it! 

After the reception we travelled to London to see them be sealed in the Temple for time and all eternity. This means they will be together forever, not separated by death. It's a simple but sacred ceremony, and it was special to witness.

Jess was the last of us to get married, being the youngest. She's lovely, kind and caring, funny and loving. Just enough crazy in there too. She brings out the best in us. We're a little smidgen protective of her. We didn't feel it when Jonny came around. He is a really great guy. On his first date with Jess he met the half of the family who were in England at the time. He took it completely in his stride. He is also kind and lovely. His new nieces and nephews all adore him, because he's happy to play and talk with them. Two of them decided (independently) that they were going to marry Jonny. One of them was Ethan, who when we told him that Jessie might not be too pleased about it, said that she 'can marry Grandma and Grandpa'.

I can't imagine either of them with anyone else, and wish them all the happiness in the world x

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Father's Day

My boys LOVE Daddy. They run for the door when he gets home. I understand it completely, Daddy is fun. I want to run for the door myself. Some days I do. Daddy will let you run around and around the living room, even though it's almost bedtime. He lets you fall asleep downstairs.

Ethan, at age 1, already new that Daddy was the one to go to when he didn't want to go to sleep upstairs.

Or in his own bed very early in the morning. Mummy is the one who'll put you back. Once you're past the need for milk in the night, Daddy is the one to go to in the wee hours. Mummy will sort you out and get you to back to bed, Daddy will sometimes just lift the cover and let you climb in. This is clearly an innate parental response, I remember the same rules from my own childhood.

Daddy was the one to introduce Sam to Ethan. It went very well, about 30 seconds after this picture, Ethan gave Sam his Raffey, a very big deal. I believe at this point, I was flaked out on the couch having finally run out of adrenaline.

I'm seeing a theme here...

Now that Ethan is at pre-school, he gets to make pictures and things like this, which I think are just the cutest.

Daddy's head looks strangely skeletal, but has a close to accurate amount of hair ;) I also just noticed he seems to have his feet on backwards, but I love it.

Sam loves to climb all over him, at 18 months that's about as complex as his games get. Ethan, now 4, loves to sit with Daddy, play with Daddy, read to Daddy. He's grasped the fact that we can send pictures to Daddy at work, and this is a frequent request. I try very hard not to get frustrated, as he tends to ask while I'm doing the washing, or cooking dinner, or cleaning the toilet. Daddy doesn't want a picture of that. But I let him as much as possible. So I might be second place in their affections - I really don't mind that much, first place has gone to someone pretty amazing.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

4 years ago.

It started  in the afternoon, a week overdue with me completely clueless as to what was going to happen. I was resting my enormous baby bump on a gym ball. Rich came home to me wondering if my waters had gone, and took me to the hospital to get checked over.

We got there and had a frankly hilarious conversation with the midwife who was quite insistent that I'd possibly just wet myself. Only before she'd come into the room, my waters had gone all over the floor on the other side of the bed. While telling me I'd probably just wet myself, she walked around the bed, and skidded in the enormous puddle. Bit of karmic justice there. She told me I was 'probably not in labour' and she'd send me home, except my blood pressure was up and with it being 8pm, Dr's were few and far between to check me over and I couldn't go.

Two hours later and we went over to the labour ward as I was progressing, hurrah! I got set up with the lovely gas and air, and later an epidural, and I got a little sleep.

Rich went off in search of food, and found a vending machine with one sandwich in it. Filled with carrot and hummus. He left it there.

I woke up just before 3, and after 40 minutes of really *fun* pushing, Ethan James Brown came hurtling into the world. 8lbs 11oz, 53cms long, and spreading out like he was relieved to be out. He looked pretty big to me, and he pretty much filled the fishbowl cot.

He was scrumptious, and he was ours.

I remember it like it was yesterday, but somehow he's already at nursery school. In September he'll start reception. He already has an 18 month old brother. He can write his name. He draws. He asks questions about his world. He has the most amazing imagination. He comes out with the funniest things. Yesterday he was telling me that when he was in my tummy, he decided he wanted to come out because he wanted a cuddle with his Daddy. A few days ago he said "The bees won't fly in my ears now because I smell like jelly beans."

It has been a demanding, crazy, tiring, awesome, infuriating, hilarious 4 years. I can't wait for more.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Exercise

Found on Pinterest but unfortunately it just linked back to spam.

Today I walked/jogged 3 and a half miles :) I'm once again on the weight loss wagon, and I'm attempting to follow the couch to 5k plan in a vague sort of way. It's not that I particularly wish to be able to run 3 miles per se - I still see it as a chore rather than enjoy it - but I do want to be fitter and definitely thinner.

The basic of the plan is that you start with jogging short distances in between walking. I figured I could manage that, as I was already used to walking 3 miles in the morning. So, I started my walk, waited til I was sufficiently warmed up, and started to jog. Within 20 seconds I thought I was going to die, but I pushed through, the only reason being that I only had to jog for 60 seconds at a time.

What I hadn't thought about was that it was much harder to run than it is to walk... when you're pushing one of these.

About 30lbs of cute. Plus the not very light pushchair. 

BUT I did it. In fact 3.5 miles is the farthest I've gone during pre-school hours, and it took me slightly less time that 3 miles did walking. I'd say I nailed it!

And I don't regret it at all, even though my legs hurt and I was cold and it rained on me ever so slightly. I felt great, invigorated, ready to go! In fact I'm looking forward to doing it again. Well maybe that's going a bit far. But I'm not dreading it :)

Next Hurdle: *Shudder* getting up early specifically to go do exercise. It's a big hurdle, I love my bed, but it brings a reward, not having to push the pushchair. I'll let you know if I manage it. I'm slightly doubtful, as I woke up early enough to get up and go do it this morning, but I chose to rollover and go back to sleep.

That's just how I am, I love a nice warm bed, but the quest for the waist of yesteryear is strong in me, We shall see if I succeed or fail.

On another note of success and failure, I told my sister about this morning's run/walk, and there was talk of signing up for Race for Life. Wibble.

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

It's the little things...

... that can really pick me up. For example:

My boys flying down the slide together too fast for me to take a picture.

My biggest boy begging me to make him a roof so he can read outside.

A neighbour's cat straying into our garden and making the boys' day.

Finally being able to hang the washing out on the line again after Winter.

And Finally...

Every time I vacuum feeling like I'm using a helmet from a Star Wars Clone trooper! Although it does tend to make Rich wonder why I'm humming The Imperial March when he gets in ;)

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!