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Family

Our Baby Girl Is In France – First School Trip Abroad

France

 

Kaycee’s been counting down the days until the school trip to France and now she’s finally there. It was weird her not being here when I got up yesterday. She had to be at school for 5.30 am so she set her alarm for 3 am. Her friend, Sophie, had stayed the night to make it easier to go to school together. They didn’t manage to get to sleep very early; they were just too excited, I think!

She’d gone before we woke up so she left a goodbye note on the fridge for us all. She’s such a sweetheart. I’m going to miss her being away this week. I know how much fun going on a school trip abroad can be, though, so I’m happy that she was able to go.

Monthly Allowance

She paid for the trip herself out of her monthly allowance. We’re very proud of how she managed her money.
During the last school year, when they were both at Junior school, it felt like they wanted money for something every week. They wanted to join every club, buy every school photo and spend money at book fayres and summer fayres and Christmas fayres. They also wanted hot school meals every week and pounds here and there for various fundraising days.
It was getting very expensive and a bit out of control so we decided that they would be given a monthly allowance.

They now have to work out what clubs they can afford to join. If they can’t afford them all, they have to pick which one they’d most like to do.
If they have money left at the end of the month, they’re not allowed to spend it on rubbish. They know they have to keep it in the tin so it builds up.

Budget

To pay for France, Kaycee did need a little extra help from us and other family members. She’d not been getting the allowance long enough for it to build up but she still did well with her budget.
She went without hot school meals, opting to take a packed lunch instead and the only club she carried on paying for was Guides. She saved Christmas money so she’d have plenty of spending money.

I can’t wait for her to come home so I can hear all about it. Thinking of her in France with her friends reminds me of when I want to Holland on my school trip. I hope she has as much fun on her trip as I did on mine 🙂

Kaycee France

 

 

Christmas, Family

It’s been a busy day – now to relax!

Busy Day

I’m shattered. It’s been a busy day.
I spent the morning volunteering at the charity shop and the afternoon working on craft tutorials for a craft advent I’m doing on my blog. I have brain ache now because I’ve been at the computer for so long!
We’ve managed to get about 8 crafts done and I’ve got all the photographs resized and ready to upload. I’ve written up 6 of the tutorials but I need a break now!

While I was working, I put a Christmas movie on and let myself get excited because it’s only 4 and a bit weeks until Christmas! The husband and the son think it’s too early for me to be watching Christmas movies. To prove them wrong, I’ve watched 3 and a half of them today! We had to switch the 4th one off because the girls had to go for a bath and Kaycee didn’t want to miss it. She’s hooked on Christmas movies like me 🙂

Talking of Christmas movies, I treated myself to Holiday Inn on DVD yesterday from Sainsburys. It was only a fiver but I got it for free. I doubled up my Nectar points and used them in the Entertainment section.
I also got a new book to add to the Christmas Book Advent we do. I’m not telling which book I bought though; Kaycee has started reading my blog and I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

busy day - Holiday Inn

I’ll have to get more crafts done tomorrow afternoon if I want to have all the tutorials written in time. For now, I need a break from the PC and I’m off to watch more TV with the husband. I don’t think we’ll be watching anything Christmassy though!

Painted emoji faces – Fun with poster paint!

Painted Emoji Faces

Kaycee’s friend, Katie came for a sleepover last night. Ella was visiting her sister, Kellyann, for the weekend. Kaycee and Katie slept outside like the girls have done since the little big tent festival night!
After a trip to the cinema today, they came home and went in the pool for a while. Afterwards, they decided they were going to do painted emoji faces on each other using water-based poster paint!

 

painted emoji faces Ella

painted emoji faces Katie

Ella is the crying face emoji, Katie is the love heart eyes emoji and Kaycee is the being sick emoji!

It took a while to get all the paint off and they got a little bit stressed when it wouldn’t come off completely! Kaycee had a yellowish tinge to her face and Ella looked like she’d not washed her makeup off properly from a heavy night on the town!

Family

Parent Teacher Night

We went to parent teacher night tonight and for the first time since Kaycee started school, we came away feeling really happy.

Close up of Kaycee

She always gets good reports, does well with her work and gets on with others but we’ve always had a worry about her spelling. All her teachers have, not brushed off our concerns, but rather made us feel like there wasn’t a problem and it would sort itself out.

She starts secondary school next year and her spelling isn’t getting any better.

She’s absolutely brilliant at writing. If she carries on the way she is I truly believe she could be a wonderful novelist (and that’s not just me being biased!), all her teachers talk about how expressive her writing is but we feel her spelling lets it down.

Tonight, for the first time ever, her teacher expressed the same concerns we’ve always had and it was wonderful to finally feel like our concerns were real and that something needs to be done.
She’s already started work on helping all the class get better at spelling and if Kaycee needs extra help in the future, she’s going to make sure she gets it.

I’ve written before about trying to help Kaycee at home with spelling and now she’s getting extra help at school, I’m confident that we’re going to see a big improvement by the end of this school year.

Both Ant and I really liked her new teacher and we think she’s going to be brilliant for Kaycee this year 🙂

Close up of Ella

Ella’s doing great as well and her teacher doesn’t have any concerns at all, for which we were really pleased!
She hasn’t noticed a problem with Ella not focusing (she does have trouble at home with concentration) and thinks that maybe it was an age thing and she’s starting to grow out of it.

I think both girls have been really lucky to get such great teachers 🙂

Family

Lovely day with the S.W.H. (Super wonderful husband)

The kids are in Belper this weekend so Ant and I spent the day shopping! It wasn’t his first choice of things to do on a Saturday I know, but I had a really lovely day with him. We Spent a couple of hours in B&M choosing new bedding, curtains etc for a makeover challenge I’ve been set (blog post to come soon).

I got very excited when I saw the start of the Christmas section they’re adding at B&M.
We decided to pick up some Christmas gifts for the nieces and nephews while we there because I knew that if we didn’t get the stuff today, they would be sold out when we managed to get back!

A photo posted by Michelle Ashmore (@shelllouise1207) on Sep 12, 2015 at 4:29am PDT

While we were shopping, Jervais, one of our many children, called and asked if we could take some eggs to his work because they’d run out.
He works at the Horse and Groom in Lincoln which was only a few minutes from where we were so we nipped over to Morrison’s, picked up the eggs then drove them to the pub.
We stopped in for lunch and it was delicious 🙂 It made a really nice change to go out to lunch with my husband, just the two of us.

Crispy bacon, sliced chicken and melted cheese on doorstep toast
Gorgeous chicken, bacon and cheese on thick toast

After lunch, we did more shopping at B&Q, where we picked up a new white toilet in the clearance section for the bargain price of £5.
Yep, I did say £5 and no, I can’t quite believe it myself!

I thought we’d got an even bigger bargain when we saw a sink and pedestal, also in the clearance section, for £18 but when we got it home and opened the box we were really disappointed to find the basin was smashed at the front. At first, we thought it was a small crack and we were prepared to buy a fixing kit, but when we removed more of the tape, the basin just crumbled so we’re returning it tomorrow.
I’m hoping they don’t give us any hassle because nowhere on the packaging did it say it was damaged. We assumed it was an end of line or ex-display item, as we did with the ultra cheap, but not in any way, damaged, toilet bowl!

Ant’s now trying to catch up on the work he was supposed to be doing today but put off so he could indulge me in my shopping needs and I want to say…..

Thank you, my darling ;o) I love you xx

Family

Roman Goddess Ella

Ella had to dress up for a Roman day at school today. She chose to be a Roman goddess and she’s been really excited about it all week 🙂
KayCee’s been helping her with different toga styles and accessories! Luckily Ella already had the sandals which were perfect for a goddess costume.

Ella dressed as Venus for Roman day at school

She had a great day but she breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to take her toga off when she got home! It wasn’t the most comfortable of items to wear to school all day and she said she hoped they didn’t have the same dress up day next year!

Family

Starting to feel real

I’ve mentioned the fact that I got a little bit emotional on the first day back to school last week because it brought it home to me that my girls are growing up fast. It’s starting to feel real and I don’t like it!

I was reminded of this again tonight when Kaycee gave me a brown envelope from school which contained her school admission information booklet for her move to secondary school.
I can’t believe this is happening already. I want those cute little girls back who were always coming for snuggles and kisses!

Time is going too fast and I just want it to slow down now.

Please!

Guide for children moving to secondary school

 

Family

Sisters

Sisters - Kaycee and Ella walking together in the woods

Sisters

This shot was totally posed for me by the girls but even so, I love it.
It’s not even a very good photo with regards to the sharpness of it, it’s a bit blurry. They look so nice walking together through the woods, though, and I’m going to cherish it 🙂
They spend an awful lot of time snapping at each other and arguing. If I can pretend, for just a short while that they actually like each other, I’ll take it!
I hope when they’re older and not living together anymore, that they’ll have a better relationship. I’ve got my fingers firmly crossed!
Family

Back to school

Back To School

I got a little emotional this morning while waving the kids off on their first day back to school.

It’s Kaycee’s last year in junior school, it’s Aiden’s last year in secondary school and all of a sudden it hit me how fast time is going.
I remember watching Aiden toddling about and wondering to myself what kind of person he was going to be.

I’m so lucky to have the most wonderful, kind and caring son a person could wish for. He helps around the house without moaning, he’s always respectful and he still gives me cuddles!
I’m not putting his photo on this year, although I did take one this morning. I’ve taken one every first day of school since he started school but now he’s older, he’s not keen on being photographed anymore and doesn’t like me putting his photo online so I respect his wishes.

The girls, however, love posing, as you can see!

Kaycee before her first day back to school

 

Ella before her first day back at school

 

Kaycee and Ella in school uniform

 

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