Oscar and Elmo in a few easy steps.....

Soooooo - What do you do with your constantly bored 3 year old to keep him amused on a morning off of Nursery? Help him make an Elmo t-shirt of course!

BB awoke this morning early doors full of coughs and snuffles. BFS managed to get him to go back to sleep and drowsily informed me it'd probably be best to keep him off of nursery for fear of spreading germs. He lay until just before 9am, so I called his nursery and let them know he wouldn't be in. Typical then that he practically skipped through and I don't believe I had a cough from him until at least 11:30 am!!!! Having already had the 'I want my programmes' mantra about 15 times over breakfast I decided to engage him in something a little more creative. Well he would be doing something similar in nursery - so best to have continuity in his education!!! (Okay okay - the real reason is that I'd intended making LL and Oscar the Grouch T-shirt for a wee whilee and here was the perfect excuse to do it!!!)

I asked BB if he would like to help make a t-shirt and let him choose the character. He chose Elmo for himself as he liked the fact he was red (and that his toy Elmo did a great little dance which he likes to sing along to.....)

So here goes - how to get your 3 year old involved in making his own t-shirt...



First he chooses what picture he would like - in this case 'Elmo please Mummy!'

Look pleased as punch as you 'helpfully' colour in the template (step not actually required!)



He then applies the important glue (pritt stick) to stick elmo onto the flock for cutting around.

Run and find toy Elmo to check the colour of his nose for Mummy.

Mummy carefully cuts out all the pieces required to make up the final picture.



BB arranges all the pieces on the t-shirt to see what it will look like.



Looking good.....



Start to iron on each piece one at a time.



Ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

One Elmo t-shirt.

One happy 3 year old!



Oh and don't forget one for his little brother.



Look how proud he is in his tee!



and big brother.



Spot the difference!!!!

A morning well spent methinks.

Much more fun than watching Mister Maker do it on the box!

Oh and Daddy even likes them (that's a bonus at least they'll get worn!)

Filing away...

Well, this evening I have finally sat down to sort out my dreaded Gmail inbox. I had about 1800 mails, of which 250 were unopened, and I can proudly say that I have now filed them into appropriate folders - including the trash and have whittled them down to a mere 60 in the inbox, of which none are unopened. What a tedious task.

One off of the list though.....

I have RSI on my wrist now though - so off to make a cuppa x

Come fly with me.....

This morning I witnessed a phenomenon which in the 34 short years of my life I have never witnessed before. A migratory bird swarm is the only way I can describe it!
I have seen birds migrate before - heck I've even seen a pretty large amount of them hitching a ride - but NEVER like this before. I wish I could have stopped the car and taken a picture - but alas my camera was in the house (more to do with squashing a huge two part buggy, two children and enough consumables to keep said children happy for one day into a mini! - I simply didn't have enough room left in the car for a camera!) Several other drivers had in fact pulled over to watch the amazing sight.

The sky to the right of the road was almost black with flocking birds and they just kept coming and coming. The pic above is of a similar sighting in Wales - make the numbers more dense and there you have an inkling of what I observed. Had I not had an appointment to make at the dentist I would have pulled over to yake it all in properly.

Talking of the dentist - LL had his first visit, and BB actually let the dentist look in his mouth this time. Very pleased with them both. They even both behaved whilst I had the dentist - and then the hygienist poke around in my mouth. Phew - it really could have been messy as we had no choice but to embark on this adventure alone! The hygienist did comment on how impressed they were at the fact that I emerged from the car with the two kids and the two part pram. Mini's really don't lend themselves to large family outings!

BB informed me when I picked him up from Nursery that he and his teacher were having a chatter! Does he do anything else these days? Non stop talking. I think the only time he does actually stop is in his sleep....takes after his mummy there I'm afraid.

LL has just spent some time honing his bruiser image. BFS commented the other day that he's just like Desperate Dan from the Beano. Just add a big chin and some stubble and he's pretty much spot on. He certainly is perfecting his 'twa cairpets' walk with puffed up chest to boot.

To Make a House a Home....

This evening I did some more ironing (yes that's the THIRD night in a row!!!) and also put some pictures on the wall of our not so homely lounge. The walls have been screaming out for something for ages - but finally I tacked a few pics and one print up there. I do have another couple of prints that I wanted to misch masch with the pics but I think they're up in the depths of the attic - maybe a job for another day!

This evening before bed I was instructed by BB to put LL 'quickly' up to bed as he wanted to play Snap. He kindly arranged the cards for us whilst I was reading LL his story. Can you guess which pile was mine? I don't think he quite has the concept yet!



Yesterday I set BB the task of colouring in a (pretty crap) tiger which I drew for him. I have to say I was michty impressed with the care he took over the whole thing. He was using a fine nib gel pen but persevered to obtain suitable coverage and didn't stray too far over the lines. I think this one is going to take after his Mummy on the drawing front.......



Very proud!

How to Endear Yourself to Your Hubby!

Do the ironing! Yup yes - that also includes the king size duvet cover and sheet from the bottom of the pile.....

Admittedly there's more washing drying at the moment so chances are the basket won't be empty upon your return BFS - but at least I did make an effort!

Technically it's to make up for the fact that I haven't taken pics or blogged so I need an excuse as to why not. I believe that sitting on your hoop doing nowt doesn't really cut it?

Over thew weekend we had a birthday party, a trip to see a bonfire and fireworks (which BB loved - and amazingly LL fell asleep through in the backpack! - I did have ear defenders on him.....) we had a visit from their uncle and cousin (keeping out of the new mum's way) and today after nursery we went to the local soft play for the afternoon - where the boys had a ball. The place was practically empty so they could roam happily without getting bombarded by bigger kids.

I am once again heading off for an early night (the true reason why there's been no blogging of late) as I am still playing catch up. One day I may begin to feel half human again - I hope x

Welcome Isla Rose.

Can you believe that just 6 hours after yesterdays pic of K that this beautiful little girl arrived safely into this world......just 5lbs 13ozs of baby.



Welcome to the family!

I took the leap......

I finally decided to go fully manual on my lovely camera. Only to discover shortly after that it's not exactly condusive to getting beautifully exposed pics of children who don't stop still for more than a split second!!!

I had to resort to Av which meant that the shutter speed could counteract the exposure problems automatically, but I will, when I can revert, to M!!! (Well done me)

Admittedly I am feeling pretty chuffed with myself about this....

Today after Nursey/Toddlers we headed over to see my brother and his 'due today' pregnant partner. We arrived to find out that some early contractions were under way - exciting stuff. Our boys will probably have a new little cousin in the next couple of days. K looked fab - even in early stages of labour!



They were all busy packing getting ready to head to hospital so we went over to the park. BB had fun jumping in puddles (and splashing his little brother who was below the platform he was splashing on!)





LL had a ball on the swings and was none too pleased when we had to head home (see pic!!!)



I now have the biggest splitting headache so am quickly popping on this so I can head to bed just after the boys do.......