Merry Christmas

We celebrated Christmas at Simon's mums house this year.
The kiddies were very excited, as you can imagine...but a bit worried. They hoped Santa would find his way to nana's house.

They put up their stockings before bedtime, and a plate with a mince pie, apple and a glass of milk for Santa and Rudolph.

I was put in charge of making the Christmas cake, instructions were a bit confusing! It turned out lovely though.

As you can see Santa did find his way, they were so excited! Notice the dark outside...it was SO EARLY, that's what Christmas does to kids...no kid sleeps in on that day!

Happily unwrapping.They were very pleased with what Santa brought.

More present unwrapping when their aunties and uncles arrived, they are so lucky!

The Spratleys at Christmas. I love how it looks like Lilly's got antlers....so cute.

Emily playing with her new toys, Dylan engrossed in his new game and me doing my motherly duties of getting toys out of boxes. Seriously, they really know how to tie toys to the boxes these days, it takes forever to get them out.

Merry Christmas! Hope yours was as much fun as ours!

Cornwall holiday

How lovely is Cornwall! No one ever told me it was that pretty!We spend 5 days there with the whole family and had an amazing time.
Yep, the whole Spratley clan was there, even the South African ones which was super fun because we don't get to see them that often.
We all had this super cool Scandinavian cottage with hot tub!!! Bubbles, ohhh. Super fun!
Every morning ducks waddled over to our cottage and Emily happily gave them their breakfast. See the one with the white patches? That was her favourite duck and she called him "WhiteyOh". She made sure he got the biggest pieces of bread.

                                                                                                                                                                       

             We found a beautiful spot by the sea, it was a bit windy and the sea was quite rough, so the kiddies didn't like looking over the edge of the wall....but the view was amazing! 

                                                         

Some of the clan....and a photo now proves that I am shorter than an eleven year old...nice!

On our way to Padstow  Emily got carsick (poor munchkin), luckily little cousin Nina didn't feel like sitting in her pram so Emily could sit down for a bit while we went for a walk to another beach.

Dylan enjoyed playing on the beach...only got wet up to his knees (which is an achievement, normally he's wet up to his waist!) and by the time we left had enough sand in his wellies to fill up a sandbox!

Hot Tub!!!

Me and Dylan who had eaten way to much of Holly's chocolate birthday cake

Did you know ducks can jump? Yes, look that's a jumping duck right there!

The whole clan apart from Emily "who didn't want her picture taken" (insert stroppy voice of a 5 year old there!)

We visited The Eden Project which was amazing!

My little surfing girl in the tropical rain forest biome

Amazing view from the top platform in the biome. Super scary to go up to the top but so worth it!

Do I want to know more about chocolate? What kind of question is that?? OF COURSE I DO!!!!

Hmmmm, not what I imagined. This is the inside of a cocoa pod....looks more like one of those icky grubs to me. Luckily it turns to yummy chocolate beans when roasted

visiting Land's End...looks like no one was ready for this photo!

Our evenings were spend eating (Lot's of sausages for some reason),laughing, playing board games and spending time with the family. The kids loved playing with their cousins and had the time of their lives. Sadly all things end and we had to go back home.

Bye bye Scandinavian cottage, bye bye hot tub, bye bye Cornwall....hope we get to come back soon!

Welcoming the Christmas holidays

Finally it's Friday.....and Christmas holidays!

It's been such a hectic few weeks and I feel exhausted, I can really do with a break.

Everyday something different has been going on, if it wasn't in Dylan's school then it was at Emily's.

Oh the joys of having kids in different schools.

First we had their Christmas concert/play.

Emily's infant school did a Christmassy Motown concert. Emily's group danced to "Say a little prayer", which was super cute. All the kiddies in her year had to be dressed up as angels and she looked very angelic...I just wish someone had adjusted her halo a bit better. (can you spot the pterodactyl tattoo....typical Emily that is!)

Dylan's junior school did a Christingle and Dylan was Joseph. He didn't have to talk, just act out and I was sitting in a really bad spot so no good photo's.

He did excellent though and made the most handsome Joseph I've ever seen.

Later that week we had Christmas dinners at school and the Christmas fair at Emily's school.

I helped out at the tombola stall which was HECTIC! Emily absolutely loved the Christmas fair. She had her face painted, visited Santa's grotto, did some lucky dips, adopted a cuddly toy, looked around the stalls for goodies and ate candy floss. How much better can life get for a 5 year old.

In the evening both kids went their school disco's which was thoroughly enjoyed by both.

All this craziness had to be combined with work, housework, mummy duties, husband and getting ready for a holiday and Christmas.

Phew!

I feel tired.

First Christmas cards

Today Emily wrote her first ever Christmas cards.

I loved watching her and see the concentration on her face when she was trying to spell her friends names. (all while being a sick little pumpkin so don't mind the tissue)

She formed the letters perfect and I didn't even have to show her how to spell "to", she did it all by herself.

She was so proud of herself and so was I.

Some lucky friends she has!

Happy birthday Dylan!

Yesterday Dylan turned 8! How did that come around so fast?! One minute he's a cute little baby with funny hair, the next a handsome 8 year old...time flies! In the morning he opened his presents and was very happy to find out we DID buy him Skylanders (all week we'd been teasing him saying the shops had run out and we hadn't been able to buy it anywhere). Cruel I know, hahaha!Later that morning the family arrived and Dylan got spoilt with more really nice presents! Thanks so much everyone! He also had three of his best friends over and we all went out to Pizza Hut for lunch. After Pizza Hut we had birthday cake (chocolate sponge cake with vanilla butter cream, made by me!). Dylan really wanted a Moshi monster cake this year and I think it turned out really well, what do you think? Not to brag or anything but it was DELICIOUS.

Finally there was a pinata...which just didn't want to break (apart from the head coming half off). After about a hundred hits by the kids we had them all hold a leg and just tear the thing apart. Seriously, I've never seen kids pick up things from the ground that fast, if only they could do the same when it's tidy up time for toys.

To top it off we went to a pantomime in the evening. Ferneham Hall was playing "Beauty and the beast", it was so much fun! Dylan had a fantastic birthday!!!

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

Last Sunday we decided to put up our Christmas tree, something Emily was VERY excited about.

She proved to be a fantastic little helper and carefully hung all her favorite ornaments.

Dylan on the other hand was far too busy. Who wants to decorate a tree when you can play with Lego anyway! Boys...

Every year the kiddies get a special new ornament. Dylan got a festive hedgehog, which he loved and immediately found a good place for...and that was his ONLY contribution to the tree.

Emily's special ornament this year was a cute robin, needless to say she loved it.

Normally we have a star at the top of our tree but this year Emily made an angel in Rainbows and she asked so nicely if it could go on the top that we just couldn't resist.

Awww look how pretty your angel looks...

Tadaa, the finished product, I think we did a great job!