Jan 09: Summer is here, the sun is shining and now they&#146;re early rising <sob>

[Teaandcakeplease]

Shiney new thread.

evening

soz for clinging babies

congrats on 21 years

tt were great last nite so good especially robbie

Hey Pat and tink

We are off to The Bug Zoo today... should be interesting. lol

120 asked me to say hi for her, she is moved into her lovely new flat but has no internet and can't mn or fb at work!

book marking - hi gotart and hkz

bug zoo sounds fun
and
cheers hkz for update

Bug Zoo was fun. DD1 loved it. Then shoe shopping for DD1. Then home. Then nap for DD1, dinner time and then swim lessons for DD1; its nice to see she listens to other adults.

No sleep last night; grunter baby was at it all night. She just wanted to be on the boob. Went for a beach walk today; still waiting for her to go down for afternoon nap.

Hellos to all.

hi gotart glad u had fun

Hello everyone.

Ridiculously mad time here, lots of school stress with ds1 - always the same at transition time unfortunately.

Ds2 got his report, nice comfortable 2bs across the board in his SATs - which is incredible when you think how far behind he was after his pneumonia and a far safer position to be in than the 3s that ds1 got followed by all the associated pressure to stay top of his year in juniors. He has suddenly taken to reading in a big way, at exactly the same age as ds1 did. He's currently reading dd a bedtime story every night, which she loves and is also really good for him.

Should get ds1's report tonight as he was off school yesterday, after freaking out about sports day and transition and giving himself a migraine.

Looks like we might have to cancel the camping part of our holiday, as funds are extremely tight and the camper has had to go in for some work and an MOT. Will know for certain when we get the garage bill.

Weight loss continues at a slow pace. Have now lost 17lbs since I first weighed myself on June 14th and 15 since I started logging it on MFP and joined a support thread on MN. Hoping to hit my goal weight in time for Christmas - still have A LOT of weight to lose though.

Hope your velcro baby is a bit more settled now GotArt.

Hi Tink and HKZ - say hi to 120 for me and tell her I nominated her blog for the Dorset Cereals blog awards, as a site that helps people to plan and eat good quality, healthy seasonal food.

hi mm great to hear from you - sorry for school stresses!!
great with sats
good luck with reports
well done on the weight loss you are doing really well
shame about camping and good luck with garage!!

we got a referral date for dd1 is 23rd of aug

Glad to hear you haven't had to wait too long for a referral Tink. How is she doing? Is the school helping at all?

Well ds1's report was very good - a little too good really considering the difficulties he's had this year and am concerned its the school trying to do a bit of a cover up job before the SA request goes in in the Autumn. I am particularly sceptical and quite concerned about the PHSE/SEAL comments that seem to suggest that he has been pretty much cured of his autism through their wonderful weekly half hour sessions this year. That said, there are some genuinely good bits as well and his strengths in computers, science and reading are clearly detailed.

Came down from putting dd down from her nap to find an answerphone message asking me to come and fetch ds1, as he wasn't feeling well (dizzy, nauseaus and exhausted -most probably anxiety related). Had to wake up a - not at all impressed and very sleepy dd and rush down to the school. Asked to pick ds2 up at the same time, as I would have had to go back in half an hour to fetch him anyway with a poorly ds1 in tow and fortunately ds2 was only having show and tell, so they let me bring them both home.

Can't wait for the holidays to start so all this nonsense will stop for a few weeks.

sorry ds1 poorly!!
yes school r being great
dd1 is doing ok

getting this for dd1 looks great have preordered not out till aug 15th dd1s 6th bday is 29th of aug so will get just in time

www.amazon.co.uk/LeapFrog-LeapPad-Explorer-Tablet-Pink/dp/B004Z7H15Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1310655834&sr=1-1

Good to hear the school are on the ball and dd1 is doing ok.

That LeapPad Tablet looks great - my boys would have loved something similar at that age. Ds1 had a very basic black and white lcd tablet at around the same age and it was definitely his favourite toy.

DD's birthday is coming up again. She wants a Dashi the dog cake this year. Lord have mercy on me! Eek!

I'll try and catch up on all the chat later after they're both in bed.

Moose 17lbs in a month!!! That's fantastic! Love DS reading to DD.... can't wait for those days.

velcro baby is velcro-ing... back later

Some ideas below Tea:

Dashi face cake 1.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.finessecakes.com/images/stories/blog/blog122.jpg&imgrefurl=execsearchinc.com/new/octonauts-cake-pictures%26page%3D6&usg=__sj9NFy7ttzOIrxp-WOuSLGbzt-g=&h=359&w=540&sz=102&hl=en&start=24&zoom=1&tbnid=W2nVssU1p3ntlM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=177&ei=0yIfTrPqB4ys8QPIzeWiAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Doctonauts%2Bdashi%2Bcake%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1363%26bih%3D765%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1048&vpy=290&dur=1130&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=196&ty=142&page=2&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:24" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Octonaught cupcakes.

Octonauts cake.

OR

Something like one of the following, but using Dashi instead of the others:

Cake 1

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.custombirthdaycakes.co.uk/images/cakeimages/Octonauts%2520Kwazii%2520Cakes.jpg&imgrefurl=www.custombirthdaycakes.co.uk/birthdaycakesforboys.html&usg=__iB9arPuoWORhHoM-_fWamSO0uac=&h=351&w=340&sz=97&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=2cy-Zhve1gSrcM:&tbnh=147&tbnw=142&ei=myMfTt3EOM-p8AP6iomlAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Doctonauts%2Bbirthday%2Bcake%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1363%26bih%3D765%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divns&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1102&vpy=199&dur=360&hovh=228&hovw=221&tx=136&ty=156&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cake 2

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=2.bp.blogspot.com/-XlPoww1Z00w/TWOvbwCPBdI/AAAAAAAAAHc/tz6EvAKb3EM/s1600/Octonauts.jpg&imgrefurl=sweetartandscraps.blogspot.com/2011/02/from-vintage-to-modern.html&usg=__i-JqEhP6UhUa6ymmebuuNgQEjdI=&h=1360&w=1600&sz=238&hl=en&start=24&zoom=1&tbnid=OX6upMOWeHUtOM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=149&ei=myMfTt3EOM-p8AP6iomlAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Doctonauts%2Bbirthday%2Bcake%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1363%26bih%3D765%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=354&vpy=116&dur=1281&hovh=207&hovw=244&tx=100&ty=102&page=2&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:22,s:24" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cake 3

Oh, hi GotArt - crossposted. Thanks, it hasn't been too hard so far. I'm eating loads, in fact I struggle to eat enough calories most days, as I'm eating so much healthy/fresh stuff. Am finding My Fitness Pal a big help with both managing my intake and motivating me to keep at it.

:)

Moose... they all look pretty scrumptious. I cruised through the sites too... wish I had that talent.

back at ya tink

hi

have bought from amazon for dd2s bday
explorer games -
toy story
globe trotter
mr pencil
and preordered - disney pixar friends and pet plas 2

Having a hilarious day here, with jumping in puddles in all in one suits, hot chocs, decorating cup cakes and now an old tent set up in the kids bedroom but man are they squabbling today When will they learn to play nicely? They're like lion cubs, honestly! Push, shove, roll, kick, laugh, bite, say sorry, giggle etc on and on.

Hi Tea, we've been doing the puddle jumping, accompanied by much sibling bashing with one large green frog umbrella! Tents are brilliant fun for children aren't they. We put up all our tents and awning (4 ) in the garden last month and the dcs had a ball playing in them all).

I think the squabbling is pretty normal to be honest. Mine are the same - best friends then mortal enemies all the space of a few minutes.

Had to laugh at dd this morning. The dcs and I were waiting for dh to come back from the bank and dd said 'lets play, I can spy something with my eye Mummy'. So I said "ok, I spy with my little eye, something beginning with D" (I had just seen dh heading back to the car ). So just as dh got in the car I said again "I spy with my little eye something beggining with D for ......" and dd said, with a huge grin, really proud of herself, 'CAT', something beginning with D for cat"! Bless her, I didn't have the heart to tell her cat doesn't begin with D let alone that there wasn't actually a cat available for me to spy with my little eye! She was so pleased with herself and sure that we were all falling about laughing because we thought she was really clever! The daft thing is, whenever we do letters she always says D is for Daddy, she knows the first letters of all our names, so she does know it really.

I have a stack of cupcakes to bake and decorate tomorrow and Thursday this week for teacher gifts. Am making devils food cake (choc and sour cream) with chocolate ganache and home made chocolate 'Thank-you' ballotines and vanilla cupcakes with pale pink paisley embossed sugarpaste toppings. Bought some lovely handbag shaped cupcake boxes off ebay to present them in, single ones for TAs and teachers they don't have often and boxes of 4 (2 choc and 2 vanilla for their class teachers). Did a load for the summer fair a couple of weeks back and managed to resist the temptation to eat one - but they weren't chocolate. Its going to be a lot tougher to stick to my diet with chocolate cupcakes around the place.

Lush Moose

Tea I get the impression that is how they'll be till they are older... how older, I don't know.

Raining here... movie and nap on couch day

hi

yep arguing normal dd1 is awful with dd2 always fighting try and seperate them abit at weekends
puddle jumping sounds good
i did food shopping yest morn
dh went into town with dd1 yest aft
hate all the wet
good luck with cakes mm
thanku for reminding me about pressies
dd1 will be moving into another class
saw nice thanku teacher cards in m and s must get this week
dd1 breaks up 27th

I loved the cakes you linked Moose. I saw them the day you put them on here but my visits to mumsnets are fly by And I forgot to post to say. I'll try and post a full response tonight. Nice to see chat on here again, everyone is so quiet; Tree, Lenni, Stripey etc.

Bookmarking!!!