Project 365 - Week 44

The kids and I have had a great half term.....We have fitted so much fun into our week and I managed to take plenty of photos for Project 365....

  

297/365. 24th October 2015

Getting into the Halloween mood with a toilet seat sticker....It freaks me out every time I see it.

298/365. 25th October 2015

We went and saw One Direction....

299/365. 26th October 2015

Carving the pumpkins....

300/365. 27th October 2015

Our baking day....

301/365. 28th October 2015

A lazy computer sort of day....

302/365. 29th October 2015

McDonalds for tea....

303/365. 30th October 2015

I survived another half term! Cheers....

Be safe tonight - Halloween!

For young children Halloween night is one of the best of the year.....Some people don't agree with children going out trick or treating but my girls do and a lot of children do where I live....



Plan a route in advance. Trick-or-treating could take you several streets away from your house which may feel different in the dark...Stick to paths that are well lit and one's that you and your child are familiar with...

Wear comfy shoes. Make sure you and your children are in comfortable, well-fitting shoes....Girls in dresses should avoid heels and all shoelaces should be double-tied to avoid tripping in the dark....

Stay well-lit. Apply reflective tape to your child’s costume to ensure they are seen by drivers on the road. Also carry a flashlight with you to keep your child’s path lit at all times....

Avoid any sweets that has loose wrappings or is unwrapped. Small children should have their sweets inspected by an adult before they eat them...

Stop. Look and listen! Be careful on the roads....As simple as this sounds it can be easy to forget especially when munching through a bag of Halloween treats! Remember road safety!....

Respect other people and their property. Don't trample through flower beds and gardens. Be polite and say "thank you"....Try to remember not everyone celebrates Halloween!!

Such a great Half-Term - #WotW

This week my word of the week is....

What a week it has been! We have had a great half term....

Ellie said to me I have been a great mam this week! Hooray! She wishes I could be the fun mam all the time.....I wish I could be too but when the girls are at school it's hard to fit lots of fun things in....By the time both the girls are home from school they have 4 hours until they go to bed....That has to be taken up with homework, reading, baths/showers, eating tea, sorting out school bags and that leaves little time for fun.....

So when it comes to the school holidays we make the most of them....We haven't stopped all week....It has flown over....It has been so busy but busy in a fun, relaxing way if that makes sense....

On Saturday we had a day of housework and X-Factor was back on the TV which meant we spent an evening as a family in front of the TV....

On Sunday Becky and I went to see One Direction.....We had the best time....

On Monday we carved pumpkins....I am still finding pumpkin seeds around the living room....lol

On Tuesday we baked....Scones, chocolate cupcakes, mars bar crispy cakes & carrot cake....

On Wednesday we played board games, with Lego, on Minecraft and the Sims and had a lot of laughs and giggles....

On Thursday we did some crafts and I had promised the kids a McDonalds for tea....It was such a grey, wet day Stu took pity on us and went and got it after work....I really wish McDonalds delivered! hehehe

And today....It's going to be a day of catching up on all the housework I haven't done all week....Stu has a day off work so we should whiz through it....

It has been the best half term.....

Seeing One Direction in Concert! Again!

On Sunday evening Becky and I went to see One Direction in concert at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle....We went with my friend, her daughter and her friend.....A couple of my other friends were there too but were seated elsewhere....

Last year when we saw them in Sunderland we were sat right at the back.... This time we were just about level with the stage at the side....Fantastic seats!!

Jamie Lawson was the supporting act. It turns out he was the first artist signed by Ed Sheeran to his new label....

 

I didn't have a clue who he was until he sung Wasn't Expecting That....Such a sad but lovely song!! He is one to watch out for!! He seems like a nice guy!! Last time we saw 1D in concert they were supported by 5 Seconds of Summer and they were new and not big in the UK and look at them now...

Just after half past eight One Direction appeared! They're a funny bunch....Niall the little Irish guy had me bad laughing doing his "Geordie" accent....Then the singing began and they sung for a good couple of hours....A few songs I didn't know but lots that I did!! Yes I was singing along and dancing! I did sit a few out though.....My poor back couldn't handle standing for over two hours!

 
It was strange with Zayn Malik not there but the four of them still sounded great....The lights were amazing! At one point they had a box above their head and the lights looked like a cage around them.....Very clever!

Becky had a fab time...In the weeks leading up to the concert she didn't seem bothered but on Sunday she did get very excited....Way more than I thought she would! She said if they tour again she want's to see them but after this tour they are supposedly taking a break so time will tell!

By the time we got home it was about half past eleven....Becky was still on a high so it was midnight by the time she went to bed....Taking into account for the clocks changing the night before it was really 1am.....She did well and thankfully had a long lie in Monday morning....hehehe

Mess, masks & forgotten Christmas presents. - #wickedwednesdays

We were cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs also know as the cupboard of doom....It gave us a lot of giggles especially when Ellie decided to wear the Christmas stockings...We found things we haven't seen for nearly a year including a Christmas present which I had hidden away last year and forgot about....Oops! Ellie has claimed it now...lol

Pumpkin Carving....

Yesterday we carved our pumpkins.....The girls did them all by themselves for the first year! I told them what to do but they did all the cutting and clearing out the pumpkin with their own two hands....

We looked at the stencils you can get online and thought we would just stick to the traditional faces....We're not good at things like this.....hehehe

I'm glad to say no fingers were lost in the creation of our pumpkins....hehehe I actually think Ellie had more fun playing with the inside of the pumpkins than doing the actual carving....lol

Who needs fancy pant designs anyway.....I think ours look good and it's something my girls created themselves.....Ellie's on the left, mine in the middle and Becky's on the right....I tried to be a bit clever and made a cat....It sort of looks like one doesn't it.....hehehe

Our Weekly Meal Plan!! - #mealplanningmonday

 

When I was doing the meal plan last week I totally forgot we were at the One Direction concert last night....So the roast chicken dinner has been moved to today and yesterday we had Domino's instead....Ellie wanted a tread because she wasn't going to the concert and I didn't want to be faffing about cooking...That's my excuse and I am sticking to it....hehehe 

This week the kids are off school for the half term holidays....Hooray! I have some treats planned...A baking day and a trip to McDonalds...We have the pumpkins to carve too which should be fun....

On the menu this week we have:

Monday - Roast chicken dinner....

Tuesday - Chicken curry....

Wednesday - A Baking day so sandwiches and cakes....

Thursday - McDonalds....

Friday - Pizza Dogs....

Saturday - No idea...lol With it being Halloween we will decide on the day!

Sunday - Cottage Pie....

As always I've joined in with the wonderful Mrs M's #mealplanningmonday linky....

Pumpkins - #MySundayPhoto

Project 365 - Week 43

Another week of photos for Project 365....

We have been tired this week....The kids finished school on Thursday afternoon and we're ready for a week or so of relaxation, baking and Halloween fun....





290/365. 17th October 2015
My friend gave us a lot of big sheets of paper....The kids made use of them making life size pictures of each other....

291/365. 18th October 2015
Less than 24 hours after properly tidying her room it looks like this! Grr!!

292/365. 19th October 2015
I didn't expect them to dry....They did! Hooray!

293/365. 20th October 2015
A tablet is just not enough....She has to use her phone too....lol #TeenLife

294/365. 21st October 2015
I begged Stu to make me a hot chocolate on Wednesday evening....He makes them so well!

295/365. 22nd October 2015
Celebrating the start of the Half term holidays....

296/365. 23nd October 2015 

The cupboard of doom all tidy! Hooray and after over 4 years of living in here Stu finally put a light in it!

We're ready for the holidays - #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is.....

 The kids broke up for their half term holidays yesterday and we are so ready for them....We're tired. We're finding it so hard to get up on a morning even though we are going to bed at the normal time....I don't think it helps that is still dark outside when we're getting up but we'll have to get used to that as we have the whole winter to go....Eek!

The first half term back at school is always the hardest even though my girls have been going to school for years we still struggle....

We're planning on a couple of relaxing days then things get exciting....Becky and I are off to see One Direction in concert on Sunday.....Well that is if they're all feeling OK....One of them was poorly earlier in the week and a concert was cancelled....Since I bought the ticket Becky has lost interest in them but I'm sure once Sunday comes we will have a great time....It will be nice to have something just for Becky and I....

Next week we don't really have any plans....Well nothing major anyway....I have promised the kids a trip to McDonalds.....Mainly Ellie for being so good at school....She has had a full half term with no bad behavior....I am so proud!! We had her parents evening earlier in the week and it was mostly all good....She needs to concentrate more on her own work and not tell tales about what other children are doing....She is a bit of a busy body lol and she has to write more....The teacher has asked us is there something she loves that she could write about just so she can collect evidence that she can write in sentences with punctuation, paragraphs etc...We mentioned Minecraft and she said it is a good idea so they're going to start that after the holidays....

I am ordering some Pumpkins with the shopping on Saturday so we will have those the carve and some Christmas crafty things arrived from Baker Ross so we can get on with those...I'm hoping for a few lie in's and lots of fun times then hopefully when it is time to go back to school we will be full of energy and ready for the new term....

Zoflora Facebook Competition!

Zoflora have a new competition called A Day in the Life over on Facebook...The competition is aimed at pet lovers to highlight the potential bacteria that pets can bring into the home and how Zoflora can eliminate that bacteria and get rid of nasty odours sometimes caused by our furry friends.....

The competition is a Facebook App....Answer six questions for the chance to win amazing prizes for you and your pet.

There are some great prizes up for grabs including a £200 Pets at Home voucher, a £100 Not on the High Street voucher and lots of Zoflora products..... 

Good Luck!

Seraphine & Tommy's #justforlove

1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage and it is unfortunately one of those devastating common occurrences that can’t always be explained and isn’t spoken about enough....Before I had Becky I lost a baby....I was about 12 weeks along and was told it was just one of those things....No reason given. 

The clothing company Seraphine and the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor are spreading the love and raising money for Tommy’s the baby charity with the #justforlove campaign.

 Tommy’s is an amazing charity that research into preventing early miscarriage and offer support to women and families who have been through it.....They are planning to open Europe’s largest early miscarriage prevention centre next year and they are trying to raise funds for this....

A fabulous t-shirt (The Love T-Shirt) has been created as a symbol of support for women, mothers and mums-to-be to wear....No bump is needed to rock this tee! 

It costs £29.00 and all profits go directly to Tommy’s....As well as this Seraphine will donate an additional £1 for every photo shared on the #JustForLove app. 

 Sophie Ellis-Bextor a mum of 3 and pregnant with her 4th child fronts the campaign as she has been a long time patron of Tommy’s....

1 in 4 women will suffer a miscarriage through their lives so whether you have experienced this terrible loss for yourself or you know someone who has wear The Love T-Shirt in support of mothers and babies everywhere....

Raiding the biscuit tin - #wickedwednesdays

I go to put my shoes on ready for the school run.....I leave her for two minutes at the most and she's in the biscuit tin.....hehehe

Things I am loving at the moment....

Sometimes I come across things which I really like but they are always small things....There is never enough to write a full blog post about them so I have decided to do a post with a few items in which I am loving at the moment....

 

 1. Imperial Leather Mouthwatering Fruit Salad - £1.80 - from Tesco....

Revitalise your skin with this tropical fruit salad shower cream leaving your skin feeling fully refreshed and smelling great. Remember the sweets....This smells just like those! Amazing!!

  

2. Ice Road Truckers - 9pm on Thursdays on History....

In case you didn't know Ice Road Truckers is a reality show which follows truck drivers in Canada....They take their lives in their hands driving heavily loaded vehicles across frozen lakes and rivers to deliver supplies to remote locations....I have been watching it for years but at the moment the latest series seems so good.....The last episode ended with a driver in the middle of a lake going through the ice....Eek! I watch it and as soon as it is finished I want to watch more....I have even started watching the first ever series over again which is shown on a Sunday on the channel Dave.....hehehe

3. Quality Street Fruit Cremes - £3 - Tesco....

 I've never been a fan of the normal quality street sweets....I will only ever pick out the fruit creams and happily leave the rest....This time last year I saw that they boxes of just the Quality Street Fruit Cremes and I ordered them every week until they stopped selling them but nine times out of ten they were out of stock.....This year I have been lucky! For 2 weeks I have ordered them from Tesco and they have arrived! Hooray! 

4. Poundland selling e-Cig things....

I know it's bad that I am even a smoker but at least they are not real cigarettes.....I mentioned this in my Word of the Week post on Friday that Poundland had Electronic cigarette things in...Clearomizers which I usually pay at least £2 for and e-liquid which I pay at least £2.50 for....All for £1 an item! I have given the strawberry & the menthol e-liquid a go and they taste just like they should....The clearomizer is exactly the same as I was paying £2 for....Now I just hope they keep getting them in and the guy over the road in the e-cig shop doesn't buy all the Clearomizers again to resell at £3.50 a go.....

 

5. The Creeper rap....

Just because....lol Boom, Boom, Boom....I can't stop singing this bloody tune!

6. The Sims 3....
All over the summer holidays the girls and I played The Sims 4 but like most games we got bored with it....So we installed the Sims 3 and it's a whole new experience!

7. Rekorderlig Cider 3 for £5 at Tesco....
When I'm not drinking wine I drink cider....It was only a few weeks ago that I discovered the Rekorderlig brand....There are 4 flavours which I have found....Strawberry & lime, Wild Berries, Passion Fruit and Peach & apricot.....I have tried them all and the wild berries is my favourite.....They are so easy to drink....Probably too easy to drink as they just taste like pop....Eek.

8. Zoella Bath products
I love Zoella the YouTuber....Becky does too and for her birthday I bought her some of the Tutti Fruiti products and since then I have been buying them for myself! Between becky and I we have been through so many of the Zoella Fresh Fizz Bath Bombs....Becky said once that she imagines Zoe smells like this all the time....lol They also leave my skin feeling so soft....

 9. Paradise Bay....
The makers of Candy Crush Saga have done it again and have me hooked on a stupid Farmville type game..... 

10. Mr Kipling Christmas slices....
Christmas is coming and this mam is getting fat....lol All thanks to the Mr Kipling Christmas Slices....I may be falling out with Tesco as on Friday when I did my shopping they said "Sorry, this product is currently not available"....No!! I hope they get them back in stock or I find somewhere else to buy them....

What are you loving lately?

Our Weekly Meal Plan!! - #mealplanningmonday

Last weeks meal plan mostly went to plan....Saturday's prawn & mango stir fry ended up being just a prawn one as I forgot to buy the mango....I also bought 2 double packs of bacon by mistake so we will have to make use of that....I predict a lot of bacon sandwiches for my lunch....hehehe.

This week on the menu we have:

Monday - Chip shop tea....We have parents evening for Ellie so will get something on the way home....

Tuesday - BBQ Chicken & bacon melt with egg fried rice....

Wednesday - Pork and apple sausages with wedges....

Thursday - Bacon & tinned tomatoes with lots of bread to dip in....

Friday - Spaghetti Bolognese....

Saturday - The leftover bolognese mix in wraps....

Sunday - Roast chicken dinner....

As always I've joined in with the wonderful Mrs M's #mealplanningmonday linky....

Playing - #MySundayPhoto

At 5am on Saturday morning the girls were caught playing on their tablets in their bedroom.....Firstly the tablets are not allowed upstairs and secondly 5am on a Saturday morning is no time to be up.....

They spend the rest of the day serving a ban.....Playing together nicely with no arguments or fighting....It was absolute bliss....I'm thinking of banning tablets every Saturday....hehehe

Project 365 - Week 42

This last week has flown over....This whole year is flying over....10 weeks and it will be the end of the year! 

  
283/365. 9th October 2015
Bubble baths on a Saturday are always so relaxing.....Well they would be if the kids left me alone....lol
 

284/365. 10th October 2015
I am addicted to the game Paradise Bay on my phone....

285/365. 11th October 2015
Um Bongo, Um Bongo, They drink it in the Congo....hehehe We also drink it here....Well I do and probably too much of it!

286/365. 12th October 2015
On the way to the hospital for my girls heart check up.....We had the top of the bus all to ourselves for most of the way!

 287/365. 13th October 2015

Becky's new PE top was finally delivered to her at school....It does look rather fancy!

288/365. 14th October 2015
This Peach Melba cream cake looks a squashed mess but it is the best I have ever tasted.....From a new bakery in town! I will be going back again.

289/365. 15th October 2015
I'm hoping for dry, sunny weather this weekend! I have a small mountain of washing to do! 

A lot of rushing this week - #WotW

This week my word of the week is

There has been a lot of rushing this week which has meant the week has flown over....

Monday morning was a bit of a rush....I needed to see the head teacher....So we were of to school early! I had a whole heap of issues to deal with....Over the weekend I got a few letters to do with Ellie's school and health. They have all been dealt with now but I had a few words with head and I doubt I am her favourite person.....hehehe

On Tuesday we had the girls heart check up at the hospital....I thought I had timed it perfectly. The girls finished school at 11.30. We get the bus at midday and get to the hospital at about 1.50 for the appointment at 2.10.....What I didn't make time was for us missing a bus, traffic jams and the bus stops being moved and us not having a clue where they were.....We amazingly arrived at the hospital just in time....We may have been a sweaty, stressed mess but we made it....Phew!

Tuesday also reminded me why I hate Newcastle city center so much.....Rush, rush, rush! When we had finished at the hospital we tried to have a nice calm walk back to the bus but everyone was in such a hurry we got caught up in it all and found ourselves rushing too for no reason!

What hasn't been rushed is the school delivering Becky's new PE top.....it on the day after she went back to school in September.....The uniform had changed over the holidays and I only skimmed through the letter informing me of this. My bad but it was about 20 pages long reminding everyone of the school rules and day....I got a text saying the top was ready to pick up on the 24th of September at another school linked to ours....Becky asked her head of year and she was told her a parent had to go and collect it about 3 miles away.....They've text me, sent letters and rang me & I have said no I would not be picking it up.....It wouldn't have been so bad if I was passing where it was but I never go that way....They said I could get a taxi or bus to get it....Err no! I've paid for the top I am not paying anymore to pick it up....I ordered it from one school I want it delivered there.....You wouldn't order something from online and have it delivered miles away from you would you! I think they got sick of me complaining and because Becky came in on Wednesday with it....Hooray!!

On Thursday I found myself rushing to Poundland.....I found out they had supplies for e-cigarettes in...Clearomizers which I usually pay at least £2 for and e-liquid which I pay at least £2.50 for....All for £1 an item!! I bought £15 pounds worth of stuff which would have cost me well over £30 from my usual online supplier....Hooray for bargains! I also picked up some stocking fillers for the kids for Christmas and some hats and gloves for them too....The mornings are so much chillier now.

I'm looking forward to a nice, slow, relaxed weekend....I think I need it....

My girls have good hearts.... #CHD

 On Tuesday we were at the hospital for my girls to have a check up on their hearts.....In case you didn't know just over 6 years ago they both had open heart surgery to fix holes in their hearts....

You can read our full story....Part One & Part Two

It has been two years since their last check up and although I know they are fit & healthy there is always that niggling thought in the back of my head that their hearts could have deteriorated....We didn't know they had problems with their hearts until Ellie jammed her fingers in a door when she was about a year and a half old and she needed surgery to fix her fingers......They spotted it then. So now would there be any signs that their hearts are deteriorating? I really should of asked the doctor that the other day....lol

We saw a new Doctor to us.....Dr O I will call him.... I have heard wonderful things about him & think I saw him when the girls were having their surgery but I'd never really met him.....He informed me our normal doctor, Dr K was retiring and he was taking over.....I may have been a bit vocal about my disappointment in this....Eek! I hope he didn't take it personally but Dr K was amazing! He is the one to thank for saving my girls lives....

So we got on with the echocardiogram. Ellie was first and he was good enough to point everything out including the pesky leaky valves.....Which are fine and have got no worse than they were at our last check up! Hooray! When it was Becky's turn he said the same about her heart too.....Dr O said they have good hearts....Phew! 

Dr O asked if we had ever been offered genetic testing? We haven't and he said it would be good to know if the heart problems will be passed down to the girls children as well since I passed it down to the girls....I think I would like to know too. They obviously could still have children but at least it won't be a nasty surprise for them if their child/children have heart defects too.....He asked me if I was planning on having anymore and I said no because I couldn't go through it again.....He went through the whole speech about I would be under that hospitals care and I would have extra scans but it hasn't changed my mind....

So we are being put forward for the genetic testing....There is a very long waiting list so it could be this time next year or even the year after when we are called upon....In the mean time Dr O is going to have a look at the results of the scan I had taken about 5 years ago at my local hospital....Good luck to him with that! I rang up to get the results and was told a doctor doesn't need to see me about them my heart was fine.....lol Maybe he will find out more than I did?

We then had the girls weight, height and blood pressure done....All perfect! Then we went for the ECG which came back fine too....It was funny when the woman doing the ECG realised both the girls had, had heart surgery....She has never seen or heard of two sisters both having the same problem and she has been doing the same job for a lot of years....hehee I

So we are back in 18 months again for a check up.....Dr O said us coming sooner is nothing to worry about....He doesn't like to leave people for 2 years like our old doctor so he compromised and said 18 months.....So we will be back sometime in April of 2017!