A very poor tooth fairy pillow

Well the tooth fairy worked late into the night trying to cobble together a bag but after quite a few attempts all that was possible was a very basic drawstring bag made of slightly sparkly purple fabric.

In my head I had planned to make a beautiful pillow with a pocket for the tooth/money.  I had an embroidered or appliqued fairy and tooth and Caitlin’s name!  With less time than I’d hoped I decided to try for a bag or pillow with Caitlin’s name embroidered on….  I kept getting to Cai and then the thread snapped or the thin fabric got chewed up.  After 4 attempts I decided embroidery was out until I’d had more practice.  So I went for a plain bag….even that I managed to make a mess of the first one…but finally I had a very simple bag and exchanged the tooth for a £1 and a book all about the tooth fairy which I had bought ages ago.

When Caitlin woke up she was very impressed with the sparkly bag and her money!  Although she is saving her money for the moment as she can’t think what to spend it on.  Noah suggested sweets but Caitlin said the tooth fairy wouldn’t like her buying sweets which I suppose is true!!!

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A big gap…

Caitlin has had a wobbly tooth for a while and it has been getting more and more wobbly.  I was really hoping it didn’t fall out while we were away…and she managed to hold on until the morning after we got back.  We were driving to school and she stuck her tongue out and said there was something on it so without looking I said just wipe it off and grabbed her a wipe.  Once it was out of her mouth she was very excited to see it was her tooth!!  The gap left behind looks enormous!!!!! 

So tonight she has gone to bed with her tooth in an envelope under her pillow…..and I believe the tooth fairy is having panic attacks making a last minute bag or pillow!!

A fish and a monkey

While we were away in Wales Nanny was busy running back and forth sorting Caitlin’s dance show out.  She had 3 two hour long shows, a class practice and a dress rehearsal!  We came back a bit early from Wales to see the final show.  We took Noah along with us as I thought he’d like to see Caitlin perform.  Her first dance was a monkey dance which was great, then there were a few other classes performing during which Noah decided to start talking!  Caitlin had been told she had to have her hair in a bun and obviously Noah had heard us talking about that.  So he said in a fairly loud voice during a pretty quiet bit of a dance….”when they turn around I can see their buns”.  I nearly killed myself laughing!!!!!

Then Caitlin did a fish dance….

The costumes were amazing!!!  I have no idea who made them all but they were fantastic.  I was amazed by the whole show…. 

Caitlin’s dance school seems a lot more relaxed than the others, there is a uniform but it seems quite relaxed, just a set leotard which doesn’t seem compulsory and any ballet and tap shoes.  Hair has to be tied back but not in a bun normally…so I assumed when they said they were doing a show it would be a very informal thing at the church where the lessons are.  It was a massive event in Stockport Theatre with 3 shows and amazing costumes.  I’ve offered to help out next year so I hope I get to.

Smugglers Cove

It was time for the annual mini trip to Wales and this year we went to a converted chapel called Smugglers Cove…

The house was owned by the same people who own the boat yard between the house and the beach so the house kind of had its own beach which was about 200m from the house.  We wandered down to the beach to explore and Richard pointed out an engine buried on the beach…and wondered what it was out of.  I had a look and realised it was a whole mini that was buried!!!!!!!

Given it was on the beach of the house we were in I thought that was a bit of a big coincidence!  It had obviously been buried for ages and basically the top had rotted off!  A few people dug down and all the bits under the pebbles and sand were still there!  Very odd.

On the Saturday we went out for a drive….

…over a really cool rickety bridge…

I love weird little bridges and toll crossings!  We then went for a wander around the town, went for a drink and drove back.

On the Sunday we had to set off for home early for a very special show………

Goodbye playgroup

I have been going to a playgroup on a Thursday afternoon since Caitlin was about 6 months old.  It’s a great little playgroup, quite small with a crafty table, an outdoor area, a ball pool, a sit down snack time and songs at the end.  I started out taking Caitlin, then Caitlin and Noah…then Caitlin went to nursery and so I just took Noah, then Noah and Austin and now just Austin.  Today was the last session; it is subsidised by a government scheme which is being cut and so the playgroup has to finish.

The playground is attached to the school next door and Austin and his friends were fascinated by the girls practising a cheer leading routine!!

It’ll seem very strange to have Thursdays free after 5 years….

Party time

Caitlin has been to a few birthday parties recently.  One was a joint party which is an idea that seems to be going down well in their class…I’m going to try to do a joint party for Caitlin with one of the others so that we can share the stress and the cost.

The joint party was a fancy dress party which the girls all loved and Caitlin went as a princess (of course).

They had hired an inflatable slide which the kids loved and had a fantastic time going around and around.  Later that week they had another party with a magician who had them all mesmerised!  They all loved it and Caitlin got to wear her new dress which she chose as her present for doing well at swimming and having a good parents evening.

….it spins!!!!!!!

Out for tea!

Noah has seen Caitlin go to her friend E’s house for tea and E come to ours and has been desperate to go somewhere for tea or have someone for tea for ages!  With Richards shifts it takes quite a bit of planning to arrange to have someone over and with all the building work (our kids are used to tools being around…and bits and bobs not finished but I worry about others getting curious and hurt!) so I’ve been avoiding it!  Someone invited Noah over to theirs so he was beside himself with excitement!!!  The little boy who invited him is very quiet and reminds me a lot of Caitlin at his age so I think Noah’s confidence is good for him and he is a great calming influence on Noah.

So Noah went for tea and had a great time.  He had cheesy pasta which is his current favourite and biscuits!!!  When I collected him I tried to arrange a visit to our house and the earliest we could do (as in he could do anytime…) was MAY!!  So he is booked in for May!  I so so so hope Noah gets into Caitlin’s school.  I am really worried he won’t as they have changed the rules and siblings are no longer first in the priority which is great for all those only children out there but a completely impossible situation for anyone with more than one child..ah well fingers crossed!!

My big fat gypsy pageant

Today was Caitlin’s first carnival appearance.  During the winter they do indoor carnivals called arena’s.  I had no idea what to expect from these…and it was weird…very very weird!  After collecting her dress and being told the girls who have been doing it longer have really ornate dresses I was expecting wild things!

We arrived and it was in a church hall, another girl who was at the selection was there too so we went over to talk to her.  She had already been to one the previous weekend so she explained what went on.  Basically it was a cross between my big fat gypsy wedding and a beauty pageant.  I think all of the local towns that hold a proper carnival during the summer hold what they call an arena during the winter months.  They had to take turns to walk into the room and courtesy to the audience, then the judges and then the “home princess and queen”, although today the queen wasn’t there so it was just 2 young girls about 6 and 8 years old.  The judges then pick the girl with the best dress and courtesy in each age group.  Like I said weird!!!!

Caitlin absolutely loved getting all dressed up…..

Then the lady explained what she’d be doing.  Caitlin looked scared to death while she watched an older girl show her what to do, so I told her to line up but if she didn’t want to do it that was ok, but to try.  They started out with the older ones from the younger age group if that makes sense….so Caitlin was near the end.  She walked in which I was amazed by, I really didn’t think she would.  She courtesied for the audience because there were lots of people in the front signalling her to do it, then same for the judges….but when it came to the home princess and queen they are supposed to wait for you to courtesy then courtesy back to you….but becasue no-one was signalling her she just waited for what seemed like ages…finally the older girl must have realised if she didn’t go first they would be there all night!!!  Sure enough as soon the princess courtesied so did Caitlin.

After it was all over (Caitlin didn’t win, but I was really proud of her that she had gone on) I took Caitlin to the loo and she said “I am really proud of myself”…and so she should have been.  So although it was all very weird…and a bit wrong in some ways…I actually think it will be really good for Caitlin’s confidence.  Her head is in the clouds and she has no idea of the beauty aspect of it so she won’t be affected by that side of it.  There was a little girl younger than Caitlin probably about 2 or 3 years old.  She wouldn’t go on and her Mum looked really angry and tried to shove her on, she then started crying so her Mum dragged her off and started shouting at her!!!!  Very scary!!

There were some bizarre dresses that were pretty over the top. I thought they looked like live toilet roll holders….

One of the older girls was looking after Caitlin while she was waiting outside, and when I asked Caitlin which part she had enjoyed most she said it was waiting with the girl in the yellow dress….

I couldn’t get a photo of her without pretending to be getting Caitlin!  But it was a pretty gaudy dress!!  I think Caitlin thought she was a real live Queen/Princess…so that might be why it was her favourite bit.

So although it was very weird (and very wrong for the poor little one who got in trouble for not playing ball with it all) Caitlin loved it and since she is oblivious to the “wrong” parts of it…we’ll carry on for her year that she has been elected for.  Although I’m hoping the proper carnivals are less odd and a bit more relaxed.

Go, go, go….

It was nice and sunny this afternoon so we decided to go to the park and try riding bikes with no stabilizers.  Noah has been asking to try this for ages, but with the house and bad weather we’ve not got around to it.  Caitlin and Noah rode to the park and then we took Noah’s stabilizers off.  Richard held his bike while he got going then let go and off he went!!  And then he stopped perfectly without falling off.

It took him a couple of attempts to figure out how to get himself going but once he had it sussed he was off….

We tried to get Caitlin to have a turn with no stabilizers but she refused saying she liked her stabilizers….

Then Noah suddenly decided he needed his stabilizers back on…even though he hadn’t fallen off and was doing amazingly…

Caitlin then decided to teach Austin to ride her bike….which he loved!!

Meanwhile Noah had decided he could ride his bike and set off at super speeds….tearing around corners!!!!!  He did really well and didn’t fall off but the speeds he was getting to I’m sure a massive crash is on the way….  And here is a video of him right at the start of his learning, I should have got one once he had mastered it but I didn’t!

It’s not comic relief it’s red nose day!

Today was comic relief as I kept calling it…and kept getting corrected to red nose day by Caitlin!  Noah’s school didn’t seem to be doing anything for it, but Caitlin was allowed to dress up in return for a £1 donation.  They were told they could come in fancy dress, wear their pj’s or wear their clothes back to front.  I forgot to take my camera and I really wish I had…the juniors really went to town.  They had amazing costumes…sumo’s, bananas!!, red wigs, boys dressed up as girls…they were great.  Caitlin had dressed up as a princess…no surprise there!!  Complete with tiara…but I forgot to get a picture.

After school she went to swimming still dressed as a princess and they did brilliantly again!  Straight after swimming she got dressed up in her party outfit for the red nose day disco.  Richard was working late so I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to stay and watch since I had Noah and Austin…but the head said it was ok to stay so I paid for a ticket for them both.  Austin was terrified of the noise, but Noah had a great time dancing away with Caitlin….

This time I remembered the camera but my battery went dead after the above picture!!!!!!  About 5 minutes before the end Austin decided he wasn’t scared of the disco and joined in a bit.