Where does the time go?

Number One was eight this week. I can't quite believe it - looking back it feels like 10 minutes since she was born. Apart from my grey hairs and wrinkles that is.

We took some friends to the cinema and then came home for a party tea (complete with cake she had decorated herself - where does she get that from I wonder!). The weather was perfect - just 4 days after the garden had been under 3 inches of snow they all ate ice cream outside.

Happy birthday my love.

The summer that never was

Today it is autumn, after never really having been summer. We have been cheated out of the chance to sit in the garden eating fruit and ice cream, watching the kids play - the paddling pool never even got cleaned this year.


The school holidays are very nearly over and the children are getting on each others nerves - trying my patience, which is stretched very thin. I made a conscious decision this year that we would have a relaxed break, without the heavy scheduling of previous summers, and boy was that a mistake. We have been stuck indoors for the most part, and there is only so much of that we can collectively take.

At least the kids are looking forward to going back to school.

Spring is back

So the husband is going away for a few days and I am so excited. Not that he is going away, simply that I can get all my sewing stuff out and leave it all over the house until saturday when I will have a frantic last minute tidy up. It is so lovely to have the space and time to play with fabrics and designs without having to be the wife. It doesn't happen that often, which is probably what keeps it a joy. It means that I can hopefully get some of these objects out of my head and into the real world, leaving just a little bit more space for being married.

In the garden today, finally. The weather is perfect. Golden boy crawled all over the lawn like he had never seen anything so amazing in his life, and now has grass stains all over his chubby little knees.

The middle one went exploring:

and found some lovely spring flowers: