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Week 11 – Monday Round-up

March 16, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Another quickie round-up this week as I’m watching The Walking Dead and apparently it’s a good one! After the girls had a late night last weekend, this week has felt very tiring generally. Megan was okay for the most part but Lily suffered pretty badly with tiredness and that was a headache in itself. They both had school Monday to Friday as normal, Singing Stars on Monday, at their Dad’s on Tuesday and Red Nose Day on Friday. Otherwise everything was fairly standard. Monday we were supposed to be having curry and beer for dinner but when the girls requested croissants and pain au chocolat, Chris and I were swung by that too. Instead Chris and I had curry and beer on Tuesday night, when the girls were out with their dad. Wednesday after school, Lily decided to grow her own prince. it was pretty funny as we’d had this frog thing for about 3 years and never done it and she randomly came downstairs wanting to do it. The frog disintegrated and left a tiny prince, who we were assured would grow full size (full in the sense of the full size it was meant to, not life size) within 72 hours. Sure enough it did and by Saturday she had a not so handsome prince.

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On Wednesday I made a skirt for Amy, in the space of about 3 hours. I was pretty pleased with it too! I did learn a few things and next time I will be making it both longer and gathered, but she seemed fairly happy with it and that’s what mattered. That same day I started on Amy’s cake and sadly it all went a bit wrong but I didn’t have time to do anything about it. On Thursday I carried on with the cake but I also had cleaning and tidying of the house to do. Finally it was Friday and I had so much to do. A huge shop and leaving my bank card at home wasn’t the best start to the day but it turned out okay. I came home and started to cook – lasagne, macaroni cheese and profiteroles stuffed with butterscotch instant whip. After lunch, Amy and Olivia arrived and I sat down with them for a while before we all headed out to get the girls from school. When we got back, I had more cooking to do, including butterscotch creme brulee. Lily then helped me sort out the dining room and set the table as it was her murder mystery party that night. Everyone got ready and then people filtered in from 7pm onwards. We got started around 8pm and I served dinner and then dessert. The murder mystery was pretty basic but it was meant for kids – Lily seemed to enjoy it and that’s what matters. Afterwards the girls went to bed and everyone stayed for a cup of tea/coffee. My mum, brother and his girlfriend ended up going home after a little while but Amy was staying here and Tom/Nat stayed a little longer too. Once everyone was gone, we all stayed up to try and see Amy’s birthday in but gave up at 11.30pm. As it happens I was still awake at midnight so I text her and then went to sleep!

In the morning I was up and got Amy’s present, cake and balloons ready for when she came downstairs. We didn’t really do an awful lot that day to be honest, but it was nice and relaxed just sitting around. We headed out around 2.30pm as we had a dinner reservation over in Lincoln at 3pm. We all ate out at Damons and it was a really lovely meal. There was me and Chris, plus our girls, Amy and Olivia, Nat and her son Harry and our mutual friend Jon. It was nearly 6pm by the time we left though and that meant that once we got home, the girls went pretty much straight to bed. At around 7.30-8pm, Nat came back over to us and as Jon was still here, the five of us spent the evening playing Cards Against Humanity. It was a fun evening and after everyone was gone we managed to stick it out till just gone midnight and see Amy’s birthday out before heading to bed.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and the girls and Chris brought me breakfast in bed and some beautiful cards and a gift. I then got up and tidied up the house, before taking Amy to catch her train and popping to the shop for some food. I came home and cooked lunch for my mum who stayed for a few hours over lunch and left around 4pm. The girls got their homework done and then somehow it was pretty much time for them to go to bed. I was incredibly tired and just spent the evening monging out on my computer and blogging. It was a crazy sort of a week but I imagine the next two will be as well!

Filed Under: Monday Round-up Tagged With: Amy, Amy's birthday, Amy's cake, cards against humanity, Damons, Disney, eating out, frog, Lily's party, mother's day, prince, red nose day

Week 5 – Monday Round-up

February 2, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

I’ve struggled again the last few weeks, to remember what I do each day of the week, especially by the following Monday. Some days seem so easy to recall while others are just a total blur. This week, since I have the time, I’m starting to document my week early on, hopefully updating it as I go along.

This week is another regular week – Chris at work and Megan/Lily at school. Monday was basically like any other Monday, except that I personally had a lot to fit into my day. I dropped the girls off and then headed around to see my friend Nat. She’d just been through some tough stuff over the weekend and I wanted to show my support and spend the morning with her. I also wanted to snag some GoT tickets from Sky Atlantic so I was naughty and took my laptop with me, along with some chocolate and a sympathy card. I spent the whole morning with her, leaving just after 12. I did manage to get my GoT tickets too, though the site crashed at 10am when the tickets were released and it took till about 11.30am (and an almost dead laptop battery) before I actually got them! I headed away from Nat’s and straight to my brother. He had a flat tyre and needed a lift to the tyre place. I was also supposed to take a jack but when I got there I realised mine had never got put back in the car (eek!). Anyway I helped my brother with his car, gave him a lift and then we went to Subway for lunch while we waited. We headed back to the tyre place, collected Erika from work and then I dropped them both off before heading back to my house. I had time for a cup of tea and a quick check of my emails, before heading back out to get the girls from school. Once I’d picked them up, we headed home and got the girls their dinner straight away. Monday is always a late night after school as the girls have Singing Stars and the evening just flies by after that. After food, the girls did homework and then they both read. By this point it was pretty much Lily’s bed time and as we had to read a story, we headed up. The girls and I read a chapter of Never Girls and then Lily went to sleep.

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Chris arrived home not long after. Megan and I were in the kitchen, doing the dishwasher and making Chris’ dinner. Afterwards we started on Megan’s other homework, a sewing project she wanted to do. It took us majority of the time up to her bedtime and then she headed to sleep too. Chris was upstairs on his computer by that time so I settled in to blog. I got myself distracted by the TV though and didn’t get much done! Chris came down to join me and we watched TV together until going to bed, just as I finally finished my Monday Round-up post from last week!

On Tuesday we got up and headed out to school as normal. Once I’d dropped off the girls I headed home, knowing I had parcels to wrap and get to the post office. Once I was finally done (a lot of procrastinating later), I headed out to the Post Office and dropped off the parcels. I then nipped into Boyes to pick up some felt for Megan’s sewing project. After that I went to Lidl, to do the weekly shop. I got everything I needed for £35 and I’m pretty sure some of that will even roll over into next week! I headed home and unpacked all the shopping, then getting myself some lunch. In the afternoon I sat down to watch some TV, went on my computer for a bit, sewed up my t-shirt dress and then wrote a blog post. Once all that was done, I started on dinner. Chris let me know he was going to be late home and the girls were with their dad so the day seemed to drag quite a lot. The girls were home just after 7pm and once they’d got themselves changed, we read another chapter of the Never Girls – not because it was the day’s task, but because we are hoping to finish this next book by the end of the week. I spent the majority of the evening playing on my phone, watching TV and just generally chilling out, until Chris and I went to bed.

Wednesday it was really cold and apparently snow was forecast, though we didn’t get much that day. I took the girls to school and then came home, bumming around for majority of the day as I was just feeling in a bit of a rut. I had an awesome post day though, which included some teas to try. I also got some blogging done which I guess was constructive. When it was time, I turned out for the girls and we came straight home, getting dinner too. Megan and I then had her homework to do, finishing off a rocket that we’d started a few days earlier. We also had to paint Snow White pegdoll and Lily wanted to play Disneyland Adventures.

Lily went to bed and Megan and I continued on with the rocket until it was finished. Once it was, it was Megan’s bedtime too. I was still feeling a bit down so Chris and I spent the evening together. We watched some TV and then ended up playing on the Xbox. We had originally intended to play together, however in the end it was me playing on the Kinect and Chris just watching. I actually had a lot of fun. We headed to bed afterwards and in the night it snowed quite a lot. When we woke up on Thursday there was a fair covering, but not enough to worry about. The girls were ready nice and early so they both played on Tsum Tsum before going to school (their disney task for the day). We then set off in plenty of time, to make sure the car had time to defrost and so we didn’t need to rush.

After dropping the kids at school, I went to my mum’s. She’d been away for a long weekend and I wanted to see her to catch up but I also needed to drop off Megan’s iPad, as the girls were staying that night. We chatted over a cup of tea and then I headed off as she needed to go out. The snow came down pretty heavy on my way back and I was definitely glad that I wouldn’t be turning out again. I spent the day catching up on house stuff, but I also tried out some fitness games on the Xbox. In the end nothing really interested me so I bought a dance game on Ebay and since it was a download code, I set it to download. I then made dinner for Chris and I, before the girls rang for their evening chat. After that I walked down to meet Chris at the station and we both went to get a few bits from Aldi. We came home and had dinner, before Chris started making some quiche for a baking competition at work the next day. I sat and read my book for the most part and then when he came in to sit down, he played on the Xbox and I went on my computer.

We headed to bed and it was nice to know I’d get a lie-in in the morning. Chris went out to work and I managed to sleep till about 9.30am, though I stayed in bed and read my book until 10am. When I got up, I sorted out clothes for the girls to wear that evening, plus put on a load of washing. I also sorted out several piles of washing around the house and put some clothes on the radiator to dry. Amoungst all that I managed a shower and also wrote my Get Fit Friday post, all of which I did before about 2pm when I headed out to Tesco, for petrol and then to get the girls. Once I picked them up, we headed to my mum’s to get changed. She wasn’t there at first but she arrived after about half an hour, with Erika (my brother’s girlfriend) and her son Charlie.

The girls and I headed out to Toys R Us, because Megan had a voucher she still wanted to spent. We bought Groot, Baymax and Hiro in Disney Infinity figures, along with some power discs. After that we went to pick Chris up from work, sitting in McDonalds car park for about half an hour. Finally at 5.30pm he finished and we all headed to Damons, to meet the rest of the family. There was my mum, my brother, Erika, Charlie and our mutual friend Jon. We all ordered and sat chatting till the food came and then everyone tucked in. It was a great meal and good company. Afterwards we all headed home in our seperate directions and the girls had to head pretty much straight to bed, though we did fit in a few chapters of the Never Girls book, as we wanted to get Book 2 finished before the end of January. In the evening, Chris and I just sat and watched TV as we were both stuffed and feeling lazy. Eventually we headed to bed fairly early, despite it being the weekend the next day.

Chris set his alarm for 9am in the morning, as he couldn’t remember what time his driving lesson. I could have kicked him when at 9.30am his driving instructor text him to check he was still okay to go out (it was snowing again) and confirmed his lesson was 12.45pm. We had a lazy start though, Chris making us a cup of tea/coffee and lounging around in our PJs. The girls were playing Disney Infinity and eventually Chris went upstairs to play on his computer. I’d got really into my book and so I spent the whole morning reading until I finished. After crying at the ending, I got up and sorted out lunch for the girls, before making them both get dressed too. When Chris got back from his driving lesson they all played on the Xbox for a while and I made dinner early, so it was ready. After the kids and Chris had finished playing, he headed upstairs again for a bit and we made biscuits to fulfill our Disney challenge for the day.

Though we baked the cookies in the afternoon, we obviously had to wait for them to cool before decorating them. As such we had dinner and then watched Toy Story (a catch up task from the day before) before going back to finishing off the crowns and tiaras. The girls had made a heart each to use the last of the mixture up and Lily wanted to make a “you’re my hero” one and give it to Chris. Megan ended up making one too but she ate hers herself, giving Chris a crown instead. By this point it was time for Lily to go to bed and though Megan took a little longer to finish off her biscuits, she then came to sit in the lounge and read some of her book. She’s currently reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and I’m so proud of her as she’s really ploughing her way through them.

After Megan headed to bed, I sat on my computer for a while and Chris was upstairs on his. Eventually he came down though and we sat watching TV for a while before heading to bed. Sunday morning I was awake early, as I had a niggling feeling I would be when Chris had so annoyingly set his alarm the morning before. That said, I lazed around in bed for ages, playing on my phone. Chris brought me a cup of tea and then went to play upstairs, so eventually I headed downstairs to see what the girls were doing. We didn’t do much for the day but they did play on the iPad a bit and in the after we watched loads of POV videos on YouTube for the Disney World rides, to see if we could decide which we wanted to do. After that I was sucked into the world of Disney for the evening and other than bathing the kids and making dinner, I spent the whole evening starting to plan our trip a bit more. I made some notes, printed out some maps and text Amy a LOT. In the end though Chris and I had to head to bed early as he was awake at 6am the next morning.

It’s been a good week overall, despite feeling a bit down for the middle part. So far I’m feeling better since then and definitely a bit more motivated. I’ll see how it pans out through the week but fingers crossed!

Filed Under: Monday Round-up Tagged With: baking, biscuits, cookies, Damons, dinner out, Disney, GoT, homework, snow, wdw

5/52

February 1, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

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This week’s pictures were taken just before we went out for dinner on Friday. The girls both looked so grown up that I took a picture before we’d even brushed hair! I still think they look beautiful though <3

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 5/52, blog project, Damons, dinner out, Lily, Megan, photos

Hi, my name is Bel!


I’m a forty something, mother of two, self-confessed geek!

Here on my blog you’ll find;
books I’ve read, clothes I’ve made, movies I’ve watched, cakes I’ve baked, products I’ve tried, places I’ve been, pictures I’ve taken… plus lots and lots of DISNEY!!

I’m a lifestyle blogger – covering a little of everything I love <3

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