Snap Slappers Week 12

I can't believe, given I am snapping every single day in the name of 365project, that I had to resort to some old photos to get my Snap Slappers inspiration this week. Tut!

But indeed I did. Back to the sunny summer of 2010! Actually it was quite nice to look at some sunny pictures as the snow heads our way. But I digress as usual.

There she is, paintbrush in hand ready to get started on her new masterpiece.

And here you can see her just putting the finishing touches onto "Sunflowers" in the style of Van Gogh *cough*.

Please call to discuss your own commissions!

Don't forget to grab the badge and link up. You have until Friday to do it ;)



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Tattoos

The Princess tiptoed to me and whispered that she wanted a tattoo.
A rose perhaps on her hip?
A Love and Hate across her knuckles?
A dolphin on her ankle?

No a butterfly on her hand.
And a spider on her arm.
And another butterfly on the other arm.
And another butterfly on her other hand.

My artistic abilities have been tested but, the face paints and dodgy brush aside (always blame your tools), I don't think my efforts are too shabby.

Her reciprocal tattoo on my hand however could be interpreted in many ways.

And not to be outdone....

His Wee-ness

Can you tell what it is yet?

The Great School Holiday Challenge Week 2

Survived another week of the Great School Holiday Challenge. Yes I did need gin round about, oh Saturday night so not bad all things considered!

I interrupt this post to point out that I am not alcohol dependent. Just saying.

Day 8: To Beans Coffee Shop to try to rid my fuddled brain of it's sleep starved state. One Maltesers milkshake and waffle later. Semi-normal service was resumed.

Hit the library and lost (then found) one of Wee One's shoe. "I'm Bored" jar came out today and the Big One picked 'Make a picture Frame' and Princess got 'Paint your toes'. Much cutting of cardboard, hoovering up of glitter, wiping paint off floorboards and painty footprints off tiles later, I started to consider the possibility that some of the 'I'm Bored' suggestions may be a little ambitious :-/

Day 9: Nature trail on Stamford Meadows. Duly printed naturedetectives.com spotters sheets and we were off. Discovered Stamford's Spa, caught (and released) butterflies (unharmed, I think), lost Misty Moo in the stinging nettles (do dogs feel stinging nettles?). I had bigger ideas than the children had attention span for, so we also picked a few flowers from the back garden to press.

Day 10: Is it only Monday? Bribed kids to help me hoover and dust. To be perfectly honest, their help, although valiant, was to very little effect. Changed beds. Lost Princess inside a duvet cover. Walked dog. I was so bored, I reached for the "I'm Bored" jar! So we had salt dough modelling, badminton in the garden, finger painting (I couldn't believe it was the first time that the Wee One and paint had been introduced. Result - messy) and made courgette muffins for tea.

Day 11: Daddy's home! And so to Burghley Garden's of Surprise. A FANTASTIC afternoon was had by all in lovely sunshine. The Gardens are awesome and well worth a vsiit if you happen to be passing Stamford. A separate post on this one for sure. And something ticked off the Challenge list -yay!

Day 12: Mum's gone to ... Ikea! Yep. Another fail as far as the Challenge list is concerned but who can resist hot dogs and Daims. Well you could have knocked me down with a bite size Daim... if you could have found one! There weren't any Daims to be had. Sooooo, hot dogs, plastic beakers, paper napkins, glass tumblers, step stools x2, groovy rug, cuddly rats (?) x2, filter coffee x3 and Pear Cider (yes, I know. Who knew?). A successful trip I'd say. And we managed to miss the freak thunder storm.

Day 13: Princess to nursery and the Big One invited to a soft play place. Result! Me and the Wee One went to Tesco to buy the bits that I forgot in Ikea, namely wine glasses, muffin tin and crafty bits. So I should have been making muffins while the children made a lovely picture for me. The children did indeed use their new metallic pens to do some rather impressive colouring (I'm biased) but I got sucked into twitter and only emerged to cook tea. I blame myself for having started this process probably 30 minutes later than a mother who had been paying more attention to her children would have judged as ideal. Soooo, teatime hell commenced. Damn you twitter!

Day 14: The end of another week. Two down, four to go (not that I am counting). Misty Moo needs a walk every day. The children need to get out of the house everyday. The result is daily dog walking monotony with 3 children in tow. However, today, cunning Supermum pulled it out of the bag. Oh yes. I give you Dog Walking BINGO. Here's what I rustled up over breakfast. (Top left is a map and bottom right is a duck. I do not claim to have any artistic talent.)

So simple. Get the kids spotting things on their walk. What do points make? Prizes. Yes folks, bribery was involved as were sweets but mission dog walk was successful. Oh and we played cricket in the park too. Oh and built a rocket, as you do.

Until next week x

The Great School Holiday Challenge Week 1

You might have seen my post on the Great School Holiday Challenge where I wrote a helpful list of things to do this school holiday with the children. There were 42 things on my list, one for every day of the holiday. So seven days in the theory should be that I have crossed seven things off the list, right? Er, [mumbles a bit] well, you see there was a bit of a rethink where I considered the possibility of setting the bar too high in week 1 and leaving myself nowhere to go but downhill for the remaining weeks ahead.

So this was the week that was:

Day 1. Walked dog, did some shopping, weeded garden and hoovered. What? It's just a normal Saturday right?

Forced to watch TV

Day 2. Sulked because the Wee One had wailed so much the night before that I wasn't able to go to my friends anniversary party. Took it out on kids and 'made' them watch TV and tidy rooms. Three year old was not impressed. The Wee One whinged, a lot. Oh and an extra child arrived to spend the week with us :-)

Picasso/Princess

Day 3. Sent the Big One and the Extra One off to football camp. Princess and I painted.







Day 4. Sent the Big One and the Extra One off to football camp. Princess went to nursery. I drank coffee and ate cake. The Wee One hoovered up my crumbs. But on a more productive note we made the "I'm Bored" Jar (well actually a box but the principle is the same. TICK ONE THING OFF THE CHALLENGE LIST!!! We had an amusing half hour where I asked the kids "If you were bored (which I know is highly unlikely), what fun things could you do?" It took a little prompting but they were soon in their stride. "Make a robot" "Paint a picture" "Find out about space on the 'puter" "Make a poo" !!! Duly written onto little pieces of paper these suggestions and many more are in the jar (box) ready for the next day (well not that surprisingly it was put into immediate use).

Day 5. Sent the Big One and the Extra One off to football camp. Princess went to nursery. I drank coffee and ate cake. The Wee One hoovered up my crumbs. Oh and because I am a glutten for punishment, The Big One brought another friend home for tea. 5 kids - no problem (reaches for gin).

Day 6. Bugger. No football camp. Oh well. Chased the Big One and the Extra One around Burghley Park on their bicycles whilst pushing pram and walking dog. Fab time, if knackering, had by all. TICK ONE THING OFF THE CHALLENGE LIST!!! Damn, that wasn't on the list.

Day 7. Picnic at the park where the Big One mostly sulked because none of his friends were there, where the Princess shone like a star with her friends and where the Wee One embarrassed his mother by stealing food from other families.

And so at the close of week 1 of the Great School Holiday Challenge I like to think that the children have had a fun time, that Mummy hasn't screamed at them too much and that the dog will eventually crawl out from under the bed.