How do you know....

...when a child gets themselves dressed?! Timmy loves to dress himself & is very independent. He can put his school uniform on all by himself including doing up the buttons on the polo shirt & putting on his socks & shoes.... but he doesn't always get them on the right way!!! We often go out to find both Timmy & Luke have got back to front trousers & shoes on the wrong feet! We usually leave back to front trousers on back to front coz they are so proud of their achievement in getting dressed that it seems harsh to have to change them around! On this particular day when Timmy realised his school emblem wasn't on his jumper he was quite distressed! Jordan pointed out that it was on the back where upon he swiftly swivelled his jumper round the right way again!

Jordan is very excited at the moment as he has a new job in the house. Every morning he gets up, goes downstairs & gets the breakfast table ready for us all. He loves getting the cereals out of the cupboard & putting weetabix in bowls for his brothers.... Not long till Lee & I both get breakfast in bed I think! Better work on showing Jordan how to make a cuppa too....... ;O)
And while her brothers are busy growing up, Annie is perfecting her smile for the camera! Say 'Cheese' Annie!

Kicking the Leaves

There's something about kicking autumn leaves that is very freeing! As Rob Parson says, it's really important to take time to do it every now & then! There really isn't anything else like kicking about in crunchy leaves on a crisp, sunny October afternoon for blowing away the cobwebs & getting life into perspective! It's a lot of fun too!

In amongst all the leaf throwing I tried to get the boys to pose for an autumnal photo. It took quite a while for Luke to grasp that I wanted them to crouch down but put their heads up! Every time he knelt down I would say 'Look up!' & as he looked up his bum would rise up too so I'd start again & say 'Bum down please!' & then his head would go down too!!!

Most Sunday afternoons we go for a walk in a park. Often we go to Sefton Park & make a visit to The Palm House. It's a Victorian botanic garden that was restored just before Jordan was born so it has a special place in my heart as I used to visit the Palm House a lot when he was a baby. We all love to go there...

...we always say hello to Olive, the oldest palm tree in the house (although last time we went she was looking a little peeky!)....

...& admire the sculptures. This one is called The Angel's Whisper & almost always prompts Jordan to ask why the baby is so big! All the boys enjoyed stroking the baby this visit!

We always try to see if we can spot any bananas growing in the plants & marvel at the enormous leaves & exotic flowers. One time we went there Timmy was a little too keen & grabbed a rather lovely looking but extremely prickly cactus! Our trip to the park that day ended abruptly as we had to take him to the children's minor injury clinic to get hundreds of painful prickles removed from his hand! Since this incident the Palm House people have put up a large sign alerting visitors to the fact that the cactus plants are sharp!!!!!

Having learnt his lesson about touching the plants Timmy found a much less painful use for the foliage on Sunday- it's a nice new hat!!!

Around the outside of the Palm House are statues of various influential men throughout time like Darwin & Captain Cook. This man is Mercator, the inventor of cartography (map making! A trip to the park is even educational!!).

We all love this bronze statue of Peter Pan & spend ages looking for the different animals all around the bottom. I am glad that the statue is safe in the Palm House grounds now as it used to be somewhere else in the park & it kept getting vandalised which was such a shame.

The highlight of the visit for the boys this time was a huge puddles all around the Palm House. They splashed in them for ages & got SO wet! Jordan didn't like being wet at all but Luke even sat in the puddles at one point! He had so much water in his wellies when we took them off!!

I love the old lamposts in Sefton Park. I think they give the park real character & they remind me of the Narnia Chronicles...

We are so lucky to have all this lovely nature on our doorstep even though we live in the middle of a city. ;O)

It's a Mini Adventure

Last Thursday was Parent's Evening at school. Jordan is doing really really well with all his school work. It is amazing how much more grown up his work is now that he is in Year 1. He has beautiful hand writing & writes great stories. His ability at maths never ceases to amaze us!

Timmy & Luke had an Open Day rather than a formal parent/teacher appointment. I got to see their files & read about all the things they have been up to so far. Their teacher puts together lovely folders with photos & snippets of conversations & observations of them as well as all the bog standard assessments. I loved reading through all the things the boys have said- they are just such characters & say the funniest things! Here is one of the conversations that Luke had with his teacher on the way to the church for the school's Harvest Festival;

LUKE: Look Miss Hogan! There's a mini!

MISS H: Is that a mini?

As they walk closer MISS H: No that's not a mini. I'm not sure what it is

LUKE: It IS a mini!

As they get closer again MISS H: It might be a mini. Yes, I think it is a mini

LUKE: There's no thinking about it, it IS a mini!

We all had a good laugh about that!

And here is one of Timmy's conversations;

'Miss Hogan is flip flap flopping the pancake! It's going up to the ceiling! Oh no! It's stuck to the ceiling! Ooops! It's fallen down onto Daddy's bike! (Giggles lots!)

WOW!

We went to visit my parents on Saturday for the first time as a family of 6. It was Annie's first 'big' car journey. We all had a lovely time playing with trains, going for walks, sleeping & enjoying my Dad's cooking. When it was time to come back to Liverpool Jordan stayed behind for a little holiday. He's been having a fanastic time with his Grandma & Grandad! And just look what he's learnt to do....

...he's riding without stabilisers for the very first time! He really is growing up! ;O)

Happy Birthday Blog!

It's our blog's first birthday today & in honour of the occasion I am going to blog about something different! Here are 7 random things about myself that you may or may not have known before!

Number 1: This blog is the longest I have consistently kept a diary. I love the idea of keeping a diary & I LOVE notebooks & stationary but somehow I never quite manage to get pen to paper on a regular basis....until now! ;O)
Number 2: I would rather have a nice cup of tea than alcohol. My work collegues used to call me Grandma coz when we went for drinks in the pub at the end of term I always had a cuppa!

Number 3: I think Superman is the best super hero ever! The first film I ever saw at the cinema was a Superman film that my Dad took my sister & I to in Stevenage.
Number 4: Since the age of 3 or 4 years old I have had a bunch of red tulips for my birthday. It's tradition! Tulips are my favourite flowers along with yellow roses.

Number 5: I have a degree in ceramics. This is my degree show photo from when I graduated in 1998.

Number 6: When I was a little girl of 3 I wanted to be a nurse. I'm the girl on the right, the other girl was my best friend from nursery. She was called Emma.

Number 7: I used to collect hedgehogs as a child. I gave away most of my collection when I was 18 but I kept this one as my Grandad made it for me out of a piece of an old broom. He was brilliant at making all kinds of things.

So there you go! 7 things you never knew about me!

Little Miss Annie

Little Miss Annie is now 5 weeks old! She is still an easy going girl but has found her voice a bit more in the past few weeks.... She is so much quieter than any of the boys were though! ;O)
After our 6 week check up at the doctor's this morning I decided to take some piccies of Annie in her very cute dress! I just love the acorn shaped pockets & her little white tights!
And as she looked so gorgeous & isn't able to run away from me when I want to take photos, I took rather a lot of snaps!! I almost captured her amazing smile on camera but not quite...

After a while Annie started to look at the camera & me behind it with an expression that seemed to say 'What is all this?'....

...and then she started grabbing the camera's wrist strap while I was taking pictures! cheeky lady! ;O)

(PS This is my 100th blog entry! Can you believe it?!)

Autumn Days

We've had a busy social weekend! On Saturday we went to Heather & Josh's baby's dedication service at church. Their baby Isaiah William is now 10 months old but last time I wrote about him here he was still in Heather's tummy (see here)! Well, I forgot to take the camera so there's no piccies for that sorry! We had a great time. It was a lovely service. Luke nearly stole the show though when his trousers fell down as he was dancing at the side of the hall! He didn't seem to notice & just carried on with what he was doing! Lee had to rescue him!

On Sunday after church we went to Sefton Park for a walk with Al & Rach, their twin girls, Al's mum Angela & our friend Alan (who Luke has re-named Mr Maker as he thinks he looks like a man from the telly called Mr Maker funnily enough! It's one of our favourite programmes at the moment!). Anyway, we went for a very long walk! Jordan pushed Annie around in her pram which he loves doing.

They went in the stream & over the stepping stones. Luke stood in the water almost up to his knees & said 'Look Mummy! I'm swimming!' Timmy fell in but didn't seem to mind very much!

I turned around at one point to see where Timmy had got to only to see him hugging a tree & giving it a kiss! Then he posed for me & said after he'd given me a cheesy grin 'That was a nice smile wasn't it?'!!

We fed the ducks while we were there too. It took a while to find some ducks that were hungry though! The boys have really taken a shine to Alan & had fun playing with him. He carried them 2 at a time at one point!

Luke discovered the autumn leaves & how much fun it is to throw them. He kept putting them on Florrie's knees while she sat on the bollard. Jordan & Timmy joined in too when they saw how much Florrie giggled at it! Izzy wasn't so sure about it all but soon giggled just as much!Rachel said she's never heard the girls laugh so much before!

They were still giggling when I took this photo of them!

All in all it was a fun walk but we were all worn out after it! The boys went to sleep straight away at bed time & we all over slept this morning!!! (No Mum, we weren't late for school!)

Uncle Ian & Auntie Helen

My sister & Ian came to visit us on Sunday. Helen brought us one of her homemade swiss rolls which we've been asking her for for ages! It was yummy! Timmy said (before the swiss roll had even been mentioned!) 'Helen is my best friend isn't she?' which made us all say 'Awww!'
Jordan was looking forward to seeing Ian so that they could build his mega blocks racing car together that his friend Hallie had bought him for his birthday. They get on really well & had a great time building the car....

...while I got bundled by Timmy & Luke! I had just had a shower & they thought my wet hair was really funny. They kept flicking it over my face! Luke said 'Mummy you've got spaghetti hair!' Thanks boys!

Helen snapped away taking piccies with Ian's lovely digital SLR camera & Luke just couldn't resist posing for a photo. He kept standing in front of Helen grinning till she took a picture of him!!! I expect he's missing the camera coz I haven't really taken any photos since Annie was born!

Ian & Helen took the boys out to the park in the afternoon. Luke & Jordan posed for a few piccies.... dunno where Timmy was though! They all had loads of fun together. Much to the boys disappointment Helen & Ian drove back home after tea & more swiss roll eating! Thanks for visiting us! ;O)

4 Weeks!

How time flies! Annie Joy is 4 weeks old already! This picture of her was taken by the photographer in the hospital when she was 1 day old. We love the twinkle in her eyes! She is still a very easy going baby, very gentle & quiet & a great sleeper. The boys absolutely adore her! Yesterday Lee went to church with the boys while I stayed at home with Annie for a rest. When they came home each of them rushed into the living room where we were sitting & said independently 'It's my Annie!' They almost didn't see me in the room despite the fact I was holding Annie! It is great that they have accepted her into the family with such ease...

Today is my first day looking after 4 children without Lee's help. He has gone back to work after 2 weeks paternity leave & 2 weeks holiday leave. We miss him lots already!

The boys are all doing well at school. We are even managing to do Timmy & Luke's homework each week (which they love doing) as well as Jordan's daily reading books. He hasn't had any real homework this term yet.... The boys are all recovering from nasty colds & coughs which so far Lee & I seem to be fighting off. Jordan cut his head open at school a few weeks back too & had to have it glued back together at the doctors which was rather traumatic for him but that has healed amazingly well. He still has a nasty bump there though! We have also applied for Timmy & Luke's places at full time school which is rather scary! It seems like only yesterday that they were born... Well, no other news to report so I shall sign off & go & feed Annie before collecting the twins from nursery. Hope you are all well. ;O)

Jordan is 6!

Jordan celebrated his 6th birthday on September 22nd! Our little boy suddenly isn't so little any more! I can't believe that it has been 6 years since he joined our family! We had a party for him on Saturday afternoon that my parents organised. My mum made him the 6 shaped train cake too which everyone loved! Timmy & Luke said it was the best cake they had ever seen!
Jordan had a few friends from school at the party as well as his godparents 3 year old daughter. They played all kinds of party games & my Dad played his guitar & sang songs with them before the picnic tea which they all loved.
Do click on the photo above to see better some of the stuff they got up to!

This photo is of the kids playing Ballerinas, Knights & Horses. I just love 3 year old Libby's ballerina pose! I didn't know kids that young could balance that well! Jordan had a fabulous day & was thoroughly spoilt! Thankyou so much to my parents for all their hard work sorting out the party it is greatly appreciated!

Also a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mum for last Monday. Mwah! X