Christmas Eve, first day of holidays

As much as I enjoy being able to go to work and escape the kids occasionally, I've really been looking forward to this Christmas break. I want to spend time with my kids and just enjoy being with them. So, Day 1 of holidays and this is what we did.

• Cut kids' hair, Chicken's fringe is a little too short, but it'll grow
• Gremlin bumped the dresser and one of the wise men from the nativity set lost his head.
• Did some housework
• Had my friend Niki over 
• W@dsy bumped the dresser, and now we are down to only 1 wise man
• Niki, Gremlin and I assembled a gingerbread train
• Finished knitting a headband for Chicken
• Painted the kids faces ('cos you know, why not?)
• Ducked to the shops to buy ice for tomorrow
• Read books, sung songs, was tackled by children
• Children fed and put to bed

 Daddy Wrestling, a favourite pasttime

 The Little Engine that could.... be put together that is. (Please ignore my very bad attempt at an icing design on the front)

 Little Miss Chicken modelling her new short fringe and the headband I just made

 Gremlin as Spiderman (what did people used to facepaint before super heros?)

Chicken and her butterfly (I practically had to tie her down to get her to sit still long enough for this)

Phew, I'm exhausted. Are the holidays over yet?

Just when I thought it was over...

I feel I can offically call Gremlin toilet trained. He wears undies all day every day including naps. He is even dry at night about a third of the time. Sure, there is the occasional accident, but that seems to be the exception.

But then the move happened.

W@dsy and I were glad, at first, Chicken seemed ready for the move from Baby Room to Toddler Room at day care. She gets along great with the bigger kids and seems to really enjoy the games, songs and craft at the more advanced level. She comes home each day exhausted though, but I kind of expected that.

What I didn't expect was that she would decide that she was now big enough, big enough for toilet training that is. She has started removing her clothing (specifically pants) at random intervals during the day, and last night she removed her nappy and slept. God was good to me this morning, there was no poo. The bed and sheets were soaked, but thankfully no poo.

I discussed this situation with day care, they suggested that the best thing was probably to toilet train her so that at least she knows what is supposed to happen.

I don't think I can cope. It took a year and half of toilet training to get Gremlin toilet trained, and now it appears it's Chicken's turn. I may cry. I will definately pray for a quicker and easier toilet training.

As much as I look forward to a day without nappies, I would also like to have a day when I don't have to clean up "accidents" too.

A Day in the Life.

Today was busy and strange.

Firstly Gremlin and Chicken decided to sleep in. It was scary, I can't remember when they slept past 6am. They didn't wake up until 7:15am. I was concerned that maybe my husband finally snapped and drugged them in the night, (apparently he didn't).

I then spent the morning at a friends birthday morning tea, there were heaps of kids there and they all played to their hearts content. Apparently this wasn't enough, my children refused to take their afternoon naps. Grrrr. After over an hour of trying to get them to sleep I gave up. I had to babysit anyway.

Because I'm insane, I thought I'd help my friend out and baby-sit so she could go to the beautician. She has 3 girls. So this afternoon I spent with 5 children, 1x 6 year old, 1x 3 year old, 1x 20 month old, 1x 17 month old and 1x 10 month old. Oh and my husband ran away and hid in a coffee shop, because well, because he's not insane like I am. We all survived, without any injuries!

Gremlin was trying very hard  not to fall asleep during his dinner. This was rather unsucessful. So I decided to put Gremlin and Chicken to bed early, I can still hear them squealing in their room, objecting to sleep.

But Mum, I'm not tired

A Little Bit Crafty

I got sick of cleaning, I mean, doesn't everybody? So lately I've been making a bit of a mess to make up for all the cleaning I've been doing lately. I have yet again caught the crafting bug. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I have traded in my sanity and got a pile of yarn and fabric in return.

I have knitted a beanie for a friend's baby.

I love the little buttons

I finished making a Christmas present. (Sorry Niki, no pictures, you are just going to have to be surprised).

And thoroughly sick of never being able to find pants for Gremlin, I whipped these up tonight.

Okay so they look like pajamas, but i don't care and neither will he.

The Skirt

Okay I am finally getting off my butt and sewing again. I bought some really cute fabric for a friend's present (Oh yes my dear Niki, this means YOUR present) and made a skirt for Chicken out of the scraps. I went to this blog that I LOVE MakeItandLoveIt and I made the skirt. But being me and very prone to taking shortcuts, I guesstimated the measurements and the skirt turned out thinner and longer than it was supposed to. Oh well it's still cute and I still love the fabric. What do you guys think?

Isn't she a cutie!

I think I may experiment by cutting up some old clothes of mine. But I still have waaaay too much sewing to do before I get myself too distracted.

Due to being stuck in the house for the whole weekend, I went a little crazy. I figured that because we couldn't go anywhere it would be a great time to set up the Christmas tree. Yes I know that it's early but I had to keep the brats children occupied.

We decorated the tree with the angels I made last year but it was looking a little sparse because we were given a bigger tree by my sister-in-law. So it was time to make some more kid friendly decorations. I got the kids to go to town on some white paper with gold paint. then when it had dried I cut out some stars and glued them on some circles of red cardboard.

 I know, it's pretty simple, but I think it's cute

And here's our tree, ta da!

I may add a few more decorations as the kids get bored, but I'm not very good at thinking of things that don't involve me running out and spending money. Got any ideas?

Back Again

Okay, it's been forever since I blogged. Hmmm, quick update on what's happened.

My hubby in a fit of crazy decided our place wasn't big enough, so we looked at houses, found a bigger place and moved. Which meant lots and lots of packing. Then we got to unpack. I hate how much stuff we have but I can't seem to bring myself to throw much of it away.

We were without a phone and internet in the new house of nearly a month. I somehow survived, but it sucked. It's strange how much you come to rely on something like that, I mean the internet barely existed until I hit my teens.

We all caught a virus that Gremlin brought home from daycare. Entertaining two cranky sick kids while you are also cranky and sick isn't exactly the most fun ever.

Oh and finally I have been getting crafty again, hopefully I will have finished my project and will post again tomorrow.

I am determined to start writing again. We'll see how that goes ;)