Sundown 23rd December 2007

The girls and me met up with some of Steve's family at Sundown Adventure Park to go and see Santa!!! It was an icy, cold, foggy and frosty day! Steve was working so I had to drive there!!! I used the SatNav for the very first time, and I must say it was quite easy, I was so dreading that trip!!

We arrived at about 9:40 am and waited for the other 3 families to arrive! We went in and queued for Santa straight away, so we could enjoy the rest of the day and I was leaving at 2:00 pm as I didn't want to drive home in the dark (turns out Steve's brother and family were leaving at that time anyway and he said I could follow him - thanks).

The queue moved quite quickly (there was lots for the kids to see, animated figures and the Nativity) and it was all worth while to see the kids faces (from 3 up to 12). The Santa was ever so nice, taking time to speak to each child and have his photo taken, Ruth had the fab idea of getting one with Mrs Clause too, I also took one!

So that done with, we decided to go for something to eat and warm up! After that we went around the park, took lots and lots of photos, I have picked out some highlights to share!!!

There is just so much to do, Santa's Sleigh Ride, Robin Hood Ride, Sunny Down Farm, Old type sweet shop, Rocky Mountain Ride, Pirate Adventure, Yellow Brick Road, Lollipoppet Castle, etc. and just £8:00 entry, I think it's real good value for money!!!This was the beautiful display outside Santa's house!

The man himself!

The Lady who does all the work! LOL

Where you queued for the sleigh ride you went through Story book village all the famous stories, 3 little pigs, Goldilocks, etc Aimee ran through some scenery and I got this cute shot of her!

Nana June and the girls going on the sleigh ride, this is one of the few photos I have of Chloe during the day "Mum I'm too old" as she enjoys the whole day!

Santa resting for the big day! I manged to snap these 2 as we were going around on the sleigh ride!

Rudolph!

What a pair of dolls!

Trouble - though it doesn't look like it in this photo!

Giddy Up!

3 Pretty Ladies

Okay I Know Steve wasn't there, so I just cropped and pasted!!

Notice to what Aimee is pointing too?
That is my home county!

Ugly sisters!!!!

My little pumpkin!!!


Where are our Princes???

Last photo of the day!

Hope you enjoyed looking and as always thanks for looking!

I know it's late .... Christmas Day

Here are some of my fav photos of the day!


Arriving down to the lounge at 6:00 am!

Lovely neat row of presents, only reason they are this neat is because we couldn't fit the Christmas Tree into the lounge this year (they are usually piled under the tree!)

Santa brought one of the presents that Aimee wanted!!! Yipeee!!

Aimee liked this Dora top from Granny and Grandad!


Chloe got an i-pod!!!!
What a story to this one! We searched a few weeks before Christmas for one, and all the shops had sold out! So we ordered one from Woolworths! The i-pod turned up and Steve downloaded some music, filims and videos on to it for her, so that she could play with it on the day! When she went to turn it on it was dead, just would't work!!! She didn't complain, Bless her, as it was our main gift to her! We felt really bad for her, so we decided to get her another one, and then after the hoildays return the dead one to Woolworths, So Steve went on-line and pre-booked one with PC World, for Boxing Day, we went to collect, they had sold out of them, another disappointment. We came home, Steve went on-line again and pre-booked one with Argos, but this time we didn't say anything to Chloe, Steve just said he would go out and try to get one! Hip-hip-hooray for Argos they had the one he booked!!!! At last Chloe could use her i-pod!!!!

Amazing how much mess 2 girls, lots of presents and 45 mins can make!!!


The look of love between grandaughter and grandmother, I love this photo!

For the December photo a day challenge, a lot of the ladies have Christmas head gear and have taken a self portrait shot, and used these festive shots for their avatar's (The pic of me on my own is my avatar, pop over and see the fun!) I started out with a Santa hat, but went shopping and found this Rudolph head gear for only 85p. I couldn't resist, and neither could Aimee!


I felt I needed to include journaling to explain the "hats" for Aimee when she is older, I have also included two tiny extra photos, that weren't good enough to put on the main page, but were fun too!! I have used Tracey's technique from the class on the Paper Paradise Forum, for hiding my journaling!!!

Challenges

I set the challenge this month on Paper Paradise, to use the colours red, white and green! So this is my example as I will be given a little RAK for the winner!!!


Doodle - use red, white or green - I have used all three, white scalloped edge (I used a bazzill scalloped page to trace around, and where the little circles popped out I used a green glitter gel pen), green circles, there is red going around the hand written journaling, also on the little tab that says lift!



Multi - pic - there are six photos on this page, two more in the journaling block - see extra photo

ABC Embellie -
S = Stickers - Love sticker
T = Thread - Stitching around 2 edges of each photo (red thread), please forgive how un-even the stitching is - first time I have machine stitched on a layout, and I am not the best machinist anyway!!!
U = pUrple - the beleive sticker/tag in bottom right hand corner



And just some extra close up's for sharing!

My Birthday Stash!!!!

It was my birthday on Friday 14th December!!!

Had a fab day!!!! As Chloe was at school, (Aimee is still off school) I didn't open any presents until later that evening. Went Christmas shopping - tins of sweets, crackers, selection boxes, some more decorations, that sort of thing!!!

I had a hair appointment at 4:30! When I got there got a mad impulse and told the hairdresser to chop over 6 inches of my hair, layer it and put a fringe back in!!! I am still trying to get used to it!!! I can't tie it up properly and go outside the door, which is a good thing as that is all I used to do with it!!!

When I got home the girls sang happy birthday and gave me my presents, I lots of craft goodies and some vouchers (see photo). I got some more vouchers and a lovely hand made card from Ruth (see photo) and got some more craft goodies from a family member!!!

I went down to Paper Paradise on Saturday and spent some of my vouchers, I have included the items in the photo as they are birthday presents of sorts!!!

For tea we ordered in Chinese and then I had Rhubarb Pie with Vanilla Ice cream for afters!!!

So all in all I had a fantastic day!!!

My Fantastic Birthday Card from Ruth (aka Altered Geisha)

Poorly Aimee!!!

Carried on from the previous post....

When we got home Aimee started crying cause her mouth was sore, when I looked she had a huge mouth ulcer on her tongue, and red blotches on the roof of her mouth and blisters on her hands and feet. Rang up the out of hours GP, brought her in. She has the human version of Hand, foot and mouth (nothing like what cows get, freaked me out) and a ear infection in both her ears!!! Because it's infectious she can't go to school for a week, so she misses her play!!!!

I am angry as some other child has had this and their parents have said nothing about it, if they had we might of been more watchful! Aimee has been feeling unwell for about 3 days, I put it down to her having a cold!!!! I am going into the school tomorrow to let her teacher know and I have printed off some information for them to photocopy and pass out to the parents, as I feel it is important that parents aren't embarrassed about these things and should let other parents know!!!!

Thanks for reading my rant!!!

Chloe's 12th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE!!!!

Chloe celebrated her 12Th birthday on the 3rd December 07.

We took her to pizza hut for tea, and her birthday cake was a chocolate cheesecake. I used a number 2 candle and one pink one, I wasn't even going to try and fit 12 candles on the cake. even though everyone was stuffed and it had to go back in the fridge until the next day, lol. At least she got to blow out the candles!

Chloe was allowed to invite two friends for a sleepover on Saturday night. They had pepperoni pizza for tea, (it is Chloe's fav, lol), garlic bread, and chips. They had vanilla and chocolate ice cream for dessert with chocolate sauce. After about an hour we had Chloe's second birthday cake. Which she was embarrassed about, hehehhe. She didn't want a themed one, so I just got her one that had balloons and stars on it, I re-used the candles we had on Monday night. Chloe didn't want candles, but you can't have a birthday cake without candles.

The girls then went upstairs to Chloe's room and put on make-up, listened to music, watched DVD's, had pillow fights, and probably talked about BOYS!!!! I bought them some face-masks to use, I took a photo but I am only going post Chloe with the face mask on!!!!

At about 9:30 pm I melted some chocolate put some strawberries and cherries on a plate, brought it up to Chloe's room and left them to it!!!

I went to bed at about 12:00 am and they were still up! I got up at about 7:30am they were still asleep, I woke them at 10:00 am as we had to get ready to go to the cinema at 1:30 pm, and I know how long it takes Chloe to get ready, I wasn't taking the chance. They told me they didn't get to sleep until 5:00 am. Gonna have some very tired girls later on tonight!!!!!

We went to see the Bee movie, (their choice, as they are going to see Enchanted with their school next week). I booked it on-line last night and didn't realise that it was a special preview, as the movie isn't released until 14Th December!!! It was a very funny and we all really enjoyed it. We then went to MacDonald's for some food. The girls parents picked them up from there.


My night didn't finish there.....read Poorly Aimee

Thanks for reading
Helena
XXXXX

Donna Nook

We were going to go to Donna Nook today, but yesterday when I saw the lovely day we had, we decided to go and not chance waiting for today! Oh how glad I am that we went, what a horrible day we are having today!

I have a few pics to share, will be adding more later! I am in the middle of cooking Sunday dinner and I did take over 300 photos, so a lot to sort through! TFL xxxx

This is a little seal pup that Aimee bought out of some money that a very kind friend of ours gave to both the girls!!!!! (Chloe got one too, but didn't want to stand for a photo!)