Im sorry

Ok... So I've been M.I.A for a few, due apologies.

So here's the update of my life since I last blogged.

1) We celebrated lil' miss divas 2nd birthday, we had a Teddy bears tea party theme for her party with a few friends and family. As we don't have a back garden anymore we transformed her bedroom into a makeshift garden along with a homemade playhouse and balloon's and all the kids soft toys sitting in clusters on the floor with toy picnics. We used a red paper party table cloth as the picnic blanket for the kids to have their lunch on which consisted of teddy bear shaped sandwiches and teddy bear shaped shortbread biscuits, homemade by me the night before, pom bear crisps and gummy bear Harry Bow sweets. So basically everything was teddy bear shaped/ related. And of course a teddy bears picnic cake all made by me.

Kiddies started full time nursery.

The nursery had a new children welcoming party, which the kids enjoyed. However when it can to settling the kids in a few weeks before they where due to start miss diva didn't take to it very well. Mr man settled in without a hitch as always and miss diva had to have 8 settling in days with me in the room with her, which was very stressful for us both. I felt like such a bad mother as she cried every time I moved more than 2 feet away from her, I felt sooooo bad like i was hurting her.

Now she completely fine and doesn't want to go home sometime. lol.


First day at nursery



Welcome to nursery party

Other stuff that's happened...

I'm back at university the first few weeks were great as I was back in the company of other adults and not surrounded by everything child related, but my oh my it is such had work looking after 2 small children and going to uni. My day consist of getting myself and kids dressed rushing kids to nursery then rushing off to uni, rushing back to uni to pick kids up, back home feed kids bathe kids put kids to bed, eat if i remember, do some uni work then pass out and do it all over again the next day.

Its all for the greater good I keep telling myself!!!!!!!

And that's about it really. x

Bake a cake bake a cake bake me a birthday cake

So it miss diva's birthday in a few weeks, which means that I need cake ideas as to what cake I'm going to make for her special day.

Ok a bit of background.

Over the last few years I have taken a liking to baking and have made the last two birthday cakes for the kids birthday parties. I am getting quite good at it, or at least better each time.

This was my first attempt at baking a birthday cake this is the princess cake I made for miss diva's 1st birthday party and i was sooooooo proud of it that I didn't even want it to be cut so much so that I was nearly in tears, (no lie, I was close to tears!)

The cake had 3 different layers with a butter cream and jam filling, covered in a pink coloured fondant which I also made from scratch for the 1st time as well. It tasted as good as it looked. (a cake is for life not just for birthdays. lmao)

The second birthday cake I attempted was for lil' mans 3rd birthday. 

It was a Mickey mouse clubhouse cake, which took me a week to prep making all the different coloured fondants and creating all the bits that were not made out of cake.

The base of the cake was a vanilla drench cake and the clubhouse (the red bit) was a red velvet cake. yummm!

The head was made out of 2 semicircle paper mache molds, I paper mached the inside of a stainless steel bowl then stuck them together and covered the whole thing in paper machie. I then crumb coated it then covered it with the black fondant.

The boot was made out of a finished roll of sellotape folded in half then stuffed with news paper to create the roundness and a finished loo roll to make the leg all covered in paper mache then fondant.

To do the ears I just moulded cooking foil into circles and covered them in fondant and stuck a few tooth picks in them so they would stay on the head.

 

All the trees and paving stones were made out of fondant, these needed a few days to dry out and become hard.

 

 

This one didnt turn out as well as I would have liked although it turned out really good and everyone was impressed, I still think it could have been a bit better, simply for the fact that the fondat had cracked a bit, which I couldnt do much about as our flat is very warm and dried out the fondant to much.

 

After doing this cake I can now see why cake makers charge so much for special cakes as it is a lot of hard work and time consuming but all soooooo worth it to see the end result of all your hard work and everyones impressed faces.

 

Soooo now it miss diva's 2nd birthday and I need a new idea for her cake...

 

Any suggestions for party ideas or cake ideas would be great.

 

What a great day we had

 So the other half has been off work for the last week and a bit, which is why I have not blogged this last week gone (his always complaining that I spend most of our alone time on the computer), as we have been spending some much needed time together with the kids and it was his 30th birthday on the 30th of July, So we have just been chilling with the kids having family time and the rest of it.

So thinking back to my earlier post about the British weather and how unpredictable it is etc etc today was a wonderful day in both my life and for the weather, so we packed up the kids, some juice and water melon, and some toys, including lil' mans remote control car (which was more for my benefit than the kids) and headed out to the park. 

As always both kids went in different direction so I was definitely happy for the extra pair of hands today. Lil' man loves the slide so spent pretty much all his time going between the 5 different slides in the park.

and miss diva spent her time doing just about everything, well at least trying to do everything that was on offer at the park (which was a lot). Including trying to ride another childs bike that was 2 times too big for her. Lol.

 After about an hour of running in 100 different directions after each child, while trying to keep the sweat at bay. We headed to your local family pub to chow down with a much needed and deserved glass of wine for the adults and fruit shoots for the kids.

All in all we all had a great da out.

Happy Feet?

So today was movie and dip day for me and the kids while hubs is at work. We try and have a movie day once a week where the kids can choose what movie they would like to watch and can either have chips and dip or home made pop corn.

So today lil' man decided that he wanted to watch Happy feet. Yay me, not! but what child want today child must get.

So at first I thought the movie was a bit slow on the up take even the kids lost interest in it after about 10mins, however I forced the kids to sit down and finish what they had started. Thankfully it did pick up.

The plot of the movie is about a nation of Emperor Penguins in the Antarctica, who can all sing there singing is kinda like humans flirting to wow their life partner or penguins in this case.

So when the main character Mumble is born dancing instead of singing Noah the elder cast him out. Mumble leave and comes across a group of penguins called the Adelie Amigos who take to Mumbles tap dancing ways with open arms or wings. 

There is also a lack of fish so in the ocean and the elder blames Mumble and his tap dancing ways, so along with the Amigos Mumble goes on an adventure to discover what has happened to all the fish and prove his Innocent.

The moral of this movie is that one should stay true to ones self and you can make a difference in the world.

It did get a bit better towards the 2nd half of the movie when the amigos come into it, I'm glad we watched it but I still don't understand what all the hype was about this movie when it first came out????

My how I love the British weather

Ha they call this summer oh please don't make me laugh.

British summers have to be by far the best, if your lucky enough to have a bit of sun and get a tad hot  fear not hunny rest assured it'll rain at any given moment that should cool ya down a bit. Who said during the summer season you had to have sun???????? Well it certainly wasn't they who cast the weather spell over the UK that's for sure they must have got the sun dance and the rain dance confused that day.

So here's my check list for our day out on this none summers summers day gotta love it.

Kids:

Lil mans clothing:

1. long sleeved t-shirt
2. shorts
3. wellies (rain boots)
4. Thomas the Tank Engine rain coat (light enough to keep him cool and water proof)

Miss Diva clothing:

1. Black cargo trousers
2. Long sleeved top with Hello kitty t-shirt underneath  ( just in case the sun should show its face) ha yeah right wishful thinking
3. Wellies
4. rain mack

Kids sorted, pram sorted rain cover in basket, brolly in hand.

kids bag contains small wash cloth should it rain while were in the park to wipe down swings etc etc and all the other crap, lol I mean very important things they just insist on caring around with them.

Me I'm sorted wearing usual mummy garb for a day like this. Black leggings with uniform black top.

So the plan for the day was to run my errands then head off to the park let kids run themselves ragged do a bit of food shopping  then head home hopefully before it starts to rain.

Who on earth was I kidding when I came up with this action plan for the day.

This is how day panned out.

Left house on time woohoo yay me get in!!!!!!

Had appointment for 11am got to said appointment at 10.55 didn't gt seen till 12.30, yes you read right 12. beeping 30. Naturally at this point I'm seeing red the kids are beyond bored and getting hungry, not a good combination not at all.

Finally leave said appointment at 13.15pm kids asking for food at a high enough volume for passers by to give me strange looks like I don't feed my kids. (get a frigging life you don't know me thanks)

So we head to the nearest fast food joint to get the kids fed much to their delight and my purses anguish.

lil' mans repeating over and over again "mummy park 5 mins mummy park 5 mins" all this while stuffing fries into his mouth, soooo cute. lol This is his way of letting me no that we will be leaving in 5 mins to go to the park. Would I be such a bad mother if I didn't take then to the park and just went home instead?

Most days I wouldn't be that bothered however I did promise from the day before, never and I mean never promise a 3 year old anything as this is the age they start to remember things. and trust me they will let you know.

Look outside the window and yes in good ol' fashion British weather style it has started to rain.

As promised to the park we head it's not rain that bad yet to the park surprisingly there a few other parents there with their kids all with the same expression on their faces ( the wtf am I really doing here look)

within about 10 mins of being at the park the heavens open and down it pours soaking me from top to bottom, the kids on the other hand are loving it. Lil' man starts jumping in the forming puddles and kicking rain water at me.

Now on any other day I would have more than likely packed the kids up and ran home however this time I didn't. I'm not quite sure what came over me today, maybe it was the fact that I was already drenched, maybe I just couldn't be bothered to yet again have to run myself into a rainy sweaty mess or maybe I saw my kids having such a good time in spite of the crap weather we were having.

As they played I watched them having fun without a care in the world and I just loved it.

A further 10mins of this child's play was more than enough for me so home we went totally soaked and still smiling from ear to ear.

The point of this post is just to say don't let anything stop you having fun and if your ever in doubt or at a loss look at your kids and take their lead.

Couch Potato Day.

Today was all day movie day, not just 1, not 2 but 3 movies were watched today. We were a family of couch potatoes all day (other than when miss diva needed the potty as were now potty training her. More on that later.)

Humm what did we have for snacks, we had sweet home made pop corn naturally no dips this time as neither 1 of us wanted to go to the shop and sweets from my very special sweet bucket.

The first movie we watched was called Kiki's special delivery service.

This is a movie about a thirteen year old witch who now has to go into training according to a tradition, so she leaves her home to embark on a year alone in a new town to become a full witch. She kisses her mum and dad bye, she sets off with her mothers broom and her dads radio and her best friend a black cat called Jiji 

She finds herself in a seaside city of Korico, and sets up a flying delivery service, to take advantage of the only magic she knows - flying a broom.

 

Kiki encounters several setbacks and mishaps that an upcoming young entrepreneur would typically face - slow business, misplaced merchandise, not-so-nice customers, and a rainy day (literally!). On top of all of that she also has to deal with her feelings, loneliness, worries, shyness, and self-doubt, as a teenage girl in a new town.

The biggest challenge Kiki faces comes when she loses her magic. Flying, which was as natural to Kiki as breathing, no longer comes so easily to her.

She overcomes these obstacles with her resourcefulness, and with help from people she meets. Osono and her baker husband, who gave Kiki a place to stay, take good care of Kiki as sort of surrogate parents. Tombo, a boy whose biggest dream is to fly, befriends Kiki and makes her laugh. Grandmotherly Madame, who Kiki delivers a pie, treats Kiki with kindness and care to give Kiki the energy to go on. And a young painter, Ursula, gives Kiki good advice as someone who not so long ago went through the same struggle as Kiki is going through now.

In the end, Kiki finds her independence and the meaning of self-reliance.

All in all the kids seemed to enjoy the movie and so did I would I watch it again probably not.

Dinner time then bath and bed for the kids. whew lol. So on to the next movie.

The kids are now in bed so it's just the hubs and me snuggled  up on the sofa, like 2 love birds without a worry in the world. (haha yeah right).

California Man 

This was the next movie on the agenda for the evening is a movie I love love love...

Two teenage boys find a cave man while digging a pool in their back garden, but they get more than they bargained for when the cave man thaws out. The two boys bring the cave man up to date with modern culture and embark on an hilarious adventure in the practice of everyday life.

This film is a must-see especially for younger viewers, with the subjects being teenagers. It is much more than just an ordinary teen flick though, with brilliant performances from Sean Asten(The Goonies, Lord of the Rings) and Brendan Fraser(The Mummy). Another source of amusement comes from the character "Mr.Stoney", a chilled out but at the same time fun seeking hippy. This film is one of the many highly underated films of modern time. (I did not writ this review)

I loved this movie when I was younger an still loved watching it again made me laugh all the way especially Links dancing. lmao.

Now for the last movie of the night, my favorite of the day.

The Kingdom

I thought this was a great movie, I didn't think I would because the hubby choose it and I don't usually watch or like things that he picks. (many, many, many a arguments on that.)

So lets get back to the movie because this is defenantly 1 to watch, it will have you feeling every emotion in such a short time frame for a manner of different reasons.

It also (well in my opinion) gives you a kind of double sided view on things we are facing in our world today and the kind of war we are facing in our times. It allows one to see the side of both groups of victims as well as to the fact that it is not just one group of people that suffer, however I also think it is wrong of the movie to suggest that we are all suffering to the same degree I think that, that is just misguided, but then again this is a hollywood movie.

I was going to write my own review on this movie but its getting late and its a bit long for me at this time. So here is a review and break down of what the movie is all about.


Here is the review from the Sunday Times.

The Kingdom - the Sunday Times review

The Kingdom makes a liberal gaffe in the Middle East, but as an episode of CSI: Saudi Arabia, it works brilliantly

Cosmo Landesman

I can’t remember when a big action movie provoked so many sniggers and sneers in advance as this one. Pearl Harbor? The story goes that poor Peter Berg thought he was directing an action film with a brain and the good liberal message of “Let’s not be beastly to the Arabs” – and bloodthirsty preview audiences in America have been whooping and hollering “Hooray, USA!” whenever an Arab baddie is blown away. It’s the kind of high-minded liberal gaffe that the American journalist Tom Wolfe would no doubt dub “radical sheik”.
For this, Berg – best known in this country for his acting role opposite Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction – has only himself to blame. The film’s prologue gives us a potted history, through newsreels and charts, of the dubious oil-based links between the USA, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and terrorism. Here we go: smart, savvy thriller on the way, we think. Once the history lesson is over, however, we get a very different film. It’s not Syriana with more explosions and a higher body count, but a tense crime thriller: CSI goes to Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom begins with a baseball game at a guarded American compound of oil workers in Riyadh. A sudden terrorist attack leaves hundreds dead and many more wounded. One of the dead is an FBI agent, and her colleagues back in the USA want to fly out to help solve the case. The Saudis don’t want it, the American government doesn’t want it, but special agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) and his crack FBI team – an explosives expert, Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper); a forensics ace, Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner); and an intelligence analyst, Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) – make a secret trip to Saudi Arabia to find those responsible.
In a race against time – they have only five days – the team turn up at the crime scene and find their hands tied by their Saudi minder, Colonel Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), who resents their intrusion. Whereas the Americans resort to the appliance of science in tracking the killers, the Saudis go in for a little old-fashioned torture. To add to the tension, the FBI team are a target for the next terrorist attack. One clue leads to another and, in the final 40 minutes, the action changes gear and races towards a glorious eruption of exploding cars and exploding terrorists.
This is a film produced by Michael Mann, and it has the trade-mark of his slick, character-driven crime capers. Berg has shot it like a docudrama, which gives us an intimacy with the people and events. Okay, it’s your basic detective-hunts-criminal scenario, but what gives it an interesting twist is that the FBI team faces an unusual kind of obstacle: here, they must battle with the dictates of custom. We get a study of a culture clash between a test-tube-toting bunch of secular western professionals and a form of Islam that regards such people as interfering, foul-mouthed infidels, insensitive to their deepest religious convictions. Can such cultural differences be overcome in time to catch the bad guys? Slowly, Ghazi and Fleury realise that what they have in common is more important than what divides them. Both are regular guys, family men, dedicated professionals who want peace.
Appealingly, Berg takes you inside the Saudi way of life to a degree that few films ever do. Poor old Hollywood: if it resorts to standard views of Arabs, everyone complains of stereotypes; if it tries to show them as humans like us, it is accused of the sin of “moral equivalence”, by which is meant that it’s being soft on terrorists, which this film actually isn’t.
Berg has assembled a collection of fine actors, but whenever I see Foxx in a role like this, I can’t help but think, ‘I bet they tried, and failed, to get Denzel Washington.’ Foxx is always competent, but never inspired. And having someone as good-looking as Garner as an FBI boffin is bound to provoke cynicism, though this is to assume that professional women of a scientific bent must look like Dr Frankenstein to be authentic. Cooper is at his laconic best, but the man who really steals the show is Barhom, giving a nuanced and moving performance as the decent colonel. There may not be much in the way of food for thought here, but as a gripping cop story, it’s a triumph.
15, 109 mins

They give it 3 stars but I give it 4 Stars, its a movie to watch and make up your own mind about.

That was the end of our movie day for another week.

xoxo

A mothers love

I'm not sure where this is from but my aunt had it up on her face book and I truly believe this so thought I'd re-post it here.

 A mother thinks about her children day & night, even if they're not with her.✿ A mom loves her children in a way that they will never understand.✿ A mom will be there for her children when no one else will.✿ A mom will catch a grenade, take a bullet, stand in front of a train, & ask God to take her instead of her child.✿ If you have children that you love  repost.

Why am I waiting

Why cant companies just put you through to a human person instead of their beeping automated systems. ahhhhhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhhh.

Been waiting on the phone for 59:06mins exactly for someone to answer the phone. wtf.....If it wasn't such an important call I would have put the phone down by now, do I really want to be listening to this rubbish music they have playing over and over and over again??? Errrrrr nooooo.

My god someone shoot me in the ear, now please!!!!!!!!

Finally after 1 hour and 32mins later my call has been answered and I'm off the phone.......