My family and other animals

I loved reading the Gerard Durrell book of the title of this post as a child. It made me laugh out loud. Some days I really relate to the perspective in the book, sometimes it feels like my house is filled with animals with all the screaming!

Today Daddy went back to work so we decided to use some of our Christmas presents and create a zoo for the Lego and dolls to visit.

First of all, Mia used one of her presents to make a tiger.

She did really well at following the instructions with minimal intervention from me.

Eden designed the layout of the zoo and constructed it whilst Ismay made the map and the tickets.

They made food for the animals and each took on the role of tour guide, cashier and zoo keeper.

Keeping them entertained.....

Santa bought a particularly tricky jigsaw puzzle for Izzy to get her teeth stuck into. Days later she is still completing it!

Santa also bought some Christmas films for the children to snuggle up and watch on cold days.

We got to Skype with our cousins......technology is great.

The day after Boxing Day and they want to do some more baking!  

As you can see still in their pjs so this was still quite early in the morning!

Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve started with the children getting up really early and choosing their own festive attire.

They were excited to carry out our family tradition of going out for a cooked breakfast.  This year Grandma and Grandad joined us.

When we got home we decorated a ginger bread house.

We then had our buffet tea and then it was bath time.  After their baths the children came downstairs to find that Santa had left them some Christmas pjs, a family tradition.

They went to bed very excited.  Eden woke at four but we told him to go back to bed and to get up later.  At seven o'clock the children came in with their stockings. Santa had included a craft activity for them to make so that entertained them while mummy and daddy supervised from under the comfort of the duvet - a strategy for the grown ups to get a few more minutes in bed.

Next it was time for Daddy to make his traditional visit downstairs to see if Santa had been.  He called the children down to come and see.

They were so excited to see Santa had left a pile of presents each for them.

The girls were thrilled to play with some dolls house things and Eden enjoyed joining in with his Lego.

Daddy cooked his first Christmas dinner, roast duck. It was delicious, and he did an excellent job.

Then it was time to get dressed in our Christmas outfits, the girls had matching ones.

And we headed over to grandmas and granddad's to exchange presents.

The cousins enjoyed playing together.

And we even managed to take a family photo. What a blessing to all be together for Christmas Day.

Mia's birthday

As Mia had requested a party in summer, she knew that she wouldn't be getting another one in November on her actual birthday.  However, our tradition is always to decorate with bunting when the children go to sleep and put out mini cereal (our traditional birthday treat) for them.  I have collected decorations over the last nine years of organising children's birthday parties and have a box full of pretty decorations to choose from.  The night before Mia's birthday, I rang Jason from the hospital and told him where everything was. Luckily I'd wrapped all Mia's presents a couple of weeks before, so Jason just had to lay everything out and get the cake out of the freezer to defrost.  I was a little shocked when Jason sent me the pictures to check if he'd done it right and I saw pop on the table by the breakfast things. He hastily explained that it was for the little party they were having later and not for breakfast!

Of course I was heartbroken not to be there for Mia's ninth birthday. Even more frustratingly, the ward I was in in the hospital had no reception for my phone. However, the nurses very kindly let me call home and I got to speak to my little darling and Jason kept me updated with photos.

I was so grateful to Grandma and Grandad Basford who stepped in and helped make Mia's day so special and supported Daddy so well. Grandma very kindly picked the children up from school and brought them to see me in visiting time so that I got to hold my special little first born babe.

Here she is, my beautiful nine year old in all her birthday regalia. I am so thankful for my precious daughter, she is kind, considerate, sensitive and sweet. We are so proud of the young lady she is becoming.