Daddy time

Jason is particularly busy this year. All 26 projects that he bid for at work got accepted (he was only expecting half to be approved) so he is working 12 our days (and then some) at the moment.

As I have been starting to feel able to get out more, we decided to pay Daddy a visit at his office the other day. The children love their daddy so much; I am so grateful to have married such a hard working man who strives to provide the best for me and the kids.  I love how excited they always get to see him, and that no matter what he does (driving, cooking, playing etc) Daddy is always the best at it. 

Here they all are in Daddy's office. Such lucky kids to be able to call this man their Daddy.

Boxes, boxes, little boxes

Who needs toys when you have three large cardboard boxes? Our new sofas started falling apart so we were sent some replacement ones. The children begged to play with the (extremely large) boxes that they came in. I acquiesced on the proviso that by Friday they would need to go as they were taking over the house!

Ismay and Eden got to work straight away building a space ship.

They all enjoyed using them as hiding places.

And here we have Luke, Padme and Darth Maul (and yes, Mia did elect to be Darth Maul, don't ask!!!) having a light sabre fightwith some of the cardboard from the interior.

Vive la France

We were supposed to go to France over Christmas but due to illness (aka mummy letting the side down again!) we had to postpone the trip to this half term.

Oh how lovely it was to be greeted by the Southern French sunshine.  It was just what the doctor ordered and because for the Southern French, 18 degrees is cold, the beaches were empty!

When we first opened the keys to our new little home, mine and Jason's heart sank a little as we realised that actually, we had quite a lot of work to do before we could get the apartment up to renting standard. (By "we" I mainly mean Jason).  Still, we were determined to make it as much of a holiday for the children as possible.  Here we are having our first family meal prior to all the transformations.

I capitalised on needing to keep the kids busy and out of Daddy's way so he could paint by keeping the kids occupied. Here they are making quiche Lorraine mainly by themselves (I gave them the order in which to out the ingredients in and they followed the instructions very well).

Mia made dinner for us one night (she chose this photo for the blog as she wants her cousins to see) using a recipe she adapted from an dessert she made at school called "scrummy mummies" (they are doing a theme on Egypt). She made a savoury version using cheese and ham.

It was Shrove Tuesday whilst we were away and we of course couldn't let that go uncelebrated. Ismay chose this photo for the blog to show the Canadian cousins. Mummy made the batter and Daddy the expert pancake tosser supervised the cooking.

The children really really enjoyed playing outside. Here is our lovely garden. Daddy bought the girls some tete a tete for valentines day (it's our little tradition, Daddy always buys flowers for his girls on valentine's day) and we potted them and put them in the garden.

The children were very good at helping as they were very keen to earn some euors to spend as pocket money.

We went for a play on the beach every day.

There is an amazing park right by the beach with a zip wire, so we went there a few times. We climbed the volcano (Mont St Loup).

And as well as the decorating, there was also the odd bit of shopping to do for the apartment. Here is a van we hired to drive the sofa bed home, man were they excited about this.  They all got to sit in the front with Daddy when he drove much to their delight.

Our only family photo from the holiday, Daddy and Mummy look slightly haggard here, but it will all be worth it when we return at Easter and we can relax and enjoy all of Daddy's hard work.

Things I missed out on during my stay in hospital and recovery

Last year, I was admitted to hospital three times. Each time I seemed to miss out on something.  The first time was half term with the kids, the second time was our wedding anniversary and the latest stint was Mia's birthday and all the Christmas concerts and preparations and traditions.  Jason has been so good at keeping me up to date with everything and he religiously videoed and photographed the kids so I wouldn't feel as left out.

Lying in ITU, I kept praying I would be well enough to be discharged to see their school plays. Jason and I have been to every single performance, race, play and event that the children have ever been involved in and I really didn't want to miss out. Heavenly Father as usual, heard my pleas. As the tubes that had supported my life began to be removed, the nurses tried to move me on to a High Deoendency ward (as is standard procedure after a stay in ITU). Unfortunately, there were no beds to be had, even on a general ward for an 80 mile radius. The doctors needed my bed for an ill patient in ITU so they decided to discharge me to home on the understanding I was on complete bed rest. Jason picked me up and I came home just in time to see Eden perform in his play. His little face when he saw me in the audience was priceless. Unbeknownst to us, he had been given the main part which he performed like a natural. I was so proud.

Unfortunately, the next day, I became very poorly, so missed out on seeing the girls. Jason made sure he went to their performance and videoed it for me.

Although I found this period of time extremely difficult from an emotional point of view, I have realised that I need to concentrate on the fact that I am so blessed to be here now, and that hopefully I will enjoy watching many more events that my children will take part in. Whilst I may be limited in what I can do, being here for my kids is the best that I can do for them right now.

Child's play

Over these last couple of months, much of my interaction with the children (to my chagrin) has been based around me supervising from my bed, the sofa or sometimes a blanket on the carpet. Both Jason and I have been really impressed with some of the things the children have done.

Here is Ismay making a present for Mia out of felt using her sewing kit.

Love this one of the girls: Mia is reading Ismay a bed time story.

This picture of Ismay was taken when Jason was working away. By 6:30 I had to go back to bed, so I asked the children to choose something to play with in the room with me. Ismay chose to make a pig from one of her activity books. She was really good at reading the instructions.

Once they had had their showers and put their pyjamas on, we played some games together.

And of course, "schools" remains their favourite game. Love how they all get Into role.