Pips first birthday

Ugh it even pains me to write that my little baby girl is now a year old. With each child the time seems to rush past faster and I am so desperate for her to stay my little baby! However Pip is now crawling and so close to walking I can hardly believe it. The little lady of leisure may have taken a while to learn to crawl but since she has she has realised the joys of exploring the whole house and chasing after Nemo and Pebble. 

Now she's a little older her personality is really shining through. She has a very cheeky personality like Nemo but is also very affectionate Iike Pebble. However predictable like Nemo and Pebble she is very determined! 

I haven't blogged in a while as looking after my three little ones leaves me little spare time! I am also shortly returning to work which I am both looking forward to and feeling sad about. 

 

Balloon and boxes were th big hits of the day!

Nemo and Pebble kindly had no issues helping their sister open her presents!m

Anyway this weekend we were visiting my brother, his wife and the twinzels. This meant I didn't have a lot of time to make Pip's cake for today so I decided to pick something a little more simple. 

So here is my colection of cakes so far! Oh well at least the children know I tried!

I think Pip enjoyed it! 

So here's to our amazing little girl! She brings so much sunshine to our lives and we are so lucky to have her! 

So here are the obligatory photos from the last year! How she has grown!! 

Pebble turns 3

It's been 3 months since my last blog, Christmas preparation with 3 under 5's and hosting 16 people for the 3 days post Christmas kept me rather busy. I will fill you in in what I've been u to another time though because this blog about another milestone- Pebble's 3rd birthday.

It's hard to believe that my little girl is now 3. I know this is such a cliche but there comes this realisation that she's not a baby anymore, she's even encroaching onto little girl territory rather then toddler territory. When we move here last summer she was not long walking and here she is now reciting the entire alphabet. 

I think of her as my baby girl and yet after the Easter holidays she will be going off to preschool just like her big brother was until this summer. 

The terrible twos have been remarkably unpainful, Pebble is generally easy to please, happy and is very sweet. She loves to be helpful and will often be found repeatedly picking up food Pip has thrown off her high chair (just for Pip to throw the food back again!) 

Pebble is also very emotional and sensitive, tonight it was over her wanting a bath but also not wanting to take her slippers off. Pebble is also incredibly smart, she learns so quickly and takes note of everything her big brother is learning. She's just gorgeous and we are so lucky to have her. 

For this birthday Hubby took the day off and we went to soft play with her friend. The next day we went down to my parents where my brother his wife and twins were also visiting. The kids had a lovely time together. 

This year having shown Pebble two books and a Pinterest board worth of birthday cakes she picked the one I was dreading- a trolls cake with princess Poppy. I have to say the cake was not quite as painful as I had imagined. I worked out that having princess Poppy lying down would help me with the whole icing vs gravity issue. I had to bin my first Poppy attempt however I used a little toy pirate to help hold up Poppy's heavy head and hair which made the second attempt relatively sucessful. 

So anyway here it is 

I finished this at a very respectable 9.50pm the night before Pebble's birthday although didn't finish making Pebble's dress until the next morning. 

You will see from above that we got Pebble a unicorn and I have to confss that we didn't do a good job of breaking gender stereotypes for Pebble's birthday- she also got salvanian families ( a second hand bargain I got at the end of last year) 

The funny thing is I realised after we picked this up that I myself had the same hedgehog family for my 4th birthday after I dug out an old photo. 

Being truly nostalgic I dug out something from my own childhood. As a little girl I was obsessed with seals, we went on boat trips annually to see the baby seals in the Farne Islands and I had a massive array of teddy seals (dozens and dozens of them). They've been in storage because I can hardly have hundreds of teddy seals around but also cannot bear to part with them (much to my husband's dispair!) So I dug out the first and second teddy seals which I given, gave them a wash and passed them to Pebble. 

As you can see, Pebble has happily adopted the seals :) 

Another very girly present was a Elsa dress 

So anyway here is our amazing girl, I just hope she slows down and stays little! 

Blast from the past

It feels like ages since I've blogged. In reality it's only been about a month but we've been up to an awful lot. 

Me and hubby managed a last minute weekend without number 1 and 2 children (thanks Mum and Dad!) in York. We met in York 10 years ago this October so it felt very appropriate to go back. We had a lovely time with baby Pip staying in an old style caravan/ hut thing.

The people who owned it were lovely and I would recommend it if you are in the York region (it's in Stanford Bridge)

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/19630721

We also had to visit the Harry Potter shop that has opened since we we lived in York. 

Very very cool but soooo expensive! In the end despite some temptation I just couldn't bring myself to buy anything! 

We also went to York Dungeons which was interesting. It had a pretty terrible odour in there and I swear I could smell it for the rest of the day! 

There is an amazing Christmas shop in York. I don't think I've ever seen such a wide array of Christmas decorations!

(This Christmas tree was so high it went through the ceiling through to the upstairs section!)

There is also a lovely teddy bear shop :) 

So we had to go to the halls of residence where we met and also the university campus. 

The next day we went to the York Museum which was interesting. I particularly enjoyed the part where they made a street inside with shops, carriages etc. 

We also went to the museum gardens which was a place we often frequented in our uni days. 

And of course the Minster...

We had an awesome time :) 

A week or so after we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary together. Naturally a trip to Alnwick Gardens was nessessary so as Nemo was at school we took the girlies with us. 

7 years is wool so I got Hubby a jumper and I got this amazing sheep tea cosy!!

What a wonderful 7 married years it has been! 

Now onto my crafting! And firstly my most exciting item- a Christmas romper for Pip!

I used leftover fabric and made a hoodie for Pebble

And more leftover fabric for a hoodie for Pip

And again more left over fabric for this hoodie for Nemo! 

These were my first attempts at some harem style trousers for Pip, they came out quite well I think but my pair for Pebble were just too big and looked a bit silly so I made a top with some cheap fabric I bought so she can wear them as pyjamas! 

Excuse them being very crinkled! They have been worn! 

Anyway more to talk about but I will be here all day! So I will leave you with this lovely moment. Me and Pip went down to Gloucester this week to visit my friend and Nemo and Pebble were so happy to see us again, they gave Pip lots of hugs when we returned