Birthday

Éowyn’s Seventh Birthday

Thursday 29th October 2015Thursday 29th October 2015Baggie

Somewhat belated, but considering the previous post I am sure that you can understand. Yes as the title suggests, our eldest, Éowyn turned seven on the 17th October. However, as you can imagine it wasn’t the birthday that we had hoped for her.

We knew for sometime that I was working that weekend, and with a heavy Premier League fixture list and Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals that weekend it wasn’t possible to take it off. Therefore Lucinda decided that she would take the baguettes to Nanny Fran’s and celebrate Éowyn’s actual birthday in the Black Country, and we would have a family celebration in the week. Éowyn had planned to go to the big softplay in West Bromwich with everyone and then she would ask Auntie Liz to take her to the cinema to watch Hotel Transylvania 2, in the afternoon and then back to Nanny’s for cake.

Unfortunately with Granddad’s deteriorating health we decided that Lucinda shouldn’t be 120 miles away (the right decision it turned out) and we asked Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz to, once again, make their way down the M40 and visit us. I had to leave for work before they made it down, but had hoped that if everything was going well, that I may be able to leave slightly early and see my daughter before she went to bed. However, this day wasn’t going to plan. I arrived at work to find that the supervisor that was rostered on had phoned in sick so I had to step back to the frontline and take his place. There was no getting out early for me today.

Éowyn’s other parent, Lucinda, left almost as soon as Nanny Fran worked through the door (just enough time to give Auntie Liz directions to the nearest cinema – Éowyn still wanted to go – and Nanny Fran general instructions) to help with the transport of Granddad to the Princess Alice Hospice.

So poor Éowyn, on her birthday was abandoned, along with her siblings by her parents. For noble reasons, admittedly, and not completely abandoned they were left in very good hands. The memory I have from my seventh birthday was my birthday party being cancelled because there was a heavy fall of snow (my birthday falls on the vernal equinox and thus the last day of the astronomical winter) and no one could make it. So I can sympathise with my eldest.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz kept the baguettes entertained for the day and Auntie Liz and Éowyn certainly didn’t get lost on the way to the cinema. It wasn’t just Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz, however, that came for a visit and kept the baguettes entertained for they brought with them the school guinea pigs that Auntie Liz looks after at weekends. Conkers and Truffles (the guinea pigs) were a big hit with all three, and all three loved to hold them. Living at Auntie Liz’s school the guinea pigs are used to being held by small hands and so were quite content to being handled inexpertly by the baguettes.

The day didn’t go all smoothly for Nanny Fran. The breakers tripped at home plunging the downstairs into darkness. I had to show Nanny Fran how to reset the RCD and flick the current breaker via the wonders of FaceTime while wrestling with problems at work. Then, as Nanny Fran was cooking dinner, Amélie felt unwell and managed to redecorate the bathroom, Poor Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz, while they were cleaning and comforting Amélie, she burned the dinner. It was one of those days! Fortunately it just seemed to be one of those things she didn’t have a temperature and was much better the next day.

I didn’t manage to leave work before Amélie and Ezra had gone to bed but Éowyn (with special birthday privileges) was cuddling Nanny Fran on the sofa watching Strictly Come Dancing. I gave Éowyn a big birthday cuddle before heading off to join Lucinda at the hospice.

Lucinda spent the night at the hospice and since Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz had to return to West Bromwich on Sunday afternoon I checked that my supervisor was feeling better and would be in work I decided that I was better off at home. I could sort a few work things out at home, and with the wonders of modern technology I could send the emails that I was hoping to do on the Saturday so Lucinda could spend as much time as she could with her dad, without the worry of having to come home.

Nevertheless, Sunday morning saw me getting up to take Nanny to the hospice and spending Sunday morning with Granddad and the family while Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz looked after the baguettes. Lucinda and I returned at lunchtime to have lunch and have a belated birthday cake with Éowyn before Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz had to return. Lucinda, also took this opportunity to have a bit of a rest before she headed back to the hospice for the nightshift. Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz begun their return journey and I was left alone with the kids. As it was a school day the next day, we had reading and spelling tests and baths before bed.

As those of you that have read the previous post will know Granddad passed away the next day, so although it seemed unfair that we abandoned Éowyn on her birthday, it was without doubt the correct decision and she had a great time with Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz anyhow.

With a week of sorting things out and it being the last week at school before the half term break we planned to extend Éowyn’s birthday into the next weekend. As you may recall we are, as a family en masse, proud owners of annual Legoland passes. At this time of the year Legoland hold firework displays at weekend evenings so it seemed a good excuse to head over to Windsor and have an afternoon at Legoland and stay until the evening’s firework display. As an added bonus the UK returned to GMT in the wee hours of Sunday, meaning an extra hour in bed (yes, that doesn’t exist when you have small children!) and potentially more importantly it would be darker one hour earlier, all good for fireworks.

For a Sunday in late October the weather was unseasonably mild, in addition it was the first weekend of the half term break and so as a consequence Legoland was packed. Every ride had an above average wait and the concession stands were rammed. Nevertheless we managed to go on a number of rides and find a relatively good place to watch the Ninjago Firework display from the harbour area (for those of you that know the layout of Legoland).

The fireworks were very good, with the occasional fireball that you feel the heat from across the lake although I’m afraid that I did not fully feel the power of the masters of Spinjitzu, Neither did Ezra, We thought that he may be scared by the loud noises and so took headphones to help cover his ears, they did not work the poor little mite was still scared. However, his big sister came to the rescue and covered his ears with her hands for the entire display while I held his hand. It was very touching to see Éowyn act the carer and look after her little brother, especially since it meant that she could not fully enjoy the fireworks herself.

To complete Éowyn’s alternative birthday celebrations, and as an extremely belated birthday party for Amélie too, we headed to Build-A-Bear workshop in Uxbridge for a birthday party for a select group of friends. Éowyn asked to take Aaliyah and Kavya (her best friends) and Amélie asked to take Georgia (her best friend) and thus Lucinda and I shepherded (imagine shepherding cats) 6 youngsters to Build-A-Bear via a McDonald’s lunch treat. The birthday party meant that each of them could build a bear of their own and buy an outfit for it. Somewhat ironically none of them built a bear. Georgia built a cat, the remaining girls built ponies and Ezra built Kevin the Minion to add to the (non-Build-A-Bear) minions of Bob and Steve that he already owns.

And so Éowyn’s final birthday celebration drew an emotional week to a close with her closest friends, her siblings and Mommy and Daddy.

Before I leave you I would like to tell you about the Muchloved site that we have set up in Granddad’s memory. It is in its early development stages but please feel free to pop by and light a candle or leave a memory (click here). I will leave a permanent link in the column on the right hand side of the site, in case you want to go there in the future.

Peace and Love

Baggie

The Build-a-Bear party

Sewing the ‘bears’

The completed ‘bears’

Welcome to Legoland

Swap around

What do you look like?

Behind you!

They are going to be eaten

The dragon ride

Conserving energy

Mommy having fun

All too much

Some bangin’ tunes

Settling in to watch the show

Ready for the show

Illuminated lighthouse

Boom!

Whizz-bang

Amélie’s Fifth Birthday

Wednesday 30th September 2015Wednesday 30th September 2015Baggie

A few short weeks after she started full-time education our second child Amélie turned five. This makes her one of the oldest in her class and her parents feel older than they think they are! Since this was Amélie’s first birthday in full-time education I decided that it would be nice to take the day off so that I could be there to take her to school and then be there when she arrived back home. This was doubly important because the weekend before Amélie’s birthday one of the MCR operators got married, this coupled with other commitments meant that we were a little short in staff levels on a busy weekend. This is my department, therefore I could not justify taking leave either for Matt and Sharon’s wedding nor to celebrate Amélie’s birthday.

Amélie however did have special visitors at the weekend in the shape of Nanny Fran and Aunties Liz and Mary. Since Nanny Fran and her aunties had come a long way and it was only the day before her birthday Amélie was allowed to open her presents. She, therefore, had two birthdays or, more accurately, celebrated her birthday for 48 hours – I am sure that is allowed! Nanny Fran waited until I arrived back from work however this did mean that she got caught in traffic and it took her 3.5 hours to return to West Bromwich, which made it an awfully long day.

So the big day arrived and to her credit Amélie didn’t wake too early. The promise of being able to open her presents if she got ready for school early spurred her on and both she and Éowyn were ready by 0815! If only it was like that everyday! Some of her presents duly opened she headed off to school (with a smile on her face, for the first time in a week) wearing her ‘I am 5′ badge.

The girls’ school has a healthy eating policy and therefore there are no sweets or cakes to be given out in class for birthdays. Although that is admiral if you can’t have a cake or some sweets on your birthday when can you? There is no policy, however, to stop one giving sweets and cakes out to classmates outside the school gates. Therefore, like some nefarious drug-dealer (and let’s face it sugar is a particularly bad drug) Amélie handed out bags of Haribos to her classmates as they left for home.

As I mentioned in the last write-up, Amélie has been getting herself upset in a morning saying that she hasn’t wanted to go to school. Much of this is because Amélie hasn’t made many, if any, friends. Most of the girls in her class have come to school via the same nursery therefore friendships have already been formed and Amélie has to break into this circle. She will. When she has been upset she has mentioned how much she has missed Georgia her friend from pre-school who attends another school and unfortunately Lucinda and Georgia’s mum had not managed to swap contact details while at pre-school. With a some luck Lucinda bumped into Georgia’s mum last week at one of the playgroups that she takes Ezra and her childminding ward and so snatched the chance to invite Georgia over for a birthday tea.

Amélie was shocked to see her friend walk up the driveway. Georgia was also pleasantly surprised as her mum had not told her what was happening or where she was going and this was Georgia’s first playdate so they were both very excited little girls. Sometimes birthday surprises are better than birthday presents.

Georgia wasn’t the only birthday visitor that Amélie had on her birthday evening. Nanny and Granddad came round with Uncle John and Auntie Margaret. Auntie Margaret received an education in current girls’ toys, in the U.K. at least. She learned all about Pinypons, Monster High Dolls and Fright-Mares. She will take this knowledge back home to see if this is same in Australia and thus be the cool Nanny in her granddaughters’ circle of friends.

Before they sat down for a birthday tea there was still room for more visitors with Uncle Michael and her cousins Lauren and Maddie popping in with more presents and a quick game of Ludo. What an exciting day!

The heavens seem to celebrate too for the day began with a lunar eclipse, that coincided with the moon at perigee (a so-called supermoon) and ended with N.A.S.A. announcing that liquid water has been found on another planet, our neighbour Mars. A very auspicious day to celebrate your fifth birthday.

Happy Birthday Amélie

Love

Mommy and Daddy

Birthday Balloons

Amélie’s new toys

Birthday joy!

Birthday glasses

Birthday dress

Siblings

The Book Fall

Wednesday 15th July 2015Wednesday 15th July 2015Baggie

Coinciding with the quiet period at work, I am trying to make amends regarding the paucity of updates on this web site so far this year. I have always been acutely aware that the website will always play second fiddle (well fourth or fifth fiddle, or second oboe; whatever the orchestral hierarchical equivalent is) to family life and actually creating the memories in the first place. Nevertheless, I am also acutely aware that many of you enjoy reading about our family life which makes the effort of these updates a little easier.

The end of the academic year is looming into view, so as Éowyn leaves year 1 and Amélie says goodbye to pre-school there are all the end of year activities to enjoy. The most important of these was the Hollywood Première screening of the film that Éowyn’s after school drama club have been working on for the past term.

Magna Carta Arts Centre in Staines presented the first showing of ‘The Book Fall’ and myself and Éowyn had tickets for the showing; poor Mommy elected to stay behind and look after Amélie and Ezra. The Sense Theatre had sent out a letter encouraging parents and pupils alike to dress up to try to bring a sense of glamour to the proceedings. They had laid a red carpet and there was popcorn. Unfortunately not everyone took it in that spirit. I was only one of three dads that I could see in a suit and the only one wearing a tie. The majority of the children had dressed up though, which was nice to see.

The premise of the film is that a school teacher challenges her pupils to read as many books as they can over the summer holiday, a prize given to the pupil that reads the most books. There are two groups of pupils the swotty, nerdy types who are challenging each other as to how many books they will read, and the non-swotty types who think that reading is boring. To try to convince the non-swotty types that reading books is fun, the swotty pupils read to the non-scotty pupils and as they begin to read so those sections of the books are acted out by other children. The books that were filmed were children classics, modern books like Mr Stink to the real classic like The Hobbit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 5 Children and It, Oliver Twist and, the book that Éowyn was in, Naughty Amelia Jane by Enid Blyton.

I am not sure how many schools were involved in total but it was a nice idea. Each group of children could concentrate on a small section of the film which acted as a stand alone play within the overall narrative. Considering the time constraints, the lack of budget and the fact that it was probably the first time that the majority of the children, had ever acted yet alone acted in front of a video camera I think we have to praise Sense Theatre. Unfortunately with so many children the 2 hour running time only allowed most children a couple of lines and, if I am being honest, at times it was quite painful. Nevertheless the children were very excited to see themselves on the big screen and Éowyn’s eyes lit up when she saw herself.

Now I can understand that 2 hours is a lot of film to watch especially when you are only there to see perhaps 20 seconds, the 20 seconds that your child is on-screen, however it is the height of bad manners to whoop and holler while your child is on-screen and then disturb everyone as you leave immediately your child’s last lines have been uttered. This wasn’t just a select few, out of an audience of close to 250 less than 25 remained at the end. However, if any of you are desperate to see the complete film we purchased the DVD. I don’t think that I’ll be sitting through the entirety again, although if Éowyn ever becomes a famous actress it will be come part of the archive video footage.

With the end of the academic year looming into view there is one eye on the next. To prepare for the next step in their educational progress both girls had an opportunity to spend a morning in their new classes. For Éowyn, that is a new teacher at a new site but with the same classmates; for Amélie however it is full-time education, at a new school with a completely new set of classmates. Amélie’s teacher, Miss Snow, seems very friendly but her biggest challenge will be to make new friends. Fortunately our friend’s girl, Natalie, will not only be at the same school but in the same class. Therefore Amélie will have one friend in the class.

Unusually Amélie was upset the night before, so we sat down to talk to her thinking that the thought of going to the big school was disturbing her. It developed that it wasn’t the thought of going to big school per se that was upsetting her but the fact that she wanted to take a packed lunch. She takes a packed lunch to nursery but every child in full-time education up to the age of 7 is entitled to free school meals in the UK. Therefore, Amélie (and Éowyn) will both enjoy free school meals this coming school year.

We convinced her to try her school dinner and we would then think about it for when she goes to school in September. To her credit she happily went to school the next morning. When we picked her up that afternoon we asked her what she thought of her new school. She was full of praise saying it was the best day ever and that the best thing was the school dinner which was sausage and mash. One less thing to worry about!

Sometimes fate gives opportunities at exactly the right time. Last week was Natalie’s birthday and she had a party at Spelthorne gym. Since Natalie goes to the nursery at Amélie’s new school many of the pupils and Natalie’s friends will be in her class. Therefore, it was a good opportunity for Amélie to get to know some of her new classmates, as well as have fun at Spelthorne gym (and it is fun) and celebrate Natalie’s birthday. It was good to sit and observe Amélie and from watching our second daughter I don’t think that she will have any problems making friends.

The end of school party at Éowyn’s school was slightly unusual, for they had invited Festival Circus to put on a show (3 showings of the same show!) in a big top on the school playing field. I took the day off work and took the girls while Lucinda stayed behind looking after Ezra and her child-minding ward. The show was excellent , not completely polished but that was part of the charm. The girls were enthralled and both had different favourites: Éowyn the gymnastic displays on the ropes and Amélie the girl who could simultaneously hula 10 hula hoops.

Lucinda is now on the P.T.A. and as soon as her working day was over she headed over to the school (we had already returned to look after Ezra) to help sell refreshments and tidy up. The early indications are that it was roaring success and all had a good time. Hopefully this is the start of turning the school around at least in terms of uniting the P.T.A. and staff into a common goal.

It seems that this write up is all about the girls so it is only fair to regale a couple of stories of our son. He is on the whole very well-behaved but he does have a couple of cheeky habits. One is jumping on mommy and daddy’s bed, a game he calls 4,5,6. Not sure what happened to 1,2,3 but he stands at one end of the bed and shouts 4,5,6 before launching himself forward. Not something that we want to encourage but it is quite amusing.

He other little quirk that he has at the moment is the nicknames that he has given the girls. Éowyn he calls ‘A’ (pronounced as the capital – Ay), which is understandable as that is the first syllable of her name. Therefore if Éowyn is called ‘A’ what do you think Amélie’s nickname is? ‘Bay’. So it is ‘Goodnight Ay, goodnight Bay‘ before he totters off to bed.

I will bid you adieu and leave you with the photos, there are plenty of the circus on our Flickr pages if you are interested.

Peace and love

Baggie