A Day Spent At Grandma's, With A Hint Of Santa

Alice was very snuffly today and so the cold has started. I'm hoping that she will manage to get rid of it before Christmas is here!

Anyway, today we spent a quiet morning at home before my Mum came over to drop off lots of Alice's old baby things in preparation for little Megan to make her appearance. She appeared just as Alice was settling to go down for a nap but I knew it wouldn't last once Alice had seen her beloved Grandma was here ;)

We went into town to get some bits and pieces and then we went back to Grandma's and spent the rest of the day there. As per usual Alice got in and got straight into making herself at home! She especially likes Grandma's chair and she loves to pretend to sleep in it!

My Mum also has 4 cats at hers and ever since Alice was a baby Mac has taken a shine to her and Alice has fallen in love with him too! It's not hard to tell that he is her favourite. As time has gone on Alice has been able to give Mac lots and lots more affection and he is extremely tolerable of it all. She tries to pick him up and give him cuddles, half the time it does look like she is strangling him! But at the end of the day they still love each other and watching their friendship is just far too adorable :)

 My Mum wanted to do some work on her laptop whilst we were there, so she sat in the kitchen at the table to do so. Alice likes to be with her as much as possible so she decided that she would sit at the table too to eat her cake.

It doesn't take long before she decides what she really wants to do is play on Grandma's laptop instead of sitting across from her!

Whilst in town we bought Alice a magazine. One of her favourite things about these magazines is the stickers which she loves to stick wherever she can. Today she decided Grandma's couch was the best place for them!

We haven't seen Uncle Hugh in a while so it was nice to see him today and as soon as he got in from work he had a little follower. He knows just how to put a smile on this little one's face and she knows that he likes Spiderman. As soon as she saw him she started singing, shouting ;), the Spiderman theme tune and he just turns straight into a big kid and gets stuck in with her. She really couldn't ask for a better Uncle! They just make each other smile so easily :)

We had a visit from Santa this evening, before we got home from my Mum's, and we thought maybe Alice might like to see him. Unsurprisingly she wasn't very keen on him, he was very sweet and understood so he kept his distance. He did give us a friendly wave from afar. Maybe next year she might warm up to him :)

Claire
xx

I Love A Latte

This morning Alice allowed me to have a lie in as she didn't wake up until 8:45, I normally get woken up at 6am. After looking at the time I panicked as her Daddy was supposed to be coming to pick her up at 9 so I text him asking if he didn't mind picking her up from about 9:30 - 10 as I needed time to get Alice ready to go and pack her bag! Luckily he didn't mind at all, so we played a little before I got her all dressed and ready.

During our play she was telling me that Cinderella and Snow White were both sad because they missed each other. So I told her that maybe they should have a cuddle, next thing I know I see this. This was the closest she could get them to cuddle, but whilst they were cuddling she decided to start playing with something else.

 

Not long after I finally got Alice dressed and bag packed her Daddy turned up to take her to play for a few hours. I had decided that I would do some organising and wrapping of presents whilst she was away. That didn't happen. I ended up watching the Food Network and doing a few bits on my laptop. Not very productive of me I must admit!

Next thing I know I'm finding myself quite fancying a Costa Praline and Cream Latte, also knowing that I could get a free one with my Costa card points made it even more tempting and next thing I know I am getting my coat and shoes on before heading out the door! Just before I left I had remembered that the Christmas fair was on in town. This unfortunately meant that there was no way I was going to be able to sit in Costa to have my coffee, especially around lunch time. I was still adamant that I was going to have my coffee so I decided I would just have to get it to take away.

After getting into town I couldn't resist popping into my work to say hello to whomever happened to be working. My friend Rachele was working so I talked to her for a little bit before she had to go to the till as the shop was rather busy. I ended up having a browse through the Christmas books, as I always want to see if there is anything I might like to get for Alice. I just knew I would end up walking out of the shop with something! Note to any book lovers, it is absolutely fatal when you work in a book shop. The book I found was Christmas Decorations to Cut, Fold & Stick it was just too adorable to not get!

I had to leave soon after I bought that as I didn't want to end up buying much more. Whilst in town my friend Sam text me asking if I was up to much and next thing I know he's meeting me in town and coming along to get a Costa. Unfortunately it was only a brief meet up as I needed to go home to be back in time for Alice coming home. 

The Christmas fair wasn't very festive in my opinion and it seems to me that it just ends up being like a French market but with added rides and some Christmas music being played in the background.

But my Praline and Cream Latte made it all worth while ;)

Once I got to the front door of the house next thing I do is look up to see Craig arriving back with Alice. I then had to try and get the door open so that she could actually come inside, I'm still not really used to the lock on the front door but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon enough.

We were home for about an hour before my Mum came over to pick us up as I needed to go back to the flat to hand over the keys to the Landlord. We popped in to say hello to my Grandparents first and it is so lovely to see both of their faces light up as soon as they see Alice. It is very hard not to love this daughter of mine and she brings smiles to so many peoples faces it is so lovely to see.

Once we got to my Mum's it wasn't long before my Dad made an appearance to see his granddaughter. Lots of tickles and lots of laughter was coming from the both of them.

My Dad then took me to the flat so I could hand over the keys to the Landlord. She was very impressed with how well we had cleaned the flat and that was that. I no longer have any access to the flat. It is all over and now we can get on with enjoying our house. 

Alice and I ended up spending the evening at my parents house, which happens quite a lot when we go there. My Mum ended up showing me a few things on Photoshop Elements and I managed to get some of my December Daily pages done. Once they are printed out I shall do a post on them. But for now all I can say is that I am doing them and you will see them as soon as I manage to get them onto pages rather than on my laptop :)

Claire

xx

Back to Blonde

This morning my Mum came over at about 9am and took Alice and I to Starbucks to have breakfast, I think Alice enjoys coming to Starbucks just as much as we do. She particularly enjoys having the Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffin as well as one of their big chocolate coins. I personally also enjoy their Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins and I had one of their Peppermint Mocha's, decaf and with whipped cream, obviously ;) Alice hadn't seen her Grandma since Tuesday and absolutely loved seeing her today. Whenever we see Grandma, Mummy becomes second best naturally. They love being in each others company and you can just tell they get up to such mischief, probably more so when I'm not around.

Our local Starbucks is attached to a Sainsbury's, for those of you who don't know what Sainsbury's is, it is a grocery store. So once we were done with breakfast we went to do a bit of shopping. I've found it's best to keep Alice involved in picking out our shopping so that she doesn't get bored. She absolutely loves picking out the fruit for me.

She managed to wrap Grandma around her little fingers, which isn't hard for her, and got her to buy a big Lindt chocolate teddy bear for her. It had to be bought as we were going around Alice managed to figure out the foil comes off quite easily and she started munching on it whilst we were going around.

Our next stop of the day was to go to our hairdresser, Mary's, house so that I could get my hair done. I am a natural blonde but as I got older my hair just got darker and darker. Earlier this year, after Craig and I split up, I decided to make a change and dye it a light blonde colour. My roots have been coming through quite badly and my hair was what I can only describe as 2-toned. As you can see in the photos below the top half is brown and the bottom is blonde!

So our trip to Mary's was to rectify that. Whilst we were in Starbucks we got a text from Mary asking if we could get to hers for 10 instead of 10:45, so we agreed and got there at 10, with another client of hers. She had meant to tell us 10:30 but never mind, she has 2 young children and said that Alice could go and play with their toys. Alice spotted a princess dress-up dress and that was it, she wanted to put it on. I have to say she is the cutest princess I have ever seen, although I may be slightly biased on that judgement!

Next thing I know Mary's finished with her other client and it is my turn. So I went to go and get my T-Bar, so I've been told it's called, done whilst Alice and Grandma carried on playing.

Once we were finished with all the foils I went to go and check on Alice, we had noticed things had gone a bit quiet near the end. This is what we found.

A very knackered out little girl, bless her!

And then we washed out the dye and.....

TA DAH!!!! I am back to blonde again. I must say this isn't a great photo of myself but it'll do to show off my newly blonde locks!

We went and dropped by my Grandparents house to drop off some bits my Mum got them from Sainsbury's and to say a quick hello as Alice and I hadn't seen them since Alice's 2nd birthday. My Grandpa had the physio over so we didn't stay for long but I think they enjoyed seeing Alice even if it was just briefly :)

The rest of the afternoon/evening we spent at my Mum's house. It's like Alice's second home so it's nice that we can just go there and relax like we would at our own home.

And that is another day over with! Hope you all have had a lovely day :)

Claire
xx

Chill Out Sunday

Today has been a very chilled out day, just what I like on a Sunday.

We woke up to quite a frosty morning outside. Alice wanted to go out and play but I decided it would be best if we waited a little bit before going outside as the decking looked incredibly slippery.

Luckily she wasn't bothered by it at all and decided playing with her Fischer Price Princess Castle was just as good.

We called Grandma to see how the Jason Mraz concert was last night. From what she was saying it was absolutely amazing, but I couldn't speak to her for too long as Alice decided she would rather chat to her on the phone instead.

After we did have a quick Skype call with her but Alice didn't seem too bothered about talking to Grandma on Skype so we didn't chat for long but did decide that she should come and see Alice later on.

I looked around for some more Christmas decorations around the house so that I can put them up tonight whilst Alice is sleeping. I have to do this as when I try to decorate whilst Alice is around she would rather play with the decorations and she wants to dictate where everything goes. That's what I get for having a strong-minded 2 year old.

I eventually found our Christmas wreath and it's hanger to hang on the door but as I quickly found out the hanger won't fit around our door properly, which isn't much help for me :(

Alice enjoyed looking at the berries on it and thought the "candles" were brilliant, especially as when she blew them they went out ;)

At about 3pm Alice had woken up from her nap and Grandma was coming over to take us back to hers for dinner as it is my cousin Max's last day in the UK before he heads off to Australia to join his Dad and his Dad's girlfriend out there. Once we got there obviously Grandpa wanted to come say hello to Alice which then turned into him being told to play around with a ball. Next thing you know Alice has Grandpa throwing the ball onto the ceiling, seriously!!

Next thing you know she even has Grandma having a go. Unfortunately Grandma isn't as good at it as Grandpa is.

Whilst there I got offered a mince pie, which I just couldn't turn down as I haven't had one so far this year. As it is December this had to be rectified as soon as possible ;)

Whilst we sat down with our mince pies Alice decided that we should watch Cinderella. This is one of her all time favourite movies, she loves to sing along with it and Grandma enjoys watching it just as much as she does I feel.

When the time came Grandma and Auntie Em went out to go and get kebabs for our dinner so Alice and I just chilled out at their house. As we were chilling out on the couch I thought I'd try and get a nice picture of us..... Alice had other ideas haha. I also don't think it's the most flattering one of me but I couldn't not put up this hilarious face!

Alice is quite the character, if you couldn't quite tell. She loves an audience and what better way of getting an audience than whilst we are all sitting down in the lounge having our dinner. She can wrap anyone around her little finger if she wants to. Tonight she decided that she was going to shout "Boo" and everyone has to get a fright. Obviously her audience was willing to play along, and who couldn't with such a sweet face like hers.

 

Before Alice and I went home we decided it would be a good idea to get a picture of the 4 cousins together beforehand as this will be the last time we are all together for at least a year.

We said our farewells, Alice just said bye as usual as she doesn't really understand what is going on. Good Luck with your flight tomorrow Max! We hope you get to Australia safely and we hope to hear from you soon.

Claire
xx

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.
This is where I will be writing down what happens in our family's day to day life.
From today I have started a December Daily which I will turn into a scrapbook but will post everything on here first.
I hope you enjoy.

Claire
xx