We have a tree!!! With homemade ornaments to boot!

First order of the day was to paint the salt dough decorations we'd made the day before....

Though reluctant at first, even Nick got in on the action and got so involved he decorated more than the one we made specifically for him!

Rudolph helps to decorate the tree.....

as does santa (putting his personal ornament on the tree)

team work....

my personal ornament, with Ben's snowman and Jas' heart

This year it was Jasmine's turn to put the start on the top of the tree

the first of my beautifully wrapped presents :-)

Some left over salt dough ornaments made a lovely garland to add to my display in the hallway

Santa's in town

Though neither of my children go to pre-school anymore, I am still a member of the committee.  I came up with the idea of using the lovely garden they have at the pre-school as a santa's grotto and giving out mince pies and mulled wine/juice as a big thank you to all the parents for all the fundraising they do throughout the year, as well as an official opening party for the garden, which has taken a looong time to complete. 

Nope, that's not real snow, but a snow machine

I didn't get one of Jas with Santa - but I will be getting one (a photo was part of the visit, I just sneaked this one myself - hence the lack of focus!)

but I don't want to go yet!

Are we nearly there yet?

This was the title of the kids school play.  I was sooooo proud - of all the children involved as it was truly a spectacular performance.  They all were really enthusiastic, remembered all their lines and were a joy to watch.  Of course I was especially proud of my own children.....Ben made a fantastic Joseph, and received compliments all round for his clear speaking, remembering all his lines and of course for being the most handsome Joseph in the history of school plays (!)
Jasmine also did extremely well and was the most enthusiastic of Jazz dancers, really get into the swing of things, quite literally! 

Jas doing the conga

School Play

Yesterday was the first performance of the kids school play - though not in it's entirety.  It was a community performance at the local memorial hall, where they just sang the songs from the play with some narration and dancing.  This year Ben has the lead role and is starring as Joseph (I had told him that if they asked what he wanted to play that he should volunteer for Joseph, he got the chance when another child pulled out)  He has been working so hard on his lines - and we've practiced at home, with me giving him pointers on actions and expressions.  Jasmine is a dancer, and not just any dancer, a jazz dancer.  I am so proud of how they know the songs word perfect and how they will just burst into song at any given opportunity!

There was an incident during practice last week monday though.  Ben was on stage laying on the floor pretending to be asleep for his part with Mary.  Next thing, and nobody quite knows how this happened, Ben rolls off the stage bumping his head.  Fortunately he wasn't hurt badly, which is why I actually find it slightly amusing (though my first reaction was irrational guilt that he had hurt himself and I wasn't there to comfort him when he needed me...).  Why do I find it slightly amusing?  My son could bang his head or trip on fresh air.  If anyone was going to roll off the stage it was going to be Ben.  He just seems prone to it - it could be that he spends much of his time off with the fairies!  If he weren't so clever I'd worry about his brain! 

Funny of the day (well last week really)
To further prove my point about Ben being a daydreamer, last Saturday at football, Ben had a moment during the game where the ball rolled towards him and stopped at his feet.  No-one was around to tackle him, but for some reason unknown to man, he just stared at it until another kid came and dribbled it away.  Nick was. Not. At. All. Amused.  When speaking to Ben about it after the game, Ben interrupted saying; 'I know, I wish the ball had wings, and I had a remote control.  Then I could make it fly all the way across the pitch and fly into the goal!"  He was so pleased with this obvious solution.  "well, you have this as a remote control!" replied Nick, grabbing Ben's knee.  "Use it!"

Christmas making....

I have decided that I am making the kids a snuggle quilt for Christmas this year.  Apart from somewhat alleviating (albeit temporarily) my fabric obsession, I am fed up of big, expensive, noisy, plastic-y toys that they seem to accumulate en-masse at this time of year, and which they either break, lose interest in or lose pieces to before the end of the festive season.  Personally, I always try and get them things that I know have longevity, that they can learn from, and that they can still have fun with.  This year, I bought the biggest box of lego (I know, big and platic-y, but Lego doesn't count!  It's educational and gives hours of fun - even for me....!) as a joint gift and I'm making the quilts.  I have also bought a selection of art and crafts for Jasmine and a selection of books on ancient civilisations for Ben (he loves factual books).  In addition, I bought them each their own beautifully illustrated children's Bible.  They love going to Sunday School, and I know they'll be so proud to take their own Bible's with them.  I have gone through the toys in the playroom and thrown out anything that was broken, and will donate to charity everything that is in good enough condition. 

Back to fabrics...here are the ones I chose for Jas' quilt.....

It took me hours and hours of intense internet research to finally choose these ones.  There is so much beautiful fabric out there - and unfortunately most of the best stuff is sold on American/Australian/Japanese sites.  I also knew that I wanted this quilt to represent Jasmine's personality.  She is girly (hence the florals), but she is gutsy, passionate, vibrant and confident.  I wanted to reflect this in my choice of fabric.....

When they arrived, I loved each of them individually, but I was suddenly very unsure of how they would go together......

I also built up a new fear in my head of actually sewing the quilt together.  It seemed so simple, yet so hard....I don't have all the fancy tools like rotary cutter, mat and ruler for accurate squares and I've never sewn a quilt top (to be honest, other than the Ipod case, I haven't sewn anything by machine before, and not much more by hand either!)

But I did it and despite some minor flaws in the size of squares (which I think add to the character of it), it looks gorgeous.  I will post a pic when I have actually sewn the back and the wadding and quilted/tied it. 

As for Ben, I knew that I wasn't going to do a patchwork for him.  There is tons of great fabric out there, but I couldn't find anything that I thought 'matched' Ben in the way I wanted.  I did find the cutest elephant print fabric though that I just knew he'd love.  Unfortunately it is only sold through Japanese sellers, and that means import taxes and duty :-(  This makes it a very expensive option.  It came in a variety of background colours so I let Ben pick his favourite....(I secretly wanted either the orange or the blue).  This is what he chose.....

I bit the bullet and forked out the £17 it cost me to get a meter of this beautiful cotton linen blend.  £18 is the limit before you incur taxes and duty, so I decided to supress the urge to buy all the other colours I liked.  The problem is that fabric is not printed indefinitely.  They do discontinue after a few seasons.  After Christmas is over I intend to get some fat quarters of the orange, blue, green and grey backgrounds too.....I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a project especially for them :-)  Like the new babies due in the family..... or a certain 1 month and 3 day old baby that I have yet to send a gift to....

My children love nothing than to snuggle with a warm blanket and their mummy at the end of a day, after their bath/shower.  I can't wait for them to see these!  Will post pics of the finished articles as soon as I'm done.

New Kit

Letters to and from Santa - updated!

Last night I helped the kids to write their letters to Santa.....it is really fun to find out what it is they actually pick when asked to send a request to Santa.  Number 1 on Jasmine's list is Lego (luckily I bought them the biggest tub I could find, so Santa is off the hook with that one!) but she also asked for bouncy balls and a Barbie (of the three she already has, one has no limbs left and the other two are naked at the bottom of the toy bow....why she wants one is anyone's guess!) Top of Ben's was Star Wars Lego, (which he already has), amongst other things, he also wants a Star Wars lamp so he can read for longer in bed and a snow globe!  Ben decided not to ask Santa for a V-Smile Motion game because he already knows that 'nana Debbie' (my mum) is getting them some of those for Christmas

writing their list

isn't their writing beautiful!

In return, I wrote some letters from Sata, personalised for each of them, which I have addressed individually and posted to our house.  I can't wait for them to get them in the post - they always love getting mail addressed to them personally, an actual letter from 'Santa' will have them hopping up and down!

I have been offering these templates around (you can change the child at the top to look more like your own).  If anyone would like one for a child/children they know, just leave a comment and I'll email it.