We are off to the seaside

Tomorrow we leave for the seaside, firstly to visit Bournemouth to see Nadia and Aurelio, then we travel onwards to Devon to visit Nana & Grandad by-the-sea and my sisters Auntie Vicky and Auntie Polly, and all the rest of the aunties and cousins and second cousins and other people who are surrogate Aunties etc....
i think we will be busy.

And on the way back, we will be stopping off to see other Auntie Emma and Uncle Paul.

I have discovered it is very nice to break the journey to Devon.

Here are a few recent photographs of the girls

Firstly, Daisy being a crow for some strange reason

Iris examining Lex's hat that i had just finished knitting.

Iris the chatterbox

Thought i'd mention what Iris says at the moment for my own records really, cos i'll have forgotten this phase in a couple of months.

Most of these things are possibly only understood by us, but some things are pronounced as clear as a bell.

git down,
our gown (all gone when drinking milk),
bashed me (whenever she falls over or gets bashed by another child, or even me on occasion by accident)
shoes
butter
choc choc
choc choc wabbit
wabbit
shishin (chicken)
oooo face (no face, her favourite snuggly)
ooooff ooooff (dog)
wow (cat)
eeeeeeee (mouse)
something which sounds like a pig snorting (pig)
uddle (cuddle)
tankoooooo (thank you)
Daisy
Daddy
Mummy
Iri (Iris)
Nana (Banana)
Lex
Laalou (Leo)

and a whole heap more that i won't bore you with anymore

I will however try to record her saying some things and perhaps edit them together into an Iris megamix.
Perhaps, or maybe i won't find the time.

Stuff you find on Hackney streets - Armchair

The Discarded Armchair
The things you find on Hackney Streets are amazing...
i've said that before here, and perhaps elsewhere on this blog that i can't find at the minute, but anyway here is Daisy (and Iris) relaxing on an old thrown out arm chair on the streets of Hackney.












Other "Stuff you find on Hackney streets" photographs.

Chocolate eggs

Oh what terrible parents we are, Daisy and Iris remained in their pj's for far too long today, they ate far too much chocolate and they watched far too much TV.

Oh well.

Dancing and prancing

I took Daisy to ballet today, and i can confirm that she absolutely loved it, i had made her a floaty seethrough ballet skirt thingy (you can see the one i made for Lex) but Daisy decided instead she wanted to wear her new skirt that Grandma sent over from France for Easter.

Here are some photographs of the class.

Daisy doing the splits for some reason

Daisy galloping

Iris is now interested in walking

Yes as from Saturday, Iris is officially interested in walking.
She trips over everything, lands on her heavily padded bottom and has no idea about maneuvering around objects, but she is now walking.
horay

it must have been the excess of chocolate she's eaten this weekend.

We have giants for children.

Took Daisy and Lex to Pirates Playhouse which was really good, they loved it.
It was reasonably quiet so the small group of children who were there (20) seemed to form some kind of a group/gang and they ran around chasing each other, throwing balls, sliding down huge slides etc... for over two hours. (actually Daisy slid down the huge slide once and didn't' bother again, too scary!)

Anyway though, there was a height chart thingy there and we (Lucy and me) got the girls to stand up and be measured.

As you can see they are clearly nearly 5 years old, and not as we thought very nearly 4.

So mum, in answer to your question Daisy is almost 110cm.

Easter chicks

Here are some mother hens and baby chicks that i made in a crazy fit of craftivity.

This is Daisy's mummy hen and chicks.

This is the one i sent to sister Vicky cos she is diligently keeping me up to date with 'Lost'.

Iris' is the one on the right, her missing chick is probably clutched in her sticky hand.

New issue of Anorak out now with my pics in it

My second shoot for Anorak is now in the magazine which is now in the shops as we speak.

It was also featured in Time Out last week i believe although i didn't' see it.

You cannot see the spread in the magazine (you need to buy it for that) but you can see small versions of the three pages of the spread and a few of the originals here within my new published section.




oh and i've a third spread coming out in the next Anorak too.
Aren't i fancy?

Daisy smiling

Just a little pic of Daisy giving you her nicest smile.

Girls go swimming

Here are the girls in the changing rooms waiting for me to put my costume on.

That's not Daisy's tummy by the way, she has a swimming costume on that has floats inside it, the idea is that when the child starts to get more confidence in the water you take out some of the floats.

This was in fact Iris' second time at the swimming pool (not including being born into water) last week she howled for a while but gradually got used to it.
This week she enjoyed it much more, she didn't cling to us like a koala.

Have to try to go more often.

Iris doing a bit of walking

Although Iris is reluctant to walk (preferring to shuffle everywhere on her bottom, snagging her tights on our wooden floor and giving me more sewing to do) ... here is proof that she actually can walk when she puts her mind to it.

This video and the pics below, were actually taken on the 7th March whilst we visited the Museum of Childhood, i just forgot to download them from my camera. In the background you can see Daisy playing at the cooker, Rita and Leo are around too.



Lots more pics from our day at the Museum of Childhood

Daisy Potter (Harry's secret sister)

Daisy cooking

Iris and Leo (in fancy dress) have a 'to-do' about the one solitary child sized wooden chair, which all children seem to love.

Daisy and Leo dressed up as strange space invaders because there is a space exhibit on at the moment.

Daisy actually reminds me of an early Elton John in this one, sitting at her silver piano about to play 'Goodbye Norma Jean'

Iris helping herself to Chamamilla from the pot.

Leyton City Farm

That is where we went today with Rita and Leo.
It was good, both girls enjoyed it even though it started raining not long after we got there.

Yes that is Daisy milking a big plastic cow, but water was coming out of it's udders.
Yes that is Daisy feeding grass to a shetland pony.
Yes that is Iris quite ecstatic looking at the little shetland pony.

Harry Potter and the dufus

The dufus is me.
I was about three quarters of the way through reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince that Vicky (sister) gave me for Christmas, cos i asked for her second hand copies of no 5 and no 6 (she did buy me new presents too, it's not that she's a skin flint or nothing, in fact i guess it's me that is the skin flint for not buying them in the first place) ... when anyway i suddenly realised that i wasn't on the last one. I had seriously thought i was reading the last one, even though i knew the last one was called 'and the Deathly Hallows' i simply hadn't put two and two together and i was wondering where this huge ending was?

Anyway though Lisa P came to the rescue and lent me her copy... so i will soon be put out of misery and i have still retained my skin flint crown by not buying any of them, in fact i now own six HP books and i don't think i've bought one, my friend Jo who is in Sevenoaks now, so i don't see her too often, bought me the first couple and somehow i acquired the others ones along the way too.

Don't worry Lisa i will give you your copy back, i promise.

The girls sitting on our sofa

It's strange, but sometimes it's only when i look at the girls in photographs that i notice things, like isn't Daisy's hair long now and doesn't Iris look grown up now?

Lisa, Ben & Daniel came to visit us

And here is the proof.

Here are some photos of Ben sitting on strange wooden toy sit on things out in the park, (Swan with head missing and Whale)



and here are some photos of Daniel sitting on my sofa.

Happy Mothers Day 'Nana'

I made my mum a shopping bag for mothers day, and she likes it, horay.
Here are a couple of pics of the said shopping bag, it is made up of two threads of different pink wool.
I found the pattern on this site if anyone is interested in making one, but i warn you, it took me quite a few nights to finish it and i went wrong many a time.
However now i am practically an expert and i'm making another one in black and white.


Oh and here are a few pics from our mothers day at home today.
Firstly here is Daisy dressed up as the little fairy Tinkerbell for some reason only known to herself she is sweeping up the decking.


And secondly here are two pics of me and Iris playing a 'Lego Star Wars' video game, i am not very good with video games, hence my concentration in the first pic.
This one is quite sweet though cos it's lego and you get to build bridges and boxes to help you onto the next level.
Shooting the other little lego people doesn't really count, there's no blood or anything although if you play as Chewbacca he bites other peoples heads off which is a bit odd.
Also two, three or four people can play at once which makes it more entertaining cos i think gaming can be quite anti-social for the others sitting around... watching.
Iris liked pushing the buttons on the controller and it was all going ok until she turned the whole console off and then there was no more Lego Star Wars.