Daisy's 4th birthday

Today is Daisy's 4th birthday, and she has been a very good girl.
She had lots of presents, some were received with glee, others not such glee until we explained what they were, but all in all she loved all her presents.

Presents include :
2 x strawberry shortcake dolls (Original Strawberry Shortcake and Watermelon), 1 x Strawberry Shortcake DVD
1 x dark pink ballet tutu and 1 x light pink tights
1 x game of 'who's who' memory game, which is actually very good, lots of fun to play.
1 x buckaroo, this caused lots of enjoyment from everyone, not sure we were actually playing it correctly, but that didn't matter.
1 x sparkly bracelet
3 x pink headbands (i even got to wear one)
1 x fairy story book, which is very very popular but she complains that aren't enough pics.
4 x small playmobile sets, these are very popular from both girls, much to Daisy's annoyance.
2 x new knitted outfits for Flossie (Baby Born dolly) Nana you have outdone yourself with the cardigan, Marc says he'd wear it if it was bigger.
1 x Aqua beads set, which is popular but very fiddly.
1 x box of Marc's old lego, which still had bits of lego stuck together to form little cars that Marc must have made perhaps 26 or 27 years ago, Iris loved this by the way.

oh and a nemo jigsaw, forgot about that one.


Thank you very very much to everyone.
xx

Photos to come soon.

Baking biscuits for nursery

Here are some pics of Daisy and Iris helping to bake cup cakes and biscuits for Nursery.
The cup cakes didn't make it to nursery, we ate them when Marc and Grandma arrived, but the biscuits made it to nursery the next day.

Daddy coming home today

horay horay horay.

happy birthday vickster

A late present is just as good as a present that arrives on time

Honestly!

I'm sure some fabulous thinker like Einstein or Socrates stated that.

Happy Birthday Auntie Vicky

As you can perhaps gather your present is perhaps ever such a little bit late, in fact i'm still making it.
I just got ever such a little bit distracted with how to do a 'facial scrub' in photoshop.
And then got ever such a little bit distracted with applying it to Nana and her sister Auntie Wendy's portrait.

But i promise i will finish your present very very soon and i will then post it to you very quickly.

In the meantime, here is a pic of the girls in the wardrobe.

Day five in the 'All Girl' house

I did another shoot for Anorak today, and the models were Daisy and Cathy's son Oscar. (Cathy runs Anorak)
I thought the shoot was to co-incide with launch of an online UK H&M shop, but i might just be wrong cos i can't find anything to backup this info anywhere.

Daisy liked all the pretty dresses, but she wasn't keen on the shorts and vests, i best not put any pics up yet, until it goes live in the magazine.


The sun was out today in Hackney, after the shoot we spent the day out in the park with Gordon and Lex, we even had a picnic.
When we got home, Daisy took herself off to bed as she sometimes does, the trouble this time was it was about 5pm.
She then woke up about 7pm with a cold and cough.

Day four in the 'All Girl' house

Karen and Felix came over to visit us, and brought lots of Daffodils and Tulips
Daisy has some in her room which she is most pleased about.

Here are some pics of the girls and small boy, playing at getting into the wardrobe, even Felix wanted in on the action.

Day three in the 'All Girl' house

This post actually links in with the "stuff you find on the streets of Hackney" series which is linked below.

But this time we found nothing so crazy as a discarded chair or kitchen cupboard, this was actually a dirty old car wheel.
None of the cars around seemed to be missing one, but i guess it could have been somebody's discarded spare.

Nadia, this was actually opposite your friend Cath's house, maybe it was hers.













Other "Stuff you find on Hackney streets" photographs.

Daddy doing his "charity work"

Proof that yes he has donned some overalls and is indeed doing manual labour.

Look at that sunshine.

Day two in the 'All Girl' house

It's raining here in London.
yuk.
This is the view from the office window.

Enough of the rain, here are some pics of the girls and Marc out on our walk in a park on Sunday.

Day one in the 'All Girl' house

Girls making mud pies in the rare sunshine in our garden.
Lots of good hearty fun was had by both of them, and not a moment of CBeebies was watched.
In between dishing out strange ingredients to go into the mud pies (sand, mud, water, old dried beans, grass, weeds, stones), i also managed to wash and hang out Iris's nappies on the washing line to dry, make a big pot of Bolognese, and not shout at them at all even though it was a huge mess.
(i sprayed the decking off with the hose pipe when they'd gone to bed)

Marc has gone off to France this morning, to do his charity work for his mum and Roger. This charity work entails helping to convert the old pig-sty's into some kind of walkway / dining area between the main house and the converted barn.

He is out there for a week being a do-gooder, while we are left to fend for ourselves. More to the point, i'm left on my own to plan Daisy's 4th birthday party, lordy knows what i'll end up planning.

Last Stop : Laverton

These shots were taken at Auntie Emma and Uncle Paul's house, we arrived at Emma's in the afternoon on Tuesday 15th.
Daisy could see the little lambs in the field further back up the hill, I think she is doing some kind of strange sheep dance thing, to try to coax the little lambs down into the bottom field, they didn't come down until much later unfortunately.
If you look very closely you might just see one or two in the distance.


Iris decided to sit on their lovely old sofa, read a magazine and watch the telly, she's a lazy monkey.

The Beach

Here we are at the beach with Auntie Vicky, it was sunny-ish but bloomin cold so we kept all our coats on.






We made a picture of Daddy so that he was with us in spirit.










Iris wasn't too keen on the sand, but i do remember Daisy didn't really like the sand either at first, they have to get used to it, it is all cold and wet afterall.

Visit to Grandad Tony

We (us three girls and Nana by-the-sea) visited Grandad Tony in his shop on Tuesday 8th April in Ottery St Mary, he took us for lunch in a local cafe.
It was nice to see him, Daisy and Nana loved his shop, Nana bought a pestle and mortor from him and some nice cards. I have to say, they do have a good selection of cards.
I forgot to take a pic of Grandad Tony, which was a shame.
After lunch we had a quick look around Ottery, and we found a lovely craft shop with wool, buttons, craft paints and kits for kids and a pack of face paints.

When we got home Daisy naturally had to have her face painted straight away (she is a tiger if you can't tell)








We eventually managed to get a bit on Iris (she has whiskers), who quite enjoyed the novelty of it but didn't like the application.
We washed it off that night in the bath.





The next morning, Daisy comes bursting into my room with fresh face paint on her face that she had done all herself, it's a wonder she hadn't tried to make Iris up as well.



Ottery St Mary on Wikipedia

Brixham Bay

This is what the water looks like across Brixham Bay.
Brixham on wikipedia
Just below but out of shot is the breakwater, but it was too long to fit into my little camera so i cut it out completely.
If you click on the pics you can see bigger versions and you can just see Thatchers Rock out there on the left hand side.












For anyone with children that watch Cbeebies, doesn't this look like Balamory.

Next Stop : Devon

We arrived in Devon on the afternoon of Thursday 3rd, Vicky was there to meet us, cos Mum was out having fancy lunch with her friend Jean.

Here is Daisy sitting on Grandad-by-the-sea's ride-on-mower.












Here is Grandad & Nana by-the-sea and the girls modelling with Grandad by-the-sea's old copper diving helmet which he has just sold back to the man he bought it from for a considerable amount more.

First stop: Nadia & Aurelio in Poole

This is the first stop on our "we better disappear cos the kitchen is being ripped apart" tour.
We left London on Monday 31st March and arrived at Nadia's a few hours later.

Here are a couple of pics of Nadia and her boy Aurelio who is soon to be six years old.
We stayed with them for three nights and just hung out, it was great.
Daisy loved Aurelio and he quite liked her too, Iris loved Aurelio too but i think Aurelio thought she was a bit noisy, and he's not wrong.
Iris calls him 'Lalao' when she sees these pics of him.
Nadia who is a photographer, took some lovely pics of Daisy, which i'll dig out and post up here soon.
This is Nadia's website for anyone wanting photography in Bournemouth/Poole - http://www.nadiacalipa.net/

Photos coming soon...

Surprisingly i didn't take that many photos this Devon trip, but i took a few and i will post them up here soon.

I set up my lights and took some of my mum 'Nana' and my Auntie Wendy and my cousins Lucy and Libby and their children Poppy, Zach, Oscar & Bella which are all rather nice.

I also took some head shots of my sister 'Polly' and all of her students so that they can be used in the program for the new show being rehersed at the minute 'Aladdin'.
These students are all part of TAF 'Torbay Acting Factory'.

Back to the same-old-same-old

We arrived back yesterday at 1.30 having left Auntie Emma & Uncle Paul's at about 10.45, so not too bad really, it would have been quicker but the A10 was a pain in the arse.
Both girls were little angels in the car, both slept for a while and then when they awoke they both amused themselves with laughing at each other or looking for things that i pointed out on the road.

I had a bit of a 'you know your in London when...' reality check as soon as i parked, both girls were still in their seats and i was just dragging suitcases out of the boot.
A rude man driving a scaffolding lorry and a little woman driving a small blue car came head to head almost right outside our house.
The lorry driver had just passed a road where he could have reversed a bit to let her through but he had no intention of reversing and instead edged forwards towards the car in jerky installments, which was a bit scary.
I've never unbuckled those girls and got them out of the car so quickly.
i think the woman was a bit freaked out by him and did a rubbish manoeuvre into the space in front of our car, then when she tried to tell him he was a very agressive driver, he just shouted at her that she as a C*** very loudly.

Charming.