A whole family update...

I have so many little things that I need to blog about, and so little time to blog these days. It's been 8 weeks since Grace was born, and it's been 8 very busy, hectic weeks. I'm posting a lot of photos with this blog, at least one of each of us. You can see the larger photos by clicking on them.

We are very proud of Annabelle who came 2nd for her age group in the UK National Archery Championships! Way to go girl! There is a photo below of her with her new silver medal. She has been progressing at Archery for a few years now, and recently won a bronze medal for overall achievement in her class. It's great that she has her own interest and something that is just for her. Jimmie did Archery for a term, a few years back, but soon lost interest.

Sunday was Dan's 37th birthday. We had a pretty quiet day until my sis H and her hubbie D came round. Daddy was spoilt with lots of lovely presents including DVD's, books, new clothes etc. I think he had a nice enough day, all in all. He was touched that Annabelle spent all her pocket money on his birthday present. How sweet of her. Next week it will be our 15th wedding anniversary. How time flies! There is a photo below of Dan on his birthday, and one of my sister H cuddling Grace and Barney.

Yesterday Daddy and the kids made some home made ice cream cubes, filled with raspberries, marsh mellows, chocolate and nuts. They are going to eat them tonight after dinner. Barney loves to create with food in the kitchen, and luckily for him his Dad is only too happy to help. Threre's a photo below of Barney making his ice cream cubes.

Grace is growing up so fast. She is getting into a good routine now. She's pretty good at night time, waking up for feeds at about 1am, 5am and 8am. In general she drinks her bottle, then I change her nappy, then we cuddle for a few minutes while I enjoy her almost constant smiles, then I pop her back into her moses basket and she generally just goes back to sleep. I couldn't ask for a better behaved baby, and for that I am very grateful! In the mornings Dan takes her for an hour or so while I catch up on sleep.

I need to concentrate on her daytime routine a bit now. I've noticed that she tends to have a good long sleep in the afternoons and I want to get her used to sleeping in her cot for that, so that the eventual transition at night time from moses basket to cot goes easier. I am so relieved that she doesn't suffer from constant colic like her eldest brother did. I had a nightmare time coping with him for the first few months as he never stopped crying at night. It's been a very stressing couple of weeks due to a certain attention seeking individual who has seemed incapable of leaving me alone. I'm sure I wouldn't have coped with all that if Grace had been a more difficult baby. Hopefully this poisonous person who insists of twisting the truth, back stabbing, and creating drama has finally decided to leave me alone. I have blocked her from contacting me in every way that I know how, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe from any more stress.

It does seem very strange having children at such different stages in life. Jimmie is a full on teenager, Barney is just starting primary school and learning to read etc, whilst Grace is still at that stage where she needs feeding every three hours. Let me not kid, it is very hard work! But also very rewarding. I do sometimes feel that I am stretched too thinly between them all, and I'm sure the older two get a lot less attention from me than they would like.

I am thinking of having a civil naming ceremony for Grace in the summer. Our other three children all had dedications in the church that we were in, but that isn't going to be happening for Emily. I was looking at the civil ceremony website and have some ideas now for a celebration of her birth. It's much like a christening, without the religious aspect. It would be a great day for our family to all enjoy some special time together. Instead of God Parents, some people are chosen to take a special interest in the child's life. They chose different aspects of the child's life that they wish to contribute to. People can say prayers, or read poems or basically whatever they like. I am looking forward to doing something like this without the interference of the fellowship using it as an outreaching activity. The only thing that's dampening my enthusiasm to organise it is that I was going to ask one friend to be one of her 'godparents' (for want of a better name) but that person is now not a part of my life any more. Anyway, I really must start to think about it a bit more.

More photos for the family to see

The top photo is Annabelle showing off all the badges that she collected and earned on our trip across America. The three big kids all have a flag each on their bedroom walls now.

Happy Birthday Annabelle!

Yay! Annabelle is 12 years old! And to top it off she had the best birthday ever. This year she received only surprises for her birthday as she didn't have anything specific that she wanted. And as I knew baby number 4 would be well on its way by now, I did all my shopping in advance. Dan wrapped Annabelle's presents up weeks ago and we had all totally forgotten what we had bought her! Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the big hairy spider that crawled out of her present pile and frightened the living daylights out of us all. I think that was due to the prezzies being stashed in the garage for weeks. Poor little fella.

Being a bit of a Nightwish fanatic, I made the extra effort to get Annabelle a few Nightwish prezzies - including a door sized poster, a hat, a nightwish necklace, and a calendar. She was so pleased with them, but to top it all off her best friend bought her a Nightwish T-shirt. I think she's now officially the coolest 12 year old in her class. Ah when I think back about how uncool I was at that age! I also bought her some new clothes, which she desperately needed, including some skinny fit jeans, and a pair of black patent boots which she totally loves. All in all she was totally spoilt.

The morning was made extra special by a surprise organised by her best friend. She told us to make sure we were watching the kids saturday morning show TMI on BBC2. Well what a shock it was when an email from 'Annabelle and K from Banbridge' was read out, and a photo shown of them both covered in chocolate cake mixture (see below fora screen shot of the program). They then announced that it was Annabelle's 12th birthday and the presenters sang happy birthday to her! I can't tell you how shocked she looked! If you want to see it you can watch it on the BBC website by clicking here and going forward to 1 hr 14 mins in the program. (Don't watch the full 1.5 hours!)


In the evening she had four school friends over for a sleepover. We converted the living room into a sleepover room and I have to say it looked rather lovely before they all turned up. We had balloons up, a table full of food and drinks, and two mattresses on the floor with the two sofas converted to beds. I covered the sofas with bright coloured sheets and made the place look very funky (see photo below). But by this morning the room looked like a warzone! Who knew girls could make even more mess than boys! The room was literally swimming in popcorn and chili doritos, and had a nasty smell to match. So Dan and I spent a good hour cleaning, vacuuming, washing and taking things out. Not much sleep was had before the hours of 4am, and Dan caught the girls practicing somersaults on the sofas at 3am! I'm sure there will be some moods to cope with tonight!
We joked that Annabelle looked like Ville Valo in her new clothes, which she didn't like, until I said that many people think Ville looks like a girl, and she piped up with "and he's supposed to be gorgeous too!"

Now her birthday is over and done, we have the big event of baby's birth to look forward to in just 27 days time. It will be so strange to have two daughters, instead of having boys ruling the roost. It's scary to think that when baby is celebrating her 12th birthday, Annabelle will be 24 already!

Happy birthday Annabelle, my beautiful little girl. xx

Annabelle raises money for Children In Need

Annabelle and her best friend meet Gerry Andersen and Pudsey the bear at the Outlet in Banbridge where they were raising money for children in need. This is their photo that appeared in the local paper this week. (Annabelle on the left).

First day at school!

Yesterday was the big day for our little Barney who had his first ever day at school. It was also a big day for Annabelle who started High School. Lucky old Jimmie didn't have to go back until today, hence him not being in the photograph. But here is a lovely picture of wee Barney and Annabelle in their school uniforms, all ready for their first days at school.

Barney had been nervous all night and hadn't slept well. He was excited, but also scared, and had a lot of questions to ask - such as "will the teachers know I'm coming?" Annabelle on the other hand wasn't nervous for a single second, right up until we arrived in the car at the school and she saw everyone going inside. Then she said "oh, now I feel nervous".

At the school Barney was a brave little trouper. I took him into the cloak room to hang up his bag, where a teacher met him and ushered him into the classroom. I gave him a hug and said goodbye and the poor little mite looked so scared that his bottom lip was quivering. He never said a word as he walked into the classroom. I got back to the car and nearly burst into tears for him.

Three long hours past before I could collect him from school. The children all came out in a line and Barney was there waving to me with a huge grin on his face. He had really enjoyed the day and couldn't wait to go back again! I was so relieved! When he got home he went looking for his Dad to tell him all about it. But Daddy and Jimmie were hiding in the kitchen with streamers and party food. When he walked in they threw the streamers over him, shouted 'surprise' and congratulated him for being such a big brave boy. When Annabelle got home from school we all eat the party food and played a few games. Dan is so good at entertaining children! He made a pass the parcel, and got together a box full of objects for us to feel and identify blind folded.

Annabelle got the bus home in the afternoon and said she'd had a good day. She was pleased that two of her school friends from primary school are in her new class, and that she has a really cool teacher for the next 5 years (according to her big brother who has analysed them all over the past 2 years!) Today Jimmie started back at school and I dropped them both off together. I feel so old having two kids in high school already!

The rest of the 'first day at school' photos can be seen by clicking here.

Annabelles 11th Birthday

Poor Annabelle has had two bouts of sickness lately, but at least she had a happy birthday in between. She got a temperature and is being sick rather a lot. This happened two weeks ago, and now its back again, although no one else caught it.

Anyway, last week she celebrated her 11th birthday and had a lovely time. Daddy took her out for pizza and cinema. She had lots of presents which she had to open in Victorian costume as she was going on a school trip to The Argory that day. I think all in all she had a lovely day. Here are a few pics....

Recent events

Well, to start my post here is a photo of my darling daughter Annabelle, who has now taken after her mother and gone goth! Ha ha. No, this was her last night on her way to the brownies Halloween party, with my wig, makeup, nail varnish and clothes on. Doesn't she look gorgeous? Or scary, at least.


And here is a ridiculous photo of me and Dan! Taken using some silly camera effects. I think its interesting to see just how we will both look aged 110.

Hehe, but onto other things... today was Barneys 'preschool assessment' with the health visitor - or more importantly, his injections. I didn't tell him we were going until the last moment as he is such a little worrier. When I did tell him that he would be getting two injections he didn't seem at all worried (the fact that he didn't ask me what an injection is or how the medicine gets through his skin might have helped). He was weighed and measured, and (as expected) was at the top of the centile chart on both accounts. He was a proper little star! When the health visitor asked him what foods he likes he replied "I like broccoli, carrots, courgettes, peas and cauliflower"! What a champion! With absolutely no prompting from me. This is the child you spends 99.9% of his waking time thinking about sweets.

When it came time for the injections (1 in each arm - done at the same time by two nurses) they asked him to look out the window and see if he could spot a big crow. He didn't even wince at the pain. I saw a little look of shock on his face as I held him, and he thought about crying, but he held it together like a real little super hero. After we left he told me "Mummy I think the lady might have pulled a little hair on my arm when she gave me that medicine because it hurt a little bit". Oh bless. His Daddy took him to the sweety shop for some treats for being so brave, and tonight he will get the red plate for his dinner.

Now I am off to a belly dancing evening. On the 30th November I am dancing my first solo belly dance at the gothic belly dance extravaganza at Lavery's in Belfast. I'm absolutely terrified. Not only do I have to come up with a new gothic dancing costume, but I have to choreograph and learn my own dance, and not look like a total twit. It's almost impossible. Gahhhh - why did I agree to this??? Am I totally insane?

We're so proud of Annabelle!

Annabelle is about to finish her first term back at school. I wasn't sure how she would settle in. She tells me that she enjoys the company of her friends but preferred home education for the work. This week she brought home her first school report. Well, I was blown away by it. Not only did she get a fantastic report, but she also received her first gold credit card. They run a scheme i the school where you receive a gold card for every 10 good points that you earn. Your gold card is presented to you in assembly. Most of the children in Annabelle's class are receiving their 3rd gold card, after 6 years of schooling. Annabelle has won her first card after just 1 term. The Principal had her up in assembly an announced that they had never had anyone get a gold card so quickly and they all made a huge fuss of her. I think it did her self confidence the world of good and I felt very proud of her!

Annie's first day of school

Annabelle's first day of school was a huge success. She wasn't even nervous going in this morning. She just loved it. Still, it's early days and everything can seem exciting when it's new. She came home with all sorts of stories. She made friends with the naughtiest girl in the school (heck!) and did PE, and had a tour of the school with three girls, and played in the playground. Last night I had to type up a letter about all the books she's read and subjects she has covered this year. I gathered up her most important books and sent them in with her this morning. The teacher put her into the lowest reading group, just as she wasn't sure where to put her, LOL. So I sent in her literature books with a note saying I was pretty sure it was way ahead of her age group. The book she's been sent home with it very basic. I thought it was funny that they'd put the home schooled child into the lowest groups, thinking that she's probably missed out on a lot. Hopefully they will re-evaluate the situation today when they see her work.

Last night we went to the local Italian restaurant as a family (plus my Mum) as a kind of little celebration for Jude. That was nice, the kids love getting out.

A new day

Today was Annabelle's first day at school. She was a bundle of nerves this morning when she got up and put her new school uniform on. The whole morning rush is something I haven't missed at all whilst home educating. "Have you done this? Have you got that? Have you brushed your teeth? Washed your face? Come on you're going to be late." Ergh, hate all that.

Anyway, here's a pic of my darling girl in her uniform...

We took Jimmie to school first and then Annabelle. Annabelle's school have a kind of 'turn up when you feel like it' policy. Children can arrive any time between 8.45 and 9.10am . Needless to say we'll be as late as possible most mornings. I took her into the school, we met with the principle, and she and I (and little Barney) took Annie to her classroom. The Principle had picked out a buddy for her. She was all clued up and prepared for Annabelle's arrival, bless her. This little girl was chosen to help Annabelle settle in, because she loves reading and is reading at a very high level, like Annie, and also because her Dad died unexpectedly last year, and she has had a difficult time. They must have felt that paring her with Annie would give her something new to focus on at school. The poor girl, how sad.

I felt quite sad walking away from the classroom. I have so enjoyed home educating the children. I don't know if this is the right thing for us, and for Annabelle, or not. I do hope she is happy there, and that she enjoys herself and makes lots of friends. I hope so much that I'm not letting her down, making a bad decision for her. I have told her, a million times, that she can change her mind and come back home at any time. She has a month to try the place out and think about it. After that we will review the situation and make a firm choice one way or the other.

Today I have to sift through all Annie's home school work. The new school wish to see it to assess what level she is at. They are going to keep her reading the same literature that she is reading at home, because she is so much further on with that. I feel a bit nervous about taking in her maths work, science books etc in case they don't think much of it. I'd hate to home education a bad reputation!

I'll post again when I find out how her first day went. Now onto other things. It's been a busy week, a fun week, and a sad week. This weekend we had J's kids sleeping over for 2 nights (you remember she had my kids the weekend that Dan gave me the ring? - well this was payback). It wasn't too bad actually. All the kids were very well behaved and the weather was beautiful so they were out in the garden a lot. We spent all day Saturday in the garden... Dan mowing the lawn, Barney and I planting seeds, and all the kids playing on the trampoline. Here are some photos...

Here's Annabelle and her cousin B, wearing matching t-shirts. They spent the entire weekend joined at the hip (not literally!) Whilst the others were out in the garden, screaming and shouting, these two were always quietly hidden away in a room somewhere, playing together.

The other 4 kids spent a lot of time on the hammock or in the trampoline.

Barney spent Saturday morning helping his Dad tidy the garden, and Saturday afternoon helping me plant seeds. Here he is having a lift across the patio!

Barney has always been a great help in the vegetable garden. Here he is helping me to plant garlic. We managed to plant garlic bulbs, as well as calendula, spinach, 3 types of lettuce and radishes. There is still a lot more work to be done in the garden.

This is what our neglected veg patch looks like at the moment. It's basically been left all winter. We found a pile of carrots still growing, which Barney dug up for me. The herb garden is still there, but all the other beds need a little weeding and then some more planting. I quite enjoyed getting back into it again.

A change of pace

Well, well, how life can suddenly change so unexpectedly.

During the week Jimmie was involved in a school production, celebrating 25 years of integrated education in Northern Ireland. The 40 minute performance was very good (even though Barney insisted on yawning very loudly at every opportunity, causing ripples of laughter across the assembly hall, from Jimmies amused school mates!) They put on a very educational and enlightening slide show, with photos and captions from the last 25 years. Photos of all the bombs that had gone off in Northern Ireland, photos of protestant wall murals from Belfast, and newspaper articles from various conflicts from across Ulster over the last 25 years. It celebrated the integration of children from all communities in its school. To do this they presented another slide show, tracing the personal family lines, journeys and ancestry of some of the pupils. The whole presentation was quite moving, and I felt sure that Jimmie is in a great school, compared to the place that he went to before. It was wonderful to see diversity being celebrated, rather than shunned and hidden.

Anyway, Annabelle quite enjoyed her 40 minutes in Jimmies school. I could see her eyes lighting up. Any time I have mentioned the possibility of her going back to school she has burst into tears. This time I asked her, that if she could find a school like Jimmies, would she be interested in having a look around it, with no pressure to join it. She said yes, and got excited about it. I looked into some of the local schools. I was obviously determined not to send her back to her old school, and she was also adamant that she would never go back there.

I phoned the local Integrated primary school and spoke to the secretary. Places at this school are like gold dust, just as they are in Jimmies school. We were unable to get a primary place for them there when they were starting school age. The secretary told me that it was very unlikely that I would get a space in P6 for Annabelle, but that she would check with the principal for me. The next day the principal phoned me. She said that they had triplets leave P6 this week, to move to Spain. There were 2 children on the waiting list for P6 who had been offered places, and had just started at the school, but they still had one place left which they offered to Annabelle. To top it off, that evening was the school open night, for parents to come and visit, and wander around. So she invited us to pop in for a nosey, which we did. This morning we went back for a meeting with the principal. It turns out that her daughter is in Jimmie's class at the college, and she has heard all about him! She even told us about his Mika video on the blog !!!!!

The principal was lovely. I talked to her about how terrible life was in P6 for Jimmie at the old school. I explained how he often had up to 3 hours of homework, studying for the 11 plus. She relayed my fears and stated that P6 had not even begun their 11plus work yet. (I'm pretty sure that the 11plus horror started the first day of school in September at Jimmies old school.) She was very accommodating of Annabelle's home education. She asked that we bring her books in for the teacher to see, so that they would know what level she is at. When I explained what she was currently reading the principal said that it sounded as if she was way ahead of the average P6. She also offered that Annabelle could break into school slowly if she wished to, staying for a few hours a day at the start until she felt comfortable. I don't think that will be necessary, but was impressed that she offered.

When we came out from the meeting Annabelle said "I really want to go there!" I felt a bit sad about it, but also pleased for her. If she is as happy there as Jimmie is at his school, then it will be a good thing. I have told her to give it a 1 month trial, which is what we did for Jimmie. At the end of a month she can come back home if she wants to. We will see how it goes. So, from Monday 26th March I won't know what to do with myself. It will be just myself and Barney in the house. I hope to spend a lot more time doing things with him, instead of concentrating on Annabelle. A change of pace is certainly on its way for myself, Annabelle, and Barney.

Emmeline Pankhurst and the Suffragettes

Written by Annabelle, age 10

At homeschool today I learnt about Emmeline Pankhurst She is the lady who got the right for women to vote. In 1912 some women where called suffragettes they are lady's who want the right to vote. There leader was called Emmelinne Pankhurst she said that suffragettes have to act violently to make people listen to them. Emmeline Pankhurst became the most famous suffragette of all. She married a man called Richard she had tree girls Christabal, Sylvia and Adela. she also had I son (I don't know his name). When emmeline was thirty she went to see some people who worked in an unhealthy place they where match makers. They didn't get paid enough so Emmeline helped them to get more. Emmelines husband richerd died. Emmeline and her oldest girl Christabel wanted to fight for votes and they did. Emmeline and Christabel got arrested and they would not eat. They got weak. So the goverment made a new law called The cat and mouse act where they let them out until they where better. so then they got freed. But then eight months later she came back! world war two came along and the women stayed at home and did the mens jobs until they came back from the war. They did such a good job that they got the right to vote.

The Secret Garden

This term Annabelle has been reading The Secret Garden. I remember that my Grandma bought me this book as a child, and it captivated me. So Annabelle was keen to read it too. Today she finished it. I thought I'd put this piece of work about the characters onto the blog, as I haven't posted much about home school work lately.

We also started a study today about Emmeline Pankhurst and the Suffragettes. I remember learning about that at school, when I was a child. With it being voting week this week, it seemed quite in keeping. We plan to develop this into a study about women's rights, across the globe. Annabelle is currently preparing a blog post about Emmeline Pankhurst which will be on here later.

Here is today's little bit of character study from the Secret Garden.

Click on the image for a larger version if you wish to read it.

Oil Painting - Evacuation Train - By Annabelle

Annabelle painting this oil on canvas painting last year for the local library World War II art competition. She didn't win but we recently entered it on a site for kids and she has received two comments from real artists. The site is to promote creativity in children through artwork of writing. They have authors and artists who comment on the childrens work. You can read her comments by clicking here. Annabelle says "The Evacuation Train during World War II which took the children out of London to the safety of the countryside. The children are saying goodbye to their parents on the platform. I painted this for a competition but I didn’t win."

Annabelle and Uncle D

A silhouette photo of Annabelle and her Uncle D at the lakeside of Castlewellan Lake. I just found this on the pc and had forgotten to post it a few weeks back. I thought they looked to cute together.

Our latest pics from Jan 07

I had a lot of photos to upload today and there were so many that I could put on the blog! Here are the best of the bunch...

Firstly, here is the photos of the fig and almond raw vegan tolls which I made. They were so simple. Basically whizz up a bunch of almonds and dried figs, add a tiny bit of water if needed and then roll them into some dessicated co-conut and chill in the fridge. They took seconds to make, the kids loved them, and they were so healthy I could let them eat as many as they wanted. Voila!

Last week I finally finished sorting through all the letters I have received from E in the last 2 years. They were kept in a paper bag, but it got ripped, and then Barney kindly opened every letter and separated them from their envelopes. There were 78 letters in total, 4 polaroid photos, loads of gift cards, a little angel and E's gold cross pendant which he gave me. He has had it since he was a child. Dan bought me a nice box to keep them all organised in, and I've numbered the back of them in case Barney ever gets hold of them again. So now they are in date order. It was amazing looking through them to see how much I had read and completely forgotten about. I received another letter from E this morning saying "there were only 78 letters? I thought I'd written nearer 2000!" He he.

Here is a photo of Annabelle making another one of her papier mache cats. This was taken yesterday.

As well as this one of Barney who was so proud of his playdoh tractor creation that he asked me to take a photo. This was simple to create as well. Take one 3 year old, 6 tubs of play-dough, one tractor trailer and a thomas the tank engine carriage. Bind all the ingredients together (not the 3 year old - he does the binding) and then you have a simple but effective master piece, worthy of a photo.

Before the Christmas holidays Annabelle did this little project as part of her home education. She has been reading a lot of history books lately so she decided to create this fold open history project. She basically created fold open flaps containing information about her favourite stories from history. The one in the photo is about The Battle of Hastings, and you can see king Harold made from pipe cleaners, tissue paper and a fluffy pink pom pom, at the side of the story. The other pages are about Hieroglyphics, The Two Margaret's, Anansi the Spider, and Leizu & the silkworm.

This afternoon Barney played with Jimmy's old collection of animals and dinosaurs, which he loves. I had wanted to sit and do something crafty with him, possibly a bit of painting or something. So we decided to make a little jungle scene for his animals to play in. I cut out a big box and stuck tissue paper for sky and grass onto it. Then Annabelle, Barney and myself set about turning it into a jungle. Barney stuck a few flowers on, a few fish in the pond, and made his own huge fluffy cloud before losing interest and asking us "is it ready yet? is it ready yet?" every 30 seconds. We may add bits and pieces to the finished scene at times. But it looks pretty good, dont you think?