A Busy Week

It's been a really busy week.
    We took delivery of a 5 ft potted Nordman Fir - I love a real tree in the house and it must be alive, bringing the last bit of greenery into the house a very ancient Yule tradition. Ours had a little extra something, despite the cold weather

W celebrated his 7th (!!) birthday.  He had a lovely day and seeing his fabulous friends at his tea party was the icing on the cake for him. He really enjoyed himself. 

  H is just delightful at the moment, she's such a little sweetheart. Seeing her growing and learning more each day is amazing.

R's thrills this week have stemmed from her new shoes, she was SO excited waiting for them to arrive, couldn't get into the box quick enough  and she loves them so much she wears them with her pj's.

My week has been full of crochet, I have started my granny stripe blanket, following the fabby instructions on the beautiful Attic 24 blog and I can't wait to see it grow and cover my new super-king size bed which should be arriving next week.

Work Hard Play Hard

After a lovely relaxing weekend involving a log fire, mulled wine and some crochet it was a busy Monday morning.
  Advent calendars needing sorting and then everyone sat down to some work.

  R got on with some jigsaws

     

Then everyone made some snowflakes

  Another busy day planned for tomorrow preparing party food for W's birthday party on Wednesday.

Winter is here

 For the first time this year I have had to break the ice on top of the chooks water - looks like December has finally brought the cold weather to us. We've had a cosy day snuggling in front of he fire, lots of warm soup and story telling. Even the woolly sling's come out of hibernation for milky snuggles.

  It was W's turn to open the Advent string today. He got a really cute little hedgehog.

My crocheting is going well, too well really because I'm supposed to be knitting A a Weasley Sweater for Christmas and I really think there's no chance of getting it done in time, I just ordered the yarn for my granny stripe blanket and can't wait to get going on it.

Christmas Fete

  December began with great excitement, advent calendars galore. R was especially excited as she had first turn at the Advent string. She found inside a stunningly hand made star, which we have now put on the window to catch the sun.

This evening we went to the local school Christmas fete where we found a beautiful snow queen, shetland pony rides and some gorgeous hand made decorations.

Advent Excitement

 We've been looking at leaves this morning. We found this little book at the library last week and we have been reading about why leaves change colour and fall from the trees in the autumn and how they compost and feed the tree throughout the winter.

  We've also dodged the showers to get some outdoor time.

 The children are all very excited about starting their advent calendars tomorrow. They each have a calendar containing some chocolate but the real excitement is around our beautiful Steiner Advent String. Each day  on the countdown to Yule/Christmas someone will get to open a little parcel containing a handmade gift . It's been decided that R will go first and so she'll get a parcel in the morning.

Catching up....

It's been a while so I thought I really should catch up a bit.

Lots has been happening. We celebrated Samhain in style with friends, I celebrated my 40th (!) birthday and W has had a new pet hamster.

I have finally got around to learn to crochet, something I have been talking about doing forever and a day. The coveting of the granny ripple blanket has, at last, forced me into becoming a Happy Hooker.

This is the last month in pics -

The Great Outdoors

We've had a fab day, the sun was shining this morning and we went for a walk to the local shop - going in a straight line :)
We had a lovely view of our house from across the valley.
It took a few hours but was so much nicer than going in the car.
D did some baby wearing and M & R had a brilliant time marching through the fields and chasing pheasants :)