a day off sick

Over Evies birthday weekend she had a horrible croup sounding cough...

...it didnt stop us doing birthday stuff on the Saturday though :)

As Evies cough still sounded horrible yesterday morning I kept her off school (after asking in the school facebook group if the school would be ok for her to go in with the cough).

I booked her an appointment at the doctors (just to rule out her being contagious) and it wasnt until yesterday afternoon (by then her cough was sounding chesty) her chest is clear and she is ok to go to school :).

We dont have Gym trail today either (as her last session before the holidays was on Friday) and I am going to pop into Aldi this morning to get our Christmas Dinner (main thing) :)

last session before Christmas

Yesterday was my last helping out session before Christmas (next Wednesday is the last day of term).

I did more gluing into books and stuck the class awards up on the wall of fame :) best table, star of the week and mind growthset :)

I was also asked to come in on the first Monday that they are back at school to help in their history off the page day they are doing the great fire of London.

I have already bought a black dress that I can wear :)

nada nada

Yesterday I finally got around to placing an order with Sainsburys for some Christmassy food :)

I wanted 3 things...

a reindeer cake

stuffing parcels

and a chocolate caramel star

the only thing left in stock was the chocolate caramel star

I saw in the Aldi that they do a Robin cake so I will try and get one next weekend (as that was what Evie wanted) :)

helping me

Evie has decided that I need help with my chocolate advent calendars...

...she helps me by finding the right doors, then opening the doors and then she helps me eat the chocolates! :)

I may have to buy a secret advent calendar that Evie doesnt know about :)

Monday afternoon instead

Yesterday helping in class was more gluing and sticking :)

Then at breaktime Mr J came in and said that next week he would like me to come in on Monday afternoon instead...

...the kids will be sewing Christmas stockings and they want an adult in to help with every table, with things like threading the needles.

Im useless at sewing so I just hope that the needles have huge holes :)

I was talking with the teaching assistant and said that Monday afternoon sounded fun and she said that you need a lot of patience that afternoon :)

narrator #22

The other day when I picked Evie up from school she told me that they were practicing songs for the Christmas play :)

So I excitedly asked her what part she had and she said that she is narrator #22, so I asked her how many narrators there are and there are 22!

So I asked her what her lines are and she said "celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ"

We have since had the song sheet and the script and they are doing Christmas around the world (our version is slightly different)

therapy assessment appointment

Yesterday I got a letter giving us an appointment for Evies therapy assessment, the pediatrician thought that a referral to an occupational therapist would determine if there was anything she was having trouble with.

The appointment is for 19th December (Evies last day at school before the Christmas holidays and the day of her Christmas lunch).

So I cancelled it...

They only hold a clinic one day a month and the next clinic that isnt in term time is in August!  So we have an appointment then.

The lady I spoke to on the phone said that she had never booked an appointment that far in advance before! :)

how many is too many

I was looking in Tesco on my way home from work and saw that they have some cheap advent calendars :)

I saw one that we could get for James (although Evie will eat it for him) an LOL surprise one and a pokemon one for me :)

they are only 1 pound each, so I am going to buy them tomorrow :) if the pokemon one sells out I wont mind too much!

santa knows...

Yesterday James sneezed and Evie got up and got him a tissue :)

I said to Evie after that it was lovely and kind of her to do that and then she said that she had done it so that she gets lots of presents from Santa! :)

I told her that Santa knows all year round if she has been good or not :)

I think that she must have been talking to her friends about Santa :)

Christmas is well and truly over

Christmas is now well and truly over...

..the christmas tree has been taken down

Evie is back to school (albeit a nice short first week back to ease them back in) :)

Tap dancing started again today

and James goes back to work tomorrow

birthday christmas and new year

First we had breakfast with Santa

Evies breakfast with mine and James tea and coffee

high 5 santa

she decorated a gingerbread man

Evies 6th birthday, and birthday party

Evie had her face painted like a unicorn

her birthday cake

Chistmas was good, Evie had loads of presents :)

and New Year was ok too.

Evie goes back to school on Thursday and James goes back to work next week.

Happy New Year! :)

today today today tomorrow and Thursday

today we woke up to it snowing

today was supposed to be Evies last tap dancing class before the Christmas holiday and James was going to video it for me, but because of the weather classes were cancelled and they will be held next week instead, but we cant go because Evie has M's birthday party to go to.

today I slipped over (on an icy foot bridge) and because I am now middle aged (working on the assumption that I reach 90 odd) I am wondering what damage I may have done to myself :)

tomorrow I will take Evie to school in her wellies and will take her shoes with us and she can change them when she gets into class.

Thursday was really good...

First we had to break down boxes and re-glue them inside out (and hot glue really does get hot!).

We then had to help the kids make their boxes into fairy tale houses, I helped A, S, J & E.  Evie was helped by a Daddy :) but we cant remember whose Daddy :)

After morning play time it was then time to paint the houses.

And after lunch they then had to put on the finishing touches (making sure they stuck to the plans that they had already done, although I am sure that there was some artistic licence going on :)

I had so much fun that I have agreed to go in on Wednesday mornings starting after Christmas :)

three things

Some days I have nothing and today I have 3 things :)

Yesterday was Evies Christmas play it went well and was based around strictly come dancing with one of the judges Ceasar being based on Craig :)

Evie said she enjoyed it and she did all of the singing and dancing so that was good :)

I am going in to school today and because I ticked the all day box I have to go in all day (her teacher even told me to bring in my lunch).

I dont think I mentioned but a couple of Evies birthday party invites went to the wrong children, one of them got passed on to the right child and one didnt...

Luckily after I found out I texted all of the Mums to find out that they got the invite and only one other didnt.

I then get a text this morning from a Mum that I invited last year (but didnt get a reply from) the child does have the same name but a different spelling, perhaps she didnt realise that there were two girls with that name, saying that her daughter can come :) I replied back and saud that Evie will be pleased :)

our turn today

Evies first show was yesterday...

...me and James will be able to see it today, we have already told her that she might not be able to see us but we will be there watching :)

She is no longer a sheep but is now an ox! :)

Also yesterday some of the Mums were talking about the fairytale house making that is going on tomorrow, sone of the Mums said they asked the teacher, whilst others said that their kids told them they were helping.

I asked Evie if I was going to be helping and she doesnt seem to know so I will try and remember to ask her teacher when I pick her up after school this afternoon :)

christmas sheep

Last week we got details through of Evies school Christmas production...

...they are doing Lights Camel Action! and Evie is a sheep :)

We are only allowed 2 tickets so grandparents cant come too, they are doing 2 shows one on the Tuesday and the other on the Wednesday but we are only allowed to go together to one show.  I will explain to Evie that she wont see us on one of the days.

Yesterday Evie did her letter to Santa and she is still asking for a chocolate lolly maker (it was the only thing that she asked for) and James has already told her that she isnt too young for it.  I was hoping that we could put off buying it for another couple of years :)

Work was ok again today apart from the kids deciding it would be fun to fill the drip trays in the water coolers! :)

Nothing else interesting has happened, hopefully I can blog more this week :)

bacon, sausage & butterfly treats

As last week the teachers had exam things to do, today was the first day of James having to take Evie to tap dancing on his own...

...mind you I did sort out all of the bits that she would need before I left :)

Work went well again today and I remembered most of what I had to do so that was good :) Next week I will be doing it on my own.

I met up with James and Evie once I had finished work and I had a bacon roll for my lunch :)

After we had finished Evie wanted to look in Paperchase at the Christmas Tree decorations, but I told her that they also sold them in John Lewis so we looked in there.

I got a cute sausage dog decoration and Evie got a butterfly one, James didnt want one.

As I am able to have the Sunday after Evies birthday off I spent today writing out the invitations for her birthday party :)

yipee

Yesterday I as in town and I got a phone call...

caller: hello is that Clare?

me: no, its Amber (thinking that they may want to speak to me anyway)

caller: oh ok sorry about that..

five minutes later...

caller: hello is that Amber?

me: yes

caller: oh sorry about earlier your number came up on our system first, congratulations we want you to come in for an interview :)

The only time they could make it was just before I am supposed to be having my HR phone call so I have pushed that forward an hour, and that means then that I can head to my interview after I have finished the phone call :)

Then last night while Evie was reading her book, I got another pone call :)

Offering me a job that I went to interview #15 for :)

I told the guy that I have an interview today anyway (as it is the same company that I have the interview today for)..

James had the cheek to say that it means that he cant do anything on a Sunday now so I pointed out that this job means no childcare costs :)

I have to go in on Thursday and fill in the registration bits, I have already put together the bits that I need to bring with me, I will then find out my starting date :)

There are lots of pros to the job like no childcare costs, and I can still go to things like book look and sports day, christmas show and school trips (if they chose me to be a helper) without having to use up holiday :)

The only con is that I cant watch her tap dancing lesson during watching week (and there are only 2 of those a year) and James will video it anyway :)

cakes and advent chocolates

On Friday Evies school took part n the worlds biggest coffee morning...

..LOL I even bought a tub with me so that I could get a couple of cakes for James & Evie :)

In reception year Evie was allowed to eat her cake in her classroom but from Year 1 they make the kids wait to eat their cakes :(  Evie had chosen a butterfly cake :)

the victoria sponge was for me, Evie had the brownie and then I had the cupcake yesterday

Yesterday we were doing our grocery shopping, and in the seasonal aisle I saw that they had advent calendars, so me & Evie chose one each :)

my one

Evies one

We have got to get one for James now (although he will not be having it! :))

gym trail morning again

Gym Trail starts again today...

...so that means leaving a little bit earlier than normal.

Also Evies PE days are on Gym Trail days too...

I told Evie that she had outdoor PE today and she started crying and saying that she didnt want to do it...

...so I asked her why and she said its because she doesnt like running as it makes her legs tired.

She normally loves running, so I suggested that she skips instead :)

I will ask her later how PE was, hopefully she will enjoy it again :)

We also got the diary dates leaflet yesterday...

...there was so much stuff to put in :)

Hopefully James will book the relevant time off of work (Christmas production and sports day).

There is also a school lunch that year 1 parents can go to at the end of October :)

I cant wait to see what the options are (the current menu that Evie bought home only runs until half term).

birthday weekend sorted

As everything (even childrens partys) get booked up around Christmas time I have booked some bits for Evie...

...on her actual birthday I have booked breakfast with Santa :) Even James is going to do it with us (I was surprised when he said that he would do it too) :)  In the comments section I even put that it was her 6th birthday :)

And the day after I have booked her party at a local soft play place (not the same place as last year).

Today at school Evie gets new words to learn how to spell (for her spelling test on Thursday), yesterday she had her first weekly spelling test and she told me that she had to spell numbers...

...she said that she did well.

The reception year children have their first short session today so it will be lovely seeing them all :)