Nostalgic Munchings

I can often be found in the kitchen trying to work out how to recreate the smells and tastes of my childhood in diabetic-friendly form. I think that the things we eat when we are children stick with us our whole lives, but the things we make as children perhaps stick with us even more so. For that very reason I have a soft spot for those cake mixes that come in packets, you know, the ones with the rice paper toppers on them. At my parents' house near Forfar we were often snowed in in winter, at which point my Mum would undertake "lessons" with us. I always asked for a cookery lesson, and one winter all she had was a packet of cake mix with Disney toppers. In memory of those lovely snow days, this Saturday while preparing for Lori's birthday party, I couldn't resist picking up a Hello Kitty version. She loved them, but sadly, I forgot to take a picture.

Andrew doesn't often ask for things that he had as a child (possibly because I have an aversion to cooking fish), so when he mentioned Milk Fadge for about the 5th time, I took the hint (and the recipe!) and decided to add it to my repertoire of bread-like baking. It's not particularly diabetic-friendly, being made with white flour and lard, but there are worse things you could eat.

I had never really heard of it before, which is strange because I have read so many recipe books over the years, but this one had passed me by. I was intrigued to see what it tasted like.

Fadge is probably a better-known term in Ireland, where it is a potato bread. But here in Scotland, fadge simply refers to a round loaf of bread. I think that's why I hadn't heard of it, although I grew up in Scotland, my parents are not Scottish. My fadges turned out to be more oval than round, but let's not quibble over that. Andrew had described it to me a few times, but mostly with adjectives. Adjectives are all very well, but they only really describe how the person feels about the food, but don't actually help you to understand what it should taste [i]like[/i]. Turns out, once I'd eaten it, that all he really needed to say was: it's like a scone without sugar. In fact, what it is very much like is an American biscuit as it's made with lard rather butter, but as neither of us has had an American biscuit, we can't be sure of that. Any readers from the US out there who would like to enlighten me further on the validity of my milk fadge = US biscuit assertion would be most welcome to chip in in the comments.

It's great with butter and jam straight out of the oven, and it's also good once it's cooled down. The first time I tried it, I misread the recipe and forgot to add the salt. The second time, I followed the recipe, but we both felt it was a little too salty, so in my recipe for Milk Fadge I have suggested reducing the salt a little.

Talking about nostalgia, I am sure that I did this craft in primary 5. It's a great way to introduce children to the concept of embroidery, and start them along the road of making patterns of neat stitches. I remember my card quite vividly, it had a robin and tree scene on it, so when I saw this blackbird and tree scene I knew I had to recreate it with Josie. You can find full instructions here.

A Few of my Favourite (Scottish) Things

Burn's Night isn't a very big deal in our house.

So far, Lori and Josie have had to learn a few poems, and I have cooked haggis once. That was last year, and I only did it because the girls were interested in what a Burn's Supper might taste like. I made whisky sauce to go with it, but it was a bit gross.

This year Lori has been going around singing My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose at every opportunity, which Josie is particularly displeased about.It is a truly unique rendition of the song, which doesn't mean it is good, and I am saving all your eardrums (although it might only be audible to dogs lately) by not sharing it with you. You are welcome.

However, quite by chance, and nothing to do with the approaching celebration of some random Scottish poet whose work I mostly hate, I have been making a few recipes that have a distinctively Scottish culinary twist.

The Millionaire's Shortbread one was particularly popular with everyone who tried it (me, me, me, me again, me, me for 6th helpings, tiny sliver for whining child, ME!).

Millionaire's Shortbread

I had to make this. Had to. I had some caramel in the fridge, left over from Christmas. I had some white chocolate, left over from Hallowe'en. And I had some shortbread, left over from New Year. I love shortbread. There's something quite delicious about its rich butteriness combined with sugar and a slightly salty flavour.

White Chocolate Millionaire's Shortbread

Treacle Tart

My Mum makes a lovely treacle tart. This isn't her recipe. Treacle tart usually calls for breadcrumbs, which I didn't have, but I'm always up for experimentation as a cooking technique. And that's where the Burns/Scottish reference comes in, as I substituted the breadcrumbs for porridge oats. I also didn't have treacle, but I had some molasses and it's not too dissimilar. I think this one came out very treacly, possibly because of the molasses, but it certainly was much more like a treacle toffee tart than the syrupy ones my Mum makes. It tasted better than it looked. The girls each had a slice in their packed lunch boxes, but they sneaked them out to eat at break time as a snack, and reported much enjoyment.

Treacle Tart with Porridge Oats

Sister Points

A couple of days ago, I spontaneously awarded Josie 5 Big Sister Points.

At the time it was just an off-hand remark, in response to her considerate comforting of her sister when Lori had fallen off her scooter for the millionth time that day, and I was too occupied with getting us all along the road in time for holiday club and school to give Lori the sympathy she felt she deserved.

Josie did give her that sympathy, and it was helpful for me, and kind to her sister. So I awarded some points. I've never done this before, it's not like sister points are a thing in our house. But despite that unfamiliarity, Josie's affinity with them was immediate:

"Oooh. Sister points! And five of them."

Later on in the walk, Lori helped Josie in return. She got some too. They both jumped up and down, cheering:

"Hurray, we've both got five now!"

The concept of reward for helpfulness isn't foreign to them. We do have a pocket money system, which is based on the doing of household chores, helpful tasks, perfect play-throughs of piano tunes, and things like that. Pocket money can also be lost, through extreme naughtiness (not that much of a problem) or laziness (more of a problem, thay are little Laws after all).

Sister points are not like pocket money, I've decided. They can't be pre-awarded for specific tasks ("Share that toy, and you'll get a sister point), they can't be docked ("You weren't nice to your sister, 5 points off"), they're just a spontaneous and fun way of saying, "Well done!", which my two have really taken to. The important thing is that they are unexpected and not-looked-for. I don't want two girls who are only kind to each other for a reward, and we certainly don't have that at the moment.

So, it begs the questions...should I allow conversion of sister points into something tangible? Should I keep a formal tally of sister points? If I did, it would be a shared pool. Sister points are not a competition.

Or does that miss the point of Sister Points? Should I keep them just as a fun, light-hearted, and a bit of a silly way to gameify life?

The Taste of Victory

When you’re trying hard to balance a proper, grown-up career with the challenge of being a good Mum to two children, sometimes things become a bit overwhelming. It’s easy to feel a bit down-hearted when something goes wrong, and even though I know there are things I could do to make it easier, I just really don’t like making packed lunches before I go to bed.

Which is silly, because every parent knows that time passes much more quickly in the morning that it does at night. 07:25 becomes 08:25 in far less than an hour, I’m sure of it. My children don’t exactly help. As my own mother would have put it when I was growing up:

 “These children have two speeds. Dead slow and stop.”

Andrew will attest that this is absolutely true. While other children might actively source their own clothes, my two just seem to sit there, and wait. And wait. And wait. I’d do an experiment to see how long I could leave it before they actually got their own clothes and got ready, but I know it would be futile. We’d be late. Every day.

I’ve tried lots of things: no TV until breakfast is finished and clothes are on, no reading until the same, but they don’t really work. The only thing that does is constant chivvying, and that’s quite wearing on me and them:

“Eat up. Drink up. Get your clothes. Where’s your school bag? Have you remembered your homework folder?”

It just goes on and on and on.

So, this morning, because it was holiday club, not school, we adopted a slightly more leisurely approach to getting ready. Didn’t work. Lori ended up in floods of tears because I wouldn’t let her wear her ripped, dirty cat outfit to Carnival Day, and Josie selected a pair of trousers that, at my primary school, would have led to taunts of “Half-masts!”.

Undaunted, I cheered Lori up with proper half-masts, and a bandana that makes her look like a pirate, and then we tumbled on to a very rare thing for us in the morning: a bus.

I felt quite smug. 6 different fruits and veg in the packed lunch (count ‘em: cucumber, tomato, red pepper, raspberries, banana, and a plum), and as a treat, a reduced-sugar jam roll. A bus that meant I wouldn’t be late for work. And two adorable children pretending (Lori) and actually (Josie) reading about Andy Murray’s victory in the tennis and then telling a lovely old pensioner how Mummy had paid for Andy Murray to win Wimbledon (not true, but my employer has been one of his sponsors right from the start of his career, and they had noticed the RBS badge on his shirt and this was Lori’s interpretation of that fact).

Bus over, and smugness lasted for about 5 seconds. Which is how long it took me to realise that something was a bit different about Lori.

“Where’s your rucksack?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Aaaaaaaah!” she replied, “It’s on the bus!”

I delivered her to after-school club, and they said they would source a lunch from the shop down the road. But I wasn’t satisfied. I had made that packed lunch, and it had 6 different kinds of fruit and veg in it!

I couldn’t wait for it to be picked up from the depot. So, I set about finding the bag bus with the aid of the Lothian bus timetable, and the Bustracker app. The 09:23 36 at Broughton Primary School gets to Holyrood at 09:52. The next 36 after that to leave Holyrood is 10:02. The bus driver would be the same, because I know they change outside the Primary School on the way back, and they aren’t on a route that goes passed the depot. On its way back, the 36 goes right past my work. All I needed to do was work out which bus it would be, and wait for it out there. I figured it would be the 10:29, just off Dundas Street, so I ducked out of my 10 o’ clock meeting a little early and went over to wait.

And what do you know? There it was. A black Hello Kitty bag with white stars, and a very surprised bus driver.

No-one had ever tracked down their own lost property on his bus before. But 6 fruit and veg!

I called After-School Club, in some jubilance, to arrange a drop-off, but they hadn’t believed that I would get it back. They’d already bought her a ham roll and some more fruit. No need for me to drop it off.

Never mind. I know what I’m having for lunch today, and the taste of victory is sweet (well, reduced-sugar jam sweet).

Collaging

Have you heard of a site called Polyvore? It’s along similar lines to Pinterest, except instead of just pinning one image at a time, you put images together to make collages, and it's much more about clothes and style.

They provide templates, and the you slot your own images into them. Here’s my first attempt at filling a template with my own images.

Or you can create your own from the backgrounds and graphics available on the site, or that you’ve uploaded yourself. Here’s my first attempt at creating my own collage.

I was looking at it a while ago, because I wanted to send a picture of an Anne Fontaine waistcoat to Lauren, from Filing Jointly...Finally to help her to protest at Rule no.10: No jaunty vests in public (she’s from the US, so I’m pretty certain a vest is waistcoat. If it’s not, then I cannot even begin to imagine what a jaunty vest would look like.)

Anyway, I digress...back to Polyvore. Lori and Josie were hovering like little piranhas, and they pounced as soon as they saw the site:

“Oooh, what’s that?

“Can I  have one of those pretty dresses?”

“Can I make a collage too?”

They seemed to like the idea of computer collages. The site, which appears to be aimed at an audience who reads Glamour magazine, struck a chord with an eight year old girl. Hmmmmm. Says a lot about the way young women's magazines seem to want to keep these young women in a state of perpetual childishness.

Anyway, I’ve found the site a bit finicky, and I don't really love clothes so much that I need to turn them into collages.

I haven’t used it much since I signed up. Although, I do wonder whether there is anything similar (although not quite so gender-biased) out there for children as they seemed to be drawn to it,

In the meantime, Josie had a jotter to decorate, so we made a collage, for real life:

It was about a million times more fun than collecting clothes on Polyvore.

Awkward Questions

It's been another busy few weeks in the Law household.

I had the Focused Women (the bank's gender diversity network, of which I am chair in Scotland) annual conference this week, and an Inclusion conference last week (with a networking evening the night before), and then another Education committee up at the Council (most interesting 2 hours of my week, no question), and my last Parent Council meeting as chair of Broughton PC (*sniff*). These all conspire to take me away from my day job, and often away from Andrew and the girls later on into the evening.

I couldn't do half of the things I do without having a husband who is as supportive as he is, so as it's coming up for Father's Day I thought I would give him a  little shout out on the blog.

And that brings me on to the awkward questions - I regularly get asked at events a question along these lines, "I read your bio and you seem to do so much - how do you manage it?".

That's a very awkward question to answer, my self-effacing side wants to say, "Well, I don't do half the things I do as well as I should, and I have a very untidy house" but that's not strictly true. I don't do things if I don't think I can do them well, and some of the house is quite tidy (mostly because of Andrew!).

So, I usually say, "Because I have a very supportive husband who does all the things that I can't do."

This week, I made that reply, and the woman asking me told me that she too had a husband at home, and it didn't really seem to make things that much easier. That was awkward. I wasn't sure how to respond!

I also get asked, with alarming regularity, "Do you ever see your children?", to which I have to resist the urge to snap, "Of course I bloody do. Do you think I would do half the things I do, if I didn't actually have time with them?"

Instead, I explain about the way we chose to live on the way to school so I can drop them off in the morning on my way to work. And how Andrew and I have alternate lie-ins on weekend days, so basically the whole of Saturday is me/Jo/Lori time, and Sunday is relaxing family time.

Funnily enough, I don't often hear the Dads at work being challenged on whether they spend enough time with their children.

Things I Will Be Doing On My Easter Holidays

I love holidays, especially two week long ones. I will be doing a lot, but not too much, over the next few weeks:

1.Some Spring cleaning, despite the stubborn refusal of Spring to actually arrive in these wintry, Scottish climes.
2. Taking The Tiger in the Snow back to the library, because he is very late.
3. Finally unpacking my Christmas present from Lori, a slow cooker, and making two recipes:

• Pork Paprikash
• New England Pot Roast

Watch this space for photos and results!

4. Not getting carpets fitted tomorrow.

5. Working with the girls to do some more on our scrapbooks.

6. Probably some other stuff that I haven't figured out yet!

Spring Has Not Sprung

I signed off my last post with a hope for a sunny spring.

It promptly snowed more than it has done all this winter, at least in Leith, anyway. On Monday morning we awoke to the powderiest snow I've ever seen this close to sea level. It drifted along pavements and blew off rooves all the way along the road to school. Josie and Lori appeared to be in some form of nirvana as they capered along the road. Josie threw a snowball at me about every ten metres, and Lori was fully engaged with making new footprints everywhere she could. We spent the next few days inching our way home, as the powdery snow had turned to sheet ice, with Lori shouting, "Those are mine!" at every child-sized footprint on the edge of the pavement.

Most disappointingly, the snow melted in short order, so we haven't had a chance to try out Winter Lightning, the new sledge purchased by Josie and Lori with a combination of Christmas and Tooth Fairy money. I think it might need to wait until next year now, which is pretty dull, although I've just checked the weather forecast and it does indicate that we're due more snow this weekend.

Bizarrely, this time last year, it was so hot that the BBC reported on the "March heatwave" from Portobello Beach, while locals paddled and swam in the unseasonably warm water. I don't think there's going to be any of that this Easter.

Time for a Break

February and March: 2 months filled with new challenges, great news, and an ever-mounting pile of ironing and list of chores to do in two houses. 

It's been a busy few months in the Law household, and both of our blogs have been one of many things to suffer from neglect.

While Linzertortes has been a little bit more well-tended, that's only because my posts here often resemble a stream of consciousness, and so need less work to put together. Lawhammer! is more neglected simply because we haven't had the time to paint, play, game, or keep up work on the Might Empires project. Here's hoping that will change, although I fear it might need to wait until we have moved house permanently.

And that flitting moves ever so closer. The new spiral staircase is almost in a Flooded Flat, which is one step closer to being able to be sold. Rented Flat with the Fountain and the Piano is in a complete state, but I'm going to start spring cleaning this weekend, I think, taking the opportunity presented by the girls' absence from dance class today to start catching up on all my chores.

And the girls...well, you might have read on Facebook, but they both got granted places at the Edinburgh Music School, further to a successful audition last week. Next step is getting them places at the associated Primary School, counter-intuitively, those places are not guaranteed simply by winning a place at the Music School. So, we still need to go through an out-of-catchment placing request, something I've become quite familiar now I'm on the Education Committee. Fingers crossed there are places in their year groups!

Knowing they'll probably be at that Primary School after the summer is good, because it narrows down the choice of places to live. It's bad, because it's a VERY EXPENSIVE part of the city. You win some...you lose some, but it looks like my budget will be stretched to breaking point in the pursuit of garden and spare bedroom.

Anyway, here's to the rest of March, and to a sunny Spring!

Audition Looming!

2 days to go until the music school audition, and I think I might be more nervous than Josie and Lori.

Josie will have a bit of a practice today, because she's singing one of her songs for her class. She's also doing a presentation on her hobby, painting and playing with Games Workshop models, which she's been working on for a few weeks.

I'm looking forward to finding out how it goes when I see her, but it probably won't be until tomorrow morning, as I've got CCwP and then dancing tonight. I've just had a week off for the February holidays and I'm already looking longingly towards Easter holidays for another break/ironing catch-up.

In other news, I've started writing for another website, this one for children's craft activities, called My Kid Craft. I've recently published a felt i-Pad cover, but there will be more to follow after audition season is over! Please check it out and support the editors, Jane and Claire, friends of mine who have started this up as a new venture and are really working hard to make it a success. Every page view and social media share helps!

Music School Preparation

I've been neglecting the blog a bit lately. That's because for the past week I've had a horrible cold, and I think I barely got out of bed.

Josie and Lori have been preparing for their auditions. Here's a piece from Josie - still a few mistakes, but she's getting there:

Enjoy!

I think....5000!

I remember walking along the road with my Mum when I was maybe 5, or 6, and asking how far it was across London. In the grand tradition of parents, I think that she asked me what I thought, and I said 1 mile. I remember how surprised I was to find out how much bigger it was.

I think Lori felt like that this morning, when she estimated the population of the UK to be "maybe 5000?". When I told her it was more like 60 million she looked surprised, and then accepted it with some equanimity:

"Well, I was close," she replied.

Josie was not convinced that 5000 was very close, but she kept quiet, as usual, so as not to dishearten her sister.

And that was the walk to work on my second day back after the Christmas holidays.

I am very lucky.

2013!

Festive period over, it's back to blogging, writing, and work.

I can't decide whether to make any New Year's Resolutions this year. I did last year, 12 for 2012, in fact. However, I don't usually, and my 12 for 2012 had mixed success. This is what they were:

1. Cook a new recipe at least once a week. Partial success - I had done this every week until this happened.   I've started again, thanks to an added financial incentive from contributing to the new website RecipeYum, and I think I am going to continue this one into 2013.
2. Do at least 70 pieces of ironing a week. Partial success - I did this some weeks, and not others. I absolutely have to do about this much ironing to stay on top of the children's school needs, and my work clothes, so it's back on the list.
3. Help Josie and Lori learn to swim without armbands. Partial success - Josie can swim without armbands, but not confidently, and mostly due to school lessons rather than my help. It's back on the list to focus on in 2013.
4. Perform in a burlesque show. Success - I performed in the Big Dance in July to Come Fly With Me.
5. Sell our house. FAIL! The insurance company dragged their feet interminably, meaning there was absolutely nothing we could do here, despite repeated complaints to them. We'll be selling in 2013 as soon as we can.
6. Perfect a double pirouette. Partial success - I've done a few doubles, but they're hardly perfected. I've signed up for more ballet classes, and I'll be trying again.
7. Do the splits. FAIL! Hmmmm. This was hard. I think I need to find a yoga class to help with my flexibility.
8. Get up at 07:00 on week days. I thought this would be almost impossible, but I actually, by and large, completed this one. Despite a 07:00 wake-up time, we were still incredibly rushed every day. I think I need a different approach in 2013. 
9. Cook a family meal at least once a week. Success - with only a couple of exceptions (around the burnt hand incident) this was a success.
10. Learn to sew (goal: child's dress). FAIL! I haven't sold my house, my sewing machine is still in storage. This will be one for another year.
11. 3 portions of fruit and veg in packed lunches. Success - although sometimes they went to school dinner, on packed lunch days they always had at least 3 portions.
12. 53 kg. Success - but only briefly! Christmas munching has seen to that.

So, that was my year in Resolution terms, however I also snuck some more achievements that I never meant to, like completing the first draft of a children's book, or becoming a paid writer for my Weekend Notes work, or helping Josie and Lori prepare for their music school audition, so I don't feel quite so bad about the "misses".

Goodbye, Edinburgh 2012:

Onwards, and upwards, to 2013. Happy New Year, everyone!

A Crafty Advent

One of my most popular articles on Weekend Notes has been one about advent calendars: 5 Unusual Advent Calendar Ideas, to be more precise.

Given I was suggesting all of these different ideas, I thought I'd better have a go at one myself. This was our first try:

Each present is created with a sponge, dipped in paint, and then finished with ribbons of different coloured paints. Unfortunately, on the first go, I only had a sort of murky, dark-green and so it's quite a muted calendar.

The idea is that every day you stick on a sticker in the middle of the present and write on a Christmas message or a Christmas wish.

Here's the second attempt. It's a bit more colourful, but we didn't leave all the room around the edges for the Christmas trees and other decorations. We're a few days behind, so we're going to have a lot of sticking and writing tomorrow on the last day of school.

Josie and Lori's requests are somewhat different. As the quality is poor, I've transcribed a few below:

Day 1: Dear Santa, I don't know what I want for Christmas, love Josie
Day 2: A toy cat, by Lori
Day 3: Quite simple, a present...please, by Josie
Day 4: I want a magic present please, by Lori
Day 5: Please! We wish you a Merry Christmas, by Josie
Day 6: I want a Barbie doll please, by Lori
Day 7: I hope you have a nice time! By Josie
Day 8: --Lori descends into completely undecipherable words. She assures me that "Santa will understand". You think, kid?--

There's a theme building. Lori makes demands, sometimes incomprehensible, of Santa, and Josie talks sweetly to him. I wonder which will yield results. I have a feeling Santa might not be bringing a Barbie doll. I don't think he approves of such unrealistic bodies on dolls made for children. Just a feeling, though.

I'm not sure that my aim to move away from constant consumerism as Christmas time was entirely successful, given Daughter No, 2's focus on presents, presents, presents.

Still, better than chocolate!

Lucky Unicorns

Josie has inherited my raffle luck. Or maybe it's just that I wrote her name on the ludicrous number of tickets that I bought. It's not luck, so much as sheer weight of Law tickets in the raffle bucket. Yesterday we won a unicorn and a head, shoulder, and neck massage. Woot woot! Three raffles, 5 prizes. Good going.

Josie also had other news for me:

Josie: I like Daddy better at somethings

Me: Like what?

Josie: Cuddles. He does picky-uppy cuddles, bouncy cuddles, slow cuddles, fast cuddles. But, Mummy, if the bed does break it won't be just our fault, because sometimes you give us bouncy cuddles too.

She also expressed her concern about a household appliance:

Josie: I have been observing the washing machine for some time, and it has been spinning slowly, then stopping and spinning the other way. Is it broken?

She also had an opinion on her sister:

Josie: Wow, look at your hair Lori, you look like a scraggle-bumpkin.
Lori: What is a scraggle-bumpkin?
Josie: You, Lori.

Basically, she is now a proper human with her own opinions, ideas, and worries. It feels like only yesterday she was freaking out because she thought the Pinky-Ponk would crash into a hedge.

160-165

I continue my winning streak in raffles!

Last time it was a bottle of wine and a make-up lesson. This time it was a miniature bottle of whisky in a raffle down in the Risk team.

Clearly the "Gods of Raffle*" think I need more alcohol, and then some cover-up to hide the bags under my eyes.

Anyway, it was quite a strange coincidence. What was strange about it?

They were exactly the same numbers on both sets of tickets. Random chance for the win!

*I had to put the "Gods of Raffle" in inverted commas because Josie was reading over my shoulder and thought I should make it more obvious that I didn't actually believe in these "Gods".

Sur-priiiise

It's really difficult to make a surprise anything when you can't remember the surprisee's preferences. It's even more difficult when you have a family who find it very difficult to keep secrets. I am not referring to the 5 and 8 year-old. I am referring to the me-year old.

It was Andrew's birthday today, and my ability to make a surprise breakfast in bed when he expected me to be at work was hampered by:

a). Me blurting out the night before that I had the day off
b). Trying to drop into conversation a question about whether he preferred smoked, or unsmoked bacon (also: should you use salted or unsalted butter in a hollandaise sauce?) without being completely obvious about it.

However, he still enjoyed the Eggs Benedict, even if it wasn't quite the surprise it should have been.

In other news, Josie and Lori had an preliminary audition at the Edinburgh Music School. It was successful, so they are moving on to a full audition in February. Josie was incredibly excited after the audition was finished. She had been a bit unsure about it all until she saw the grand piano she would get to play on, a Steinway. She muttered breathlessly,

"Is this where I would get to play? Oh Mummy, I could get used to this."

Thankfully, it looks like she will at least get a chance to get used to it. The next audition is in front of a bigger audience, but I'm hoping the worst of her nerves will be over. As for Lori, she sails on, blithely unaware of the hilarity that cascades from her mouth at any given moment. She was happy to get through, too.

What a lovely birthday present for Daddy.

Castle Cloudberry Ballet Book Party

A few weeks ago I previewed the Castle Cloudberry Ballet Book Party on Weekend Notes. The girls spent the next few weeks trying to get their mouths round that lengthy title, and at the same time got quite excited at ballet fun on offer.

And there was a lot of fun: crafts competitions, cakes, author signing, a raffle, dance classes, and more.

It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Josie and Lori had great fun dancing around:

Lori has just tried some berry juice. It was fizzy. That was unexpected.

Waaaaaaaaah! Ninja dancer!

This is my signature walk, and it's going to make me famous.

She danced for about 15 minutes, then ran over to tell me she wanted to perform in front of "thousands of people"

Ah, an arabesque. Lovely.

And there you go. That was the Castle Cloudberry Ballet Book Party. 2 hours of lovely ballet fun!

We Made Them Out of Fluff

Parenting is quite hard, and yet at the same time it simply flows along, from day to day.

You don't need to work hard to let the days pass. They just do. Although sometimes they do feel like very hard work.

Before you know it, you have fully formed people, who interact with each other without recourse to you, except the occasional yell of "Mummy!" when they can't reconcile their own issues.

They are endlessly fascinating to eavesdrop upon, even if eavesdropping is a behaviour one shouldn't role-model for one's children.

One of the most special  parts of being a parent of siblings is when they stop needing you for their interactions with each other. For many years, their conversations have been moderated, and facilitated, and to some extent, created, by one or other parents.

Then, that starts to stop. They start to engage each other, like proper little humans, in proper little conversations.

Occasionally, although I know I shouldn't really, I hover on my way past their bedroom door and have a sneaky listen. Their conversations are so sweet, and a little odd. Here's a sample that I observed tonight:

Lori: Where do you do a World War?
Josie: All around the world.
Lori: No, I think you'd just do it in random places
Josie: No, you wouldn't do it in random places, I don't think. What kind of random places?
Lori: Just in the middle of the road. Places like that.
Josie: I don't think so. I think in fields maybe.
Lori: I will ask Mummy.
Josie and Lori: Muuuuuuummy!

Aaaaaaand I'm back. I'm glad they're growing into proper little people, but it is also quite nice to still be needed. Moments like that make all the hard stuff worthwhile.

And at moments like that, Andrew and I turn to each with these words: We made them out of fluff. It's the kind of thing that the child of a teddy bear would say, I suppose.

But we did: adorably sweet, lovely fluff. As cute as can be to us, their parents, the ones that will always love them more than they can possibly imagine.

"Out of fluff" we will say to each other, knowingly, when we are old, and they have their own children, their first job, or a broken heart.

The Fairy Swimming Pool

As if to illustrate the point I made in Quantum Theory, I heard the following sound issue from the bathroom last night:

Lori: Nooooo! Josie! Don't let the water out. I still need to make the fairy swimming pool.

Intrigued, I wandered through to the bathroom to mediate this burgeoning dispute.

Lori was lying on her back in an ever-reducing pool of water, splashing it on to her tummy to fill the "fairy swimming pool".

Yes, you've guessed it, her tummy button now functions as a place for her imaginary fairy friends to have a refreshing dip.

Now that was...unpredictable.