Pond Hopper

My son's party was a big success!  It was total chaos at times, but a great time was had by all!  I'll blog about it another time (my in-law's are arriving tomorrow for my son's birthday and I have loads to do), but wanted to share this... Big Eagle has arrived!  My son has been saving his money for the last year to save up enough to buy the ultimate Angry Bird - Big Eagle (AKA Mighty Eagle)! With the gift money from his birthday party, he finally made enough to buy him (good thing I ordered him in advance)!  He is HUGE!  The item description said it was 18".  I thought it was a total rip off (he sells for £80!).  Imagine my surprise when I opened the box!  He is 18" high and 36" long! He is one happy kid!  He even slept with him in his bed last night - good thing he has a really big bed!

I've been awake since 4:00 AM.  I hate when I can't sleep.  I had insomnia for over a decade before I met my husband.  Back then I didn't sleep more than 3 or 4 hours a night and functioned quite normally.  These days when that happens, I'm shattered.  Even now sitting here, I'm regretting getting up because in six hours I am having a birthday party with 20+ five-years-olds and sleep would be exactly what I'll need! My son turns five on Wednesday.  Today is the big party and he's so excited!  I've been planning the party for a month now.  I had booked a soft-play facility.  I paid for them to close the place so the kids could have it to themselves and then two weeks ago, another kid in his class had a party there and every child and adult that went got horribly sick.  Invitations had already gone out and for my son's party and the following Monday, I was approached at the school pickup by a few concerned mothers.  I had already pai...

I don't normally share things like this, but I really like Will Smith and can't say how much I enjoyed seeing this on Graham Norton Friday night.  It was such a laugh!

After yesterday's post, I had someone email me to tell me there is nothing wrong with ordinary and I should just keep blogging.  So I thought I'd post some photos I took a couple weeks ago.  I've posted photos of this place before,  It's one of my favorite views in this area.  It's a place called Beachy Head which are the local chalk cliffs and the views are breathtaking (for a Jersey Girl anyway).  There are rolling green fields with a backdrop of the white cliffs and the English Channel.  It even has a lighthouse at the base of the cliffs and every time I go there, I can't help walking up to the top and taking photos.  I must have a million photos of the same view and the last time I went, I almost didn't take my camera thinking how many Beachy Head photos can I take?  I am so glad I took the camera because that day the clouds hung low and formed a blanket in the sky just below the top of the cliffs.  It looked like what you see f...

I know I never blog anymore.  It's just that I'm a busy mom these days with an ordinary life.  It's hard to make the ordinary extraordinary enough to make people want to come back and read.  I won't make empty promises that I'll be a back regularly, because it probably won't happen, but can't say I won't go through phases of blogging.  I do miss it, but like I said, I have a small and ordinary (albeit happy) life and it's difficult to decipher what might make interesting reading.  That said, today I have something to say. I know someone in the Oklahoma City area.  Someone I care about, but am not in close contact with. Yesterday morning, my husband text me telling me to put on the news (knowing with my son home sick from school, I would probably be tuned into some kids channel).  He told me there was a tornado and that the news was saying 100 dead.  I thanked him for letting me know and ran for the computer that was out of my son's view.  My...

I have been on the go for the last two weeks doing Mom things and before that I was sick with the flu so I haven't had much time to do anything for myself. Today I have the house to myself for the first time in 3 weeks.  I was determined to write.  I came home from the school run, made myself a latte, turned off the TV and sat down at my laptop when the hammering coming from next door started.  A few minutes later, my cat started stalking me.  I have two cats, but one is a lot more trouble than the other.  Alfie is loud and constantly looking for attention.  People don't believe me about how loud the cat is until they get me on the phone and hear the constant meowing in the background.  He is seriously annoying, but I love him and try not to get too aggravated with him.  I used to worry my son's first words would be 'Alfie, Shut up!'  Anyway, he finally gave up and left after about a half hour when I threatened to throw hi...

I've had a couple of emails (as long as one request from a friend) asking for me to post some more recipes.  I just thought I'd let you know that as soon as I'm over the flu, I plan to go back to posting recipes again. I've  been submitting them to magazines lately as well and so far I've sold two recipes.  I'll be paid when they are published and will be making £50 for recipes I already had posted here.  All I had to do was copy, paste and attach my photo.  Not bad at all.  I'm pretty pleased with myself :-)