The new school year obligatory blog post...

... and they grew so much :O

Daniel is almost as tall as me now, and Joel just gets more mischievous by the second :P
*sighs* ... man, I feel old!!

Birthday Boys

Another year has gone by, like a flash, and it's that time again.
My boys have changed a lot over this year... and Daniel especially has grown like you wouldn't believe!!!
Happy Birthday, my darlings...

Every Fridge tells a story

This Blog post has been inspired by an AWESOME lady called Jen Arnall - Culliford , who completely blew me away at the weekend when I recieved a totally unexpected gift, these awesome Skull and Polkadot fridge magnets :)

She said she saw them, and thought of me... *GRiN*

So, I thought I'd take a picture of my fridge and blog about it, maybe a little random and strange, but there you go... hehehe :)

I have picked out a few details... of things that mean a lot to me and make me smile every time I go to open the fridge door.

This is a very sweet and angelic picture of Thing One and Thing two... sometimes I need to be reminded of how they can be *sometimes*...

One of my favourite postcards, amongst the sheep and more sheep and the odd picture of a monkey or two (see picture above :-P)

I think we all know who I got it from :)

And lastly, the favourite picture of all, a bit faded now as it's been up there so long. I may have to reprint it and get it framed, now my Grandpa has passed on...

There was always a special spark between him and Thing Two, or 'Tyke' as Grandpa called him, so I liked to keep the picture there so I had a really nice picture of Grandpa to look at occasionally, and also to remind the children of him, as we didn't get to see him very often.

Happy Anniversary!!!

This year saw us making it to 20 years of being together, and today is a celebration of 14 years of marriage...so, I thought I'd do something completely different this year, to celebrate another year of being with my most awesomeful Husbeast :)

I get to play DJ :)

This is our musical journey...a few songs that bring us both a lot of joy, and precious memories...

They are all rock tracks, so if it's not your thing, I totally understand, but if you want to while away an hour listening to some quality tunage...then thankyou for listening :)

This song was one of the very first we ever danced to, at the Uni Rock Disco, all those years ago. This album had just been released, and it was played a lot at the rock nights we used to go to.

Ahh...now the next song was on Husbeast's stereo the first time I stayed over. He'd got up and gone to classes, and I thought to myself "I wonder what he's listening to at the moment" so I just pressed play. Needless to say, I was blown away...and years later we saw Queensryche play this whole concept album up close and personal, at Rock City. We'd gone to see them, expecting to hear them play songs from a new album, but no...they played Mindcrime all the way through...

Another band that Husbeast got me hooked on.... Tesla... check the singers voice...just stonking!!!

Even now...after all this time, this song sends shivers down my spine. From a movie we both hold dear, and never tire of watching.... enjoy, and I defy anyone not to love this song :P

The Irons have to make an appearance... this one being from an album we both listened to a lot at the time.

Now this song has a funny memory attatched, cue house party, lots of alcohol and an extremely comedic falling down :D

This one is dedicated to you, Simmo :P

Husbeast will more than likely never forgive me from making him miss this next song when we went to see them Live at Wembley...

This next song really needs very little introduction... take it away boys :)

The following group of songs are from our travels around the world, when we both left University. Either from new albums released whilst we were away, or from new bands we discovered along the way.

From Van Halen's 9th Album, a real in your face tune...and an excellent display of Sammy Hagar's vocal power.

Now, when we were in Melbourne, Australia, we were lucky enough to catch this next band in concert. Not the traditional way though :P Fans had knocked the fences down, as it was an outside venue, so we just coolly walked in and watched them for free...

These next three songs are taken from albums we literally wore out in the stereo of our Ford Falcon Station wagon travelling around Australia... "Frogstomp" by Silverchair, "Smash" by The Offspring and "SuperUnknown" by Soundgarden.

They were nicknamed "Nirvava in Pyjamas"... 15 years old when this album rocketted them to success...I give you Silverchair...

Hahaha...best driving song....ever :P

Windows open so we could smell the sea....stereo blaring...cruising down the Gold Coast Highway... good times :D (lots of lovely shots of Chris Cornell in the video to this song ladies.... rrrrawwr)

When we got back from our travels...we had to find jobs and pretend to be grown ups and stuff, but, listening to Live music has and always will feature very heavily in our time together as a couple, and as a family.

This next band played Leicester quite a few times, and we went with our long time friend, Russ, to a lot of gigs to see them... so, this one is for you Russ....

The last batch of songs is dedicated to when our love expanded into parenthood. I will never forget watching MotorHead on the TV, being heavily pregnant and having a baby headbanging inside me...hahahaha...used to play it to him when he wouldn't stop crying too. This one is for you, Dan!!!

Whilst I was pregnant with Joel, we listened to this next band alot. I also was seriously stuck for a name for this wriggly lump I carried around with me everywhere, and oh yes....he was a wriggler. Husbeast was looking on their website one night, and the Eureka Moment happened. Joel is named after the Lead Singer of Good Charlotte :)

Saw this band at Rock City whilst Joel was a baby...was actually the first time I'd left him. They split up after this tour... and I got to see them play my favourite song LIVE :)

The next three songs are all ones we love as a family. It was hard to choose only three, but I didn't want to bore you all any longer than necessary :P

Both my boys have learned to play the drums on this Metallica track, something their Dad is very proud of....

And finally...recent tracks... from two bands that we have recently seen live, all four of us :)

You have to watch the video for this one :P It is also very apt, lyrically...for the time in our lives right now...

Thankyou for getting this far!!!

If you want to listen to all of the above songs as a YouTube Playlist... please follow this link

Another Investiture.....

Dan's old Scout group folded just after Christmas, but it's now started up again, with new Leaders...so he was re-invested last night...

This photo was the last in a set of 3...trying to get him to pose nicely for the camera... and I think its a great pic :-)

A truly happy face...something we don't see as much as we should !!

My Boys

Joel was invested into Cubs tonight, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to *try* and take some nice pictures of my two babies...they are growing up SO fast.

Bless him. Joel is going through a stage of wanting to look like Justin Beiber... *sighs* he has the hair flicking motion down pat.

I love how these these two pictures turned out, you wouldn't believe how easily they slipped from the cuddles into funny faces....

Daniel is a typical pre-teen now...wanting to be all grown up but not really succeeding at a lot of it just yet. But he definitely succeeds in the tantrum and attitude department, so I guess all is normal then, eh ?

Rocket Man!!!

Joel came out of school with this *awesome* model of a rocket on a launch pad yesterday.... made from bits of cardboard, a plastic coke bottle, and yes, you've guessed it, the nose is a wool cone :)

He took a load of them from my studio to school a few weeks ago. As his class all left class yesterday...you could see where they'd all gone ;)

Portraits

(pictures reproduced with kind permission of Joel)

Joel has been learning how to draw portraits at school, and we came downstairs this morning to find these lovely drawings of his most loved (currently) teddies on the kitchen table...

The Boys are Back....at school !

My boys returned to school today, only this year they will be apart, as Daniel has gone up to High School...

How can THAT be...where did the time go??

**sobs**

My Big Scout!!

Dan got invested into the Scouts a couple of weeks ago......doesn't he just look so smart and grown up??

*sighs*

Me and my boys :)

I couldn't choose which one I liked the best........so I put 'em both on ;)

Happy Mother's Day!!

My beautiful boys........

I had a great day......was made to feel like the bestest Mummy in the world :) Dan even let me win when we connected on his and Joel's Nintendo DS to play Dr Who top Trumps.....now, how's THAT for a Mother's Day present?

Poor Joel....**smiles whilst shaking head**

We had parents evening this week, and both of my wonderful sons got a glowing report....albeit Joel's teacher expressing her mild angst at the amount of noise Joel tends to make. He always shouts out the answers to questions and is generally enthusuastic and full of life in the classroom. We had a little word with him about it, saying that he must sometimes give other children a chance to answer questions etc...

He crept into bed with me this morning, as he does almost every morning, for a pre-school cuddle. Only today he held me a little tighter than usual, telling me he felt a bit sad, and that he wanted to stay at home with me today.

I asked him why...

"Because I want to be loud today...the sun is shining and I need to be loud"

And I can't say I blame him!!!

Found this on the table this morning....

Its a picture of Phil.......and I just had to document it on here, 'cos I love it :)

Its that time of year again :(

I lost my babies to the madhouse again yesterday, after a lovely summer. Here's some pics of them, looking all smart and ready to go........

Just me and the 'Olester

Joel and I are all alone this week because Dan is away at a week long drama school. He's always singing, and he's also good at doing choreographed dances at discos (like the Macarena for instance), so we decided he might enjoy it :) He's staying with his grandparents, and his cousins are also doing it.....
The show is on Friday afternoon......!!!

My Cub Scout :)

Dan went on his 2nd cub camp last night, for 2 nights away. They are camping this time, not in a hut....

He looks so smart!!!

When we woke this morning, a certain little brother was in his bed......awwwh!!!

Hair Cut Boys :)

The messy herberts got their hair cut today....***sighs*** they are growing up way too fast.......
Dan's got his "Am I bothered" face on.....and Joel is , well....just Joel, as always :D

Dan's Hat!!!

An extremely quick knit.....finished it in about 3 hours :)
Dan loves it, and the yarn was a joy to knit with, and the colours are great.....

Ahh....so that is what food colouring is for!!!

Its Daniel's 9th Birthday today, and as his brother will be 5 on Sunday, I've made them a joint cake for their little party this afternoon :) Its a triple-decker-scooby-snack sponge cake with jam sticking the sponge layers together..... yummmmmmm !!!!

What fun, squishing the food colouring into the fondant icing......at one point there were splatters of red everywhere...looked like I'd severed an artery!!!!