Category / Project 365

by jo

Project 366 – Week 6

Sunday 7th February. Having had a lazy Saturday, we had a busy Sunday, heading to Hampton Court Palace and taking out a Historic Royal Palaces membership (as we intend to go to the Tower of London again this year, H claims she has never been though I’m sure she has – can’t find any photos though so maybe I was pregnant with her). For £90 a year we’ll need to do a few trips, but with the added discounts in the shops (food and merch) we should make our money back – especially with the Tower! Anyway, it was great to go into Hampton Court for the first time and walk around properly (my mum’s family came from Teddington so we’d often visit the grounds when I was little) plus the maze was still difficult – H and I got lost even though I kind of remembered what you had to do to complete it… kind of. Shaun did it straight away of course…

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Monday 8th February. Almost forgot to take a photo so got one of H’s Dream Catcher her nana in Australia sent her.

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Tuesday 9th February. I took a photo of some of my Scritti Politti albums for reasons I cannot go into. But it’s a photo, and it was taken today.

Scritti

Wednesday 10th February. Went to my knitting group. Realised I’m using different sized needles – quite obviously different sized needles. Whoops.

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Thursday 11th February. Last day of term and Parent’s Evening. H did well as we’d expected and I had this Smiggle light bought as a treat for her for doing well (it was half price in the sale) – it makes a fabulous night light and is battery powered (good when you don’t have many plugs in your room). It works, too.

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Friday 12th February. Again, almost forgot to take a photo, so here’s my Peak update for this week. Still strong on language I see….

peek brain

Saturday 13th February. We headed into Central London, something H and I don’t do very often (Shaun does, he works there), and went to Kensington Palace, somewhere I’ve never been. I’ve been to Kensington itself tons of times, just never the Palace so knew very little about it. It’s on our Historic Royal Palaces membership and I know we’ll go back. One of the guides was casually talking about how one of the Kings who lived there pops by in his ghost form. I’m DESPERATE to see a ghost so I can believe in them, so was kind of sad he didn’t pop by to let his presence be known. We popped into the Science Museum afterwards and went to their Cosmonauts exhibition, and came home shattered. 10,000 steps done today, according to the pedometer on my phone (which is usually around the 3500 mark, so probably not the most accurate, but a good indication of how much walking we did!)

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TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

Project 366 – Week 5

Sunday 31st January. We were lazy today. Super lazy. To avoid being super lazy two days in a row I insisted we went out for lunch so we headed to a local Farm Shop we hadn’t visited before (who also do PYO when the season is right). They had a cute, very quiet cafe anyway which served generous healthy plates of food.

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Monday 1st February. I love this Potato Chart photo I took at the Farm Shop, I’ve never known the correct ones to get!

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Tuesday 2nd February. We love our Toughees shoes H wears every day, but the velcro came away from the strap, so I had to get them repaired. Her regular trainers weren’t really going to be any good for school so we went to Clarks and bought these. Size 13.5 now… no longer able to wear shoes with sparkly things on the sole (which she has never had, so she got upset I said she had big feet. But it’s true!).

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Wednesday 3rd February. Too old now to “drive the bus” – I’m not sure what I think about this growing up thing.

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Thursday 4th February. My impatient face. Got H to take a photo of me in my new Sport Relief Orla Kiely apron, because I love it. In my head I look like a domestic goddess. In reality I just look like me in a nice pinny.

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Friday 5th February. Every morning I do Peak Brain Training. Language is my strongest thing, and the rest are catching up. I’ve been doing it since around November time, just the free app. There are some games I hate, and some I love. This stops me from reading books on the train, so I need to find a balance, but it takes most of my journey before I hit my daily target now they’re moving it higher…!

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Saturday 6th February. H was so happy as we got our preorder of the brand new Pamela Butchart Book ‘Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies’ of which she is already on her second read.

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TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

Project 366 – Week 4

Sunday 24th January. Oh we were lazy today. So very lazy. I was at the tail end of my cold which meant not much coughing through the day, but loads at night. Always the way. Then it miraculously just stopped mid-way through the week. So we had a pyjama day today. I took this photo of H and love it – still tinkering around with the posh camera, you see.

H January 2016

Monday 25th January. Mornings are getting lighter and that’s a good thing.

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Tuesday 26th January. The latest Parragon Book Buddies book to review. H and I spent time putting together the skeleton which came with it. She then spent ages being amazed her body was like that, and feeling certain areas so she knew she definitely did have bones there. She has called him Elvis the Pelvis.

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Wednesday 27th January. Swotting up on Pig here – our review is coming on Tuesday, and H has asked Emer Stamp some questions too – she’s getting into asking authors questions at the moment and finds it quite fun!

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Thursday 28th January. Shaun went off on an accounts jolly to some conference in Birmingham, while I looked after H. Given how tired I was after the cold, we did it, we survived. I could use a bit more sleep, mind. Anyway, she got straight into bed and settled reading another Pig book by Emer Stamp, so I think it’s fair to say she’s a fan!

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Friday 29th January. H had a playdate after school, and these days playdates mean they just stay upstairs while us parents get to sit downstairs and chat. So that was good – I needed to chat, it had felt like a long week. Her friend and H both painted their own nails – this was the first time she has ever done it – not too bad!

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Saturday 30th January. We went for a wander around Carshalton Village. I do like walking by the ponds, especially in this weather.

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TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

Project 366 – Week 3

Sunday 17th January. We had some wussy London snow, so Shaun and H made snowmen. Teeny tiny snowmen. Melted by the end of the day snowmen.

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Monday 18th January. Inspired by my old schoolfriend Nicky, I took a photograph of some of my football-related records. Yes, that is a Glenn and a Chris 7″ picture disc. Little did I know that a snippet of their marvellous song ‘Diamond Lights’ would appear on tv on Saturday night. Alas, Chris Waddle switched it off immediately.  It is a selection of glorious songs such as these that one day my daughter will inherit, to ensure her life is even more enriched.

some of my football records

Tuesday 19th January. H is properly engrossed in Harry Potter at the moment. My concern is she’s competitive about it, wanting to finish the books before her friends – I’m not having any of that nonsense. She can just enjoy the books and immerse herself in the world!!

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Wednesday 20th January. Went to see Les Mis in the West End, and loved being in Chinatown late at night, the smells and the colours and lights. Les Mis was good too – though I was disappointed Phil Daniels wasn’t acting that night as I’ve seen him on stage before, with the RSC and with Blur!

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Thursday 21st January. Someone got her Stage 3 swimming badge – she was super happy about that!

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Friday 22nd January. H finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve told her to hold off Book 4 for now, and to have a break, besides she needs to do some serious reading for books we have to review in the coming weeks!

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Saturday 23rd January. A lazy day – I was sick from work on Friday thanks to having an evil cold set off by many things, and I had hit the tired part of it, just wanting to lie down and nap all day. H had a party in the late afternoon (good timing!) and afterwards we got home and settled in our pyjamas to watch The Voice. With a lightsaber. As you do.

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TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

Project 366 – Week 2

Sunday 10th January. There comes a time when you realise your daughter’s trousers are too small, as when she sits down you see a little bottom poking over the top. So we headed to Sutton to buy some new ones as well as school shirts for September when she starts Junior school. Sutton got stormy, and one set of Christmas lights were still working.

sutton

Monday 11th January. Back to normal weeks again, and I know – KNOW – I took a photo today but it isn’t on my phone. It was to show how dark it is in the mornings, which actually isn’t going to be the greatest content thanks to it being dark. So already I’m failing.

Tuesday 12th January.We have been watching The Amazing Race on Amazon which is great as there are several series we hadn’t seen (via lesser legal means, ahem). We’ve got one more episode of Season 20 to go, and this hasn’t stopped H from creating her own version of the game – the Amazing Exercise.

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Wednesday 13th January. H went Horse Riding at Deen City Farm and had a blast! She loved it – 30 minutes being walked around on a small horse (age 20) – and with a borrowed pair of boots and a hat. She loved it so much!

Horse Riding at Deen City Farm

Thursday 14th January. New books arrived. Hidden away already.

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Friday 15th January. What kind of a child doesn’t like Peanut Butter (well, apart from ones who are allergic to them, of course)? Mine. Not even Reese’s Peanut Butter cups could turn her. I’m going to get some Skippy stuff and see if that works…

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Saturday 16th January. H had a party and Shaun and I sorted out things to sell and get rid of, donate, or whatever. Which means all my photos today are of things I’m selling which seems a bit weird to put on here. What a rubbish Saturday photo!

for sale

TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

Project 366 – Week 1

Friday 1st January. As has been tradition since I was pregnant, we headed to the sea for New Year’s Day. It was a quiet New Year’s Eve at home, and in fact I fell asleep until Shaun woke me up at five to midnight! We saw the New Year in and then I probably fell asleep again. We chose Brighton this year (we seem to alternate between Brighton, Bognor and Eastbourne, with occasional Portsmouth trips) and it was suitably freezing, there were big waves, and several shops open where I made the most of the sales. We stopped at Ed’s Diner where H was amazed there was a jukebox at our table and put loads of 20p’s in, to choose songs she liked!

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Saturday 2nd January. I bought myself Bridget Christie’s book, and have finally started reading it. (See, reviews and doing my own stuff took a back seat over Christmas and New Year, but I’m putting it right) Anyway, most of the first chapter is about farting. I went to get some sneaky chocolate so H wouldn’t notice and put my book down. Then it amused me I’m reading a book about farting and I placed it next to a whoopee cushion.

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Sunday 3rd January. We’re Amazon Prime members so I ordered the Harry Potter Box Set from their Prime Now service which generally gives you one hour delivery if you spend over £20 within London. So we watched the first two films with H, mainly to prepare her for my birthday trip to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour which I’m planning! Plus of course ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is released this year!

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Monday 4th January. Inse(c)t day. So we went to Chessington to meet with friends and to pick up our renewed Merlin Passes. H and her friend had fun and it was REALLY quiet as most other kids were back to school. The only ride open was the carousel which we had to ourselves for one go, it was that quiet!

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Tuesday 5th January. Back to school/work and so on. I was greeted by a pile of boxes on my desk which had all these goodies inside. It’s great getting deliveries at work, but not so great having to bring them all home on the train!

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Wednesday 6th January. Back to knitting – and back to tackling the Mollie Makes crochet daisy I managed to complete last time. It isn’t quite right this time, but I’m able to unpick and work things out which is progress. This is the start of it.

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Thursday 7th January. When we went to Brighton, I was a bit disappointed you can’t buy the individual Lego characters from The Force Awakens. We don’t need any new Lego kits right now, but H wanted a Rey. They directed me to Bricklink which is completely unofficial but meant I could buy a Rey for H. She arrived, anyway. She eventually made it to the Millenium Falcon and H spotted within an hour!

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Friday 8th January. I love that H’s school have some Shakespeare books for younger readers, and that she chose it of her own accord. I don’t love that H forgot to bring home a Free Reader sheet – she has to answer questions about the book once she has read it, but it’s all good in the end.

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Saturday 9th January. The laziest day of 2016 so far. H and I stayed in our pyjamas all day, the first week back was tiring, and her activites don’t even start until next week. So we were extremely lazy. H was happy The Voice has started again, was amazed that Boy George was that “Karma Chameleon singer from Absolute Eighties” and quite liked Paloma Faith.

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TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

Project 365 Week 52 and a Half

Sunday 27th December.  Morden Hall Park, our local National Trust place. We needed to get out of the house after two days inside. I caught Shaun and H doing this from Big Hero 6 – love it!

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Monday 28th December. My sister bought H a ChillFactor Ice Cream maker for Christmas, which we’ve been pleased with so far. After reading some comments from other bloggers, it didn’t seem to work for them, but it did for us! While the quantity was quite small, there was definitely ice cream (and sorbet the day before) in there. 

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Tuesday 29th December. Polesden Lacey, and of course we did Polesdenopoly as it’s fun, silly and it wasn’t too cold either. My kind of trail.

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Wednesday 30th December. I think we had a lazy day. I don’t remember. I took this photo of H, as she had her hair cut and it really suited her, and I liked the lighting on the picture. When I think about how she was a year ago and how much she has grown up now, she does me proud. She loves reading (she has just finished David Baddiel’s ‘The Parent Agency‘) and has excelled at school. She is on the School Council as well as being one of the children who writes a little magazine in school too. She has made me a very proud mum – her confidence is starting to show now. 

H December 2015

Thursday 31st December. We visited Bluebell Railway and Sheffield Park National Trust gardens, before heading home for a quiet night in, and reflection on 2015. It has been an odd year, and who knows what 2016 will bring.

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by jo

Project 365 – Week 52

Well, somehow I’ve done it and made the whole year. So let’s get this second-to-last week in.

Sunday 20th December. Work is over, school is over, what better thing to do than gatecrash your daughter’s best friends’ birthday party to watch Star Wars – The Force Awakens, right? (the gatecrashing bit is not entirely correct, as we were okay to go, but there was NO WAY we were missing it!)

The Force Awakens with a Six Year Old

Monday 21st December. It’s Panto season! So we headed to Wimbledon – I bought tickets a while back as we need a good panto substitute (as we didn’t get to York), so thought we’d try this. There were moments which fell a bit flat (to me) but other moments (when they did the 12 days of Christmas) that were hilarious. H enjoyed it, and Flawless really were good – open-mouthed-staggeringly good. She insisted on using the Opera Glasses.

Wimbledon panto

Tuesday 22nd December. Relief! H’s front tooth fell out at last. It had been really wobbly, so much that she was wobbling it all the way through the pantomime. So when she accidentally bit into some food with it and it came away, we were pretty lucky the tooth fairy and Father Christmas didn’t have to pay a visit on the same day. Phew.

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Wednesday 23rd December. H got a delivery which made her really happy – the new Lou Kuenzler book ‘Bella Broomstick’ which she read within a day, loves (we love Lou Kuenzler’s books anyway, H has quite a few!) and even more exciting for her, she has asked Lou some questions which will be coming on Mum Friendly on the 7th January. One thing I’ve realised about H this year, she does like asking questions – her school magazine had her interviewing her old teacher and some of the questions she came up with were really good! (must take after her mum…)

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Thursday 24th December. Twas the night before Christmas, so I charged up my old camera and got it out again to get a decent photo of the tree.

Christmas Tree 2015

Friday 25th December. Merry Christmas! Someone got LOADS of books as presents!

Christmas 2015

Saturday 26th December. The day after. I love Kikki K. I’m extremely excited they’ve opened a London store, as I would always spend too much money in the Australian stores, so now I can space it out a bit. Shaun bought me a 2016 diary which I am going to make sure I use as it’s SO PRETTY! Shaun got me some awesome presents this year and I really don’t feel like I deserve them.

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by jo

Project 365 – Week 51

Sunday 13th December. We went shopping in Epsom to get H’s friends their Christmas presents and spent the morning writing Christmas cards. We found a shop and bought H a replacement Mood Ring, as she lost hers when we went on holiday in August. Apparently I’m relaxed and calm here.

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Monday 14th December. I was given a bottle of champagne at work which is a Very Good Thing indeed. It is currently chilling in the fridge, ready for Christmas!

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Tuesday 15th December. I was invited out for a payday lunch at the lovely Doukan in Wandsworth Town near work. It’s a wonderful Moroccan place, and I treated myself to a large glass of Moroccan wine, plus a Falafel Burger and a Chocolate Tart. £25 altogether, and just for me! I didn’t photograph my food as I’ve surrendered to the rubbishness of my camera phone, however, I did photograph Wandsworth Town station as I do like the way you feel almost level with the hill as you look up Alma Road.

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Wednesday 16th December. Ha. So I thought I hadn’t taken any photos today, but it would appear H has – on my phone. A few selfies – oh, and a video. She makes me smile, this was a treat.

H selfie

Thursday 17th December. I’ve finished work for the year! So I had a day rushing around doing stuff, picking up H from school and then rushing out to knitting. H and her friends had a quick playdate here after school and played Annie. H was Miss Hannigan. This is the result. Yes, that is a Hannah Montana wig – we have never seen it, my mum bought it for H a couple of years ago.

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Friday 18th December. School’s out! H announced yesterday she doesn’t want to go to her infants school any more and wants to move up to the juniors now – given she was quite worried about it up until we went to the school fair last Saturday, I think it’s fair to say she’s looking forward to it now! So the last Christmas at her current school, and of course Christmas Jumper day.

H christmas Jumper day

Saturday 19th December. Quite how Saturday has come around so quickly I’m not sure, but we headed to what will be our last football lesson of the year at Carshalton Athletic with H’s pal, and then had a lazy afternoon watching Paddington. This is Shaun and H at the football – a surprisingly warm day.

H and Shaun after football

by jo

Project 365 – Week 50

Sunday 6th December. Father Christmas at Chessington today – with a handful of rides open and their Zoo Days in full swing, we headed there a couple of hours beforehand, had enough to do and had fun at Santa. It was quick but not rushed.

Santa Chessington

Monday 7th December. Christmas Radio Times!! H is super excited as there are FOUR David Walliams programmes on based on his books which makes her really happy.

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Tuesday 8th December. I cannot remember anything about today nor find a photo.

Wednesday 9th December. One of H’s Christmas presents. See, I grew up with Peanuts and she isn’t. So now she can. Properly. She did say to me that she wanted my 1970s Snoopy, which I refuse to let her have. “oh well, I’ll get it when you die anyway, so it’ll be mine one day!” she sweetly replied. 

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Thursday 10th December. We took the day off work, visited H’s new school (very impressed) and went to her Year 2 Christmas show. She was a shepherd which should be easy, but I’m so bogged down with everything at the moment that my only option was buying a costume, which I did thanks to a local buy and sell page. Phew. Here she is.

H school Christmas

Friday 11th December. Catching up with my Lindt Chocolate Advent Calendar.

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Saturday 12th December. We were sent some goodies by Disney for The Good Dinosaur – a blog post is coming very soon!

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