Giggles & Kisses

Happy New Year 2015!

2015-01-01T11:21:00.001-08:00

Here are the family's new year's resolutions for 2015:

Rebecca:

-My writing and publishing goals which are listed on Imagine! Create! Write!
-My fitness and weight loss goals which are listed on Skinny Dreaming.

Robert:

- Spend more time with the family.

Angelica:

- Find work I enjoy.

Gabriella:

- Learn to save money.

Isabella:

- Learn to swim.

- Learn to swim with a mermaid tail.

- Learn to cook pancakes.

Connor:

- Learn to be more positive this year.
-Improve my self-confidence.

Cameron:
- Improve my skills playing video games.

2013 New Year's Resolutions - the Kids

2013-01-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

photo taken by Fyfe Photography (many years ago)

I asked my youngest four children what their goals for 2013 would be. I had to explain that goals were things they wanted to achieve or learn during the year.

Here are the answers they gave me:

Gabriella (10 years old):

"I want to earn more money from my shops." (I asked her how she planned on doing that. She answered:)
   - "drawing and adding new designs to my stores"
   - "letting more people know about my stores"
(Her stores, with her designs on gifts, can be found at:
Through Innocent Eyes (Printfection)
Through Innocent Eyes (Zazzle)
Gabby's Art and
Gabriella's Art

Isabella (7 years old)

"I want to be a hairdresser and a writer." (I asked her how she planned on doing that. She answered.)
    -"practicing cutting hair" (getting old wigs from second-hand shops, old Barbies, or, when allowed,
     practicing on Cameron)
   - "writing more stories"
(Bella's series of fairy stories can be found on her Tangle Fairies blog.)

Connor (6 years old)

"I want to get better at my video games." (I told him I am not accepting that as a proper goal, so I talked him into agreeing to this variation on it:)
"I try not to throw tantrums when I can't reach levels in my games"

Cameron (4 years old)

"I want to learn how to jump over houses." (Not very practical, so I asked him for one more. He answered:)
"I want to learn how to read all by myself." (Now this one I can help him with!)

What are your children's goals for 2013?

Happy New Year's Day 2012!

2012-01-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family!

We spent New Year's Eve as a family playing board games and snacking on party food, and then moved into the living room to watch the New Year arrive on the TV with a fireworks display in London.

This was taken with my mobile phone right after we cheered the new year. Robert was beside me so he didn't make it into the photo, and you can just see Kayla in the bottom left corner.

This is the tail end of our "Happy New Year's cheer:

And just after:

Some New year's wishes for you from the youngest four Fyfes.

From Cameron (age 3):

And because he wanted to be on video again:

From Connor (age 5):

From Isabella (age 6):

From Gabriella (age 9):

It's a sort of tradition in my family on New Year's Eve for everyone to say at least three things that they want to achieve in the new year.

Here's the list my children gave me, from youngest to oldest.

Cameron (age 3):
- to see fireworks (His siblings told him there would be fireworks last night, so that is what he had on his mind.)
- to get more hugs and cuddles
- to go to school

Connor (age 5):
- to see fireworks (see above explanation)
- to go shopping more often
- to see Nana and Grandad more often

Isabella (age 6):
- to learn more at school, especially in science, reading and numbers
- to see Nana and Grandad more often
- to get a new pet kitten

Gabriella (age 9):
- to learn to maintain her bike (cleaning it, oiling the gears, etc.)
- to start walking places on her own
- to go to a special art school
- to learn to shade better in her drawings

Kayla (age 17):
- to learn at least 7 different languages
- to learn Judo
- to learn ballroom and Latin-American dancing
- to get her driver's license and a car for the family
- to become a firefighter when 18

Angelica (age 18):
- to join Parkour (a kind of running and fast-movement group)
- to learn martial arts
- to increase her muscle tone and increase her flexibility through exercise
- to pass all of her University courses
- to start the cat army invasion (inside joke with her flatmates)

Victoria (age 20):
- to finish writing her novel "Bark Lord"
- to learn to play the ukelele
- to start a writing YouTube channel

Josh (my son-in-law, age 22):
- to start on a bookkeeping course
- to learn martial arts
- to start a tree climbing YouTube channel

And here's the list from Robert and me:
Robert:
- maintain job security

Becky:
- to achieve specific writing goals
- to get the ten pounds I gained in the middle of 2011 back off
- to do more crafts with my children

It's good to make goals for yourself, whether they are goals for the year or goals that you hope to achieve in a more long-term sense. And the new year is always a popular time to set those goals.

Merry Christmas (with Christmas carols)!

2011-12-25T05:05:00.000-08:00

The children all wanted to sing Chrismtas carols as their present to our family and friends this year.

Gabriella and Isabella:

Gabriella:

Isabella:

Isabella:

Connor (with a song he spontaneously made up for the occasion):

Kayla & Connor (Connor didn't think he culd remember the words without Kayla's help.):

Cameron (He insisted on joining in even though he doesn't really know any songs by heart yet.):

Cameron:

And this one is sung by Gabriella specifically for Grandma and Grandpa:

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

2011-11-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

We went out to dinner at the Harvester, instead of cooking up a full-course Thanksgiving meal tonight. Here's a photo we had the waitress take with my phone.

While at the restaurant, we asked the children what they were thankful for right now. Here are there answers.

Kayla (age 17):

Gabriella (age 9):

Isabella (age 6):

Connor (age 5):

Cameron (age 2, but turns 3 in 4 days):

Santa's Grotto & Christmas Shopping

2010-12-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Santa's Grotto and the kids got to talk to Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

Connor told Santa that he wanted chocolate coins. Santa asked him what else he wanted, and he said he wanted a racing car. (Later at home, he added chocolate syrup to his list.) Gabby told Santa that she wanted books that have to do with animals or animal toys. Santa asked her if she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, but she told him that she wants to be an artist who draws animals when she grows up. Santa told her that he would bring her paints and paint brushes for Christmas too. Isabella told Santa she wanted a Barbie for Christmas and some chocolate.

Then we did some shopping. One of the stores we went into was the Early Learning Centre. The kids love going there and playing with the toys. Gabby and Connor had me take their picture posing as the Early Learning Center elf.

Cameron and Connor really liked the train set.

When we left to go home, we passed by a merry-go-round fair ride and the kids really wanted to ride on it, so we let them.

It was a fun day and the kids were happy with how we had spent it.

Camerons Second Birthday

2010-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween 2010!

2010-10-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

The kids loved dressing up today. Cameron started out the day wearing a jack-o-lantern costume, and then changed into a cheeky devil costume for trick-or-treating. Gabriella wore a batgirl costume and she seemed to think that batgirl was supposed ot be evil, so she made her "evil face." Isabella dressed up as Tinkerbell, and Connor dressed up as a vampire.

Robert even wore his mask and costume tonight for answering the door.

Kayla dressed up as Wednesday from The Adams Family. Angelica, who has a bit of sewing skills, made her own fairy costume. Her friend Kerri came over and dressed up as a vampiress.

Cameron got to trick-or-treat with his brothers and sisters at five houses. then he came home and Kayla, angelica and Kerri took Gabby, Bella and Connor to some more houses.

I made some ghost meringues.

I also made a jack-o-lantern candle holder and a ghost candle holder.

Pagan followed the children around while they trick-or-treated, so I took his photo when he came home.

Angelica decided that she and Kerri wanted a photo with Pagan in it.

I did not dress up this Halloween.

Other photos from tonight:

Autumn Leaves & Other Fun

2010-10-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to take Gabriella, Isabella, Connor and our dog Mercury on a long walk through the fields to go and visit the library. On the way, we passed a lot of trees, where the leaves had darkened and fallen and carpeted the ground in a blanket of yellows, oranges, reds and browns.

I decided to take some portrait photos of the children in the leaves.

Mercury decided that he loved playing leaves, especially when the children kept throwing the leaves in the air or letting him play tug of war with the leaves. (In some of the photos of him jumping, he is out of focus. I didn't have my camera set for action photos as I wasn't expecting his exuberance at finding leaves to play in.)

The benefit of all of Mercury's running around was that he did, eventually, tire enough that I was able to take a couple of good portraits of him in the Autumn leaves.

Then the kids decided to climb a nearby tree. (Bella was not quite as brave about climbing the tree as Connor and Gabby were. And please keep in mind as you view the photos that I did not choose Isabella's outfit!)

Once we got to the library, I let the three of them choose a book each and I sat on the floor beside their child-sized table and read the stories aloud to them. After we visited the library, we went into the store that was next door to it to buy the kids some drinks. They found a Dolmio display and were quick to ask me to take their photos in it.

All in all, it was a fun day. Next time, I'll bring Cameron too. (He had been napping, so we left him home with his two teenage sisters during our walk.)

Jack-o-lanterns

2010-10-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Gabby, Bella and Connor drew the faces they wanted carved into their pumpkins. Robert carved their jack-o-lanterns tonight. Connor called his "an alien!" Here are the results (from left to right: Isabella's, Gabriella's and Connor's):

Isabella At The Park

2010-09-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pictures taken of Isabella today. The sun was a bit too bright and bothered her eyes a little. Isn't she pretty?

Connor & Isabella

2010-09-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Isabella turned 5 part-way through August and her little brother Connor turned 4 at the end of August. With just one year between them, they can sometimes be the best of friends and other times they can be each other's worst enemies. Today was one of the good days when they were happy to be brother and sister.

Connor's 4th Birthday Portraits

2010-09-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

I usually take my children to the park near our house on their birthday, as long as the sun is shining, and take some birthday portraits of them. Connor's birthday was two days ago, but I didn't take him to the park to have his photos taken on his birthday, so today I made up for that and took his birthday portraits today.

Isabella came along and she and Connor took a lot of photos together. The problem is that I have a terrible time deciding which photos to share and end up sharing too many. So I have decided to break the sharing down into three separate posts. The first one, this one, is just photos of Connor. The one after this one will be photos of both Connor and Isabella together. The third one will be photos of just Isabella.

So here are some photos taken today of my handsome four year old son Connor.

Life Is Good - Blog Award

2010-08-31T02:05:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I have done one of these!

I won my first award and I’m very thankful for it and the person who awarded it to me….Grace at Going Going Gone Green.

Life is good!

In order to receive this award I need to answer the following ten(10) questions and give this award to six (6) other people.

1.If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?
I do not blog anonymously, and I'm okay with it. I love sharing about my life. I'm just surprised anyone wants to read about it!

2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.
I think I was at my most stubborn as a child, and that is directly related to how much confidence I had back then. I'm getting my confidence in myself back, now that I am over 30, and my "inner stubborness" is returning as a result. I'll share an incident from my childhood though.

When I was a very young girl, I was friends with a boy. His family and my family were having a picnic at the park together one day. I found a butterfly on the ground. I thought it might be injured because it wasn't flying.

The boy saw me looking at the butterfly and started throwing pebbles at it. His aim was bad and he kept missing it, but I was very upset with him. I asked him to stop. He laughed and said, "Make me!"

I told him, "Leave the butterfly alone or I will HIT you!" I had no intention of actually hitting him. I had never hit anyone.

He didn't stop. I knew I was going to have to hit him, because if I didn't, then what I had said would be a lie and lies were bad. The internal argument in my head went on. Which was worse? Lying? Or hitting? Then I thought about the poor butterfly and the fact that he would keep throwing pebbles at it and probably hit it if I didn't do something. And, even at my young age of six or seven, I realized that if I didn't stand up and follow through on what I had said, he would never again believe me.

So I hit him. It wasn't even that hard but the big baby cried as if I'd given him a broken nose or something!

I got in trouble for it, because of course, he told on me. But I didnt mind, because I knew that I had done the right thing.

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?
A thin person! I've lost almost 140 pounds,but it still has taken a long time to stop seeing the unhealthy, morbidly obese person that I used to be. I've finally been able to wrap my head around the idea that I am no longer that person.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?
I LOVE Diet Mug Root Beer, but it isn't sold in the UK, except, very expensively, from American Soda. Because of the price, it is only a rare treat for me, but it's still my favorite drink!

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?
I have a ton of things I still want to accomplish, and I am slowly but surely taking the steps I will need to achieve all of my goals. My biggest goal right now is that I want to be a published author, with both my children's stories and my novels.

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the class shy person, or always ditching school?
To be honest, in highschool, I ditched school a lot. Most people didn't see me as shy, but I always felt very self-conscious in highschool. I don't really think I fit into any of the categories listed though. I didn't ditch all of the time. I wasn't the most shy. I definitely wasn't an overachiever or the class clown.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what do you see?
Giving birth to each of my seven children. The moments when they each were put into my arms were the most beautiful moments I've ever experienced. Each time, my heart would swell with love for them so much I felt it would burst.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?
It's easy to type up a post filled with the real me and have my true feelings shown. Sometimes, it's not as easy to hit the "post" button and let the post I have written go out into cyberspace. Usually I have no problem with being who I am and typing up posts that are all ME.

10. If you had the choice to sit and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
Most of the time, I would sit and read. It's not that I am antisocial or anything, but I just love getting lost in a good book. It's so easy to let my imagination and the story I am reading transport me to different worlds and realities. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE the life I have and all of the people in my life. I wouldn't change anything about it. But I think I also have an inner need for adventure that I fulfill vicariously through books.

Now I need to pass this award on to 6 other people:

CHRISTA

STEPHANIE

CATHERINE>

GEINA

HEATHER

ARENDA

Connor's 4th Birthday!

2010-08-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today is Connor's 4th birthday.

I hadn't really planned a birthday party for him this year, but after recently celebrating his sister's 5th birthday with a party, he expected a party too. Thankfully, I invited his best friend Tyler over and Tyler's brother and sisters too. Tyler has an older brother Jay who is Gabby's age, an older sister Kyra and a a younger sister Rosie.

So, as an impromptu party, I bought some party favors and some items for a couple of pass-the-parcel games and some pizza for the kids to eat. Robert had already made a terrific fire engine cake for Connor's birthday.

Connor was very excited about his birthday and started the day by opening the birthday presents from his family.

When his guests arrived, they played some pass-the parcel games.

The sun was out, so the children spent some time playing outside.

Even Connor's little brother Cameron seemed to be enjoying the fun.

Next, everyone ate some pizza.

Then we brought out the fire engine cake.

And we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Connor.

Then it was time for Connor to blow the candles out on his fire engine birthday cake.

He had a wonderful day and, when we were putting him to bed for the night, he said, "I loved my birthday party! When's my next one?"

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor! I love you!

The Dancing Boy Who Was Camera Shy

2010-08-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

This morning, Cameron grabbed a flashlight and started "singing" and dancing. He wiggled and strutted and held the flashlight up like a microphone.

His "singing" consisted of him yelling "Yah, yah, yah" at the top of his lungs, and occassionally holding the note for several seconds.

He's done this before, but this morning, I got my camcorder out to video him.

He immediately stopped singing and dancing, and then pouted at me. First, he threw the "microphone" down angrily. Then, deciding that didn't express his opinion well enough, he picked it back up and went and hid the "microphone" under the couch.

I put the camcorder away, and within minutes, he went and got the flashlight back out to use as his microphone and started singing and wiggling again.

Cameron's "Yah! Yah! Yah!" was heard throughout the house again.

My camcorder is tiny. It's just a FlipHD, so I tried to be sneaky about filming him and hoped he wouldn't see me. He did. Immediately.

He did the exact same thing as before, complete with the pout, the throwing of the "microphone" and then the hiding of the "microphone."

So I have no adorable and funny video of my little 1 1/2 year old dancing and singing to show you.

It's just too stinking cute not to have it on video to share with you (and keep as a video memory).

So I will try again next time. Eventually, I will capture his behavior on video.

By the way, I really love my totally silly and independent little boy.

Rides, Cotton Candy & Walking

2010-08-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

I promised the children I would take them for a walk today to our local store so that they could ride the mechanical merry-go-round that has been there for the past few weeks. The forecast told us it would rain this afternoon, so we headed out early in the morning.

On our walk there, we went through a long stretch of park area. There were blackberries growing up and down the entire stretch of our walk, and the kids liked to stop occasionally to pick and eat them.

Along the way, a beautful black and white cat showed up beside us. It was obvious he wanted our attention, so we all stopped to pet him. He rubbed up against all of our legs and bumped his head against my hand several times. Whenever someone started walking past us, he would dash back into the bushes and hide, only to come out again once they had passed.

We walked on, but the cat followed us. It didn't seem to matter how far we walked, he continued to follow us, and whenever we stopped to look at something or to pick blackberries, he'd saunter up to us and demand attention again.

A couple sets of other parents with kids stopped to try and coax the cat out of the bushes so that they could pet him too, but he would only poke his head out far enough to look past them at us, and then he'd wait for them to leave and start following us again.

I started to worry a little as we got closer to our destination, because not only had he followed us for more than a mile, but we were nearing a very busy road which we would cross soon.

A couple passed us going the other way and they had two dogs with them. I knew the cat would hide until they passed, so I urged the kids to speed up with me, and we got further away from the cat in order to discourage him from following us any further. I think it worked, as I didn't see him following us after that.

When we got to our destination, because we had left so early, the rides were not open and neither was the stand that sold cotton candy. Cotton candy is a very rare treat for my kids, but I was determined to make today a special and fun day for the kids, so I had planned on buying them some.

We went into the store, and I let the kids pick out some inexpensive toys. I told them I would spend £1 on each of them and no more than that. Gabriella and Isabella both picked some little Hello Kitty trinkets filled with candy. Connor, as usual, picked a toy car. And Cameron picked a toy cell phone that made noises when he hit the buttons.

When we left the store, I could see that the ride was open now, so I paid for the children all to have a ride on the automatic merry-go-round. It was Cameron's first-ever ride! Fortunately, I had brought along my camera and my video camera. Isabella chose to ride on the dalmation at first, because she loves dalmations, but before the ride started, she changed her mind and chose to ride on Bugs Bunny instead. Gabriella was sweet and chose to ride with Cameron in a tank. Connor surprised me by choosing to ride on a fish.

Once the ride was over, I bought them a bag of cotton candy to share. They did manage to get sticky and messy with it!

Once the children all had some cotton candy, we started home.

The children asked me questions about many of the different plants we saw along the way.

We saw a lot of plums, but none of us could reach the red plums as they were too high up in the trees.

The kids picked more blackberries on the way home.

At one point, we passed by an apple tree that was full of ripe apples. Unfortunately, all of the apples were at the top of the tree, making it nearly impossible to pick any of them. Only one small apple was a bit lower than the rest, so I picked Connor up and he managed to reach it and pick it. Gabby, Bella and Connor all shared it.

They loved walking onto the bridge and looking at the water a short way below it. I even let Cameron out of his stroller to walk over the bridge too, but he soon tried to make his escape. I chased him down and put him back into the stroller.

We found a lot of yellow plums along the path that were within reach and Gabriella and Isabella both tried them and liked them, so they started picking their own. (I had to explain to Bella not to pick them as low as she started out picking due to the possibility of dogs having peed on them.) Bella shared on of her plums with Cameron.

We came acorss a woman walking her friendly golden retriever. We have met this golden retriever before and the kids enjoyed petting him.

The kids climbed down the steps to the tiny bit of waterfall in the creek. By then we were getting rained on, so we didn't stay long.

When the kids climbed back up from the creek, we found out that Cameron had pulled Gabby's beret out from the basket under the stroller and decided to wear it.

Nearing the end of our walk, the kids all climbed on some large rocks that were positioned around the park.

After that, the rain started falling much faster so we had to hurry home.

I hope they enjoyed the day as much as they seemed to. I like creating memories for them with simple days like this.

Isabella's Princess Party

2010-08-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Isabella turned five last Thursday, and she requested a princess party, which we had today.

We bought some of the usual sweets and treats for the party bags, but I wanted something especially princess-themed to give to the party-goers. I bought some wooden frames and painted some of them bright pink, some of the dark blue and some of them yellow. I also bought stencils made to fit the frames. The stencil I bought said "Princess" across the top and had stars and crowns on it.

For the yellow frames I tried a peach colored paint for the stenciling on one and a metalic blue for the stenciling on the other one. The blue looked better than the peach color, in my opinion.

For the pink frames, I chose a metallic purple for the stenciling. I liked the way they turned out.

For the blue frames, I didn't stencil the whole word, "Princess." I stopped when it only spelled "Prince," and I used a metallic aqua color for the stenciling. I really liked the way that they turned out.

We took photos of each child as they arrived at the party. (They were wearing costumes.) We then added the photos to the frames as gifts for them to take home with them. We also took some photos of our daughter with her friends as an extra photo for each of them to take home with them to remember the party.

The kids played the usual games such as Pass-the-Parcel and Musical statues.

I also wanted some princess-themed crafts for the kids to do. First, they made "royal chalices." I bought some inexpensive plastic wine glasses and a variety of stickers. Because my daughter had invited both boys and girls to her party, I bought some stickers of cars, trucks and emergency vehicles as well as stickers of flowers, butterflies, Disney princesses, hearts and stars. (I would have bought stickers of dragons and knights, but I couldn't find any.) The kids then got to decorate their "royal chalices" with the stickers.

Next, we had some crowns I had bought at the craft store for the kids to decorate with stickers too.

Even Cameron got in on the fun!

And surprise! So did Angelica! (Both Kayla and Angelica were very helpful during the party.)

Then we progressed to the food. I wanted to keep it simple, so I had some sausage rolls and pizza that I stuck in the oven and baked beforehand to serve to the kids, and they all seemed to like them.

Last, we moved on to serving the cake.

Robert made a simple two-layer round cake and frosted it. He rolled out ready-to-roll icing and wrapped it around some cake rolls which he then cut in two pieces each for the towers. One of the pieces was 2/3 of the cake rolls and the other was 1/3 of the rolls. We used more vanilla frosting to attach the larger halves of the towers to four sides of the round cake and we put three of the smaller ones on top of the cake. He frosted the tops of the towers and added mini marshmallows around the edges of them. He used food coloring to color the left-over ready-to-roll icing, and then rolled it out and cut out windows and doors, using thinly spread frosting to stick them to the "castle."

We all sang "Happy birthday so that Isabella could make a wish and blow out the candles.

The cake was a big hit!

And Bella really enjoyed her party.

Gabby's Haircut

2010-07-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

I cut Gabby's very long hair today. It is now just a tiny bit below her shoulders. We will be sending the hair to The Little Princess Trust to help create wigs for children with cancer.

For an idea of just how long her hair was before, here are some photos of her last October on her 7th birthday. Her hair has not been cut since.

Connor & The Singing Trees

2010-07-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

I had to do some grocery shopping today as we were completely out of fruit. Connor insisted on coming with me, even though his teenage sister Angelica was home so he could have stayed at home. The walk to the store was 2 1/2 miles each way.

Fortunately, the sun was out. It would have been hot, but there was a strong, cool breeze that kept the temperature from feeling too warm. It was beautiful out.

Like our last walk, there were butterflies fluttering and spiraling all around us. They kept flying really close to us, so Connor exclaimed, "Mommy! The butterflies LIKE us! They like us, Mommy!"

I was surprised that we didn't see as many dogs out as usual. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for dog-walking, yet we only saw about four dogs being walked compared to the usual twenty or so we see on most walks. Connor got to pet most of the dogs we saw. He loves to pet them, and he is really gentle with them. I've taught him never to just run up to the dogs though; he is supposed to always ask the owner before he approaches the dog.

On one of our previous walks, it had been a bit breezy and Connor had heard the leaves in the trees making noise as they blew against each other and wanted to know what the sound was. I told him then that it was the trees talking to each other. He wanted to know what they were saying, so I told them they were welcoming us to the park and saying what a beautiful day it was. Ever since then, every time the wind blows in the trees and he hears the leaves as they blow against each other, he asks me what the trees are saying.

Today, the trees were especially noisy as it was a strong wind blowing. As usual, Connor wanted to know what the trees were saying. We were the only two souls in sight, so I told him that the trees were singing today, and they were singing a song asking us to come and dance with them. Then I sang him a little song (supposedly the one that the trees were singing) that went like,

"Come dance with us;
It will be so much fun.
Come dance with us
In the bright morning sun.
Come dance with us,
Every boy and girl.
Come dance with us;
Feel the joy as you twirl."

And as I sang it, he and I held hands and danced, spinning and twisting and stepping. I could see how happy he was as we danced, and it was so completely worth feeling a little bit silly.

I'll have to come up with something new for the trees to be "saying" next time.

When we got home, he was so tired that he fell asleep on the couch within minutes of sitting down.

Happy 4th Of July 2010!!!

2010-07-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!

Here in England, as you can imagine, there is not much celebrating going on for Independence Day. But I think it is important to keep certain traditions alive for my children, so I try and find ways to make the day special for them.

Usually, we buy fireworks at another time of year when they are available here and save them for today, but we didn't do that this year. There isn't really anywhere that sells fireworks at this time of year. Robert bought some red, white and blue streamers though, and I had to think of a way to use them.

I am not a very craft-y person, but I did my best. I used the streamers to make a ribbon that I hung on the front door. It wasn't very good, but I tried to make it look good, and the children seemed to like it.

I also tied some streamer-ribbons on our stairway.

Then I remembered that I had four bamboo sticks, so I tied (and used some tape to make sure they stayed on) streamers to the ends of the bamboo sticks. When the children came home from visiting their grandparents with their daddy, I showed them the streamer-sticks and told them that they were going to get to "decorate the dog" and have a little parade at the park. They didn't really understand the idea of a parade, but they had fun waving the streamers around and Gabby even made up a song to sing which repeated the phrase, "We're having an American Independence Day parade!"

Mercury kept trying to eat the ribbon of streamers that was tied around his collar, so it started to look scruffy very quickly.

One really cute thing was that our cat Pagan followed us to the park and tried to join in with the "parade."

When we got home, Kayla put some of the streamers on Pagan and then held him for some photos.

We also gave the children some red, white and blue glow sticks to play with when it got dark.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. I know my family did!

Poor Business Practice - Whatever Happened To Customer Service?

2010-06-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have had some very poor customer service from my local New Look store. We bought a pair of jeans for my daughter's birthday. They didn't fit her, so we brought them back to exchange them on a Monday. We arrived 10 minutes BEFORE 8:00pm (when the store was closing), and even though there was still 10 minutes left, the doors were locked and the girl at the door said it was too late. This annoyed me, but I hoped it was a one-off bad experience.

My husband and I walked down there (2 1/2 miles) on the following Sunday morning. We went to Asda first because the store sign on New Look said it did not open until 10:00am. When it was 10:10am, I walked out to the store only to find a group of about 5 women standing outside complaining because the doors still hadn't opened. One of the women knocked on the door and gestured to the sales girls inside.

Slowly, a sales girl walked over and opened the door. Another lady asked, "Aren't you supposed to open at 10:00?" and she gestured towards the sign on the door that stated New Look opened at 10:00am.

In a VERY snide voice, the girl said, "LEGALLY, we aren't required to open until 10:30!"

Now all of the women who had been waiting started complaining amongst themselves and commenting, reasonably, that the sign posted should state that they didn't open until 10:30am if they had no intention of opening until then!

I walked up to the counter to return or exchange the jeans and was told, "Oh, we can't do returns until 10:30!" ??? But they were already open for business!

Not wanting to wait around, I left. I shall walk back again tomorrow afternoon, get a refund and never shop there again. This store's employees act like they don't want customers! If a store acts as though my business is not needed or worse, in the case of this particular New Look, like customers are a nuisance, then they do not deserve my business and I will shop elsewhere.

Now add to this my poor experience with shopping on-line with Asda. Yesterday, Robert and I were very happy to see that a coupon for £75 off our very large order had been applied. Great! We even discussed shopping on-line more often with Asda in the hopes of future offers like this.

Fast forward to today, when, about an hour before our order was due to arrive, we got a phone call from Asda. The £75 coupon had been an error and they would not be applying it to our account afterall. Being that we had been overdue for a shopping trip and needed our groceries for our meals today, I told them to go ahead with the order, but I was seriously annoyed.

The error was on Asda's part, yet they did not offer any compensation. I understand that they did not mean to give us £75 off from our order, but what were they going to do to instill some good will on my part as the customer that their error had just greatly inconvenienced? Even a small compensation such as 10% off that order and free shipping would have gone miles to appease my annoyance. Nothing was offered. They have several competitors in the area for my custom. I am a customer with a large family and I regularly spend £200 to £300 a week at their store. This was a bad move on their part.

What ever happened to customer service? This is a bad economy, so it is reasonable to expect that companies will be going out of their way to make sure that their services are such that customers will want to return. Companies like New Look and Asda Walmart have several competitors for their business, and acts like the previously mentioned will just drive customers like me to their competitors.

UPDATE: ASDA has contacted me and offered some compensation for their error, and I am satisfied with the solution. Maybe customer service isn't dead everywhere yet.

£5 Rocks

2010-06-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

Gabby, Bella, Connor and a neighbor's kid collected together lots and lots of rocks. Then they had a "sale." They were selling the big rocks for £5. LOL!

They had one customer. The first customer got "the first rock free," so they didn't get their £5. But they were really, really excited that they had a "customer," and they told me that he said he was going to put the rock in his garden. (It was a neighbor from a couple of doors down).

I'm glad I have the kind of neighbors who are willing to humor children.

A Saturday At The Park

2010-06-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today we took our younger four children with us on our walk to a local park. It's a long walk, but we saw thousands of tadpoles there a couple of weeks ago, so we were hoping the kids would get to see lots of frogs today.

Some of the houses we saw on the way there had some pretty flowers in their gardens.

It was a long walk to get to the park.

We finally made it to the park. There weren't any frogs, but there was a lot of clover.

I was hoping to spot a four-leaf clover, but no such luck.

There was a tire swing and a rope swing at the park. Connor tried them both out. Gabby decided to explore the area around instead. Bella tried the swings and did some exploring too.

Cameron enjoyed himself, even though he didn't do all of the exploring and playing that the others got to do.

There was a lot of nature for the children to explore.

Today, the local farms were shearing the sheep. The children loved getting to see the sheep, and they even watched a couple of the sheep get rid of their heavy wool.

There were a few benches along the way, and the children were quick to make use of them.

When we got to the lake, we gave the children some bread to feed the ducks with. The lake's two swans swam over to us and brought along their three little signets.

The park's Magic Kingdom was open. It is full of sculptures of giant toadstools and snails as well as other fungi displays.

We hadn't realized that the BBC was holding a Breathing Places event at the park today, but since they were there, we took the kids to see some of the displays.

At the beekeeper's stand, the kids got to try and spot the queen bee.

Another stand had a live owl.

There were other stands too. One of them was a stand where the kids could get free face-painting. Gabby is the only one who decided to have her face painted.

There was an herb garden with an interesting center-piece.

The kids got to bring home keychains with hedgehog pictures on them, booklets that explained about different things in nature and a few other things. Then it was time to head home again.

Of course, the kids still found some last-minute opportunities to explore before we got home.

Though Cameron had not run around as much as his brother and sisters, it was getting close to his naptime, so he was starting to get tired.

Connor started to get tired too, but he already had the solution in mind.

I thought it would be a good idea to show that I had actually come along with the kids on this walk to the park and lake, so I stopped so that Robert could take a quick picture.

Our walk to the park and around it and home again usually takes Robert and I 2 hours, sometimes less. With the kids along, and adding in stopping at some of the stands, it took us 3 1/2 hours. It was worth it to take the children out for such a fun day, and the family got some good exercise at the same time!

The Mommy Fly

2010-06-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

With some much warmer weather arriving, we have had our windows open more often. Because of this, there have been a few flies that have been getting into the house.

Connor, my three year old, was very worried about a large fly that was buzzing loudly aorund the living room today. I explained to him that flies won't harm him, and that the fly was only looking for a way to get back outside.

That's when four year old Isabella chimed in.

"I saw a dead fly in the window! It was a little fly."

(pause)

"It was just a baby fly and this fly" (indicating the large fly buzzing around the room) "is the Mommy fly. The Mommy fly is very sad that her baby fly is dead."

I explained to Bella that flies don't have those types of relationships with their offspring. They just lay the "eggs" and leave.

"Not THIS fly," Bella insisted. "This Mommy fly LOVES her baby fly and she is very sad that it is dead. She is so sad that she is not going to leave. She's going to stay with her dead baby fly."

Nothing I said convinced her otherwise.