warm saturday

Finally we had a Saturday with sunshine popping through the clouds and a hint of a warm breeze! With a little time to spare before the food shop, Oscar and Chris put their wellies on for their weekly Saturday "Daddy and Oscar Adventure!"...and went off to walk in a river somewhere. Meanwhile, Barney and I enjoyed the fresh day on the way to Tesco by going on his first long expedition on his trike.


Barney packed all the essentials in the boot of his trike: a drink and his toy remote control.

He was mostly extremely quiet and enthralled on the journey as I pushed him, except for when we would sing a little song, or he'd just exclaim a lovely little "ooooooooooo!!!!". His little hands held tightly the whole time to the handle bars, and his little legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals properly.

The plan was to rendezvous at Tesco with the other two. They turned up about half an hour later than planned, smelling of forests, and Oscar had different trousers on to when he left.

Turned out they went wading quite deep in the river and a terrified Oscar had taken a perilous step that caused water to fill up one of his wellies.

But the story ends well. We bought coco pops and a Harry Potter tshirt, and some peppers for a snack he wanted at school. I love Saturdays.

bath time

Barney's skin surface area was about 17% covered in blue felt tip, so it was time for a bath. And this bath time something vey special happened... Barney found his reflexion! He kept turning to look at himself in the plug turner, smiling and chatting away to his new friend. I caught a moment where he's considering himself, in a totally hilarious and neck-flattering pose. Love this lad!

shoe elf

In an almost completely opposite way to 'The Elves and the Shoe Maker' story, Barney has become the Shoe Elf at our house by moving and hiding the shoes. Yesterday alone we found one of my red shoes in the kitchen, and one of Oscar's trainers under the couch.

Tonight Barney had just snuck out into the hall to the shoe drawers, and I heard him muttering "...Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy...", so I crept round the doorway to see him crouching trying to lift up Daddy's giant shoe. Heave ho! Triumphantly he shows me what he's found, and then tried to walk past me with it. Not so fast Sonny Jim. Although, if he tried to hide Daddy's size 12 shoe, I don't think it would be the most difficult thing to spot.

Then I ran upstairs to put something away, and returned about 30 seconds later to find one of my wellies in the middle of the living room.

To be fair to Barney, he does try to balance things out. If he takes a shoe from the hall, he'll replace it with something else. Like a spoon. Or the TV remote, twice. Every day is like a treasure hunt , haha :)

    
  

one sock and a chocolate mouth from a stolen smartie,
there has never been a cuter shoe burgler.

mr 5 ★

Oscar has been long anticipating his special day... birthday number FIVE!! It was a super brilliant! Here are some joys from the day...

In the morning...

FIRST BIKE!

A Buzz Lightyear from his little brother

Birthday waffles for breakfast

Party time!! 10 little friends play games and have fun. Like Barney, he also had a very cool music playlist*. He went super crazy dancing to 'This is Halloween", which he'd adamantly insisted on despite the fact it's not October!

Birthday badge:
while pinning it on Oscar said,
"Watch out for my nipple though, please!"

Ozzy throwing some moves during musical statues!

Yummy homemade cake!

The table and party food, mmmm!

Visits filled with lots of love and gifts from family. He felt very happy and completely spoilt!

After everyone had gone, we got cosy and wound down for the evening. For tea we finished off the party food leftovers. Oscar claimed it was the best tea EVER! It consisted of cold pizza, jam sandwiches, carrot sticks, crisps, harribo, tomatoes, and birthday cake. Amazing! Then we snuggled up to watch one if his favourite movies before bed.

We're so proud of our biggest boy and excited for him as he embarks out on the world as a 5-year-old, because of course, now that he's 5 everything is different from when he was 4!! He keeps freaking out remembering he's 5!

Love you Oscar - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Photo time line of Oscar through his first half-decade!

*OSCAR'S PARTY PLAYLIST!

1) One Direction - Beautiful
2) Cars - Real Gone
3) This is Halloween
4) Go Go Power Rangers
5) High School Musical - All In This Together
6) The Jungle Book - The Bare Necessities
7) Cars - All Night Long
8) Pokemon Them Tune
9) Horrid Henry Theme Tune
10) Tangled - When Will My Life Begin
11) High School Musical - Breaking Free
12) LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
13) Toy Story - You've Got a Friend
14) Shrek - Rockstar
15) Transformers - Autobot Theme

school christmas play

It was a parenting milestone watching my little boy be a Christmas Tree in his first school play. It was completely darling. Oscar sang very well, although I think due to so many rehearsals the song had become a bit mundane for him, and so he occupied himself onstage by doing crazy facial expressions. I was very proud!

With strict instructions over photos etc, I had to make most of a moment to take his picture at the end (being careful to crop out any other children from the shot. I was hoping for a nice smile. No matter how many times I asked, he was being Mr Funny. Here is what I got...

I need to get his autograph. What a silly sausage!

mr 1 ★ the party

The family came over for Barney's little party. Nice and simple: a mixed CD with Barney's favourite songs*, a game of pass the parcel, and the birthday cake with the candle in the shape of a dinosaur. It was a winning formula for excited little Barney, surrounded by so many people who made him happy, and his favourite songs to get overwhelmed by! He never stopped smiling.

Barney's dance moves made us all laugh. A mixture of the 'Barney shoulder turn' move, walking close to the TV, bouncing up and down, waving his arms, and running up to someone. Here's some of his moves in action:

The cake and happy birthday song were quite eventful.

Other nice aspects of the afternoon were...
Uncle Dan blowing a party blower into Barney's face, and the gentle momentum nearly knocking him over.
Oscar's face when he won the pass the parcel prize.
Barney running up to Jenny to give her a hug, with his arms wide and a big smile... and then tailing away and leaving her hanging.
Spare icing from the cake ending up on my plate!
Barney enjoying the birthday cake, all over his face and up his sleeves.


It was a really lovely time. I can't believe he's 1! Happy Birthday Barney :)


*BARNEY'S PLAYLIST
1) Party Rock Anthem
2) The Cat in the Hat Theme Song
3) Curious George Theme Song
4) Horrid Henry Theme Song
5) The audio from Apple iPad2 TV Advert
6) Jungle Book - The Bare Necessities
7) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - I Have You Two

mr 1 ★

Little baby chops - how did you grow up so fast?!

It's been a really sweet day together and Barney's had a lovely time. He seems to know he has an extra amount of tinker about him and he smiled and smiled.

Barney got a cutie tricycle for his birthday, here's Oscar pushing him around early this morning as a freshly woken-up Barney begins to realise what a trike is and how it will impact his life.

After lots of playing, cuddling and a trip out to Cheeky Monkeys, we came home for tea and little cakes for his birthday candle. Barney was made up. We're using the big cake for the big family party in a few days, but I don't even think the size of the cake matters to him, when he's so mesmorised by the ONE candle, tinker!!

Love you love you love you my little gorgeous peachy baby chops! Happy Birthday!