Retreeeeat

Well I had a fabulous weekend with lots to do, lots to eat and lots more to say :D

I drove to the accomodation just outside Alston, Cumbria, with my friends Vicky, Caroline and a car full of papers, food and the occassional item of clothing. I barely stopped talking for the 2 hours + that the journay took, which doesn't surprise me. When I visit people I often come away feeling like I haven't stopped talking and worrying that the people I have just left aren't sighing in relief and cooling down their ears with something from the fridge :lol:

This picture is just an idea of what the place looked like after we'd all arrived and gotten ensconced in our chosen places.

Tables and tables of bits of paper, tool totes and every piece of scrapbooking equipment you could possibly imagine. If there was anything you needed that you hadn't brought there was always someone willing to lend or share. If it was inspiration you were short of there were lots of amazing layouts to look at and people willing to offer a suggestion or two.

This is everyone apart from Lynn, who had to leave early. Lets see, if we start at the back on the left we have Sherry (pink hair), Netty, Caroline (hiding behind Susy), Susy and Marie. Next row we have Vicky (pink top), Lesley, Kirsty, Jenny, Ali, Me and Rachel. Finally, behind me and Rachel is Hazel (orange top), Natalie (blue stripey top) and Erika.

We also had a visit from Julie and Helen of Scrapbooking Castle who brought loads of scrummy stash for us to buy at AMAZING prices. I am sorry to hear they are closing down the shop (but it did mean we got some fantastic bargains).

I am very pleased to say that, in among eating the gorgeous buns and cakes, the chocolate, the biscuits, a little fruit and drinking gallons of tea, I did manage to complete some layouts. I started more than I finished (surprise surprise lol) but I still did more this weekend than I've done in the past six months! I will be posting them over on Apshoo shortly so go and have a nosey :D

Cumbria here we come

Well I have the entire contents of my craft cupboard plus the kitchen sink packed and ready to take to Cumbria with me tomorrow :D

I'm leaving Adam and the boys at home whilsty I go away with friends (18 of them!) to an 'adventure centre' in Alston, Cumbria so we can chat, drink, laugh, maybe cry and occasionally stick photos and bits of paper to other bits of paper. I can't wait :D

There will be cakes and alcohol shh. I have been told there may be flatulance too so I'm certainly glad I have no sense of smell.

Sweeties

Adam came home from work today with two big bags of sweeties :D

Apparently he'd been to see a client who makes them. They gave him a tour around the factory and goody bags to bring home. You should have seen Theo's eyes light up when I showed him. He wanted to know if he could have some after breakfast tomorrow. Nooooo lol

Gulp

Theo went to visit his new school today for an hour. I wasn't really worried about leaving him but I certainly wasn't prepared for him to run off and find his friends without a backward glance!

I had a nice walk to the local park with one of the other mums and Louis and Sethy had a play on the swings and slide before we wandered back to collect the big boys from school. They only stayed for an hour.

I got back to find Theo quite happily playing with the interactive white board and to be presented with a picture that he and Isobel, a neighbours daughter who is in this years reception class so was there to play with the new children, had done for me, aww.

As we were leaving I asked Theo if he had enjoyed his time at school to which he replied 'Of course mummy, can I play on the board again next time?' lol

I think maybe September is going to me more traumatic for me than Theo.

Uniform

We took Theo to M&S yesterday for school uniform.

I can't believe he starts school in September! The past four years have just flown by! We've had to buy trousers for 3yr old and they're still too long. Just hoping he doesn't have a growth spurt between now and September otherwise we'll have to go and buy it all again. At least they've got a 2 for 3 offer on school clothes at the moment so we saved some money. We bought a couple of pairs of trousers for 4yr old too so there's no mad dash to the shops when he does grow out of the smaller ones.

I can't believe how much it's all costing though, just to send him to school. School logo polo shirts and sweaters, trousers, shoes, socks, shorts and white polo shirts for P.E. In total I think we've spent about £150 already! Granted we've bought 5 sets of everything except shoes and P.E. kit because I'm not expecting to get more than 1 wear out of each item before they need washing.

That's all basic stuff though. Did you know that M&S sell school blazers with an ipod control panel built into the inside lapel? Talk about excessive. I thought ipods and stuff like that weren't allowed in schools anyway? My nieces and nephews are certainly not allowed to take anything like that into school.

Anyway rant over. Theo is all kitted out so don't have to worry about survive the mad uniform rush in the holidays and I'm sure he'll look very smart, at least when he gets to school, probably not so much by the time he comes home lol.

Check back in September and I'll post a photo of him all dressed up.