Nick's away again

Just a quick post before the kids come home...

Nick's in Gran Canaria this week installing an art installation at a gallery for Jane and Louise Wilson (check out this link to see what they do: http://www.lisson.co.uk/artistDisplay.asp?ArtistID=22 ) They're quite famous in the art world tho, being hopelessly inartistic, I have no clue about it all!!

Poor boy tho, first of all, they arranged the most awkward flights for him - from Newcastle, to Heathrow, to Madrid and then to Gran Canaria - apparently it was cheaper. From Nick's point of view it would have been 7 hours less travelling on one plane to take the DIRECT flight from Newcastle to Gran Canaria!

Next of all, he speaks not a word of Spanish. Unfortunately, he's not in the touristy part of Gran Canaria, so nobody there speaks English! I lie, Nick does know a tiny bit of Spanish.... from Dora the Explorer!! - so he can say "hello Mr Toucan" and "lets go" and he can count to 5 - unfortunately Dora doesn't teach "where is the art gallery please", "a large beer" and "where are the toilets and the cash machine"!!!!!! ;o)

Last of all, the locals have a very different attitude to work than Nick - he works from sun up to sun down, they work from the end of a leisurely breakfast through to about 3pm - then stop!!!! So, he has to install this thing by Friday afternoon - but if the guys he's working with don't get a move on, it won't get done and unfortunately Nick is the only person in the world who knows how to install this piece so if they don't get it done - well... it might not get done at all.

Nick's back late on Saturday night. Caitlin starts percussion club this afternoon and Izzy is having lots of fun at nursery and is now pretty reliable at using the toilet all day - very few accidents now :o)

Justin on Tuesday - "I'm bringing sexy back......." yummy!!!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoox

Date with Justin....

Hey all - just a quick blog.......

Lauren and I are going to see Justin Timberlake in Newcastle on May 1st - aaaaggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here he is, the new man in our lives!! ;o)

Talk about spontaneous, we were just watching tv last night when an ad came on to say there were still tickets left so I rushed to the pc, bish, bash, bosh - we've got tickets in the post!!

YAY!!! - now THAT will be a blog!!!!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

ps - now off to the itunes store to buy his album and learn the words for a week on Tuesday ;o)

Nikki's New Camera

Hello all :o)

Happy Saturday!

This is just a brief blog to let you know that Nick got home safe and sound from his week away, the girls have had a super week at school and nursery and - I got a new camera! From now on, I too will be just like Lauren irritatingly taking photos of EVERYTHING!! She's got me hooked ;o)

So, here are a few of the results on the new camera - as you can see, we had fun with face paints this morning ... well, right up until Izzy accidentally knocked the water for cleaning the brush all over the floor... hey ho!! Joys of children :o) The other is Brent and Lauren on Thursday night - he too is becoming used to being photographed at any opportunity!

So, I'm happy with those!! Hope you enjoy them too!

Hope you are all having a great weekend

God bless and lots of love

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

MEGA BLOG

So, I'm now a computer whizz!!! Having discovered that the problem was that Nick's computer had crashed and all pics are stored on his computer and accessed over the local network, I've fixed it!!!! As you may gather.... Nick's away..... but there you go, I didn't need him anyway ;o)

Thursday before Easter, Izzy acquired a new "Fifi and the Flowertots" outfit and Caitlin just decided to look far too old and gorgeous - thought you might want to see a couple of pics of that!



EASTER / Caitlin's birthday

So, on the Saturday of Easter weekend, Caitlin ended up down in Buckingham with Nick whilst Lauren recovered from her heavy cold up in Teesside with Izzy and I. So, Good Friday was beautful weather and Izzy and I had a lovely time at the park - she insisted on being photographed in front of the flowers!!


Fortunately on the Saturday, Lauren was recovered enough to head down south so the three of us set off in the morning, stopping off for some retail therapy at Meadowhall in Sheffield on the way. For the rest of the day, Caitlin enjoyed a wonderful day out at Gulliver's theme park with her Daddy, Uncle Nige, Uncle Rich and Nanny and Grandad. They clearly all had a fab time, on the roller coasters, the water slide and ... hold on a minute, who let the convicts in?!?!?!!!!


When they returned from Gullivers, we arrived about 5 minutes later and Caitlin was excited to open her birthday presents from Nick and I and Izzy and Lauren - Caitlin and Izzy were delighted to be reunited :o) They are so cute together! Caitlin got a DS game from Izzy and an ipod and digital camera from us. Lauren bought her another willow tree angel for her collection and some DVDs that they both wanted to watch together (can't beat the classics - Sound of Music all the way!!) We then had a beautiful birthday cake with a sparkler in - lots of fun.

After the presents, we made our annual Easter baskets. This year, Rich (Nick's brother) had gone for the ultimate and had machined out of clear perspex an Easter egg 3D frame onto which he placed layer upon layer of mini eggs - it was fab (but I can't see any pics of it - sour grapes from Nick I think!!). Nick and Nige went out into the garden and wasted inordinate amounts of time and wood trying to make something to beat Rich (sibling rivalry at its worst eh??!).... and failed miserably! Anyway, next year they are determined to do something amazing so we'll wait and see...

Nick's parents, Nick and I and Nige and Rich all went to the Easter vigil on Easter Saturday evening and then early to be ready for Easter Sunday.

On Easter Sunday, Nick's cousin Janet and her husband Alan came for the day with their children Luke and Skye - Caitlin and Izzy were SOooooo pleased to see them - as you can see :o)




We had a fab dinner as expertly and professionally prepared by Nick's mum!!





You might just make out in the middle of the dinner table a wooden duck.... usually we spend Easter with all 3 of Nick's cousins on his Mum's side of the family - Ian and his wife Kay and their sons Adam and Ryan and Alan and his wife Kate and their children Harriet, Alice and Joe. Last year, Alan and Kate moved out to Dubai with Alan's work and this Easter Ian and Kay went to visit them. The duck represents Alan and Kate on all family occasions that they would normally be present and Janet and Alan bought the duck over for Easter - he thoroughly enjoyed the festivities!!!!


After dinner, we all went out to the park to fly a large black erm, ummmmm, well........ ermmmm..... bin bag?!?!?!! (or something else - as this is a family site, I won't caption this picture of Lauren with the inflatable..... ;o) ) It was a gorgeous sunny day and we had a super time.

After the park, Easter present opening time - always full of fun and chocolate!!!






Easter Monday we headed back up north stopping by at my Nanna's on the way to check she was ok.


Tuesday, Lauren, the girls and I went to York for the day on the train. Izzy has only been on a steam train before and she doesn't really remember that so she was very excited! It was a chilly day but dry and we went to Jorvik viking museum, had a delicious lunch at the pizza restaurant (where Caitlin inhaled helium from her balloon with hilarious results - I took a video of it on my phone and I will continue to try to work out how to get my videos onto the blog for you to see!). After lunch, off to York Minster which is always so inspirational :o)






On Thursday of last week, Lauren took the girls out to the farm in the morning - she's probably got some pics on her blog but I can't find them on the shared drive so if you want a look - check out Lauren's blog - link to your right!!


In the afternoon, the girls met some new neighbours, David who is slightly younger than Caitlin and who started in her class at her school yesterday and his little brother Joe who is slightly younger than Izzy :o) Caitlin and David have spent every possible moment together ever since and Caitlin was SOOOoooo pleased that he was going to her school :o) That's lovely cos we had neighbours that Caitlin was good friends with until they moved to Aus last year so she's well chuffed to have someone to play with again on the street :o)



At the weekend, Caitlin went to my Mum and Dad's and on Friday night we had a murder party with Lauren's boyfriend Brent and some of her other friends, Claire and her boyfriend Nixon, Andrew and Becky. It was great fun - I cooked all day and we had scrummy food, great company, everyone threw themselves into role and dressed the part and it was so much fun! I think Lauren has pics of the night on her blog too :o)



On Sunday, Nick went away to London for the week to exhibit at a human resources conference for his Team Film team building business - he just phoned this evening to say that their stand won the prize for "best small stand" at the whole conference which is awesome news :o) I'm so proud!


I went down to Mum and Dad's on Sunday to have lunch and pick up Caitlin with Izzy. My Dad took me to a fab running shoe shop in Bradford and I FINALLY have new shoes for my funny feet - get this, they're called "BEASTS"!!!!!!!! YAY!!! I have BEASTS for my funny feet :o) So, I've been out running twice on my new shoes and I can start to see a bit of improvement though I have a long way to go - I'm determined to run the whole 5k however so your encouragement and support is much appreciated :o) On that, we're now running on the 8th July instead of the 23rd June cos Nick and I are going away to Center Parks now with our best friends Ros and Phil. They also have 2 children, Joe and Finn, so it will be just like old times to be away on our own - any chances of us being up before lunch do you think?!?!?!??!!



As you may have noticed (how could you miss!!) we're also off on our own later this year to the Seychelles for our 10th wedding anniversary - 8 days on a private island resort just the two of us - wow!! Check out the link if you want to see where we're off to...

http://www.beachcomber-hotels.com/en/hotels/sainteanne/hotel.htm



Best of all was that Nick heard last week from the lovely Sarah who employs him to do all the Beachcomber work in Mauritius and the Seychelles that she has organised first class flights for us as a special treat - woowowowowowowowowowowoowwowoowwowowowowowowoww!!!!!!

We are so blessed - what an awesome treat!!!



Nick's away all this week so I'll probably blog again after the weekend.


Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

BLOG PROBS

Hi all...

Well I've been frustratingly trying to blog for the last 30 mins but every time I try to upload pictures it crashes on me :( So... I'll give it another try with pics and if that doesn't work - you'll get the unillustrated version!!

Hugs

Nikki xxxx

Happy Easter

Hello to you all and a very Happy Easter to you :o)

And hello in particular to all the new Joyce family news Blog readers - PLEASE do feel free to comment if you want to - feedback is much appreciated ;o)

This is just a quick update whilst Nick is out to fetch a much needed curry - yummy!!

We've had a fab Easter in Buckingham with Nick's family - parents, brothers and his cousin Janet and her hubby Alan and their gorgeous children Luke and Skye. Excellent fun for us all - particularly as there is about 16 months between Luke and Caitlin (Luke is younger) and 6 months between Skye and Izzy (Skye is younger) so the children had loads of fun in each other's company. Chocolate abounded and the weather was gorgeous and warm and sunny so we all were able to have fun in the park.... more pics and details on the next blog! We just got back this evening - hence the need for curry!

Caitlin's birthday has also been a major event this last week and I hope she will write a blog about it later in the week and share her highlights with you all.

Well, Easter is a perfect time for thinking about the beauty of everything around us, the lambs, the flowers, the spring sunshine and also for reflecting on quite how blessed we are in so many ways... last week my Great Aunt Rosa died (my Nanna's younger sister) after a long illness. It's been a very difficult week for my Nanna (who is 91) as she has been in daily contact with her sister for about 20 years since they both lost their husbands. I was able to make it to the funeral and spent the day with my Nanna and it was precious time - to be able to support her and be with her on such a difficult day. Towards the end of the day, with her family around her, despite her sorrow, Nanna was able to say "how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family".... We may not see each other all the time, we live in different parts of the country (some in different parts of the world) but there is a special bond between us that you can really feel at a time like that - through the people who were actually there and also through the cards & calls that Nanna received from those who couldn't be there but which really brought her comfort.

So, to our wonderful extended family (including those friends who are so special that they are also family!) thankyou, you are all very special to us :o)

Lots of love and happy Easter

Nikki xoxoxoxox

We LOVE birthdays!!

Good evening to you all - its Sunday night, the girls are (almost) in bed and asleep so I'll catch you all up on the events of this weekend :o)

Friday - mad shopping day! This weekend was Caitlin's birthday party, Lauren's actual 22nd birthday and with Easter coming up I had LOTS to buy - all done now though so we're sorted for everything, phew!!

Saturday morning - Lauren's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOZZIE-LOO!! Lauren had saved (most of - she's a nightmare!!) her presents and cards and we were all up at 6am to open them! Well, the girls are a bit under the weather (more on that later) so that's why they were awake so early.

After that though, it was really all go, go, go to get ready for the birthday bash. I was out just before 8am with Caitlin and Izzy to go and pick up Olivia, Caitlin's best friend. Olivia's Mum Melanie goes to college on a Saturday morning so we needed to get Olivia here so that she wouldn't miss the beginning of the party. I took the girls to Tesco (cos I'd forgotten the chocolate for the fountain - how I wish it had stayed forgotten ;o) more on that later!) and then we came back to tidy up for the party. Olivia and Caitlin were SOoOooooOOOooo helpful tidying up - fab girls! Lauren took Izzy to the shops to look for some more PS2 Sing Star mics cos one of ours was broken - could you believe it, there were NONE in any of the 6 shops they visited!


Anyway, they returned and Izzy was clearly not well - very hot and flushed and clingy :o( She had a little sleep after lunch and we got everything else ready to go and Caitlin put on her beautiful dress. The people doing the beauty party arrived just before 1pm and all the guests arrived. From 1pm to 3pm, the girls were beautified and played Sing Star - take a look!

The beauty girls' van
Sing star in action

Pedicures and footspas

Look at Caitlin's stunning hair do!

Their hair was beautiful and their make up was very sparkly :o) The girls just wanna have fun women were excellent - all the brushes are sterilised for each girl, they use separate applicators for each make up and they put bin bags in the foot spas to keep them clean! They were also extremely lovely to the girls and they all had a fab time! Oh - who was there... Caitlin, Olivia, Emily (her best friend since she was 5 months old!!), Miah, Preeti, Aimee, Charlotte and Danielle. Caitlin won the Sing Star competition singing Laura by the Scissor Sisters and the girls all had great fun singing in front of the big screen!


During the singing, Izzy reappeared and put on her beautiful dress courtesy of Nanny - she looked lovely! Unfortunately, she had a raging temperature by this point and was a bit sick but eventually Calpol (tylenol - Transatlantic translation!) did the trick and a dose of Ibuprofen (advil) later had her pretty much joining in with pass the parcel and even managing a bit of party food - few more pics for you then...

Izzy looking adorableEven Nick sang Sing Star!The birthday girls

Caitlin and Emily taking the whole manicure business very seriously!

Pass the parcel
So, the food was a hit - egg pittas, cheese rolls, cucumber, tomatoes, crisps, sausages and mini scotch eggs for savoury and then popcorn, cakes and the CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN WITH MARSHMALLOWS AND FRUIT KEBABS!!!! - the fruit kebabs were so SCRUMMY but this was the cause of the ensuing disaster!!

The table set with food

We decided to do the cake and sing happy birthday to Lauren and Caitlin first then moved the cake out of the way - fortunately as it turned out...

Birthday cakes and singing

The girls were gathered around the chocolate fountain enjoying dipping their fingers, marsmallows on kebab sticks and fruit kebabs into the chocolate as you can see from this picture.
Unfortunately at this point, both Lauren and I put our cameras down and were busy with food and party bags cos BOY if we'd been recording the next incident we could have made a mint on youtube or "you've been framed"....

Somehow, someone got their kebab stick stuck in the holes at the base of the winding stem up the chocolate fountain, at this, the fountain started crazily spinning, whipping the stuck stick round and round and spraying the table and the kitchen with chocolate!!! There was stunned silence initially and then AAAAGGGGHHHHHH - the girls screamed and squealed and after a few seconds, Nick sprang into action to unplug the fountain!


You should have seen the mess!! The girls were covered!! So, Lauren and I frogmarched the girls into the playroom to wipe them down with wet wipes whilst Nick made a start in the kitchen - poor Miah was so covered that I had to put her in some of Caitlin's trousers and quickly put hers through the wash!!!! All the remaining food on the table was COVERED - chocolate coated cakes, salted popcorn (yuk), cheesy puffs (double yuk!) and sausages (triple yuk!!!). Well, we took a couple of pictures of the aftermath.... enjoy!!!!

That all made the party fairly unforgettable and most important of all, Caitlin and her friends had a lovely time!

I think that's about if, Caitlin went to a birthday party today for her friend Aimee and Izzy was up half the night hot & sick but both girls are now happily asleep and (hopefully) will sleep well tonight.

Caitlin's on her Easter holidays for the next 2 weeks - so we'll blog later in the week to let you know what we're up to.

Love to all, God bless!

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxox

A riddle.....

..... what do you get if you cross a chocolate fountain, a bamboo kebab skewer and 8 over excited 8 year old girls at a birthday party......?????????

A massive, huge, enormous, exploding chocolate fountain type mess!!!!!!

Come back soon to hear the details, see the pics and enjoy the madness of Caitlin's party....

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox