random pics and bits and bobs..

Hello everyone!

Just a few bits and bobs really this week!

Nick's off to Mauritius "working" tomorrow for 10 days - well, he does actually work but its the kind of work that makes working seem more like playing! As an example, they are having an 80s night whilst they are there and Nick and 2 of his friends will be dressed as Ghostbusters!! Here he is with the wig that he will be wearing to go with the outfit - utterly hideous eh?!?!!! (Thought you might particularly enjoy this one Lauren!!!!!!!)

So, Nick leaves at 9am tomorrow and, with luck, he'll be home about midnight on the 30th May - if he misses his transfer back from Heathrow, it'll be the 31st. Nick has just complained that its "not fair" that I'm blogging the above pic and that its "character assasination" - if the shoe fits....... ;o) hehehehehehe

Other news, our house is getting a roof this week! All is progressing really well still - we have signed stuff at the solicitors, chosen all our options, and our kitchen has been ordered. All systems go for moving the last weekend in June. Many thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks and your continued support as we get close to the moving date. Its such a short time to get everything done - particularly with Nick away for about 2.5 weeks in the meantime! Oh well, it just gives me less time to get really stressed - if I had longer I would still leave everything to the last minute but I'd have longer to worry!! :o)

This is our actual house last weekend - I'll take another shot when we have more roof and post later this week. We couldn't get right behind it last weekend but they've opened the road now so I'll be able to get a better view next time.

I haven't mentioned training in a while - its been going really well but its going to take a dip the next few weeks cos I won't have chance to run. Caitlin likes to accompany me on her bike but its a bit much for Iz - so I think I'll resort to fitness videos in the lounge!! hahahaha - now THAT's a picture I won't take!!

Today we've been bowling all together as a special treat before Nick goes away. Final score: Nikki 101 (not great but check out Nick's score!!), Izzy (with ramp and bumpers) 68, Caitlin (with bumpers) 61 and Nick 58!!!! Hahahahahahaa - I laughed!!!!!! So funny! Izzy loved the bowling shoes - her first time!

I also got my car back today - all in all this week, servicing cars and fixing and taxing and MOTing my car (annual inspection for cars over 3 years old in case its different across the pond!) has cost us over £800!!! :o( Oh well - they're all running really well now and its just what you have to do when you run cars I guess!

I'll leave you with a rather cute pic of Izzy who kindly allowed me to put her hair in bobbles this morning - she was very proud of her "beautiful" self for about 10 minutes - then pulled it all out!! She's such a tomboy!

This week will be a bit of a toughy. I've taken short days to make sure I can keep on top of the kids, the house and the job so it should all fit in just fine. I'm just praying that the kids stay fit and well as they are now! On Saturday Nick's Mum and Dad are coming for the bank holiday weekend and the three of us are really looking forward to that - particularly taking them round the show home and showing them how our new house is developing. I think that Lauren's friends Claire and Helen might pop round as well one evening - who feels a chic flick and chocolate coming on??!?!

Love to all of you - and particularly love to Sharon and Brad on their last week as single people - this time next week you guys will be Mr and Mrs - aaagghhhh!!!! :o) Enjoy!

Big hugs

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Decisions, decisions, decisions......

Morning all!!.... and especially "good morning" to Lauren now back in Canada for a few weeks and to all her family! Hope you guys are having lots of fun :o)

So, yesterday Nick and I went to the excitingly named "options centre" to choose "options" for our new house - boy was that a marathon session!!

We were there 2.5 hours and really needed another 30mins but I had to get back to work!!

We sorted the kitchen, the tiles, the electric upgrades and the wardrobes though :o) The kitchen is going to be amazing we think! If you look at our previous blog, the worktop in the kitchen showhome is the same worktop we are getting - kind of a matt dark brown called (and this seems to be "colour name of the year!!") 'wenge' - whatever that is?!?!? The units are going to be a high gloss cream with stainless steel handles - should look good! There were too many choices though :o) We've picked out cream tiles for the kitchen and utility and (hopefully) Nick's brother Nigel is going to put a dark laminate / vinyl floor down for us - we're excited!

Other things are just to be quite simple - the bathrooms have a nice white tile, very simple but we don't like too much fuss. Then we can accessorise to suit - the girls are going to have raspberry accessories in their bathroom! Our bathroom might be a bit more detailed - we've asked for a quote for a white tile with small glass tiles as a border - can't describe it that well but if we can afford it it will look wonderful :o)

My car went into the garage yesterday - it ran out of warranty in April and promptly my indicator stalk and rear windscreen wiper motor have failed - the pleasure of fixing it - £300!!!!! Daylight robbery! I think in future I'll go to another garage not the main dealer though because every time I go they also try to charge me for random other things that I don't need - Nick has become quite sarcastic with them!

So, breakfast and Backyardigans with the girls.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxooxoxoxox

What to do whilst waiting for the gas man.....

Hello!

I'm waiting for the gas man to come - so thought I'd do a bit of an update with pics whilst I'm waiting!!

Hopefully, you've read the previous blog on the house and that certainly took up the majority of last week! Few pics from Justin Timberlake for you first tho - we had such a fab evening!

Lauren and I before the show and the opening stage:

The boy sings, dances, plays the piano AND looks hot!!!!!

Nick and I took a few photos in the show home last weekend too - these will give you some idea of the house - just remember though - this is the spanky nice showhome, expensively decorated and filled with all possible luxury upgrades!!!!! Nick and I are going to the "options centre" on Monday - to choose tiles, kitchens, bathrooms stuff - but there will be a whole heap of optional extras which we could choose to upgrade to if we want. Fitted wardrobes, carpets, kitchen appliances etc etc so we're going to have to be very focused to avoid spending ridiculous sums of money!!

Lauren's room, the kitchen, view from master bedroom through dressing room to en-suite bathroom, lounge through to dining room (with my best mate Ros, her son Finn and Izzy!):

Ooohhhh - gas man's here - I'll just let him in - BRB!!

So, the boiler and fire has to be serviced and a safety certificate issued to part ex our house so that's what's going on there!

Last weekend Nick and I went to stay for the night with his friend Sarah and her husband Dan near Manchester. Sarah is the lovely lady from Beachcomber who Nick works for in Mauritius and the Seychelles - and also the lovely lady who is organising our amazing holiday this year. The holiday just got more amazing - as well as the Seychelles, she's also paid for 3 days in Dubai en route flying business class with Emirates!!! Wow!!! We are SOOOooooooo lucky!!!!!!

Whilst we were away, Brent and Lauren took the girls to Beamish. They took some lovely pictures - check out Lauren's blog (link to the right) if you want to have a look :o)

Better get back to the gas man!!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxox

a very expensive week!

Hello all

Once more, this will be a quick one cos I'm just about to go off to work - this week I'll have chance to do a proper one but last week was crazy busy - and this is why........

Last week on Saturday (ie Saturday before last) - Nick was in Gran Canaria and Lauren, the girls and I decided to go look round a new showhome in Ingleby Barwick. We'd seen the plans a few months back and the house looked lovely but its always hard to tell til you see it "in the flesh" and the showhome on site is the house that we liked the look of in the plans.

So, we looked round - and fell in love!!!! Guess what happened next..... Nick came back from Gran Canaria late on the Saturday evening and on the Sunday, he came with me for a look round - and also loved it. BUT its a lot of money and we went for a chat at the pub and talked ourselves out of buying it..... by Sunday bedtime, we'd talked ourselves back into having a bit more information!!

Monday lunchtime, I called into the showhome to chat to the very nice ladies there. They could do a part exchange on our house for the new house (not quite built yet - just up to the first floor windows!!) which, if we were able to get a good price for ours, would be excellent. Hassle free - we wouldn't have to worry about showing our house, bringing round estate agents and paying estate agents fees AND it would all be done very quickly.

The showhome ladies arranged for our house to be valued so that they could make us a part exchange offer and estate agents arranged to come round last Friday. All last week, mad tidying took place!! I took Friday off to do the final thorough clean and Lauren had been busy all week. Nick had done some serious stuff shifting on the evening and between us all, by Friday lunch, the house looked lovely! I'd also arranged for our own estate agent to come round so that I knew what the actual value of the house would be - just in case they tried to offer us something ridiculous on the part exchange.

Valuation from the builder first - lovely chap but he didn't tell me what he thought the house was worth. Then the independent estate agent - who told me that my house was worth less than I thought cos of the shared access to the drive (and I agree - we would never buy a house with shared access again!!) and also cos the kitchen is now looking a little dated.

That was a bit of a downer and by this time, Lauren had picked Caitlin up from school so the 3 of us decided to go back and look at the showhome again to cheer ourselves up! On the way, my mobile rang but I couldn't answer cos I was driving. I listened to the message outside the showhome and it was someone from Miller (the builder) head office saying she had a part exchange offer for me (literally 1 hour after the estate agent had been!!) and to call into the showhome for details - so I did!!

They offered us £15k more than I'd been told our house was worth!!!!!!!! I'd be no good at poker cos I squealed with excitement and grabbed Lauren's hand then we went and skipped in the showhome where I phoned Nick who said "did you bite their hand off and pay the cheque"?!!!!

Long and short of it is Saturday morning, as soon as the showhome opened, Nick and I were there with a reservation cheque and ID and we filled out the forms and the house is now ours for the taking!!!! We're just finalising details with the bank this week so its not a totally done deal yet but the house is reserved for us and we're starting to plan decor etc etc!! So exciting!! If it all goes ahead, we should be moving in in early July :o)

Anyway, the bit you've been waiting for - what is the house like...... here's the link!

http://www.millerhomes.co.uk/explore/NorthEast/10842/housestyles/4646

Enjoy!!!!!

More details pics and other non-house news later.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

JUSTIN IS SOOOOOooooooo FINE!!!!!!!

AAAGgggghghghghghghghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........

I'll write properly later cos I've got to go to work but just wanted to say.....

Justin was utterly delicious!!!!!!!

Lauren and I squealed like teenage girls! It was so much fun! The stage was awesome, the dancers were amazing, the lighting was breathtaking and Justin was a lot more talented than I thought he was going to be - gorgeous voice and his dancing - mmmmm mmmmmmmmmm ;o)

That boy is FINE!!

Anyway - I'll post some pictures later but just wanted to share the excitement - Lauren might get some pics up during the day today so you might want to check her blog later too!!

Love to all - and especially JT :o)

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxox

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

Theseus and the Minotaur part 2

So when Theseus got to crete he met a princess.Who gave him some string so he could find his way out of the Labrinth.So the brave prince went to fight the beast.He found it in the Ladrinth and fought it. Suddenly the beast fell down dead. Theseus had won then he went to the princess and she came with him. Theseus was so excited that he forgot to put up the white flags. His Father thout that his son was dead so he threw himself from a clif and that is why the asian sea is called that.

Funny Feet

Hey all

Happy Wednesday!! Don't know why I felt an urge to say that - except I've got the afternoon off, the sun is shining and I'm feeling pretty happy!

Some good news today - I've been in an "acting" role as head of speech therapy since April 2006 when our previous head retired. Over the last year, the NHS has been reconfiguring all over the place so my job couldn't be made permanent - anyhoo, a letter landed on the mat today to say that I'm no longer just pretending, I'm head of service for real!! Mind, after the lengthy staff meeting yesterday I'm not sure if I still want the job!! No, I'm chuffed - that's good news :)

Anyway, here's a pic of my new office, just so you can see where I sit! - anyone recognise the mug!!?!?!?! Comments welcome ;o) (Thanx Sharon x)





Nick's doing well at work at the moment, lots of exciting new developments have opened up over the last few weeks so we're hoping for an interesting 2007!! He's been away in Leicester overnight with work - I phoned him this morning just before 9:30am to check how he was doing - only he'd not put his clock forward an hour on his phone for British Summer Time and thought it was still 8:30!! OOooooppsssss - he was s'posed to be meeting Les who works with him at 9:30 ready to leave to come back up north to Middlesbrough!!



So, the funny feet well.... Last Wednesday, Lauren and I went out for our first training run for the Race for Life. It went ok, except for my knee and foot really hurting as we ran (and Lauren was in pain too with her knees so we were a right pair!!). So, I went to a specialist running shop for some guy to check out if I needed special shoes for my funny flat feet. He made me do all sorts of exercises and said "yes, you have no arch on your left foot and almost none on your right - you really do have very flat feet" - no kidding!!!



Anyway, he tried one pair of shoes on me and made me run on the running machine but said they were still no good and he'd have to order some in - but they come from China and take 40 days!! So, I asked if I could still run in the meantime on my old shoes and would I injure myself - to which he simply replied "yes"! So, no running for me until the shoes arrive but in the meantime my Dad has advised cycling and general fitness stuff so since last Wednesday we've been running once and cycling 3 times and its going really well :o) I'm thoroughly enjoying getting out for 30minutes after work and thrashing the bike - great stress reliever!



Last weekend, Nick built a little wooden swing in the garden for the girls and Lauren took them out on it yesterday and took a few pics - here they are looking very cute :o)





So, Saturday is Lauren's 22nd birthday and Caitlin's 8th birthday party - to which she has invited 7 friends for a beauty party and a movie after. The beauty party bit is organised by a company called 'girls just wanna have fun' - if you want to see what she's up to, check out this link http://www.girls-just-wanna-have-fun.co.uk/ Caitlin is having a splashdown party - should be fun!! Next week there'll be plenty to blog I'm sure plus all the preparations for Easter too!.. and I'll pester Caitlin tonight to finish off her Theseus story ;o)

God bless and love to you all!!


Nikki xoxoxoxoxox