Children

Price (not prize) Pumpkins

Posted on by Libby Price

I am not a big lover of arts and crafts with or without the kids. I am an accountant – I don’t do creativity – paint by numbers would be my limit. Obviously, because of this, my kids ADORE anything arts and crafts – and my study has a whole cupboard allocated to craft supplies – but I try my hardest not to go into the cupboard……

‘Mummy, can we do painting?’ is surpassed in the nightmare stakes by possibly only ‘Mummy, can we get the Playdoh out?’ (My OCD can not cope with the Playdoh colours all being muddled up!!!)

Anyway, due to me and the husband gallivanting, followed by the nanny going on holiday to recover from her overtime, I haven’t been in the office much for the month of October.  So on Tuesday morning, after a dentists trip with all 4 kids (thankfully for once this went remarkably smoothly and I didn’t leave feeling the need to open gin!) I bought 4 pumpkins and left the kids in the hands of the nanny to do Halloween crafts!! With my parting comment, as I whizzed off to the office to do some work (not t*t about on social media, honestly!),

‘Could you take some photos for my blog please?’

(I think perhaps this should be added to my wonderful nanny’s job description for whenever she does arts and crafts with the kids so I can blog vicariously and look a bit more yummy mummy?!?)

So here you have it – 4 Price children and their pumpkins!

 

Thank goodness they could make the mess outside!!
Thank goodness they could make the mess outside!!

 

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The finished articles! I thought one had a hair piece (but on closer inspection it's the boy standing behind it!!)
The finished articles!
I thought one had a hair piece (but on closer inspection it’s the boy standing behind it!!)

 

And we also have pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup made with the insides – and happy, tired children #perfectcombo

The Prices do Blenheim Palace

Posted on by Libby Price

Back in July we went to Blenheim Palace for the day to meet up with some of my old Uni mates. Basically this involved sitting in the Pleasure Gardens drinking champagne all afternoon whilst the children had a ball in the maze and on the adventure playground! However, you can upgrade your one day pass for an annual pass, so we did this – planning to go again and see more of what the huge estate had to offer.

Today was the husband’s birthday (43 – although he was convinced yesterday he was only going to be 42!!) – and his destination of choice for the day was Blenheim Palace.

When we got there I immediately upgraded my annual pass to a ‘privilege pass’ for the grand total of £5. You are then entitled to 15% off in the various restaurants and shops – and with 4 kids, this has more than paid for itself in one visit!!

We hopped on the train (rebranded a ‘spooky train’ as it goes through a shed with some halloween gubbins draped around it!) from the Palace Station down to the Pleasure Gardens (it costs 50p for a single journey for over 5s). Again we did the maze – nothing quite instills fear like a 2 year old announcing ‘Mummy, I need a wee’ in the middle of the maze!! Thank goodness for the fold up potty. And the kids (and big kids!) all enjoyed the adventure playground. We also used the sundial today (typical in British weather terms that we could use it in October but not in July!!) and found out that it can’t cope with changing from British Summer Time yesterday – but would have been spot on last week!! We also went through the butterfly house (well, everyone else did – I looked after the pushchair and bags as I’m not a huge fan of flying things!!)

 

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We tried to go for lunch in the cafe over at The Pleasure Gardens but it was RAMMED (sunny day for the first day of half term meant there were thousands of people there!)

There was quite a wait for the next train back so we walked – and I am so pleased that we did. There are some AMAZING trees in the grounds which all of the children really enjoyed climbing – we got some ace pictures too.

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We tried to do an arty ‘everyone throw leaves in the air at the count of 3’ photos – but the 9 year old decided to chuck his leaves directly into the face of his 11 year old sister and so a HUGE strop ensued!!

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We made it to the Palace and stopped for lunch there – which was pricey and there wasn’t much choice – but the kids coped with crisps and cake – they have been taught well!! But everyone was tired and bit a grumpy, so we headed home – and STILL haven’t done the palace itself! Oh well – the tickets are valid until July 2015 so plenty of time for a return visit.

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It was a lovely Autumnal day out – and reminds us what a green and pleasant land we live in. Thanks for a lovely day Blenheim – we’ll be back!

Talent – The Photo Gallery Week 205

Posted on by Libby Price

The theme of The Sticky Fingers blog for The Photo Gallery this week is talent.

I guess my talents have generally been recognised as musical and academic rather than sporting.  Back in the day I passed my Grade 8s on the piano and the flute – although rarely get chance to play nowadays.  I did ‘perform’ at my Great Aunt’s 80th birthday recently – as did lots of my family members.  However I think my daughter / niece / cousins would lynch me if I put any of the photos of us all performing out in the public domain!!

So therefore I think I should share this week’s potential new talents for the Price family!!

The youngest Price daughter started ballet with her big sisters on Saturday – here they all are looking very proud!

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And then the third Price-let joined her older brother and sister at rugby on Sunday – she ADORED it (this may be because it was lovely and sunny – we will witness her true commitment when it’s pouring and freezing!)

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And another set of boots for the husband to clean on a Sunday night……

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Not sure if they will prove to be great talents – but I’m just pleased they’ll all have a go at such disparate hobbies. And don’t worry – the eldest is carrying on the tradition and learning the piano and flute too – we’ve even been known to duet!

Do pop across to The Photo Gallery and see other people’s talents…..

Sticky Fingers Photo Gallery

Friday Funtimes

Posted on by Libby Price

So ‘Friday Funtimes’ is similar to ‘Monday Meltdown‘ but a different day requires a different alliteration.

My day so far:

0520 – husband gets up to go to meeting in London
0545 – disturbed by her father, the 4 year old comes and gets in with me, wriggles a lot
0630 – alarm goes off, shower, nag children, dressed, nag children,  breakfast, nag children
0720 – nanny arrives, drop daughter at station, go to work
0920 – leave work and go for lovely manicure and pedicure as pre Fall Ball preparations (tomorrow night’s fun!)
1120 – quick butcher and hardware store trip (support your local businesses and all that)
1145 – back at my desk for the afternoon, drink coffee when really want gin
1625 – leave office to go to station to collect daughter again, sneaky bit of Kindle reading
1700 – get home, quick handover with the nanny
1740 – text message from husband to say he’s stuck on motorway and won’t be home for ages
1745 – round up 3 of the children to come with me for spray tan (more pre Ball prep)
1800 – don paper pants and be sprayed, leaving children with my phone watching Peppa Pig

And seemingly taking random photos.......
And seemingly taking random photos…….

1810 – 2 year old upset that she can’t have her ‘face painted’
1820 – get home, leave 3 kids in car, straighten eldest daughters hair
1825 – back in car to take eldest to party
1827 – do quick U turn as daughter has left present for birthday girl at home
1829 – back home to find husband in garden, locked out with no keys having just got back
1830 – deposit son at home, little ones remain in car
1840 – drop eldest at her party late, apologise to all adults who see me for ‘spray tan and no underwear’
1845 – huge meltdown from 4 year old as she wants to stay at 12 year olds party
1847 – 2 year old wants a wee, have to hold her over the gutter, being careful not to get wee on feet (streaky tan)
1855 – drop auction vouchers for tomorrow’s Ball at organisers house
1859 – walk back into the house and be presented with cold glass of sauvignon blanc by husband

Wine

is it time for bed yet???

Wicked Wednesdays – 1 October 2014

Posted on by Libby Price

After the success of last week’s strop photo (now known as ‘Ballerina Bum‘) for Brummy Mummy of 2’s Wicked Wednesdays I’ve chosen another child’s strop photo this week (we could have a recurring theme here with 4 of the blighters!!)

This is the first time our youngest adopted the ‘I have my arms crossed so this means I’m in a really bad mood’ approach to stropping….

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I have to say it’s a skill she’s worked on – in fact my favourite photo of our entire summer which I blogged about here was a variation on this theme!

Make sure you pop over and see other people’s entries to Wicked Wednesdays

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‘Potty training is really fun’ – said no-one, ever!

Posted on by Libby Price

This week we have grasped the nettle and decided to potty train our youngest.  Obviously there are no actual nettles involved (well, not yet – but if she’s caught short on the school run later then a wee in a bush may have to occur!!)

All of her siblings are now at full time school – so she can have some undivided attention (for once, poor thing!) People ‘helpfully’ say things like ‘oh, it will be easy 4th time round, you know what you’re doing’ etc etc – but it’s first time round for the bladder in question – and all of the kids are so different. She has shown absolutely no desire to wear pants AT ALL – in fact when we’ve mentioned being a big girl and using the potty, or loo, before she’s just flat out refused and said she wants to keep wearing a nappy!

All of my older 3 have been relatively late – 2 and a half, to 2 and three quarters – but with this one hitting 3 in 6 weeks, the clock was ticking (she’d already been marked down at her 2 and a half year check because of it!!)

Our lovely nanny started the process yesterday – with mixed results! Lots of accidents first thing – a big chunk of the day ok – and then when I got home at 5pm accidents galore again.

So I removed the night time nappy with trepidation this morning!

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As she was getting a chocolate button every time she managed to do a wee in the right place, I did wonder if I could have a gin at that point too?!? But it’s a good job I didn’t……..

Apart from one accident on a dining room chair this morning (I won’t reveal which one in case any future visitors are reading this!) she’s been BRILLIANT. We’ve had about a dozen wees on the toilet (it would appear we’re bypassing the lovely pink potty) and the last half dozen of those she’s requested herself, it hasn’t been me going ‘do you need another wee?’ every 5 minutes!!  I think the excitement at bum wiping, flushing and hand washing is also proving a hit……

I am sure we won’t have totally cracked it (haven’t even considered the whole poo thing yet) but I am so proud of my littlest girl.

Maybe I should have a gin every time she has an accident………….

Monday meltdown….

Posted on by Libby Price

As I’ve mentioned before, our eldest has started a new school and this has given me lots of time to wait around at the train station for her – and catch up on my reading. A Monday is the one day of the week when we have no childcare (4 children and running our own business means that a nanny is the best option – and she works Tuesday to Friday every week).

This morning husband did the train drop off. Today was the day the train was 25 minutes late. He will not have been reading a book (he doesn’t do reading – unless it’s work or rugby team related, or trying to find an edition of NCIS or one of the Bad Boys films on the Sky planner) but will have used that half an hour or so to start the days work – emails / calls aplenty. Now he was also supposed to do pick up – but the delay to the start of his day meant a later train back from London – so I had to take the 3 younger siblings to pick their big sister up.

They were INSISTENT that they should wait on the platform rather than in the comfort of the car – even the bribe of another viewing of Frozen on DVD would not entice them to remain in the vehicle.

Here they are waiting excitedly:

Monday meltdown

This was before:

a) a lady was struggling with a pushchair, and loads of commuters and teenagers just watched her – so I had the 2 year old in one arm and helped carry her pushchair up the stairs with the other

b) an overtired 4 year old (first full day at school) had a full on meltdown because she didn’t want to walk quickly up the stairs to go home once we’d rendezvous-ed with her big sister

c) the 2 year old stropped to be put down and proceeded to run off down the road in the opposite direction from the car

d) the 4 year old wouldn’t be strapped back in to her car seat unless it was moved from the middle row where I can easily do the seat belt to the back row by her brother

e) my phone started ringing with a problem at work

Roll on tomorrow when I can sit in the car on my own and read my book after a nice relaxing day in the office……………

We are family – I’ve got all my ‘cousins’ with me!!

Posted on by Libby Price

According to Wikipedia ‘A cousin is a relative with whom a person shares one or more common ancestors. In the general sense, cousins are two or more generations away from any common ancestor, thus distinguishing a cousin from an ancestor, descendant, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew. However in common parlance, “cousin” normally specifically means “first cousin”.’

And I am lucky that I have brilliant ones – seen here along with my sisters (well, one of my sisters and one sister’s arms!) at my ‘epic’ (well I’d say that if I was younger) 40th birthday party earlier this year.

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And I love that my children and their cousins recreated this photo last Saturday at my Great Aunt’s 80th birthday party (although this photo, and party, was less booze and boob filled!!)

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Having a big family is great – my parents went from no grandkids to 7 in 7 years – and then I had an extra couple for good measure! And whilst it’s noisy and chaotic when we’re all together – it’s also great fun.  I wish we could do it more often – but geography doesn’t permit.  So until next time cousins – ‘cheers’ x

3rd Time Lucky?!

Posted on by Libby Price

Today is piglet number 3’s first day at school! Well, I say day, it’s actually 2 hours and 20 minutes – but it’s her first proper foray into reception. Here she is looking very grown up and proud:

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She has the same reception teacher who taught the older 2 – and the teacher is in for a bit of a shock – as she is very different to her elder siblings!! We can look forward to our first parent’s evening (unfortunately at our first parent’s evening with the same teacher for the boy, the teacher was bent over in a cupboard as we walked into the classroom – husband commented ‘nice arse – shame about the face’!  Yep – I was really proud that evening……..)

But back to reception starting – and the big difference for number 3 child, is that she is entitled to the new Government scheme of free hot meals for all.  Lots of people have been chuffed with this – saving them the £2.20 per day it would otherwise cost (or the faff of making packed lunches each day) – but I have to say I think it’s ridiculous.  We could easily afford the cost – and surely there are better things that the cash strapped local authorities could spend money on?  I realise that some children don’t eat properly – and addressing that is fine – but the broad brush of ‘everyone’ seems a bit mad.  My daughter?  Kai Rooney?  Harper Beckham next September?!  My husband was entitled to free school meals as a child as his parents didn’t have much cash – and then, as now, there could be a stigma attached to this – so maybe extending the scheme to more people would have been sensible – but everyone??  Perhaps people claiming child benefit (although let’s face it, that is also a controversial cut off – but a line has to be drawn in the sand anyway!)?

As well as the fact that people who can afford dinners are being given them for free – there are also the practical issues for the schools – many don’t have the canteens to make the food, or the space for all of the children to sit down to eat them – so we will see how they cope.

For me it was seen as a vote winner and is political posturing that hasn’t been properly thought through at all.

It would appear that my poor 3rd child’s start at school has been hijacked by me having a rant – but then with the title of this blog being ‘This Price is Usually Right’ I’m just surprised it hasn’t happened sooner!!