Why are kids so rubbish at putting their faces through cut out holes?
Good job Mummy and Daddy were on hand to show them how it is done…………….
This is my contribution to Wicked Wednesdays over on @brummymummyof2’s blog – see other people’s rubbish photos here.
If you’d asked me 20 years ago about tyres, I would immediately have thought of the Athena poster of the bloke stripped to the waist holding some tyres. Along with the naked man cradling a baby, and the girl hitching up her tennis skirt, these were the iconic pictures of the late 80s / early 90s adorning many a bedroom wall. Oh, and just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about – and in no way an excuse for a gratuitous shot of a semi-naked male model – here it is…..
20 years on, I’m a mature and responsible mother of 4 (if I write it often enough maybe it will become true!?!) and I realise that tyres are actually quite important!
The folks over at Mumsnet in conjunction with Michelin have done some research and found out that whilst 97% of Mums surveyed think they should take responsibility for tyres, 73% still consider it a ‘blue job’. Here are some more of their findings.
I’ve been on a car maintenance course – but I have to confess that when I had a blow out on the M5 / M6 slip road, I called the AA to change the tyre for me. However I am more than happy to check tyre pressures and pump up if necessary (well, as long as I haven’t had a manicure that day!!)
Now, maybe it’s because my best friend lives in the French Alps and one of my sisters lives in Munich, where winter tyres are the norm, but we have for a number of years swapped the tyres on our cars to winter tyres come November and then back again in the Spring. Our local garage is happy to store the off-season tyres for us free of charge (a bit like packing away your summer clothes come the start of a new school year in September!!) I’d thought winter tyres were primarily so we were prepared for snow – so was interested to learn of the other benefits.
Michelin are always looking at ways to understand more about how we use our tyres (in a driving way – not in a ‘looking manly in a garage’ kind of way) and have produced this video.
So tyres are very important – even if not that sexy most days!!
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. The infographic, images, survey findings and video have been provided by Mumsnet/Michelin. I have not been paid for this post, although participating bloggers will be entered into a prize draw (fingers crossed for that!)
She has a bed. Her siblings and parents have beds. We have a spare bed. We have comfy sofas – but no – teddy is the best place to fall asleep:
And just for fun – here’s teddy leaving Costco looking like he’s doing something unmentionable to the trolley!!!
This is my entry for this week’s Wicked Wednesday over on BrummyMummyof2s blog – see what other people have posted!!
The theme for The Photo Gallery over on the Sticky Fingers blog this week is ‘babies’ – and for this I have no shortage of photos, having had 4 of them!!
We had a girl and a boy in quick succession – not like an 18 minute twin gap, but an 18 month, all a bit of a blur gap! But after a traumatic birth with both (I had 200 stitches after number 1, and number 2 was born blue and still in his sack) we decided we’d ridden our luck and that would be it – so husband had the snip.
Fast forward 4 and a half years, and I’m stood in M&S in Redditch weeping, buying my little boy grey uniform trousers as my baby was growing up and about to start school. Before becoming parents (and realising what we’d let ourselves in for) we’d always said we wanted loads of kids – and so husband didn’t need much persuading to have his vasectomy reversed and within 6 weeks we were pregnant again!!
And as I have an issue with odd numbers (freakish I know) we always knew that we’d have 4 kids – so number 4 came along pretty soon afterwards!
This is the first photo of all 4 of my babies together – and I still get a bit teary eyed looking at it…..
Although not teary eyed enough to have number 5 (and 6)……..
Do go and have a look at other people’s ‘babies’.
Thank you Nanny and Grandad for the flashing red noses you bought for each of the children – not sure the 3 year old has quite got it sussed yet……..
This is my entry for BrummyMummyof2s Wicked Wednesdays – do see other people’s rubbish photos here…..
Apparently I am not allowed to use ‘sh*t’ as the collective noun for Christmas decorations etc, seemingly it’s not festive to be so negative.
I am renowned in my family for being The Grinch when it comes to Christmas. There is many a photo of me in a shop where the husband is looking well excited about all of the decorations and me, well, less so….
To be honest, until I met the husband, I wasn’t Christmas-phobic – but he is soooooo Christmas obsessed, I feel that I need to off set this somehow.
A couple of years ago there was a serious injury in the erection of the Christmas decorations in the Price household. The husband managed, whilst cutting a tunnel through a mountainside for the Christmas village, to sever a vein in his arm that required stitches (3 times, because it kept bursting underneath the stitches – grim!)
and so that year they were literally ‘bloody Christmas decorations’.
This year, when I popped back from the office on Friday, I found that reinforcements had been called in – there were 3 company vans on the drive having delivered 2 carpenters, 2 painters and a contract supervisor to assist with Christmas – and some sort of sleigh with reindeer on the patio outside:
I then went out for the evening with some of the local Mums – and when I staggered in at 1.30am it appeared that someone had vomited Christmas all over the house all evening……….
And the Christmas village isn’t even finished yet! Here’s am amazing photo of it last year taken by my talented photographer friend Bee.
Apparently there are some electrical works that need completing before this year’s is ready to be viewed (my sister was overheard yesterday complaining that the one in her local garden centre is nowhere near up to our standards!!)
So today – we spiced up the festive cheer with a trip to the German market in the centre of Birmingham. Admittedly some of it remains traditionally German – but the ‘do you want 4 doughnuts for a fiver, bab?’ is pretty Brummie!! The gluhwein was ridiculously pricey (given what you can buy a bottle for from Aldi / Lidl / your sister’s local shop in Munich) – and this year we DIDN’T KEEP THE MUGS (there are only so many small rubbish mugs one family can house!) But the kids had fun – mostly due to the carousel and expensive Olaf and Hello Kitty balloons that almost strangled half of New Street on the walk back to the car.
So when I was given this present by my sister via my parents this afternoon – it pretty much summed up the next month for me:
Although I did watch the Strictly results show with Rudolph tonight………
I’m re-posting this to link in with The Sticky Fingers Blog for The Photo Gallery week 212 where the theme is Christmas – as this is our Christmas!!! Do pop across and see what Christmas is like for other bloggers………….
A few years ago my Mum and I applied to be on the fabulous quiz show Pointless. If you haven’t seen it (or if you have seen it but still don’t get it – like my husband!) then you need to answer the question correctly – but with the most obscure answer you can think of – so that of the 100 people asked the question before you, the least number of people would also have said that particular answer. The objective is to answer with something no one else at all has said – thus ‘Pointless’.
To be honest, that description is hard work – just go and watch it (and why haven’t you already – it’s brilliant!)
It was my viewing of choice when breast feeding – I would Sky+ it – and then watch it at random times of the day and night. I’ve missed the regularity of viewing since weaning my youngest – but not enough to have a 5th child!
Anyway – back to the application. I thought it was brilliant – it showed how fabulous we were, and our diverse skill sets to cover lots of different topics. But we were never contacted again – boo. At the time I was devastated – as if you could still write to a bloke to fix stuff for you (dodgy ground I know) then meeting Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman would be high on my list!
But I wasn’t so devastated I gave up watching #addicted
Well – for the last couple of years one of my friends has arranged a Pointless-esque quiz for his work’s annual party – and I have had the privilege of being one of his 100 people. To be honest, I don’t think he does 100, he does a few and extrapolates it – but shhhhhhh. This morning was this year’s question time (spookily Timehop shows that 27 November is a popular day for it).
Anyway – as with previous years I was RUBBISH under pressure (and so it’s probably a good thing that Mum and I never made it on to TV for humiliation in front of millions). Obviously I can’t reveal this year’s topics (full of my own self importance that people who work for the finance department of AGCO might actually read my blog?!) but I can reveal that my revision of:
was all completely ‘pointless’!!
A friend was perusing a gardening catalogue and found a plant called ‘Eve Price’ – the same name as my 3rd child.
This is me trying to get a photo of her posing with her new namesake plant. The plant looks more impressed than the small child …….
This is my entry for this week’s Wicked Wednesday – do pop across and see what other people have posted!
I don’t often have to drive far in rush hour nowadays (having relocated our company’s offices to 15 minutes from our house a couple of years ago – ‘yay’ to being the boss!) But I had a seminar in Central Birmingham early doors today so had to brave the commute. Obviously the radio was tuned to Heart West Midlands and Ed and Rachel with whom I do like to share my morning if possible!
Today they were asking if anyone had plans between now and Chrimbo (whilst Rachel has her graduation to look forward to, Ed has a total wasteland between now and then) – so I called up with news of my exciting trip to Chicago next week with 2 of my friends. Girls weekend to visit a friend who lives across the Atlantic – as you do! I am very excited about the whole thing (and will no doubt bore you all to tears about it across all social media!)
But when I posted on Facebook that I’d been on the radio this morning – my sister and husband both commented ‘not again’ – which got me to thinking – am I practically blogging on the radio?!?!
Now this is clearly not true – as I’ve only been on a handful of times – but it has been almost every time I’ve texted in!! Now either I am hilarious (obvs!), or not that many people text in (possibly – it’s a frantic time of day in most houses – so for me it’s only when I’m stuck in traffic that I have chance to text!) or that my points of reference are relevant due to being a similar age to Ed and Rach?!
So far I’ve discussed:
Pretty diverse really! Wonder what it will be next…………..
A few weeks back I read my first (although her third!) Jenny Oliver book, The Little Christmas Kitchen, and thoroughly enjoyed it
So here is the second one from her back catalogue (although I now realise this is a sequel to her first and I’ve read them in totally the wrong order – but never mind!) – and this time I steered away from festive Christmas fare with The Vintage Summer Wedding.
Here is what Amazon have to say about it:
“A Vera Wang dress, the reception at a sophisticated London venue, and a guest list that reads like a society gossip column are all the ingredients of Anna Whitehall’s perfect wedding that never was…
Spending the summer uncovering hidden treasures in a vintage shop, Anna can still vividly remember both her childhood dreams; the first was that she’d become a Prima Ballerina, and dance on stage resplendent in a jewel-encrusted tutu. The second was that at her wedding she would walk down the aisle wearing a collective-gasp-from-the-congregation dress.
Years ago Anna pirouetted out of her cosy hometown village in a whirl of ambition…but when both of those fairy-tale dreams came crashing down around her ballet shoes, she and fiancée Seb find themselves back in Nettleton, their wedding and careers postponed indefinitely…
Don’t they say that you can never go home again? Sometimes they don’t get it right… This one summer is showing Anna that your dreams have to grow up with you. And sometimes what you think you wanted is just the opposite of what makes you happy……..”
And again I really enjoyed it! Totally different setting – and totally different feel to it involving English countryside / amazing food descriptions / casual use of everyday bad language / antiques / Britain’s Got Talent / Bagpuss (my secret phobia!) / bike riding and my absolutely favourite reference ever – the lift from Dirty Dancing! How can you not love a book with the lift from Dirty Dancing in it?!? (I should point out that my husband and I *almost* managed to re-enact the lift at my 40th birthday party! This is shocking for a number of reasons a) he managed to lift me – admittedly on to his shoulder and not above his head, but still pretty good going and b) that my boobs stayed inside my dress and corset – and here’s proof (mine are the boobs on the right) as to why that is shocking. Sadly there is no photographic evidence of the actual lift …………)
But back to The Vintage Summer Wedding! It’s a lovely, easy, quick read which I really enjoyed. Now I need to read the book before (and I’m guessing which characters it involves already). Here’s hoping to more in the Nettleton saga going forward.
This Price is Usually Right 