The first couple are of my (Pauline's) friend Helen's hen-do in September. My chocolate fountain was requested and there were loads of yumminess to be eaten too, not just the chocolate being sucked through a straw. It was a really fun day.
We bought Alice her winter clothes and when they arrive (as I order them all online from Vertbaudet, being a French company their clothes sizes tend to be smaller and therefore fit Alice better), she loves trying them on and giving us a fashion show.
My birthday this year was very difficult and particularly so as it was two days after my parents' wedding anniversary. Stuart and Alice tried their best to make it as special as possible. So they made scrumptious cupcakes and decorated them beautifully too. I think when you have the death of someone very close to you, the anticipation of these occasions is worse than the event itself. I didn't feel as bad as I thought I was going to feel, however, I did still feel very sad indeed.
We had some visitors a few weeks ago. Oliver and Alice. Alice is one of our god-daughters and it was lovely to see them all, as the family have moved out of the area now.
As Alice's hair is so curly, it is difficult sometimes to realise just how long her hair actually is. When I was plaiting it, it just kept going and going. This was for her first birthday party at a soft play centre. She really enjoyed it, although it was too late in the day for her and she was just exhausted by the end of it. She also kept the bow in for the whole party!!!!
Yesterday was Helen's wedding (from the Hen-do photos at the top). This was the outfit Alice wore. Trying to get Alice a wee dress that had sleeves and was pretty, was very difficult indeed. We found this and had to have it altered as it was huge on her. Alice did very well during the service, to sit and play with her puzzles. We did manage to get half a service out of her until she exclaimed to everyone "I'm fed up", much to the amusement of everyone sitting in front of us. She then lost it a bit and Stuart had to take her to the car for the rest of the service.
Helen's mum, Helen, Simon, Simon's mum and Simon's dad. It was a beautiful service, the highlight being, just after the vows, Helen was asked to go and sit down as Simon had a few words for her. He crossed the church, picked up a microphone, the piano was struck up and he sang her a song that his mother used to sing to him when he was a child!!! It really was a very touching moment.
Back at the village hall for the reception and there was a wee play room upstairs. Alice really enjoyed playing and went straight for this polar bear suit, saying "I love bears". She wouldn't put the head on, as there was only a small hole for her face and she didn't like that very much. We were glad of this room, because otherwise we would've been taking it in turns to stand outside as she walked up and down the steps in the rain. What is it with toddlers and steps??!!
Today we decided it was harvest time. So we went outside and picked all the apples from the tree. Alice has been asking to do this for months. So today she got to do it. She really enjoyed picking the ones she could and then holding the ladder for Stuart for the ones she couldn't.
We haven't had any apples from this tree for about 3 years, so it was great to have so many this year. This is the second lot from this tree, quite a few fell off at the beginning of October in the wind, so all in all we've had about 120 apples this year. Alice then made her first crumble (or scrumble, as she kept calling it). She was very good at rubbing the flour and butter together between her fingers with her thumb. She was also very patient waiting to eat it after dinner too.
There are quite a few different things in this video. The first, is one of Alice's tantrums. Amazing how they turn from this wonderful wee placid thing into this monster trying to assert their personalities. Really hoping this phase doesn't last too long, but realise that it could go on for quite some time yet!!! I thought about cutting the tea party short, but I liked the whole clip. The bridge is in one of favourite places, Plessey Woods. She starts by chucking a twig over the bridge, because we had been doing Pooh-sticks at a bridge earlier on. The song Alice is singing is Mousey Brown. He doesn't "roast" at the top, the song is about a mouse climbing to the top of a wooden candlestick and he couldn't get down, it is actually a very odd song indeed. Ending with the apple picking from today. Think I will update on the subsidence in a separate post another day. Just to say that the investigations have been done, the holes dug and the samples sent off to the lab. It'll take about two weeks for the results to come back and our engineer to write the reports to send off to our insurance company.
