Best of Florida 2007 Part 2

We went to EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or Every person comes out tired as some call it!) quite a few times during our trip. This park is huge - absolutely huge - over 300 acres! The parking lot alone is 141 acres!!! When we first went to WDW we missed on Epcot because we were so short of time, we certainly made up for it.

The first half of Epcot (EP from now on) is where the rides are. We were all dying to try out one of the new rides, Soarin. It was so worth the wait - awesome but hard to explain so I'll let Wikipedia do that bit:

"The attraction takes 87 guests at a time on a simulated hang glider tour of the Golden State. Guests "fly" over such California landmarks as San Francisco, Redwood Creek, Napa Valley, Monterey, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park, Palm Springs (actually shot in nearby La Quinta), Camarillo, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, San Diego, Malibu, Los Angeles and finally Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure's neighboring theme park.

The vehicle consists of three rows of seats under a wing-like canopy. After guests have been safely restrained in the vehicle, the canopy comes down and a cantilever system lifts the chairs forward and into the air with the guests' feet dangling free. The vehicle is lifted into a huge OMNIMAX Dome movie screen onto which scenes of California are projected. Since the vehicle is moved forward into the dome, the effect is such that guests can only see the images projected on the screen and are given the sensation of flying."

We all loved, loved, loved this ride and rode it several times over our trip.

The new Nemo ride was fantastic too as was Turtle Talk with Crush which was so clever and so very funny. There are also several very good educational rides and attractions on this side of Epcot which went down well with Charlie.

The other half of Epcot surrounds the huge lagoon and consists of 11 pavillions each of which is a different country with themed buildings, gardens, shops and attractions. We particularly enjoyed Japan, China and Morroco. Lots of educational attractions here and "kidcot" stops in each country for children to do a themed art/craft activity pertinent to that country. Charlie loved picking his oyster in Japan and treasures his pearl - its a beauty. We had lunch in Morroco, dinner in Italy and snacks in Norway!





Charlie chose Epcot as his birthday and the cast members really made it special for him. We just had a few hours there on his birthday because we were up late and had dinner reservations but it was fantastic. He had happy birthday sung to him by cast members so many times which always leads to other holiday makers joining in at WDW, he was given special "dreams" and treats like two puddings and birthday cakes and cards from the characters and even decorated tables wherever we ate. WDW for a birthday is highly recommended!

Magic Kingdom is of course the park with the Castle and we had some really fantastic pure disney moments here. Charlie got chosen to play some games with the cast members whilst waiting for the afternoon parade to start




I had managed to secure the most sought after dinner reservation in the world - dinner inside Cinderella's Castle at Cinderella's Royal Table. There are "mommies" and "daddies" worldwide who get up at the crack of dawn, make practice calls, post endless threads on various disney forums discussing tactics on how to get this particular ressie. The restaurant can only seat 80 people at a time. Every day an average of 40 thousand people visit this reason and around 1/4 of them are chasing this reservation! First off there is the meet and greet with Cinderella. Charlie loved this soooo much. The upstairs to your table and for food. All the servers refer to everyone as "my prince" or "my lady" and then the fairy godmother comes out and sings and chats to everyone. Princesses get keepsake wands and princes get swords. Food was amazing here, Charlie had chicken, salmon and veg and I had the most amazing lamb shank. Can't remember what B had. Oh and that's apple juice Charlie is drinking not Coke, mum!




It was the most expensive meal we had whilst there and worth every penny. Just outside the castle people desperate people were offering hundreds and hundreds of dollars for my reservation - crazy people.

We stayed for the fireworks as well - Wishes. No-one does fireworks like WDW, love them to bits, absolutely amazing. Also love the castle at night - so pretty.



Later on in our stay we attended the first ever Princess & Pirate party in the Magic Kingdom. This was Disney at its finest - themed night time parade, themed fireworks - absolutely the best fireworks ever, ever in the world. they were perimeter fireworks and all sorts of other fancy effects that had never been done before - all too technical for me.

We'd arrived in shorts as it was really hot that afternoon but after dinner it started raining and we had to buy emergency trousers for Charlie as he was freezing bless him!

Charlie's favourite thing was the dance party where he got to dance with Chip, Dale, Lilo and Stitch. He got picked for some kind contest that wasn't a contest in the end because that would be most un-disney like, but it was funny and he loved it. He was very, very sweet with a little girl about 3 years old who had nobody to dance with in the "partnered" section. He saw she didn't have a partner, so gave up dancing with Chip and danced with her instead because she was too scared to dance with a big character. I was *so* proud of him.




The rides as ever were so much fun and we spent lots of time here. I love the Magic Kingdom, you just can't help but be happy there. We spent our last day here too (the day we flew home) and it was perfect. We caught the monorail over from the Contemporary Resort, had hot chocolate and pain au chocolat ( it was freezing in the morning!) on Main Street. We did some rides, saw Mickey's Phiharmagic (awesome 3d film), did Haunted Mansion again, had some lunch, watched the castle show (very good) discovered the very delicious funnel cakes, rode the stream train, did some last minute shopping and left for the airport feeling happy after a great last day.



For dinner on Charlie's birthday we ate at Crystal Palace which is a character buffet with pooh and friends. Charlie loved this and all the fuss from the characters too.



Disney MGM Studios is another of the Disney Parks and I got to ride my hands down all time favourite ride all of - Tower of Terror. I love this ride, it makes me laugh so much. Basically you're in an elevator that drops 13 stories in a random free fall way. Every ride is different as its programmed to do a random series of drops and rises. Its awesome! Charlie hates it and almost cries at the sight of the ride building so we got good use out of baby swap! It terrified B and she says she won't do it again. The women on either side of me were total screamers and thought I was nuts for laughing all the time!









We also managed to fulfill Charlie's ambition of swimming with the dolphins. He has been wanting to do this for years and was too young on our last trip but a mere 3 weeks as you must be 6 to swim with dolphins. We chose Discovery Cove as most going to Orlando do and it was fantastic. The park is themed and landscaped so beautifully, it's like paradise. We swam around the huge lazy river type thing, Charlie and B snorkelled with fish and rays and of course we all swam with the dolphins. They are just such awesome creatures and we learnt lots about them. The sheer power of them when the pull you back to shore is amazing. It's quite interesting as I do have an issue with whales and dolphins in captivity but the trainer I spoke to about that explained that the idea of Discovery Cove is to discourage all those tourists that go out to sea actively looking to swim with dolphins in the wild that perhaps don't want to be swum with. Apparently some people will "chase" them in boats for hours and hours which seem so cruel, just to swim with them. Anyway, Charlie loved it and was so excited and we both loved it too. No photos because you're not allowed cameras in the dolphin areas (obviously) and I don't have a scanner to show the official ones we bought.

We also went to our favourite non-Disney park - SeaWorld. Charlie loves all marine life so this is one of his favourite places to go. He loves feeding the dolphins, seeing the whales and manatees and its just a really lovely place. The dolphin nursery is so cute!




We stayed in 3 different disney resorts whilst we were there, All Stars Movies, Caribbean Beach and Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. The last was our favourite - utterly beautiful and as it's a Disney Vacation Club resort we were able to get a one bedroom villa with a fantastic spa bath. We really enjoyed the grounds here and the pool looked gorgeous but we just didn't get time to swim. The boat ride to Downtown Disney was lovely too and we took advantage of being that close for loads of shopping!



So, apart from the 6 theme parks, water park, swimming with dolphins, character intereacting, parades, fireworks, shows, shopping, eating what did we do? Well Charlie and B did a fair bit of swimming in the hotel pools, I read a LOT (12 books in 3 weeks) whilst they swam. We did lots of wandering around, because the entire walt disney resort is just beautiful. We visited lots of the disney hotels because they are all themed differently and some are just beautiful, we hire a boat - that was fun, and screeched around the disney lakes, we armadillo spotted, lizard spotted, rabbit spotted, aligator spotted and just had a ball, in or out of the theme parks. I reckoned we must have walked hundreds of miles in 3 weeks. The UK's largest theme park fits comfortably in the car park at Magic Kingdom so you do a lot of walking!

We can't wait to go back and do all the things we missed and old favourites again!

Best of Florida 2007 - Part One

I've finally found some time to sit down and write this blog post all about our fantastic 3 week holiday at Walt Disney World (WDW from now on) this January.

Way back on Christmas day 2006 Charlie got the biggest surprise when he opened his last present - a limited edition Sorcerer Mickey Mouse plush who was sat on a letter from the Big Cheese himself informing him that he was off to WDW in 14 days time. As always, a photo speaks a thousand words - suffice to say he was rather excited



The day before we were due to fly out there we stayed at the Sofitel at Gatwick airport and made use of Virgins excellent "night before you fly check in service" So nice to be able to get rid of the car seat + suitcases ( we went out with 3 and came back with 6!!) and not have to queue to check in the day of your actual flight.

The Sofitel was lovely and we did some last minute shopping in both terminals and also checked in on how the website changes were coming along. We had planned to eat at Frankie & Benny's but I was still afflicted with fly so we went for room service. Can't remember what we all had but I know I had Peeking duck pancakes and they were top notch.

The flight was uneventful and this time the 9 1/2 hours went by more quickly than usual. Caught a couple of good films on the way out and B took to her first flight quite well I think. Charlie was angelic as usual on the flight - happy to sit in his seat, watch the skymap, tv and films and read a little.

We got through the double baggage claim ok but waited quite a long time to collect our baggage the last time. I'd arranged for a limo to pick us up and take us to the hotel and Charlie and B were both gobsmacked and loved it! The driver put Cars on the dvd player for Charlie to enjoy on the 30 minute trip to our first hotel. We unpacked, had dinner (again!) and then crashed out.

I was up really early (4am) due to jetlag and showered and then tidied up a bit before Charlie and B woke up around 6.00am. Showers and dressed for both of them a quick photo of a tired Charlie and a shot of our view from our bedroom doorway and we were on our way to the Disney bus stop.



We caught the bus to Disney's Animal Kingdom park (DAK from herein) We had breakfast reservations at Donald's Breakfastsaurus for a character breakfast. This is now a definite first morning tradition for us on WDW holidays! Food is great, character interaction fantastic and even B enjoyed herself.



I love DAK so much - fab rides, beautiful landscaping and attention to detail and the animal interaction is fantastic. We went here about 4 times during our stay and did the Safari twice. The atmosphere in this park is so much fun - from parades, to sounds and smells, traditional african food treats, African drummers etc etc

I didn't get a chance to go on Expedition Everest which was rather gutting as I had been looking forward to it so much but B said it was "awesome"! Its a Bugs Life was highly amusing and very clever - Disney does 3D so well.

I *will* get round to a best of Florida blog soon - really!

But for now I need to blog how Merry has saved us from impending maths doom and the murder of Charlie by me in a maths related incident!

Charlie HATES maths - this is a well known fact and one, quite frankly that I can fully appreciate and understand. I grew so sick of the day long tantrums over doing 1 sodding page of a maths workbook that I was close to murder. It even caused ridiculous arguments between B and I over whether he should be allowed to use a calculator.

Then we went to stay at Merry's the day after one of the worst tantrums yet ( he's NINE for gods sake not 3 or 4!!!) and the voice of reason suggested leaving work books for a couple of years totally, and trying education city. I'd looked at and started a few trial with EC late last year and he wasn't that impressed. I wasn't convinced totally.

On Friday I cleared his pc of a load of crap and logged into EC. 3.5 hours later he was still on there and had done around 6 maths games. He did more at the weekend and today spent about 4 hours on there and did another 6 maths games. I've rolled him back to year 1 just for maths and he is really enjoying it. He even volunteered to finish the workbook page he had the tantrum over on Tuesday.

No more ripped workbooks, no more tantrums, no more tears and no more utter devastation and feeling stupid because he just doesn't "get" maths.

Thank you Merry for your words of wisdom.

I'm not naughty

...I'm Josie, followed by hilarious laughter and mutterings of "she is so funny and cute" is all I've heard from Charlie ever since we got back from the puddles on Thursday. Apparently this is what Josie said several times when either Fran or Maddy told not to do something because it's naughty, and Charlie keeps saying it to himself. So that's two out of 4 puddles my son is in love with now.....:)

Sometimes.....

I really wish that Charlie was a bit younger, especially when I unpack lovely new educational stock like these (which are actually much nicer IRL)



He's also raided my new stock for one of these skipping ropes - he was very torn between this one and the butterfly one!

Snow,snow, snow

It's still snowing here today - my stock delivery arrived in a snow covered box. Wish it would stop because it is soooo cold as I have an appointment at the bank this afternoon and I want to wear my crocs and not my wellies!!

Oh and my DVC guide kindly told me last night that it was a beautiful 83 degrees in sunny Florida - wail!

Home from Florida

Well actually we got back last Tuesday but things have been so manic I haven't had a chance to blog yet.

We had the most fantastic, amazing time. I was nearly in danger of relaxing but didn't quite make it - probably due to having so many things on my mind.

But we're back now, Charlie is 9 (how did that happen??) and all suffering from post-holiday depression! Charlie had a fantastic birthday - loads of fuss at the character meals I arranged - Disney Cast Members randomly singing Happy Birthday to him as we toured EPCOT (Disney give Happy Birthday badges with the child's name on them) and was given lots of special little treats by the CM's too. Totally magical and extra attention from the characters too which he loved.

I have to say though that I never thought of my gobby, self opinionated, self assured, confident son as shy but when CM's gave him attention and asked him questions he did go very quiet and answered in this little quiet voice that arrived from nowhere - most odd!

I'll do a proper holiday blog soon with some photos and highlights of my favourite bits - the dolphins were awesome - will have to find a scanner to scan the photos in. Still have more photos to upload despite doing it several times a week whilst in Florida.

Business has been manic but not Anara Toys (except for loads of stock deliveries and sorting out the changes to the site) but also I bought another wahm business and that has been manic. I also gave up my job at the end of December so now do the same thing but freelance which means I have 3 business now and 3 sets of tax returns to do each year - arrrggghhhh.

Charlie hasn't done any formal education since we've been back but that's ok because Disney World is surprisingly educational with lots of excellent attractions with a heavy edu-basis. Have plans for stuff to restart this week but we'll see how it goes. Had to cancel on Merry today due to being over loaded which was horrid.

Come fly with me.....

Suitcases and most importantly hordes of camera equipment all packed safely (so grateful I did the majority of it last Sunday before I got ill) now and we're off to Gatwick tomorrow to take full advantage of Virgin's Twylight Check-in to bag the seats we really want and a nice overnight stay at the Sofitel at the airport, before jetting off on Monday morning.

Charlie is beside himself with excitement about all the bits he does know about and there are plenty of surprises that he doesn't! Can't believe he will be 9 when we return - how did that happen??

Florida, here we come - "see" you all in 3 and bit weeks!

Starting off the new year with flu is not the best idea. Especially when you are due to fly in a couple of days - arrrgggghhhh. Just so typical of my luck - getting to spend 10 hours on a sodding aeroplane with flu ffs.

Grumble, grumble.

2006 round up

2006 has been a difficult year in lots of ways but it has also served up some nice surprises. Overall, I am glad to see the back of it but another year passing just serves to remind me that getting older is not good for your fertility when you have severe fertility issues.

It's been an odd year too, this was the year I really thought I would get pregnant in after the immune issues had been identified and appropriate treatment applied and pregnant I did get and couldn't really accept or believe it and then of course it all went horribly wrong. Even though I suspected it would never last, which is probably why I couldn't accept the pregnancy in the first place, finding out that my body so cruely attacks my babies and kills them was devastating. Knowing the only treatment for it is incredibly expensive, controversial and potentially dangerous didn't really help either. So, on a fertility front I leave 2006 having been pregnant, miscarried, with a new infertility diagnosis, having donated my eggs for a third time and that couple having a successful pregnancy as the other two did, and with two frosties in the deep freeze in London knowing that if they survive the thaw and make it to transfer with IViG I might just have a chance of a lasting pregnancy. Still too scared to believe it will ever happen though.

The other big things of the year were starting my new business and being made redundant from my employed job at the end of the month. Both rather scary when you are the so-called bread winner and pay *all* the bills! Business has been doing much better than I ever expected. I've had my website and products in 3 magazines this year including a national one, had two radio interviews and a magazine interview which will come out in another national magazine in January. I ended up stocking lines I never really had in my mind for the site and they have ended up being absolute best sellers to the point where the suppliers rang me and invited me to a meeting with them! I guess placing 3 orders in 4 weeks means something.

Business wise for next year I have lots of exciting things planned, I've already got a new logo to go with the new domain name, will be opening another online store, am probably buying a business and by spring this means I may well have 4 websites with 3 online shops on the go and will be a manufacturer and wholesaler as well as a retailer.

Charlie has been difficult this year, there is no getting away from it. I don't know whether its age, hormones or what, but he has developed the most hideous attitude. He was devastated by the loss of the baby and that certainly hasn't helped as he has now developed a fear of Bev and I dying and any baby we have dying after its born. Educationally, he has improved leaps and bounds in Maths and has finally made it on to a year 3 workbook which is a huge achievement for him. He would be in year 4 now if he had stayed at school. He still draws and reads all the time, loves nature, science, geography, history and anything that doesn't involve maths or sums.

He looks and acts much older than 8 (9 in 15 days - eekkk) and constantly amazes other adults with his conversations skills and knowledge. He loves going with my dad on our photography club outings (I never seem to be well or have time to go!) and when I attend the monthly meetings everyone comes up and to me and goes on about how they can't believe his age etc.

He's really into fimo and hama at the moment and is loving the art club he has been attending.

After all this though he is still very much my "baby", loves nothing more than cuddles and snuggles and would happily sit on my lap all day long if I let him, unless his 4 new best friends are around of course!

We're starting 2007 off in what I'm hoping will be a great way - a lovely long holiday in Florida. I am *so* looking forward to being able to spend all that time with Charlie without him hearing the constant "no" or "in a minute, I'm working". I'm not however looking forward to coming back and landing in the freezing cold!

Christmas Day - despite not having fallen asleep until 1am Charlie woke up at 8am making this the first Christmas where we haven't needed to set the alarm and then wake him up! He was extremely excited, running into our room, jumping on the bed and yelling "It's Christmaaaaaaasssssss" and then had to be reminded to go back in his room for his stocking!

He was thrilled with the stocking filler haul most of which was from Hawkin and included a ball & cup, money eraser, pointer, some clay and other bits. Downstairs for main presents and Charlie was yet again very lucky. From B and I he got the 2,3 & 4th Lemony Snickett books, a couple of joke books, Disney Trivial Pursuit DVD edition, Herbie remote controlled car, a couple of Disney DVD's, a fimo set and other bits and bobs. From B's mum he got some Brio trains, a lifting bridge and a turntable.

We saved the best till last though and pulled out his main present. In a disney store gift box we had put a limited edition Sorcerer Mickey Mouse plush toy and in his hands was a letter. We got Charlie to read the letter out loud which basically told him he was going on a 3 week Disney World in Florida holiday. Cue screams of delight when he finally clicked and dancing on the coffee table!

I took millions of photos as it dawned on him (as evidenced by the photo in the post below) and even had a tear in my eye at his delight.

I got some lovely presents from B, a tripod and filter for my camera amongst others and Charlie gave me another Willow Tree figure to add to my now growing collection.

After lunch which was yummy, we went over to my parents where Charlie was spoilt again by my parents, brother and grandmother. He was given a new bike, a bug watcher kit and some marbles amongst others. He is really thrilled with his bike as my brother took him out for a quick ride.

My brother gave me 2 dvd box sets, L Word Season 2 and Spooks season 1 which I was thrilled with and B and I are slowly working our way through the L Word episodes.

We came home early-ish as Charlie was exhausted and in bed and asleep by 7pm - totally unheard of!

A great Christmas in so many ways, so lovely to have our holiday to look forward too as well. I did have some wobbly moments though thinking about our baby which was triggered by realising that I would have been 18 weeks on Christmas eve and how much I had wanted to finally be pregnant this Christmas. Charlie also got quite upset about the same thing just before bed on Christmas day but I managed to calm him down and reassure him.

Back to work for me today - groan - plus loads to do business wise over the next few days due to lots of big changes next year in lots of different ways.

Anara has a big sale on at the moment - almost everything has 10-50% off with most things at 20-50% off.

My favourite moment so far

Finding out we're going to Florida to see Mickey

Catch Up

Monday - started early as we went to Merry's to pick up Fran and Maddy for a two night sleepover. Hideous journey down there due to traffic and slight fog this end until about Northampton-ish.

Merry and I business gossiped and the children exchanged xmas pressies - Charlie was thrilled with his fimo refill pack and the girls all seemed pleased with their "leggies" and Josie with her ostheimer giraffe. Managed to set off ok and got back here in time for lunch after a most entertaining journey home where I learned all sorts of interesting things about Merry and Max's driving and the girls were utterly enthralled with the sat nav and watching it count down the miles to the next turn/roundabout etc.

After lunch we nipped into town as I desperately needed a few bits and bobs we hadn't been able to get on Saturday. Met up with B and let the children pick cakes/cookies/doughnuts in M&S. Home for play and 102 Dalmatian watching and then dinner and bed - all very peaceful. I took some photos of dinner because it was such a novelty to have more than one child sat at my dining table again!

Tuesday - quick play this morning before leaving to go to the cinema in Oxford to see Happy Feet. Nice and easy park and ride journey in to find the cinema closed and having to stand outside in the freezing cold for 15 minutes before they finally opened it. There was quite a queue and at one point I though there was going to be a revolt due to all the staff inside in the warm laughing at us in the cold - ggrrrrr I have never been anywhere they make you stand outside! Bring back the Cribbs cinema complex where you can get inside any time before the films start.

The film was funny and the children seemed to really enjoy it - my favourite part was the crazy "mexican" penguin characters - oh how they made me laugh. To Charlie's utter disgust we went to McDonalds for lunch - the server looked like I was mad when he asked for a toasted chicken salad deli sandwich (he won't eat burgers or nuggets) her face gave me a good chuckle anyway.

Back home by about 3.30ish and more play and a couple more dvd's before dinner and bed. All 3 children went to bed wearing "leggies" which made me laugh!

Wednesday - this morning we all made mince pies and did loads of fimo'ing whilst waiting for Merry, Amelie and Josie to arrive. Then lunch, more play and gossip before the puddles departed. Charlie loved having them to stay so much, he loved the company and having dinner with other children and all brushing teeth at the same time - things he doesn't get to experience.

Thursday - ermm I know I worked and Charlie played with his robosapien quite a lot which drove me mad as he kept bringing it in my oficer. I still had quite a few orders between Amazon, Ebay and the odd one on the site which I found interesting especially as the customers didn't choose guaranteed delivery so they can't be buying Christmas presents. My laptop came back today with a nice new screen - very relieved as it means I can take it with me on holiday which will be essential for downloading all my photos every day and burning them on cd as well as uploading to flickr when I can find wireless hotspots.

Friday - no work for me today as I'd finished it all on Thursday so we went into town - hahaha - it was busy but necessary as I had two bills to pay and a business cheque to pay in. Got some last minute bits and pieces, dvd's and a Christmas cd too and a few extra presents as well. On they way back we went to Sainsburys which was heaving, for all the non fresh foods we had still to get.

Saturday - quiet day today listening to christmas cd's and mouching around. I decided to brave Sainsburys again for the veg and it was so much quieter than Friday! Also bought two more plain white mugs so Charlie could paint those for my grandmother and brother to go with the two he did for my parents.

My brother arrived at my parents a day early so we had two visits from him pre and post dinner - admired his new Nikon D80 and got into the traditional Canon -v- Nikon discussion which obviously, having a superior Canon I won. :)

Today has so far been quieter with more mince pie making and decoration making whilst listening to Christmas cd's on my laptop and tracking Santa on Norad which is making Charlie very hyper. Santa is currently in Hobart apparently. Charlie is also doing another drawing with his stockmar crayons.

Will blog photos later as I've got a feeling they are on two cameras.

Haircut time again today - waaaaail!

We ended up having quite a crafty day yesterday once I'd looked up how to make paper snowflakes because I'd forgotten. Charlie duly made two paper snowflakes and then did some drawings with his new beeswax crayons and in his new lesson book. He loves his crayons so much - bless - he was really excited!

More craftiness ensued with a hama bead Christmas tree that ahs now been ironed and I think for once I managed not to totally ruin it! Actually I was really proud of Charlie today. He normally struggles to follow hama patterns but he did this all by himself and went he went wrong 3 times on doing the candles he worked out what he did and corrected it all by himself without even asking for help or loosing his temper.

Will blog pics later. More crafts today - I think he's going to do more hama and some more fimo candy canes.

Funniest thing I've ever seen on tv

I've just laughed myself into an asthma attack. Take That at the Royal Variety singing and dancing like they're stil 18 instead of 30-whatever. It was so bad, I have never laughed that hard.

Boy band choreography is not attractive at their age.

That cheered me up so much!

What's the word

For when you don't like people with freckles? Frecklist? I only ask because I've just had a bizare conversation with a (actually really lovely) customer about which Lilydolls don't have freckles and have the lovely faces instead!!

At 8.30 in the morning it's too early for education in my book but clearly not in Charlie's. He was looking at the £5 note my parents gave him yesterday and was trying to guess why Elizabeth Fry was famous. His guess was pretty close as he suggested that as she was surrounded with children in the picture it must be helping children. I couldn't remember, so we googled. I think prison reform and particularly helpping women and children in prison is pretty close to his guess. We found a lovely walk through type thing on a bbc site, so he enjoyed that and is now ranting about the injustices of being poor in those days and being sent to prison for stealing a bit of bread from the rich.

Couldn't resist taking this last night - apologies for the quality, I didn't use my proper camera.

All I seem to these days is catch up.

Anyway, despite what my previous blog entry said, Charlie did a heap of work on Friday including Sonlight and normals and did very well.

After maths today he spent considerable time making this instrument, which has a name but I can't remember it.



It even has a scale to show where to hold the rubber bands in order to achieve different sounds. He was pretty pleased with it and took a long time working out how to make it the way he wanted.

I'm really annoyed because I just bought a new second camera for when I don't want to lug my DSLR and lenses around and for when I just want to grab and snap stuff that Charlie has done. Now this compact is a Canon like my main camera and I love Canons and this is supposed to be a good camera - but the noise on the photos as you can see is bloody awful. I'm not quite sure whether to return it or give it to Charlie. I think that would be insulting to him as whilst he would be eternally grateful he appears to have been bitten by the same photo bug/genes that my father and I have, and can spot noise and bad photos a mile off. Especially as he has the use of my dad's DSLR Nikon kit on our photography club trips!

Anyway, today I have the dubious pleasure of 3 parcels that are all waiting for something from yet another Lilydoll order I had to place this morning and is expected on Friday. So this is my version of Merry's "can't tape up these boxes that are all over my sitting room" photo. 5 orders today on the site which is the most in one day so I'm pleased!

To be brutally honest there's not a lot of home ed going on here at the moment at all! Between the loads of orders to pack and files to do, I am struggling to get Charlie to do anything other than Maths and English workbooks! I can't now see his Sonlight etc starting again until February as we're pretty much away for all of January.

Had some crazy business moments this week, like the Babylegs order arriving on Tuesday and two colours selling out in less than 24 hours - arggh! Similarly I had 3 boxes of Lilydolls arrive this week and several items have sold out already too! Totally sold out of several of the really cute Whoozit toys, some puzzles, little insects,some pushalongs, all shape sorters and some hama gift sets! I've packed and sent 35 orders so far since Saturday which I'm quite pleased with although last week was definitely busier. Luckily I'm not as busy as BeadMerrily - I couldn't cope with being that busy and my job too!

Apologies for the shameless linking - every little helps in the endless battle for google ranking!

Catch up time - again!

Last week passed in a blur of who knows what. I know that Charlie did Maths almost every day - the new CGP books are going down a treat here. He's finished the year 1 book and is now on the year 2 book and so far, so good. I can see some cracks starting to appear now as he sees the bigger sums in this book, but I think we might just get through it without too many tantrums.

He loved art club as usual last week and apparently they started making clay heads.

The puddles descended for a lovely day on Friday, Merry bringing with her yet another order of fimo for Charlie who had ably attacked the shopping cart earlier in the week. The children had a lovely day, playing with Playmobil, Brio (which I had rescued from the garage after Merry's telling off last time!)and watching Disney films. Charlie was horrified when Amelie kissed his arm at dinner and he then got a telling off for being so rude! He really, truly believes that she will try to marry him in reality. I'm not sure why that horrifies him so much when he constantly goes on about getting married and having loads of children when he's older! I guess he thinks he's too young - which obviously he is!

Poor Fran was a bit cold when she arrived so I lent her my demo pair of Pink Peppermint Babylegs and she liked them so much she bought them! She looked really good in them actually - wish I'd taken a photo which also would have been handy for showing them on the site as an accessory for older children too seeing as they fit up to 10 year olds. Hmmm I can see a plan there actually.

Merry and I chatted, drank tea, looked at our websites and eBay shops quite a lot and bemoaned the lack of orders. Merry also helped me pack my orders after proclaiming I was making too much of a fuss - I hasten to add she was sprawled all over my packing desk and two of her children were sprawled over the floor in the stock room so I was lacking in space!

Weekend passed in a blur of working on the site and working on files. After a flurry of orders on Sunday I ended up packing 7 parcels on Sunday night and not finishing until midnight-ish. I then had 3 more yesterday which meant we sent 10 parcels yesterday which I think might be our record for one days post run.

I took delivery of another 100 boxes this morning and some more address labels - had a bit of a panic yesterday when I realised I only had a few left for my dymo!

Right now Charlie is avoiding doing his maths by reading (oh surprise)and if I have to shout one more time I think I might go mad.

Wishes fireworks video for Charlie

Click on video little guy

Wishes fireworks

Should really be on my other blog

As all business related but I've made 150th sale since buying the accounts package and I've now finished all the SEO work on the products and all the SEO urls so I am a happy bunny.

Plus I've just got these gorgeous Lilydolls and outfits in and they are so lovely they make me smile every time I go into the stock room! In all thats two pages of new products when I include the new baby & toddler stuff too.

Today consisted of more "little ball thingy" - being and he did maths too. Predictably loads of reading as usual and mainly non-fiction books which is his general day time trend. Also had a couple of very complex conversations which blew my head off as usual - not the easiest thing to cope with when you are trying to do your own complex work too! My brain is now fried.

This afternoon he made some more fimo beads for the necklace he is making Bev and he also made a couple of fimo boats for his HappyMais dock!

Quick dinner and he is now at Art Club and apparently practically threw himself upon his art teacher!?

I've been busy with work and also still grinning after taking just over £300 on the site last night after someone bought the Ostheimer Super Set I put together. So now I only have one basic castle set and one drawbridge left which is pretty good!

So, home ed has gone a bit blah again here, not much of a surprise there. Yesterday Charlie did Maths and that was it lol He spent the rest of the day pretending to a "little ball of thingy", curled up being this ball or reading, which meant I spent most of the day puzzled as to what exactly he was doing?!

I finally baked the fimo stuff he made ages ago so must photograph all that soon - maybe tomorrow - got a couple of files to do today so musn't slack too much as potentially more will be on the way later.

The CGP books are going down very well here, but I suspect that it won't last when we hit the year 3 book! Sending him to Merry for maths tutition is seeming more attractive by the second! I'm just no good at explaining stuff to him. After getting off the phone from Merry on Monday and telling him he should get on with his maths because Fran was doing hers, he wanted me to call Merry and find out if he'd beaten Fran in finishing first! I did try to explain that he doesn't matter how quickly he does it, just that he understands it.

He's busy avoiding doing his teeth and getting dressed right now by reading downstairs where I can't see him and he thinks I don't know what he's doing, but the silence tells all. Going to give him a swift kick now and then it's maths for him and hopefully the rest of his normals too.

That's genius that is - post has just arrived and the clinic have billed me for the NK Cytoxicity test that I haven't even had yet!!! Pretty sure I didn't forget spending 3 hours on a train, two taxi rides and a big needle last Thursday!

*roll eyes*