A Tale of Toothly Woe

Adessa's teeth have been wobbly for a VERY long time. We have teased her that John would pull them out if she didn't start wiggling them to come out on her own. But she can be a big wimp about some things.......teeth being one of them. When teeth start to get really loose they start to move and can look really really funny, such was the case with Ads. Hugh and Mary had us over one evening for dinner with their son Lee his wife Phil and their daughter Frankie. As Ads, Frankie, and William were running and wrestling and playing rough (as usual) old William tossed a blow that clean knocked Ads tooth to hang from a thread if even that. When Ads saw the blood she of course screamed and started to cry so I ran over to see if the tooth was more wobbly and as I touched the tooth it came right out in my fingers. When Ads saw the tooth had come out she was all smiles and excitement. The Tooth Fairy came and £1.00 was received under the pillow.

About a week later Ads and I were walking together on the High Street to exchange her ballet shoes when she decided to start twizzling around as we walked. While she twizzled she pulled me off my balance and I lunged forward to keep from falling just as her face turned towards me and her face and my knee made contact. I know that this HAD to of hurt bad, because it hurt my knee. As I looked down Ads let out a Rebel Yell that could raise the dead and there was blood dripping out of her mouth. I said "Are you okay" and she screamed "I swallowed my tooth!!!!" As the blood continued to drip in a puddle in my hand from her mouth she continued to scream and cry and I kept trying to console her telling her the Tooth Fairy would still come. She was in a lot of pain and I didn't have anything for the blood which is splattered on my shirt and pooling in my hands whilst people keep walking right past us on the High Street. Many thanks to the good Samaritan who finally stopped and offered to go and find some tissues and a wipe so that we could clean up a bit and the British Heart Foundation shop keeper came out and invited us to use their personal toilet because Ads in the midst of this all started to pee her pants. The whole thing was a disaster and quite tragic. We went to the upstairs of the shop, Ads used the toilet, we were able to wash up the blood and then through a constant flow of tears she headed out the door to exchange her ballet shoes. 

I. Felt. Horrible! I was able to crack some jokes with Ads about the ordeal and cheer her up a bit. I kept wanting to see where the tooth had come from but she wouldn't show me her mouth. Finally she opened up and I was able to see why there had been so much blood and pain. Losing a tooth in general is a bit of a bloody ordeal but the cut along her gum from the way we made contact when we hit made this an even more bloody ordeal than the others. As we were leaving we went into Tesco to get her a drink and a treat to cheer her up. Whilst we were shopping Ads saw one of her teachers from school who was very cute with her and really cheered Ads up. Home we went to write the Tooth Fairy a note. I asked Ads if the Tooth Fairy would be willing to bring me some money if I retrieved her tooth from her poo? ;) ;) Not worth the pound.

Not many girls can say that they have had 2 teeth knocked out. After Ads lost her first tooth I told her we couldn't have our family picture taken until she lost her "Nanny McPhee" tooth, however I didn't intend to knock it out...........family pictures don't mean THAT much :) We now have a toothless beauty and I can't wait to have a good laugh when her 2 new giant adult teeth come in dwarfing all the teeth around them.

Adessa's Birthday Party

Our story of getting Adessa is an arduous one..... a couple years of clomid/fertility treatments, a freak allergic reaction, a random ovulation, and a great big answer to prayers. Adessa was born premature and very sick. Adessa's story is HERE and we are VERY VERY VERY blessed and grateful to both be here and alive :) Last year Ads had a big Birthday party and invited all of her school class so this year meant no big party. I told Ads she could invite 2 friends from school and then Franky (Hugh and Mary's granddaughter) and Emma (friend from Church) to come with us to see "Brave." This was a hard thing for Ads to do because there are a number of girls and boys in her class that she really likes, but her choice was made and our movie party ensued. 

I decided to have a RAINBOW themed Birthday for Ads this year. Last year we had a costume party and a Halloween themed Birthday. Halloween is Ads favourite holiday, so we celebrated big in costume last year. This year it was all about Rainbows. I made Rainbow cupcakes for her cake. Quite simply take your vanilla cupcake mix and divide it into bowls, colour the mix in the different bowls using food colouring the colours you want in your cakes, then spoon one drop of each coloured mix into the cupcake wrappers. When the cupcakes bake the colours mix and you end up with the most AMAZING cupcakes I have ever seen.

Here in England the custom for Birthdays is for the Birthday child to wear a Birthday badge. I decided to make Ads a Birthday badge adapted from a flower pin craft I made for the girls party bags. I am one who likes to make things if I can rather than buying it, plus, I have noticed that it makes my kids feel extra special when they get to sport a one of a kind-er :)

The girls arrived and we headed to the train station. When I planned the party I had forgotten that my car can only seat 4 passengers and I had 5! So I went to plan B, and rather than going to Bluewater we took the train to Bromley S. and went to the Empire Cinema's. Here the kiddo's are on the train.

We got the kids each a snack box with popcorn, a sweetie, and a drink.

The nice man working at the theatre gave Ads a free popcorn for being the Birthday girl, and he even let her choose if she wanted sweet or salty corn. She nicely shared her popcorn with the others until they each got their own snack boxes opened. It was so much fun watching the girls during the movie. All the girls sat together on a row and John, William, and I sat on the row behind them. I LOVE how excited girls get about things, they are such sweet blessings.

Along with Birthday badges, and sending your cake home with the kids, party bags are a UK Birthday party tradition. I decided to have a little fun with the party bags since there were just the 4 of them and put in some Rainbow themed homemade goodies. I know that some people will look at this and think I am CRAZY, but this is the part of being a Mom that I really really love. One thing I don't mind is hard work, I love it, I live for it and become exhausted by it. I found really cute Rainbow printables on this website HERE.

I LOVE lOvE love tie dye :) I have been tie dying for years and pretty much have a wardrobe full of the stuff. Since all of the undershirts were on sale for back to school I was able to get packs of shirts for pretty inexpensive. They don't sell tie dye kits here like you can buy at Michael's so I bought pink, yellow, and blue dye. I was really pleased with the way the shirts turned out.

I found this really cute dahlia felt flower pin craft from pinterest. The instructions are found HERE. I decided to carry on the Rainbow coloured theme for the pin.

I made little baskets out of cotton yarn I dyed from my left over tie dye dye. They had coloured cotton yarn in the shop, but it was too expensive so I bought white and dyed it :) I cut 3 yard length pieces of coloured yarn and then tied them together. I dipped them in PVA or Elmer's type glue and then wrapped them around balloons and then sat them upside down in plastic cups to dry. I let them dry in my sunny window for a couple of days. I used as much string as I thought was necessary to create enough of a basket to hold the goodies. I made Easter baskets like this when I was Ads age with my mom. The crafty is deeply genetic :) I loved them and thought they turned out great.

I have a thing for netting. After moving to the UK I quickly learnt that ribbon is really really expensive and tulle which is a softer version of netting is very rare.........however, you can get great colours of netting online here for pretty cheap. I LOVE netting. I think it is a really quick and easy way to spruce things up and add some colour and dimension in decorating. I made the tulle puffs on the baskets and then again I used them on the Birthday packages. My mom is the Queen of gift wrapping. The woman can wrap a package so beautifully you NEVER want to open it. I am 1/3 the woman and mom my mother was, but I am trying my best to be my best. I think they turned out really cute.

I made the cupcake picks from the printable.

I used different coloured pieces of felt for the place mats and then coordinated with matching balloons.

I made Ads a ruffled Rainbow skirt for her Birthday and she wore it on her party day. William is wearing an old tie dye shirt I made for Ads when we went to the Dude Ranch when William was just a baby......and yes he wore tie dye as well.

At the Dude Ranch. Mom, me, my SIL Shannon, SIL Sherri, and the kids. They had just been fishing :) We are all sporting our Tie Dye skills.

Am I a blessed woman or what!!! Look at these two little miracle precious children.

Ads 2.5 lbs at Birth              Liam 4lbs. at Birth

They say dynamite comes in small packages ;)

After the cinema we came home for Rainbow fruits and Pizza!

Making her wish.

Out with the candles.

After dinner I let Ads open her gifts, the girls jumped on the trampoline and then I returned them to their homes. Ads had a great time and the girls seemed to enjoy themselves as well. This was among my favourite Birthday parties I have done for Ads along with our Birthday Tea Party I did a couple of years back HERE.

I had a mother who made every moment of my childhood a magical experience and I hope to be able to give the same to my daughter and son. You have plenty of years of responsibility and reality in this life that I believe a childhood is for magic, learning, creativity, play, and excitement. My grandmother once shared some wise words with me that I choose to live by "you don't spoil your kids by what you buy them, but by what you allow them to get away with." I believe this 100%. I am trying hard to give my kids all that I can physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, but I am also trying to teach them discipline, respect, patience, and reverence. Parenting is tough, but it is the most important work I have to do......and as I said earlier, I don't mind hard work :) Happy Birthday party day my beautiful child who lives in the land of the fairies, I love you.

Back to School - Pictures

I married John because he was gorgeous and would sire me beautiful children. End of.

Back to School Party - FHE

"Back to School" is a time that is very bitter sweet for me. I have a lot of memories that are happy, sad,  frustrating, and joyous that I associate with this time of year. Back to school time as a kid meant getting new school clothes, school supplies, backpacks, and a cool themed lunch box. As a teenager back to school meant football games and half time performances, lockers, driving, and dating. Back to school as a co-ed meant roommates, Stadium Way number 35, dance classes, boys, frozen yogurts, more football games and half time performances and some good clean fun. Back to school after University meant preparing my classroom, working on lesson plans, teaching in a studio with the smell of a newly varnished floor, sweaty kids, and making a difference in the lives of Junior High School teenagers. Back to school as a pregnant soon to be first time Mom meant hot and swollen teaching in my studio at the Junior High, pre-eclampsia, selling our condo, buying a house, preemie baby, house falling through, prayers tears and pleading with the Lord to help our baby survive......which she did. Back to school as a "retired" teacher and operating now as a mom means getting kids clothes bought, school supplies purchased, lunch goodies ready, and happy kids geared up for some serious learning. 

I have spent a total of 25 years of my life in a school, whether it was as a student or as a teacher. I LOVE education and find a great deal of value in becoming a life long learner. As you can see back to school time is a pretty big deal in our family as we have spent a majority of our lives associated with school in some way. The funny thing is that John just as a student spent 20 years in school and finished his Masters when Ads was almost 3 years old. We know school and we know it well. Let's hope that our kids learn to love it as much as we do.......or I think we may just freak out ;) I am thinking that if Ads doesn't choose my Alma Mater to attend University I may freak completely out!

I thoroughly enjoyed getting ready for our back to school dinner party and FHE. We invited Sally and Lauren to join us and I planned for Frankie since I knew she would be at her Nan's house and likely we would get to have her with us as well. What a fun group! John and William were totally outnumbered by us girlie's.

For our dinner we had pack lunches.

After we finished eating we played a game where you had 15 seconds to look over my centre piece and then you had to write down as many things as you could remember seeing. Sally won the adult prize and Frankie won for the kids. We then played Back to School Bingo until all the prizes were gone and then we played 3 rounds of stealing prizes. The kids had a great time and did really well at the Bingo. After we played Bingo each person took a pencil and read what was typed on the paper attached and then we discussed why each of the things was important. It was amazing to hear how well the kids understand certain important moral and social principles. Cutest girls ever.

I made one of these pictures for Lauren, Frankie, and Adessa to place in their room through the school year.

The little pencil looking sweets are made of Rolo's and Hershey kisses.

This is us talking about our different topics that were on our pencils.

After our guests left Ads and William opened their back to school gifts from John and me.

The kids each got a new pair of pyjama's and a new outfit for school.

The next night after a bath Ads an William each had a back to school blessing from their father. Both kids are ready for school now and excited as ever. 

I love my kids and am so grateful that I get to be a mom. I know that this is a blessing and I am grateful for it. That being said.......it's CHRISTMAS for me :) Yes that is right, both kids in school is like Christmas for a mom. I get to have a clean and tidy house for at least a couple hours each day. Hallelujah! Happy Back to School.