The Big One - Reasons to be Cheerful

This is the week I've been waiting for, the week when I am most cheerful of all - and it doesn't involve going on holiday for once!

Reason to be Cheerful 1: The Christening
Its our little one's big day - She is being baptised on Sunday at our church. The baptism is being held during 11am mass which is very important for us as she is being welcomed into a community that we have been part of for many years.
We are obviously looking forward to the party afterwards (mainly as I will be so relieved that the pressure is off - I had a mad moment a few weeks ago when I decided I would do the catering myself!)
This time we have decided against the posh 'do' instead favouring something relaxed and just enjoying the company of our friends (all 100 of them! Eek!)

Reason to be Cheerful 2: Wonderful Friends
Apart from being so pleased that we have so many lovely people willing to share Baby T's special day with us, I am very grateful for all the offers of help I have had with preparing the food for Sunday. We are expecting a bit of a houseful on Saturday and hope to make a bit of party of food preparation - chinese and wine may be consumed!

Reason to be Cheerful 3:Reading
Vi seems to be settling well into reading now - at first it wasn't something she was that keen on but all of a sudden she's really interested in what letters are in what words - we've got a long way to go but yay! Thank God for teachers - I don't know how home schooling parents have the patience to teach their kids to read!

Update on last week: My friend had a little baby girl, Ruby - at the time of writing I have not met her yet as I thought I'd give them a bit of a chance to settle into being a family of 4 but from the photos she looks like a little beauty.

Well, best get on..it will be no surprise to learn I still haven't finished Baby T's christening cake! The picture is what I imagine our utility room to look like by Saturday night!

Reasons to be Cheerful - Week 7

These weeks are flying by - I cannot believe that I have been posting my reasons to be cheerful for 7 weeks now. It really works - I am so chirpy.

To be fair, not much has changed since I last posted my reasons (it was only 4 days ago!) but never fear, I can still think of 3 reasons:

Reasons to be Cheerful 1: Babies
We are really lucky to have lots of friends who are expecting babies this year - Tara will certainly not go short of friends to play with. I am particularly excited about a friend who is due to deliver any day and beyond giddy to find out what flavour their new addition is.
Our own newest addition is now 10 weeks old and as fab as ever. She gives the most amazing smiles and cuddles and is STILL SLEEPING THROUGH! (sorry for shouting!)

Reason to be Cheerful 2: Books
Although, I do not get as much time as I would like to bury my head in a book, I love it when I can snatch the odd moment. I have about 3 books on the go at any one time and our trips to the van mean that slightly more reading gets done than usual.
I have just discovered a book that is taking me back to my youth - Sweet Valley Confidential. A real light read that re-visits the lives of the 'All American' twins, Elizabeth and Jessica. I used to love the Sweet Valley High books as a teen and love the idea of seeing what they are up to 10 years on. There are so many other books that I would love to revisit and see what the characters are up to. I will make sure to post a review when I'm done and will finally get another book to add to the 100 I'm to read before I'm 40.

Reason to be Cheerful 3: Finally getting sorted
Even though we are incredibly lucky to have had all these weekends away recently (Its Abersoch this weekend by the way!) there has been a slight downside, the house has been an absolute tip. I like to be quite organised and be on top of things which has been nearly impossible with all the comings and goings. We are finally able to tick a number of items off the to do lists and tackle Mount Washing and Ironing which have become so big they have a personality. Dull I know but I will feel better when they are done!

Big plans for the week ahead: Tara's Christening cake (you can't be the daughter of a cake designer and not have a wow cake!), hopefully I will be able to post my first 'how to make' tutorial, and a HUGE buffet to plan and prepare for.

Hope over to Michelle's place to see how the others are keeping cheerful this week.



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April at a glance - The Gallery

This weeks for Tara Cain's The Gallery, we were set the task of summing up the month of April in one photo. This April has been a funny old month this year... The children were off school for Spring Break for the first 2 weeks, then back to school for 3 days then off for Easter. Much to the horror of a lot of small business owners there was another bank holiday on Fri 29th April for The Royal Wedding which fitted in with Mayday bank holiday - My Mum has spent 37 years trying to convince me that the bank holiday at the start of May was in honour of her birthday on 1st May.

All these days off school and Bank Holidays (are they supposed to have capital letters?) meant that we were lucky enough to spend lots of time with family. My picture for the Gallery this week is a family photo that is a replica of one that was taken exactly the same time last year. This also coincided withe the first anniversary of our Dad passing away. We have already started a tradition of getting together at this time and this year's photo includes 2 new additions to the family, our nephew, Miles and our little one, Tara. The photo was taken in my sister's garden the day after Miles' Christening.

We have managed to spend time with both sides of the family this month. Last weekend, we met up with my husband's sister and her family in Windermere as we were staying nearby. We remembered to get a family shot to mark the occasion.

Gruffalo Cake

What a cake to start back with after a 3 month absence! This was the cake I made for my lovely nephew, Miles Patrick 'Milo''s Christening this weekend.

I have to admit The Gruffalo book isn't one of the favourites of my girls. We prefer Room on the Broom and Monkey Puzzle more. I even had to borrow the book to copy the characters. I made the Gruffalo out of a creme egg. I will do a tutorial here soon. On the morning of the christening, 10 minutes before we set out for the 50 ish mile journey to Leeds my 8 year old daughter decided to tell me that the cake would not be complete without a fox as this is a major character. So a fox's bum sticking out of the back it was! ( It was lovely to see my 3 year old niece choose the fox as the first thing to eat later that day)

The cake included a snake in a log pile, an owl (eyes peeing out of a black hole in a tree made of pillars) and of course the fox's bum!

The next 2 weeks will be spent making Baby T's christening cake - such pressure but a very worthwhile subject!

The Gallery - All 3!

Here's how it goes...
You want to record your comings & goings.
You start a blog.
You take more pictures.
You buy a posh camera.
Your husband starts taking pictures of fruit.

...and now I'm taking pictures of people taking pictures of fruit!

I have 2 more blogs... My cakey/foodie blog aims to tell the story behind my cake orders. They are not always my best cakes or best photos but have the best stories - This was for a couple ruled by their 4 dogs. They are both gaming mad (the groom is holding an x-box controller) and play poker every week.

Aardvark Cakes



This is my newest blog but still very special as I tracking our progress as we turn from a family of 4 into a party of 5 on our caravan travels - We are having great fun so far. This is what we look like when we are set up!

Five Go Caravanning



This is a post for this week's Gallery - visit the other posts to see what other people's blogs mean to them

Silent Sunday

Reasons to be Cheerful

A bit late with this post for this week but no less cheerful. I will be making a special effort to get round the other Reasons to be Cheerful posts as the lovely Mich from Mummy From The Heart is on a well deserved break.

Reason To Be Cheerful 1: The return from holiday

We have just arrived back from yet another break away, this time to Center Parcs in the Lake District. Yes, I know I'm like the Judith Chalmers of the blogging world! We had a really fabulous week, one of the best visits we have ever had to CP ... and we've been lots! The week went very quickly and the kids were a treat. Baby T slept so well and even had a dip in the pool (this was really to keep her sisters happy). Having said all this though, there is nothing like the feeling of getting home to your own house (which is normally tidy when we go away - tidying up for the burglars?) I love my home and am very lucky to live where I do. When you first arrive home you don't tend to see all the messy bits or bits that bug you before you went...and before you unpack the suitcases!

Reason To Be Cheerful 2: Friends

We were very pleased to be joined on this trip away by the lovely Cara from Freckles Family - our children are like brothers and sisters (well, maybe they don't argue quite as much but you get what I mean). It is a really easy relationship and Cara and I have been friends for 20 years this year - amazingly, this is the first time in that time we have been away together - all good practice for Cybermummy! The photo above is of my 2 eldest children (the 2 on the outside) and Cara's youngest 2 - I love how smiley they are.

Reason To Be Cheerful 3: I'm an Iron Maiden

I was delighted to receive a message from Mich this week informing me that I have won an iron in her recent blog competition - I know everyone always says it but I really never win anything - It is even more welcome as my iron is on the blink and there is LOTS of holiday ironing to be completed. People who know me well know I love a good iron and iron EVERYTHING - yes, even pyjamas, baby vests and bedding - don't shout at me!


Bit of a recap from last week: We went to see The Wizard of Oz in Liverpool - I'm still trying to make my mind up about it really. There were some bits that were really good like the singing and dance sketches. I did struggle to make out the words in the first half though as the sound quality was poor so this spoiled it a bit. Sarah-Jane Honeywell was good as was Bobby Davro but his jokes and impressions were a little dated - I will take a little more time to make my mind up on this one. Its coming on tour soon though so you could make your own mind up.

Thats it for this week - looking forward to catching up with the rest of the Reasons to be cheerful gang tomorrow.





I am also joining in this week with Maxabella Loves's Blog Hop - Grateful For - looking forward to joining up with some Australian bloggers to see what is making their week that little bit more chirpy.

The Gallery - Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Baby T will be having her first swim!


Post Edit: Since I first posted this (but couldn't publish it because I was in the deep dark depths of the Lake District) Baby T has had her first swim. She absolutely loved it - I wouldn't say she's ready for her 100m badge yet but she definitely seems as comfortable in the water as her sisters.

There are so many Reasons to be Cheerful

Week 3 of joining in Michelle from Mummy From The Heart's blog hop and I'm loving it. However small, when something nice happens during the week I automatically think, there's a reason to be cheerful. Try it, you might like it!

Reasons To Be Cheerful 1: A bit of a recap

We did it - we went on our first caravan trip as a family of 5 and it was a huge success. I wrote about it here.

Reason to be Cheerful 2: Half Term & Time with the children

I decided to embrace the time off with my children rather than thinking, 'Oh my god, how am I going to keep the 2 older girls entertained and look after Baby T' - so far so good!
We had a spur of the moment trip to see my sister in Leeds yesterday which felt rather brave as we live 50 miles away but it was great. The girls love seeing their cousins and we arrived back home at 11pm after a lovely afternoon (and a good feed!)
My MIL looked after Baby T this afternoon while I took M & V to the cinema to watch Hop - They loved it and once I had stopped thinking about payng a small fortune for popcorn and sweets, I loved it too.
Tomorrow, we are off to a soft play area with some friends that we met at V's nursery.
M has had some good news tonight and is very pleased to be moving up a lane at swimming club - she has worked hard this month and we are really pleased it has paid off for her.

Reason to be Cheerful 3: The Theatre again!

Ooh we are turning into luvvies! We don't visit the theatre for months and then twice in a fortnight - On Saturday we are going to see The Wizard of Oz at the Royal Court in Liverpool - This is V's favourite and I can't wait to see her face.

Reason to be Cheerful 4: The Blanket

We received a wonderful present of a knitted blanket for Baby T from my wonderful friend, Cara. Pics with Baby T to follow but needless to say it is absolutely gorgeous, must have taken forever to knit and we are very lucky. Here is the blanket without the recipient.

Reason to be Cheerful 5: Another Holiday

Yes, we are going away again - My husband could only have 2 days away from work when Tara arrived so we planned for a holiday at Centre Parcs. We are very excited!

Reason to be Cheerful 6: The Countdown to 40

Now I have published this list, I have an renewed enthusiasm for getting things done.
Progress so far includes:
Doing very well at drinking G & T's - To be fair this isn't the hardest item on my list but you need to start smal! I now like the taste and feel rather grown up!
Gardening - Time willing, I intend on planting some lily bulbs in the next 2 weeks. We have had an acknowledgement from the allotments saying they have received our application and expect we will get a plot within the next 2 years!
The Reading Challenge - Our weekend away helped me to find my reading mojo - I am now reading The Slap and quite enjoying it - My To-read list is growing - Any book suggestions are very welcome!

For the rest of the countdown to 40 list click here.

A long post, I know - It will probably be very short next week but I hope you all have a good week and look forward to reading your reasons to be cheerful.

I wore my coat, with golden lining...Reasons to be cheerful

Reason to be Cheerful Number 1:

Guess what we went to see this week? Yes the first of my Reasons to be cheerful for this week was our mid week trip to see Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Liverpool Empire. I went with my Mum (Christmas present), my youngest sister (birthday present) and my 2 eldest daughters (still doesn't feel quite right saying that when Baby T is only 5 weeks old). Both M & V are the biggest Joseph fans and were so good all the way through - Millie proudly knows all the words to the colour of his coat song! It was so lovely seeing how much they enjoyed themselves - I can definitely recommend taking your children to the theatre.

We also had a gorgeous meal beforehand at Casa Italia just to make the night even more lovely.

Reason to be Cheerful Number 2: Parent's Evening

This week we also had parent's evening for both M & V - How lovely to be greeted by a huge smile from the teacher saying how lovely your daughter is and how well she has progressed during the past term. She really couldn't praise M enough. V's teacher is happy with her progress too and it was lovely to hear what a huge personality she has in school and how happy she seems. Phew!

Reason to be Cheerful Number 3: The Costellos hit the road!

This is the biggie for us this week. Our first trip in our touring caravan as a family of 5 - we are madly trying to get ready and set the van up for the season. I will be blogging about our adventures over here I am even more excited after seeing the lovely Becky Willoughby's Reasons to be Cheerful post from last week where she discussed the beautiful flowers that are in bloom where we are going and the gorgeous little lambs.

And that's our update for this week - why not hop over a few of the other blogs? I wish you all a happy & healthy week - Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

Reasons to be Cheerful

A new venture for me is the Reasons to be Cheerful blog hop that is hosted each week by the lovely Michelle from Mummy From The Heart. I am generally a happy person with a lot to be cheerful about - we all have grumpy days or sad times though and if looking back at my lists of reasons to be cheerful helps just once then I'm happy. I also think it will be a lasting record of some of our lovely times for me and the kids to look back on in the future.

So here goes, we aim towards 3 reasons each week and they can be of any topic ...

Reason to be Cheerful Number 1: My 3 wonderful girls

I wouldn't feel right not including this as my first entry. At ages 8, 4 and 4 weeks I am proud of them all - they are all beautiful and for the majority of the time get on very well with each other. I love that they are capable of having a conversation with different people ( my close friends will know that I had a slight paranoia about having boring children before they were born - as if these lovelies could be boring!)
I am very aware that I need to get some picture of all 3 girls together but happily we have been so busy since Baby T was born that we haven't got round to it yet!


Reason to be Cheerful Number 2: Spring is in the Air

It has been a beautiful week weatherwise (how terribly British to discuss the weather!) I have managed to get out a lot this week with the pram and done tons of walking (I even managed to get down to the local allotments and put our name on the waiting list which is something I have been meaning to do for 2+ years) It has been great to see everyone else out and about and people I have met seem to be more chirpy. I have spoken to loads of random strangers on my travels this week but in all honesty this isn't that unusual as I will talk to anyone!


Reason to be Cheerful Number 3: A Bit of Bling

When M was born 8 years ago, I somehow managed to persuade Derm that it is usual for the mother of a newborn to be showered with a diamond (If anyone tells him otherwise I will NOT be happy ;-)) For M, I got a beautiful diamond necklace and for V, 4 years ago I was given a fabulous bracelet encrusted with diamonds that matches my wedding ring (Get me sounding like a spoilt brat).
This week I received my gift celebrating the birth of Baby T - a bespoke necklace that has the names of all 3 children embossed on it. I absolutely love it as it symbolises a lot of hard work and just how lucky we are to have our 3 beauties. A few people have spotted it and commented. My favourite comment was the lady that called it my Mummy Necklace - it is just how I see it.


Reason to be Cheerful Number 4: (see already I can't keep to just 3!) Weekend plans

Our travelling weekends haven't started just yet but this weekend will hopefully be one of preparation for a busy summer. We have a few committments alongside the usual swimming lessons and dancing lessons - Not forgetting of course, our ritual Saturday afternoon at Grandmas!
On saturday evening at our church, there is a group of entertainer/musicians/puppeteers that are coming for the children of the town. I'm not quite sure what to expect other than what the organisers tell me will be a fantastic night. There have been 500 tickets sold so one thing I can expect is it will be very busy. More probably next week ...
Sunday morning will once again be at church (how on earth will all 5 of us get out of the house on time?) - We have been asked to go as the priest introduces babies of the parish to the congregation a few weeks before they are baptised - and that's us!

So that's the Costello Family reasons to be cheerful for this week - I wish you all a happy and healthy week - let me know if you stop by and it would be lovely to read what you are looking forward to this coming week.

This is Me Meme

I have been tagged today by the lovely Cara of FrecklesFamily to complete the This is Me Meme. The task is to get your child to draw a picture of you which I had no trouble getting my 2 eldest girls to do on our journey to Leeds this afternoon.

The top picture was drawn by my 4yo, Violet and the bottom one by my 8yo, Millie. We let Tara, aged 4 weeks off this one as she was asleep!

It was really interesting to notice the different ways our daughters went about the task - Violet got straight on with it and finished it in record time, gave the sheet of paper to me and forgot all about it. Millie was so much more serious about it - concentrating on every detail, she was very unhappy with the result (saying my body was far too thin - ahem!) and complained that there was a smudge on the left hand side. She is such a perfectionist! Wonder where she gets that from?

I have included a rare picture of the real me (with tied back hair that my children hate - Vi has been known to tell me to take my bobble out before now). The picture was taken this afternoon with my sister and our 2 youngest children, Milo (aged 12 weeks) and Tara (aged 4 weeks today).

So what happens now? I have been cheeky and tagged a couple of people - Please don't feel pressured to do it. If you ust happen to pop by and fancy joining in, it would be lovely if you did!

Helen
Michelle
Julie
Julia
Vanessa


The Rules
Ask your child to draw a picture of you. It doesn’t matter how old they are…
Post the picture on your blog.
Call it the ‘This is Me Meme’.
Pop over to Tara’s post to add it to her linky too.
Then tag some others

The Gallery - Simple Pleasures - Family

I have only just got round to checking this week's Gallery entries and find that I am number 100 in the list. The theme this week is Simple Pleasures - For me there is nothing nicer than being surrounded by good company and my photo entry is of my family when they were introduced to Baby T last week - Aged 3 days.

My OH is missing from the pic as he is behind the camera and I am looking less than my best but it was such a lovely evening I couldn't not include this photo.

Introducing Tara Beatrice - The First 2 weeks

The Costello Crew have a new member - our darling little girl was born on 20th February and is absolutely perfect. Tara Beatrice is a welcome little sister for her 2 older sisters who are looking forward to many years of fun together.

Tara has settled well into our household - she has received lots of visitors and once again we are amazed by how generous people are with their presents. She is very patient as we keep calling Tara, V as we are used to calling her 4yo sister.

On Day 3, OH had to return to work and the next day I developed an infection. Cue, the most AMAZING friends a person could ever have - We were so well looked after - with lunch being brought, shopping being done, photos being taken and even Baby T being bathed.

Biggest sister, M has been an absolute star - never once complaining when she is asked to fetch items and always being ready for a cuddle with T. Middle sister, V loves T very much and even wanted to kiss her tongue one night!

By the end of week 2, T has met all 9 of her cousins and has even been to a swimming lesson, visited a pub and attended a swimming gala - the life of a 3rd child. She is very popular at school and behaved perfectly at the school fashion show. Auntie Cara has kindly done 2 photo shoots - Evidence of which can be found here.

Life for M & V has been just as busy with World Book Day on Thursday (M had a fabulous Dorothy outfit made by Nanna and V was a beautiful Snow White - Photos to come!) On Tuesday, V had a visit to A&E with a huge bump on her forehead after falling off a kitchen stool - The proof of this will forever be on the school photo taken the next morning!

The next week holds in store lots more fun and lots more visitors - T is already growing out of outfits but continues to be a tiny 7lb and very beautiful - we are feeling VERY lucky.

Its Chriiiiistmas!

Ooh are you getting excited yet? I start getting giddy at the end of August - seriously. There is so much to do and I always run out of time - and I always have a whinge about how much I 'need' to do but I'll let you into a secret ...I love it!

Around this time, I start to think about the Christmas traditions that we have..I know that each family has different ones and I love hearing about them.

One of ours is each betting to guess what colour the Queen is wearing for her speech (not that we tend to watch it, we are normally sitting down for Christmas dinner with a port and lemon at that point). We have a maximum 50p bet - Gamblers Anonymous please don't be alarmed - its only once a year! Its hard work managing to avoid what she's wearing as it is normally on the news the week before but well worth it.

A friend of mine's Dad insists on going downstairs first shouting bye to Father Christmas down the drive saying 'See you next year!" - She is 35 and married with her own son but they won't stop that tradition.

What are your traditions at Christmas? Share them -you may start a craze!

PS The photo is from Christmas 2008 in our living room - Another tradition, the house is a tip in 2 seconds flat!