Had the best birthday for a decade!

The last few birthdays have been fairly awful really :( ... but this birthday was just wonderful.  It was definitely more enjoyable enjoying getting older rather than lusting after an "number", or lusting after an all able bodied family too.

As you could see Birthday Eve was fabulous and on my Birthday, I woke up to Tea and Biscuits (cookies) in bed, and they were German biscuits from my 85 year old German friend from the pool Ed.  (I was born in Germany! prematurely).

For breakfast we had a full English Breakfast, Bacon, eggs, tomatoes etc... the full works with a nice teapot tea.

The older two had skating class up in town so that was nice after we popped home and went to a local farm for Lunch, everything is home made, all the fruit and veggies grown there and they raise buffalo too.... which is delicious it's like an English Tea Shop, but Western Style...   After that, we popped home and then went Glow Bowling which was fabulous, Oatie won he got 116 and I came second... with 98.  We play ten pin in England so 5 pin is a real novelty.... and I have no idea how the scoring works.. but at least these bowling balls don't break your nails lol!

After that we had home made pizza, with the cake that I made the day before, and sat down to watch a film we've all be wanting to watch together for ages and had popcorn and birthday cake to finish.  (and yes, we almost set the smoke alarms off, we lit all 33 candles!, I cheated somewhat I used the number 6 & 7 from the kids previous birthdays to make up 13 of the candles....

So it was an absolutely brilliant day and definitely the best birthday in a decade!

Happy birthday Eve Mummy...

The kids are celebrating mummy's happy birthday eve... Usually I haven't looked forward to my birthdays since 25 lol... But this year a few people my age either are battling cancer or have died... In the past year that I know. So... I decided that I'd be thankful that I've reached another birthday rather than fighting it lol!

Anyway the kids are celebrating my birthday eve as they've called it. And they're having so much fun x

You can see the happy birthday mummy chalked on the drive behind Oatie x

Love is in the air....

Today my three beautiful kiddies were excited about St.Valentines day, luckily for me they are too young to have "romantic" notions... but what is nice is that they are celebrating the love of friendship. Today no one got bullied and everyone had a super day. My Oatie's class made lots of crafts and sang songs... my daughters class had a party picnic and all had to wear Red/White or Pink, and I supplied some Valentines coloured food (Home made Pizza). My eldest had more of a celebration with their class. My elder two had skating today and my eldest wore his Red top.... and they gave home-made cards to their coaches, which they did a watercolour heart on.

The test that my son had just passed, well he was allowed to pair with my daughter, and it was just so gorgeous to see them skate together and nice for the grandparents to see them "ice dancing" together, they can't officially skate together till they are a higher standard but for fun today, the coaches let them. My little boy, holding my little girls hands in dance hold. He was so gentle with her making sure he didn't trip her up, arm around her back supporting her, it was a handkerchief moment.

My mum and dad are staying with us till Wednesday so it's my dad's birthday next month, and we won't be together so I told you guys, but I secretly made a cake, which I froze and iced the flowers. I was iced smooth white, and was going to be a "serious cake" but my gorgeous daughter wanted it rainbow colour for her Granddad and it sounded so much more fun, so we painted the coloured stripes on the heart shaped cake.

We got 3.04 manual ABR yesterday and 3.08 hours manual today.

Great News! We did it!!!

Ok I sound a little like Dora... if you can't stand watching Dora in English, you should try the French version, Dora's voice is so much more tolerable (the Map and Swiper isn't) but not a bad trade off..... but the whole thing is so much more pleasant in French...

Well, today I went for my morning Swim... and when I got out, I was beckoned to the desk... where they said that they took a vote!!! (the boss lady isn't in for two weeks) and agreed that Oatie Can BUGGY SKATE during the family skates... I did put in my letter either Ice Sled or stroller and well he can go out on Family time on Sunday! Hooray!!!!

Oatie's Feet that want to skate...

Unfortunately we probably can't go out this Sunday most likely as my older two are in a figure skating competition, but we can go next Sunday for sure, if we do I'll take a photo of my Happy Skating Oatie!

After that relief we did some ABR and then it was the School/Dancing Dash...

Tonight my husband is volunteering at the Casino to raise funds for our Skating Club and tomorrow is my stint... we're doing the 10:00pm to 02:30am slot!!! YAWN... so I've put on some strong coffee to keep him awake....

New Years Eve

Well mum doesn't believe in New Years Resolutions well, for this main reason why wait till a particular time of year to make a positive change, any day in the year will do just fine.

Here we're playing a honeybee game and I'm counting the bees in French.

Ok I'm wearing my Sheriff outfit, someone got to see that the rules are followed! Sheriff Oatie !

I wonder if any of the police force have cerebral palsy?

Well, Happy New Year!

Love

Oatie xxx

Boxing Day

My hot wheels toy, its a toy I can enjoy, I put the car in the launcher and hit the top and off it goes.

Christmas Day

Today no bench apart from my Machine, here I'm playing with a toy from Santa with my big brother. I was excellent. I/we could play as equals no able/less able issue!

No bench but...

Ok we had the unhealthiest day ever, well we did have a wholesome breakfast followed by gingerbread house for Lunch, we did have cheese on toast for snack followed by a stack of 14 inch French crepes with yummy toppings. It was the first time Oatie ate crepes like that as the texture used to make him gag. We made some homemade mince pies for Santa. Tomorrow homemade English scones with Jam for breakfast. Followed by a traditional Christmas Dinner and Harrods Christmas Pud. Merry Christmas! Love Oatie xxx

Christmas Eve yummy

It's Christmas Eve and I'm getting things ready for tomorrow, hopefully I'll have time for bench.

Gingerbread house still in one piece

Ohhh that gingerbread house is staring at me! I think we're eating it tomorrow Oatie's brother make a banana bread all by himself, (apart from putting and taking out of the oven) Today we did 2:55 manual ABR ! We watched Dora and Shrek2. This afternoon Oat's dad put up 3 sets of curtains, our Dining room, oat's and his sisters room, the kids have blackout lining which really gives you lovely quality of sleep. It's taken us two years to get around to putting them up lol! I'm excited about the dining room, it's really made the room cosy, for our 3rd Christmas in North America. The little ones are about to watch the snowman, followed by bubble baths and into bed.

I have a willing volunteer, his brother said when he's old enough he'd like to help mom out with rolling Oatie, ahhh.

The Gingerbread is still standing

Today we're about to start our Manual ABR, Oatie, goes to the DVD rack and picks his bench entertainment.  The Gingerbread house is still standing, the problem is that it is YUMMY and addictive!  as Oatie's brother and I counted out our whole family in gingerbread people, make some trees and an angel, stepping stones etc, after they were baked but before the house assembly, we kind of had a few extra gingerbread people which we shared out and ate, unfortunately Oatie ate Oatie, Oatie ended up in the eating pile, so Oatie became a teddy bear.  Well!  we had to make sure sure the gingerbread was OK after all it was a new recipe.  We're switching to N.American recipes as our European ones don't as well here, the ingredients are different, different altitude and humidity, which is nice as we're applying our knowledge to a new experience or method... Where am I going with this, well baking a cake or making bread or cookies is a scientific experiment each and every time, and it could come out different each time you make it just to one uncontrollable or controllable variable, but it still tastes ok or sometimes better.  ABR to me is science, logical, sensible science, what I also like about it, is that you feel like you are actually doing SOMETHING to help your child, rather than being passive as just waiting for the "miracle".  The thing is, as the ABR administrator so to speak, sometimes you as a person have leg aches, or arm aches or don't feel 100%, but the thing that always rings clear (I remember the trainers saying about a 3rd party rolling your child at school, may not be as good as perfect technique ABR, but better than not at all) to me is that even if your technique isn't on par that day, it's better than not doing ABR at all, a bit like your cake.

Well my top tips for rolling for me, are, We inherited a lovely thick carpet and thick underlay in our den, which our bench sits on, I'm by a huge window, so I get beautiful scenery of our yard we're on an acreage, I have my i phone with ear buds so when you've seen Dora for the millionth time.... you can tune it out and.... I have my Sketcher shoes, they are the banana shaped soles on them, and so amazing for rolling in.  We do 90% of our ABR standing up, or where possible, mainly as a result of a previous back injury.  Keeping fit, I find the fitter I become the easier it is me for our Daily ABR marathon.

I think we might take Christmas day off, for sure, but Oatie misses his bench.  He's still having 10-14 hours at night on his machine too.

Here's our house

We did over 2:35 hours of ABR today it was an awesome day on the bench, here is the homemade gingerbread house, is by the front door, mummy is holding my hand. Oatie is in the green