I am so, so behind on all things blog related. This is because my laptop charger has broken, I've managed to borrow one until tomorrow so I thought I'd pop on quick and post my reasons to be cheerful this week!
1) We are home from up north now. We had such a lovely time. We went to Southport on Tuesday, we had a great time! The kids loved the carousel/merry go 'round, they went on a few rides on the fair but Harry has a phobia of rides (no idea why! He wouldn't even come on the merry go round with me) so he did the penalty shoot out & catch a duck instead. We had a nice chippy tea after going on the beach for a bit and then ended our day in the memorabilia shop for some sticks of rock etc.
It's nice to be back home & sleep in my own bed but goodness I do miss everyone!
2) The kids go back to school next week! Which is bittersweet. I will miss them SO much but at the same time we all need our routine back now, lol. The kids seem to be looking forward to starting in new years, with new teachers and seeing all of there friends, yay! I just need to purchase there school jumpers and H a new PE kit (He's grown out of the one he currently has, thankfully Charlie's and Ellie's still fit them) from the school office on the day they return to school.
3) We got a new fur baby. He's a tabby kitten, aged 8 weeks old from a local animal rescue centre. He's so small and sweet. We've called him, 'Lenni' Although, our other cat, Lotti (She's about 15 months oldish) doesn't seem to like him. She growls and hisses. I've separated them for the time being, Lenni in one room and Lotti has the run of the house, I'll introduce them slowly and see what happens. :)
(Lenni 8 weeks old)
I hope you all have a lovely weekend! :)
Sarah xXx
A Lucky Child: A Memoir of surviving Auschwitz as a young boy. by Thomas Buergenthal
'Thomas Buergenthal, now a Judge in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, tells his astonishing experiences as a young boy in his memoir A LUCKY CHILD. He arrived at Auschwitz at age 10 after surviving two ghettos and a labor camp. Separated first from his mother and then his father, Buergenthal managed by his wits and some remarkable strokes of luck to survive on his own. Almost two years after his liberation, Buergenthal was miraculously reunited with his mother and in 1951 arrived in the U.S. to start a new life. Now dedicated to helping those subjected to tyranny throughout the world, Buergenthal writes his story with a simple clarity that highlights the stark details of unimaginable hardship. A LUCKY CHILD is a book that demands to be read by all.
Holocaust books are always had to review!
Thomas Buergenthal, now a Judge in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, tells his story of how he survived the concentration camps during world war II. He had already survived two labor camps & ghetto. He's been thru some really horrendous circumstances and situations when he was just a small child. He was a Jew and arrived in Auschwitz aged 10 years old after being separated from his parents. He survived on hos own in the concentration camps by luck. A few people helped him to survive. The camp was eventually liberated and Thomas and a friend he had made in the concentration left together. Eventually Thomas ended up in an orphanidge and his mother found him (again, pure luck!). They were reunited. He left for The United States in 1951 and that is were he spends the rest of his life.
He tells his story so well and is easy to read. I love the way it's wrote and that he remembers so much! Thomas' story IS sad but it does have a nice ending.
I learned a lot from reading this book.
Five stars from me!
Sarah xXx
Sorry, I've been MIA for a few days. See, we're visiting family up north and i've not had much chance to write a post, so much has been going on and we're having a lovely time catching up with everyone, it's really lovely to see everyone!
The train journey up here was a nightmare. I didn't realise when I booked the train tickets, that Saturday was a) the first day of the premier league (most London teams played and other teams, which meant just about every footy fan was using the tube!) and b) It was the V festival, our train into central London happened to be one of the main trains everyone and there dog (I am not kidding!) was on, too. CHAOS! Especially the tube/underground in CENTRAL LONDON! Eek. Next time I will be checking all this out BEFORE I book the train tickets (in advance). Still, though we're here now and it's great!
The kids all slept in the tent in the back garden last night, they had a wonderful time lol. Five kids in one big tent! They thought it was great. Although Charlie and one of the other kiddies didn't go to sleep until well after midnight and Ellie made waaaayyy too much noise because she was *so* excited but that's ok, as long as they all had fun! They're camping in the tent again this weekend I think (plus an extra two kiddies). We must be crazy haha, but it's all about the kids having fun and it's a nice experience for them. Perhaps next year we can go proper camping!
I am incredibly tired today, LOL. I'll sleep well tonight and I think (and hope) the kids will, too. I am so glad they're all having fun, it makes me happy and it is really nice to have a break away and change of scenery. I'm very lucky to have family I can stay with.
I'm not really sure what else we have planned yet, we're kind of spur of the moment kind and just go for whatever on the day, lol!
I hope you're all having a good week so far :-)
Sarah xXx
Phew! Over half way thru the summer holidays. How's everyone enjoying the summer hols' so far? We've not really done that much to be honest, the weather has been a little up and down. It's been looking like it wants to rain all day but now it's really sunny! Anyhoo, here are my reasons to be cheerful this week..
1) I got my new table & chairs and coffee table! Finally! Yay! My front room is almost complete! Just the rug to get once the kids are back in school. Yay! It's so nice to sit up at the table and eat as a family. I've really missed that!
2) We're going away for a few days to visit family up north. My friend is going to look after my house for me which is really nice of her. I am looking forward to seeing everyone up north and catching up. It'll also do us all good to get away! The kiddies are very excited, hehe.
3) I am hoping to get the kids school shoes tomorrow! That'll be a huge weight off my mind. Both Ellie and Harry have very wide feet (like me) and there toes are quite long, it's usually a mission to find a pair of shoes that fit perfectly. Hopefully we won't have a huge kurffule tomorrow. I'm relying on Clarkes (I hope they still have a sale on.) Plus, all three kiddies are half sizes. I can't believe Ellie is already an 11.5 shoe (Harry's a 3.5, just half a size smaller than me) and Charlie is a 13.5. Gosh, there feet grow so fast, lol.
And of course, tomorrow is Friday! Woo.
What are your reasons to be cheerful t his week? Why not link up with Mich over at mummyfromtheheart and join in :)
Sarah xXx
1) I got my new table & chairs and coffee table! Finally! Yay! My front room is almost complete! Just the rug to get once the kids are back in school. Yay! It's so nice to sit up at the table and eat as a family. I've really missed that!
2) We're going away for a few days to visit family up north. My friend is going to look after my house for me which is really nice of her. I am looking forward to seeing everyone up north and catching up. It'll also do us all good to get away! The kiddies are very excited, hehe.
3) I am hoping to get the kids school shoes tomorrow! That'll be a huge weight off my mind. Both Ellie and Harry have very wide feet (like me) and there toes are quite long, it's usually a mission to find a pair of shoes that fit perfectly. Hopefully we won't have a huge kurffule tomorrow. I'm relying on Clarkes (I hope they still have a sale on.) Plus, all three kiddies are half sizes. I can't believe Ellie is already an 11.5 shoe (Harry's a 3.5, just half a size smaller than me) and Charlie is a 13.5. Gosh, there feet grow so fast, lol.
And of course, tomorrow is Friday! Woo.
What are your reasons to be cheerful t his week? Why not link up with Mich over at mummyfromtheheart and join in :)
Sarah xXx
Me and my children love decorating biscuits! We either use digestives or rich tea biscuits for this. It's easy & fun. It's quite cheap as well (especially if you already have the decorations in the cupboard, hehe). The kids really enjoy decorating there own biscuits. (So do I, lol)
What we use:
We decorated our digestives using the icing pens first (you can use icing if you prefer). Ellie decided she was going to write her name on her biscuit.
And then we added our decorations. The decorations stick really easy to the icing. Ellie liked the silver balls best :)
We sprinkled on lots of hundreds and thousands, sprinkles and sugar flowers. Yummy.
This post is linked up with Creative Challenge linky.
What we use:
- All kinds of sprinkles/hundreds and thousands, cupcake decorations, you can also use sweets or anything else that will stick to the biscuits)
- Digestive biscuits (or rich tea)
- Icing pens. Or icing
We decorated our digestives using the icing pens first (you can use icing if you prefer). Ellie decided she was going to write her name on her biscuit.
And then we added our decorations. The decorations stick really easy to the icing. Ellie liked the silver balls best :)
We sprinkled on lots of hundreds and thousands, sprinkles and sugar flowers. Yummy.
We really enjoy decorating biscuits :) Have you done any baking or decorating recently?
Sarah xXx
This post is linked up with Creative Challenge linky.
I'm Sarah. I am twenty eight years old from Essex (and no, I don't have an accent like Amy Childs, lol). I am a SAHM to Harry (aged 9) Charlie (aged 8) and Ellie (aged 5). We have two kittys, Lotti and Lenni. I love spending time with my family, my children are my world, my life... my everything. We love doing arts and crafts, going on days out and being creative. We love movie days, watching family films and learning new things.
I started blogging because I love to write. I wanted to share my life as mummy with the world, the every day ups and downs, smiles and frowns of our every day life.
I am upfront and easy to get along with. What you see, is what you get. I am a kind, caring person & I enjoy making new friends.
I blog about every day life, my opinions, photos and I love to share my ideas.
I hope you enjoy reading my blog.
Sarah xXx
If you have any questions or would like us to review any products that you think would fit into my blog, please send me an email to me - Sarahsparklez@hotmail.com or alternatively you can tweet me: @OoserzoO
Gosh hasn't this week flown by?! So we're almost half way thru the summer holidays, how is everyone enjoying the summer hols' so far? Personally I'm really enjoying not having to do school runs, spending more time with my kids and not having to rush around but my goodness, I am really missing the whole 'school' routine, lol. Anyway, here are my reasons to be cheerful this week..
1) The weekend - I am REALLY looking forward to this weekend. I'm going over to my grandparents with Ellie while the boys are at there dads (I think he's taking them to his mums house for the day, so the boys will have a lovely time there I'm sure). In the evening, we're going over to my grandparents club house/pub as there's a band playing, it's child friendly, too :-) So I'm really looking forward to that! It's lovely spending time with my grandparents, I'm really close to them & they live in such a lovely place. A long walk around the country side may be on the cards, hehe. I wonder what wildlife we'll spot... Maybe we'll spot a deer or two!
2) Summer BBQ - We are having a lovely BBQ for dinner tonight, yay! We should make the most of BBQ'ing because the weather will soon be changing.
3) I know this was one of my reasons last week - but I really LOVE my front room now it's been Re decorated/improved. I am SO proud of myself for saving up. It's really shown me what can be achieved by saving and has totally encouraged me to save more and do the rest of the house up. After Christmas though, I need to get saving for Christmas next. Eeek. This year is flying by!
Sarah xXx
This weeks theme is 'Play'
My two littlest, little's playing at the park..
And of course my biggest little
(Ha! That totally made no sense, lol)
Linked up over at Thestickyfingersblog
So I briefly wrote about how I have recently re vamped my front room, but like I said it was very brief so I thought I would write a proper post about how I did all of this on a budget.
Please bare in mind I have been saving for months upon months. Doing the front room, bit by bit. I felt like I was getting nowhere fast but now it is *almost* complete... Here are some progress pics.
My front room in 2012:
My front room in summer 2012:
I seriously hated those curtains! So much! And the wallpaper was old and faded (from the previous tenants). The walls were a kind of off pink colour, like a pinky blush kind of colour, hard to explain! I think it was possibly the previous tenants had mixed themselves.
The carpet was new when I moved in December 2011. It was not a hard wearing carpet though.
In April I finally wallpapered, white glossed the skirting boards & painted the walls pale grey:
I decided on a white, grey & black theme.
I evetuanlly saved up enough money for laminated wooden flooring, curtains and second hand sofas (that are like brand new!)
It took a while to lay the flooring but it was all done in a day!
Yay! I've also seen the rug I like which is £20 on sale, hoping to get that this week! I've also got a coffee table but it won't be here for another week. (On sale in ARGOS!) Woohoo.
Lovely curtains and light shade!
Now I just need to save for the throw overs, cushions and what not. I finally have a nice front room I can sit and relax in! It did take me a long time to save up and it isn't 100% finished. It was SO worth the wait! All in all, including second hand sofas, laminate wooden flooring, wallpaper, paint, gloss, curtains etc..
I have pictures to hang up but need to find the picture hooks... must remember to find those tomorrow!
Sarah xXx
My little butterfly.
(Taken a few weeks ago)
So I have a child free weekend and so far I have - had a few glasses of wine last night. Got up this morning (at 6am! My body no longer knows how to sleep past 6am lol), felt like utter rubbish (darn hangover!) but I didn't let that stop me... Off I went to a carboot sale, I got LOST season 1-4 on DVD for a tenner in total! Not bad, not bad at all! It was lovely walking around without having to keep stopping 97468 times and no interruptions, no whinging that legs are aching or wanting just about everything in site from the children. But my goodness, I felt lost without them with me by my side! I miss them SO much.
After the car boot, I popped into Morrisons and picked up some bits and bobs that we needed... oh and the items to have a curry a for dinner (Ha! I won't even have to share it with the kids! I won't have to rush my meal or be interrupted while eating.. I'm not sure if I know how to eat slowly any more LOL. Am I the only mummy that eats as quick as possible because there's 39057 other things to be doing & of course, eating before the kids pinch whatever off my plate, lol)
I came home, had a two hour nap (which was lush btw!) and now here I am. I tell you what though, I am BORED. It's so boring without the kids here. I am so enjoying the peace and quiet. I am so staying up late so that I sleep in tomorrow!
The kiddos will be back tomorrow after lunch. I can't wait to see them :)
Sarah xXx
After the car boot, I popped into Morrisons and picked up some bits and bobs that we needed... oh and the items to have a curry a for dinner (Ha! I won't even have to share it with the kids! I won't have to rush my meal or be interrupted while eating.. I'm not sure if I know how to eat slowly any more LOL. Am I the only mummy that eats as quick as possible because there's 39057 other things to be doing & of course, eating before the kids pinch whatever off my plate, lol)
I came home, had a two hour nap (which was lush btw!) and now here I am. I tell you what though, I am BORED. It's so boring without the kids here. I am so enjoying the peace and quiet. I am so staying up late so that I sleep in tomorrow!
The kiddos will be back tomorrow after lunch. I can't wait to see them :)
Sarah xXx
(An old photos of when my boys were babies...)
I'm a bit late posting my reasons to be cheerful this week but that's because I've been busy. Very busy! So here are my reasons to be cheerful this week.
1) "Good things come to those who wait" - I finally have wooden laminated flooring in the front room, yay! I've been saving for this, new sofas (or rather second hand but new to me!), new curtains etc.. for what feels like eternity (around 9 months in fact!) & FINALLY I had enough ££ to do my whole front room, at last!
1) "Good things come to those who wait" - I finally have wooden laminated flooring in the front room, yay! I've been saving for this, new sofas (or rather second hand but new to me!), new curtains etc.. for what feels like eternity (around 9 months in fact!) & FINALLY I had enough ££ to do my whole front room, at last!
It's not finished, it's still a work in progress but it looks SO much better! I hated my old carpet and old curtains. Now I have nice new flooring and new curtains and flooring and I LOVE it so much!! I just need a rug and coffee table, place the sofas in the right places and I think we'll be just about done :) Yay!
2) Kid free & it's Friday - I have a kid free weekend, yay! I may or may not have a couple of glasses of wine tonight and just lounge around doing nothing of much importance, watch random stuff on tele and just chillax. Woohoo.
3) The kids have bee really good this week. We managed a trip to the pirate chip park but not much else. The weather has been on and off, plus I've been very busy this week! Next week hopefully we can go swimming or the beach. :D
What are your reasons to be cheerful this week? Why not join in the linky below and share your reasons :)
Sarah xXx
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