No laptop time…

Friday – The children and I had been out and about all week or having people over so I deliberately kept Friday free for some time at home. Ady ended up working from home as his car spent the morning in the garage having some work done to it. I took him to the garage to collect it mid morning and we shot over to Toys R Us as Tarly is being very indecisive about just what she wants for her birthday / Christmas and can’t seem to decide between baby dolls and baby doll stuff and the leap into Barbie World. She does already have an amount of ‘baby’ doll stuff and tbh doesn’t really seem to get a lot of play value out of it so despite my own personal aversion to all things Barbie I can see this would be a better way forward. (Also there is loads of second hand Barbie stuff around at car boot sales and charity shops so it will be an easy set of stuff to add to.)

Ady and Davies walked round together looking at various things while Tarly and I looked at the Barbies, the babies, the Sylvanian Families (which she sort of liked the idea of but didn’t sway her from either of the Barbies and Babies) and various other bits and pieces. We’ve spent the rest of the weekend talking about it and looking at things online and I reckon we’ve decided on Barbie now – it’s the thought of a Barbie horse which finally tipped the balance :lol:.

I really enjoyed that half an hour or so with her, she was quite literally like a child in a toy shop, filled with delight and wonder at all the stuff crammed on the shelves. Scarlett has always been very undemanding about things like toys – from a very early age she was able to accept ‘not now, maybe for your birthday’ as an answer to a request for something – and not once in the whole Barbie vs Baby debate has she simply said that she wants both, she understands it is a choice between the two. I was quite shocked at the realism of the baby doll toys actually – they are a million miles away from the ones I played with not 30 years ago. I recall desperately wanting a baby doll called ‘Bella’ from the Argos catalogue for the Christmas before I was 7 or 8 and being so thrilled when I got it. There was a particular smell about baby dolls back then and I was instantly transported back 25 years or so when we were looking at them in Toys R Us as they still have that exact same smell. But now they do way more that take water through their mouths, pass it through enough tubing inside to cause a few minutes delay before emptying it into a toy nappy, close their eyes when you lie them down and maybe say ‘Mama’ if you have a really pricey one. For under fifteen quid you could get one that when you held it’s hand yawned, closed it’s eyes, made contented sucking noises and little newborn baby gurgles. Amazing!

We came home for lunch and spent much of the afternoon making another animation. This time of a geomag figure dancing – you can see that over on Davies’ blog. Ady went off to give Jim a lift to Butlins and after we’d made the film the children played with the geomags.

Ady came home and I popped out. I had some ebay parcels to send and a few things I wanted to do in the local town. I didn’t manage to get any of the things I was aiming to find so added them to my list of things to do on Saturday instead. After the children had gone to bed I rang my Mum to arrange for her and I to go out on Saturday for various bits of shopping and she ended up getting in her car and coming over to talk about it instead (she only lives a mile away).

Yesterday was the day we’d earmarked for going shopping for various bits and pieces for Scarlett’s party, her birthday and some Christmas shopping. We’ve pretty much sorted the children’s presents already with a few last minute bits still left to get but Mum wanted to get a birthday present for Tarly from Frazer (my brother – who at 30 still doesn’t do his own shopping :roll:), a little gift for Davies on Tarly’s birthday from her, Christmas presents for both children from Frazer. We got a dvd each for the children for Scarlett’s birthday (always a winner for presents for our children, films) and more geomags for Christmas (hurrah! Got the pastel ones for Tarly and some new black and orange ones for Davies). I got some pretty party shoes for Tarly to go with her Princess dress ready for her party and a pair of Christmassy pjs each for the children. We started a tradition years ago that on Christmas Eve they each get one gift – which they don’t seem to have worked out yet but is always pjs to put on there and then. I also got several pairs of trousers for Davies who has finally grown enough for all his trousers to be too short now – Mum put some money towards them as she insisted I bought the slightly more expensive than value brand ones so she paid the difference! 🙂

We came home, bringing food for lunch and Dad arrived over at our house for the afternoon too. Dad, Ady and the children were playing a rousing game of ‘Crackers’ – a fairly antique Wallace and Gromit board game Ady found in a charity shop for D’s birthday. It’s a fairly mental game with loads of crazy tasks to carry out so they all seemed to be enjoying that.

Then Mum and I headed back out again for party supplies for Tarly’s birthday party. We got everything on my list and a few extras, all at bargain prices from the pound store so that was very pleasing too. 🙂

Came home again and Davies had decorated and arranged the playroom to put on a show so we all went and watched that – it made up for in style what it lacked in substance and was heavily reliant on lots of audience participation but give that boy a (toy) microphone and he’s ready to charm the crowd! 😆 The children had a bath supervised by my Mum, who was then allowed to brush Scarlett’s hair :shock:. The children went to bed, Dad and I went out to get fish and chips for dinner and we had a really nice evening.