Happy Halloween from the Farrells......enjoy!

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Party number 1.....

...of this week is over. Natasha turned 4 yesterday and we had a lovely little tea party. Was only a small affair this year what with the big Halloween bash coming up on Saturday and another 2 birthdays in the next four weeks. Saying that, little Miss Mayhem (for that should be her new name) had a fantastic time, with some great presents, me butchering her with facepaint and the cake that she wanted (even if the mermaid WAS blonde).

She did a great job on the candles though and blew those out in a oner. Not the greatest photos I know, but I just love the expression on her face in the second one!

She seems to have taken a shine to the little Ponyz toys that she played with at her cousins house so she got some of those and a Barney DVD (what is it with that purple monstrosity that kids love so?). She also got a barage of gifts from the family......her toy Dyson being a favourite although I didn't manage to get a photo of that last night as it was a bit chaotic but will take some more later.

I bought proper facepaints for the first time last week in prep for Halloween but thought it would be a good chance to have a little play before the party. What was confirmed was my complete lack of artistic ability! A very wonky butterfly on poor Natashas face. Stupidly i'd done the outline first and then managed to smudge everything doing the rest. But I guess it'll take practice......and anyway, Natasha thought she looked great ..... possibly only because of the glitter.

Emily's wasn't as hard to do as she just wanted some trailing flowers so there was at least a little more room for error. Thank goodness that I don't have to be quite so precise with the Halloween face painting! Again though, kids are luckily easily pleased and Emily loved it.......in her eyes I am Michaelangelo!

So another birthday over, Robs in a fortnight, Emilys in 4 weeks and then Xmas! Credit card is about to take a hammering I think.

Half term has started and again it's no let up of activity. Today is a bit of a slow one although Em has a friends party to go to this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm picking up Paige who's coming to stay for a couple of days. It's been a while since she stayed, a couple years I think and now that Freya has a little more of an outside social life she can't wait to show Paige around and introduce her to some of her friends.

She wanted me to take some photos of her yesterday as she didn't like the profile pic she had on MSN so I took a couple shots and I adore this one. I'm definately going to get this one blown up and put on the wall. It's strange how she suddenly looks so much older than she is. Scary in some ways. All she has is a little mascara on and yet she looks about 16! Or is that just me panicking?

It's been a nice few days here. Pete and I managed to escape the kids on Sunday to go to the cinema to see the new Saw movie. It's been slated a bit although I still enjoyed it, then we went for a bite to eat in Old Orleans where my eyes were definately bigger than my stomach. Now that the girls are a little older, it's nice that babysitting isn't so hard to come by. The last few years have meant very little home time for Pete and we seem to be making the most of this 10 weeks home so far. I know it won't be too long til he's back at sea again......life in the armed forces eh?

Talking of which.......has everyone got their poppies yet?

A new challenge......

that I thought I would give a go. Can't even remember where I saw this blog but as it's portraiture photography that I'd like to learn, I thought this would prove a very helpful little website!

Well, the challenge for this week (week 42) is Halloween or some kind of dressing up photo where the emphasis is on the face. Well, as our Halloween bash isn't until Saturday, I thought about this photograph of Emily that I took for World Book Day last year. Seemed like a contradiction at the time....Em going as Little Miss Sunshine, however her little sister has taken over the title of 'Farrell Household Resident Misery Arse' so it's a little more apt now!

Anyway, today was Natasha's birthday so I will be back on tomorrow to add some photos taken today. Finally got the camera out which hasn't seen the light of day for the past few weeks!

X

Half Term madness begins....

...and there is so much to do! It's been so nice having Pete home though as this time of year is so hectic. Tomorrow is Natasha's birthday and the cake is bought. I'm running out of original cakes from Waitrose though unless I start buying the £50 ones which, let's face it...isn't going to happen. Not with 3 birthdays in the space of 4 weeks on top of hurtling towards Christmas.

So this year, Natasha has picked the mermaid one but when we went to pick it up yesterday, all hell broke lose because the mermaid was blonde....oh well, can't please them all. If I had a penny for everytime i've told her that her birthday this year will be cancelled in the last week i'd have at least 20p. OK so that's not a lot in monetary value....but you get my drift. She's just become such a whingebag over the past month or so that I'm glad she's still at nursery this week!

Tonight, I'm leaving the brady bunch in the hands of my sister as myself and Pete are off to watch Saw VI, which by all accounts has been slated by all that have watched it so far. However, as going out to watch it means having a bite to eat afterwards (and no doubt several cocktails) and being child free for at least four hours, I wouldn't care if I was watching a wall dry for two hours first.

We seem to have gotten everything ready for the big Halloween Party next weekend. It's the first time in three years that Petes been home so we've pushed the boat out a bit with it this year. Perfect that it's on a Saturday night so we've got the kids party til 7...then the adults take over. Not only drunken singstar...but drunken scary singstar courtesy of the voice changer that comes with Pete's costume.....should be an interesting night.

I've managed to do a little crafting, although all in the cause of Halloween. Got all the bits out to make the invitations and i've got a few other titbits to make before next weekend. I'm hoping it may give me the buzz again that's been missing for a while.

Of course, I'm also trying to get stuff planned for Xmas, and not being the kind of girl who likes trawling through Plymouth in the cold (am I female?) that means being cosy and warm, infront of a PC, placing orders with various establishments online (and smiling as I rack up the airmiles which someday I may get round to using!).

Freya's drama production was a massive hit and (biased or not) she certainly stole the show. A couple years ago she was a very shy and quiet girl and now she looks completely at home on the stage. During the interval everyone was talking about her performance....it's the second comedic role she's had and she was really funny. I can't wait now for the DVD to come out.

Talking DVD's, the new Pink concert comes out in the next couple of weeks so thats on pre-order for Freya for Xmas although I may have to check it out first....obviously only as a responsible parent! I've also ordered her some living dead dolls although one won't be available til after Xmas so I'll put that back for her birthday. It was a must buy though as she played the Mad Hatter in her production

......Living Dead Dolls eh? Think my daughter is turning Emo! I blame my creepy sister. Mind you saying that, she went to her youth club on wednesday in fishnet three quarter length tights, black shorts and a neon green tutu......I thought i'd fallen asleep and woken back up in the mid 80's staring at myself....she even had lacy fingerless gloves and loads of bangles....all she needed was a fake mole and blonde hair ala Madonna circa 'Get Into The Groove'.

So not too photo heavy today. Although I will leave you with a little collage done by the talented photographer that was Emily. Packed with her dads old instant, she had to photograph her journey to school for Walk To School Week and then submit it for a competition...shame the email address for the competition didn't work but I was really proud of her efforts so am thinking of letting her have the old camera anyway. Believe me when I say that every photo turned out better than Freya's efforts when she took the same camera to her Isles Of Scilly Trip and not one photo was comprehensible!

Life getting hectic.....

....but then again at this time of year I suppose it's to be expected. But if I didn't have my diary (or several of them if truth be told) then I wouldn't be able to tell you whether or not I was coming or going. Hopefully my auntie Susan will wrestle with her technophobic demons and get on here to see some of the photos from her daughters wedding last weekend so excuse me for having a photo overload but it's just incase she gets to see them here and tell me if she wants any emailed up to her to print off.
























Emily also had a first last weekend (guess it was a weekend of big firsts!). She lost her first tooth. As it was quite late on the Saturday and I had little change left I told her to keep it safe until the following night when we'd leave it out for the tooth fairy. Well, that night never came as Emily (and I'm sure it is ONLY Em that could do this)......swallowed it! Yup, she decided she'd try to put it back in and swallowed it instead. Well, I couldn't imagine the tooth fairy would want to go anywhere near it if it did make an appearance (and I decided not to wait for the appearance either) so she has been warned that swallowing her teeth will not make her wealthy and has promised not to try the same trick again.



I did mention that it was my birthday last week and I had a lush chocolate cake from the girls in the morning (yup chocolate cake at 7am......good eh?) and a new bead for my troll bracelet along with slabs of chocolate everywhere I looked.



Later in the day I also had a nice delivery from Interflora of some gorgeous flowers and yet more chocolate (needless to say there hasn't been much weight loss in the last couple of weeks).

Sunday was a bit of a blur, with getting all ready for Pete's homecoming. He came home late Monday afternoon and was surrounded by girls demanding hugs and kisses. The jet lag certainly kicked in though and he was a gonner til gone midday on Tuesday. Strange to think that he's literally home now for about 10 weeks but having been given a 'to do' list as long as his arm it'll keep him out of mischief (and the beer fridge).

So we celebrated his first weekend home with a lush meal at Yukisan and pushed the boat out with some oysters thrown in. I realy should take my camera next time I go as the way they present the food is gorgeous. I've always resisted the authentic Japanese sit down tables though as I'd never get up again. I do love this place and it's so special. We're blessed to have two Japanese restaurants now in Plymouth and I've eaten at both. Koishii is really good too and the food was delicious but the menu is less extensive. I will however say that the staff at Koishii were so friendly when we went.

This weekend we also had the sponsored Pom Pom walk to raise money for Devonstar Twirlers. Despite it being a bit on the windy and chilly side, the girls did themselves proud and the rain only first appeared after we'd finished and ended up in the park. Can't wait to see how much we raised.

We had our first training session since moving to the new hall in Ernesettle and what a difference. We now have a great hall with loads of space and plenty of height. I took advantage a little too enthusiastically and have only now begun to be able to walk properly again but each week I do hurt a little less. I'm going to take the camera along with me this week and get some more shots of the girls for the web page. I also got my troupe tracksuit which looks great and I've bought one to put back for Emilys birthday next month.

The onslaught of birthdays began last month and now we have Natashas, Robs and Emilys all before Xmas.........me thinks it's going to be an expensive couple of months. Especially as I'm now saving madly for course fees.

Freya is up to her eyeballs at the moment with drama rehearsals. She has a full dress rehearsal infront of a couple local schools today and then the big performances are tomorrow and Thursday night. So I'm off to see her tomorrow and to be honest I can't wait for it to be over and done with as this has taken a hell of a lot of time in rehearsals.....I'm beginning to think of Freya as some strange ghost type figure who occasionally occupies the front bedroom...we hear her but never see her!