Little Monkey is 4!

Today is Little Monkey's fourth Birthday!

Look at all the presents!

A train!

And another train!

He was so excited, it was a miracle he went to sleep last night. He wandered around until 9.30 wondering what presents he might get. 

Considering his excitement he stayed in his room for quite a long time before bursting into my bedroom all dressed up and ready to sing Christmas Carols in celebration. But then he couldn't wait any longer and I got ordered to get downstairs and put the presents out so he could see what he got. He was very happy and for a change he told everybody that he was four now and not one like he did yesterday.

Daddy Monkey's Birthday treat

Last weekend Daddy Monkey and I went for Afternoon tea at the Parklane Hotel as a treat.

Little Monkey is a Big Monkey now

because he is "deeeee", yep,Little Monkey had his
third birthday today. With his Peppa Pig cake. That was really important to him. He announced three weeks ago that for his birthday he will have a Peppa Pig cake. In case you haven't heard of Peppa Pig, this is her on the right.
Can be seen on Five if you feel the need. I personally don't, but we have books of her adventures and now toys. Oh, and a cake of course and it is yummy but I don't think we will have that for much longer. So, Little Monkey had his birthday today, we took some fruit to his nursery to share with his little friends and they sang Happy Birthday to him. When I picked him up I asked him whether he looks forward to his celebrations. He told me, but I already had my birthday! He was pleasantly surprised that celebrating birthdays involves presents, cake and more singing. All of which he got.

He was so very excited he ripped several presents open then he had to sit down and take a long break to look at everything. Then, another manic present opening followed by another long break to relax.













But then, then he found the remote control car that Grandma had sent! What excitement! He drives like a little maniac. Daddy Monkey worried for the sitting room furniture and banned Little Monkey to the play room where he happily crashed into toys, boxes and the old shelf. I, in the meantime built a fire engine that transforms into a city. Happy times, happy times. Not one bad word passed my lips. I'm very proud of myself for that feat. There were about 63 nearly identical looking stickers to be placed... I shall post photos of that tomorrow. However, Big Monkey bought that particular present and two more for him from her pocket money. She paid it all in coins. Somehow I hadn't thought she would really spend all that money on her little brother so I didn't change it into bills. We spent a long time at the check out while the cashier counted nearly 30 pounds in various coins. Well, they won't run out of change for a long time. Still, I was rather proud of her for being so generous. Especially as Little Monkey owns a grand total of 1.50. Not helped by the fact that he posts every coin he finds in the gap between the wooden and tiled step in the hall. Both find rather a lot of coins between the sofa cushions. So if you ever visit us now you know where to search for money...










365 - 035

My Birthday

It has been a while. Here is a photo of my birthday.


As you can see I had lots of help opening presents. Big Monkey decided which present to open and Little Monkey helped ripping them open. We also had the "it's-my-necklace-issue" again. I got a lovely bumble bee necklace that Little Monkey took a liking to. He gave in surprisingly quick though. But doesn't he look flash in his shirt? He wanted to celebrate from the moment we got up in the morning. He screamed, 'appy birday until it was the right moment. Big Monkey was equally excited but is much better at containing herself. She had to stay home from school as she had a bad cold. Still, that didn't stop her from wrapping the presents for Daddy Monkey.

At least I still think it was a good idea

Yesterday I read Green Craft magazine and I saw the little seed pots they used as little gift bags. I thought oh, I like this, what a clever idea. They do look familiar though? Why would that be?
Maybe because I made something very similar for Big Monkey's birthday party as goody bags?


Yes, that could be it...

Big Monkey's Magic Party

On Sunday was Big Monkey's long awaited magic Party. Magic Mel was more funny than magic but she brought a bunny. A real bunny!


This was of course the most exciting part of the whole party. Big Monkey wasn't expecting the bunny hence the look. She did like it though, honest.

All her friends came and had a good time too. Little Monkey was happy as long as he could sit with Big Monkey but as she was the Birthday girl she had lots of games to play and prices to win. He got ice cream though.


Big Monkey thought it was the bestest party she ever had. Even you wouldn't think that seeing the looks she gave to the camera.

Big Monkey is 7!

Today was Big Monkeys seventh birthday. I think she had a lovely day, they had a school trip arranged to see a play about walking to school. A topic which made me grumble seeing we live 6 miles from school with no direct public transport. But alas it's important to make an effort if you live round the corner. In any case the play was canceled so instead they spent the morning at the playground in Hampstead Heath. After they had their picnic they went back to school to have some more play time in the garden. Sounds like a birthday during school time should be.


When big Monkey came back from some more playing at her friend's house it was finally time for presents.
She got her very own pets, four Indian Stick Insects. At first she thought she had received a plant and didn't look at them at all. I asked her whether she liked her stick insects to which she said but where are they? In there! But where? she cried... Like I said, there will be lots of fun playing the where-are-they-game... She was very pleased with them once she found them but noticed that they didn't move around a lot or better said, not at all.


You can see them here on the photo, can you spot them? They are the thin sticky things hanging from the leaves. It's easy to find them once you know what you're looking for.
Among other things she also got a Lego game. From Grandpa as you'd expect, he the master of amazon has ordered the Minotaur game. We had to build it before we could play which we enjoyed very much, especially as there were three Minotaur horns and three arms for him which threw us a little. Big Monkey won of course. So that made her like the game even more.

Garden work

I've decided to create a bigger flower bed so on Saturday with the monkeys at a birthday party at the British Museum I got going.
Before:

As always with work in the garden it took much longer and was much more exhausting that I hoped it would be.
After:

I'm pleased with the new bed though, there will be space for flowers and for vegetables. I will have to take out some more stones though, it's a very well drained soil in my garden. I've found though that plants also like a bit of soil to attach their roots to.
On Sunday we had a look at a possible party venue for Big Monkeys upcoming Birthday. I think Little Monkey approved.

Big Monkey thought that balloon animals were needed. She made this one in preparation. Unfortunately "coleman" didn't survive the car journey.