Precious Moments

This week began with Gary having the day off, having worked the weekend.  T’s final exam was that afternoon, so we decided to go on a nature walk and explore some of the fairly local ponds.  I posted lots about this yesterday, but I managed to get a few photos which, for me, belonged in my precious moments.

This last year or so, the friendship between my two littlest has blossomed.  A has always adored B, but because of the 2 1/2 year age gap she was never a playmate, until the past year.  Now they are inseparable and are always in some make believe world or another, something I thought I would never see in A, who has such a short attention span that make believe games kind of alluded her.

Our older girls are growing in ‘teasing’ confidence all the time, which poor Gary gets the brunt of.  The girls had spent almost the whole walk telling him that as a troll he should really live under the bridge:

He retaliated by threatening violence (just like any troll would…):

Such a lot of fun!  I LOVE having teens 🙂

Here’s Gary with his only Irish daughter, A7, and who is completely a daddy’s girl:

And of course I had to snap some lovely ones of my three teens together:

the twinnies:

Father and son in serious discussion about some musical instrument or other:

And a couple of L and C who are just turning into the most beautiful ladies, inside and out:

Did I say how much I enjoyed having teens in the house?

Talking of which, the next night we had an onslaught of the older ones’ friends to celebrate the end of exams for T and his friend S.  They watched Home Alone and had multiple bowls of ice cream with a stack of toppings:

L had made a banner from lots of different pieces of paper.  It said ‘You have done your exam, now keep calm and celebrate’.  Unfortunately she stuck the pages in the wrong order (!):

I snapped a picture of them all.  I feel very blessed our children have such lovely friends:

I snapped a few special moments of Gary with his youngest:

Here she is telling him all the letters in the writing on his jumper:

We also had a work afternoon to continue clearing away space for the large shed we are going to build for the older ones.  It’s coming along really well:

The main event was the huge bonfire to get rid of all the branches and leaves we couldn’t burn inside:

The heat was quite incredible.  B stayed inside to keep her safe and sound, but watched it from the window:

Last but not least, I thought I would give you a peak into the girls’ bedroom which we have finally finished decorating.

Welcome:

They share a room which has a chimney breast going straight up the middle of it.  Here they are standing L’s size of the chimney breast.  I bought the sign for L when she was feeling unsure of herself.  It reads ‘Always remember you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and twice as beautiful as you have ever imagined’:

We decided to have C round the corner under the eves and L in the main part.  As they are quite different now in their personalities, they were allowed to choose the colours of their room to express who they were.  We are fairly easy going but we drew the line at the psychedelic yellow C wanted.  Always wanting something bright which reflects her incredibly out going personality, she eventually settled on red:

She is in a tiny room but has an office area (under the eves which Gary built), chest of drawers (under the chimney breast, hidden by the curtain) and a wardrobe (again, Gary built one under the eves).

I made both sets of curtain from a duvet cover (the same as the one she chose for her bed).  She shopped our house for decoration such as the handily red patchwork hanging on the chimney, and her ‘sing’ sign.  At the head of the bed is her tiny window, a shelf for a lamp, clock, books and water:

Despite its size, she really does love it!

On the other side of the chimney breast is L’s room.  She is naturally of a more demure personality and she chose purple for her side.  She has a slightly bigger area, although still small:

She also has a wardrobe which is built in under the eves and also houses a chest of drawers.  She has shelves for all her jewellery making stuff.  Her room is big enough for C to bring round her bean bag each night and chat:

Now we just need to paint and do a little revamp on the loo upstairs and we have finished all of the upstairs.  Maybe one day, we will get round to doing our bedroom.

Well, that’s it for today.  B4 has been ill for the last day or so and it looks like A7 might be joining her.  I guess we will be having a quiet day at home watching dinosaur videos and having lots of snuggles 🙂