Precious Moments

Last week began with a pink piggy party!  Nik’s son is mad about pigs and as it was his 12th birthday coming up we decided to celebrate in pink piggy style!  I wasn’t entirely sure how a 12-year-old boy would react to such an onslaught of pink, but I needn’t have worried, he loved it 🙂

I may have gone a bit piggy mad….

We had bought him a huge pink pig cookie jar and filled it with Percy Pigs from M’n’S.  Percy now has a girlfriend, Penny (she’s yellow) and they come together, happily packaged with some sweetie hearts   <3

We crammed as many sweeties as possible inside and wrapped it in….yes, you guessed it, pink!

He was pretty chuffed and was very generous with Percy and Penny 🙂  Nik provided all the food, which was yummy pulled pork, rolls, chipped potatoes and her famous home-made coleslaw:

Oh, and the cake:

We had a really special time in prayer for C’s year ahead and the older ones watched a video, whilst Gary and Andy watched some football at my mum’s house and Nik and I chatted and tidied 🙂

On the Sunday we visited mum’s flat in Folkestone:

She bought the flat a few years ago and has slowly been doing it up for her (and us!) to use as a holiday home.  It was so lovely to see the result of all her hard work.  We popped down to the nearby beach for a quick wander and skimming of stones, before we made our way to her local shopping center for lunch and a bit of shopping:

and one with me:

The shopping center was like no other shopping center we had ever been to before, and so inexpensive.  Gary and I bought ourselves a sign each to go on our different sides of the shed.  Here’s mine, I couldn’t find his to take a photo:

I chose this one to remind us all to choose to do that which we love, always.  As a rare treat we gave the children £5 each to spend.  T didn’t spend his, L bought some jewellery making wire and a crochet hook; C bought a throw pillow with musical notation all over it; A7 bought a science set whilst B5 bought some colouring pens and a colouring in book:

I had to laugh when A decided she wanted to do some activities from the science kit and the first one she chose was to make a realistic poo.  Yes, I was so proud 🙂

That’s the poo sitting in its mold, hardening in front of her.  She also made some eye balls and some zits:

Monday morning we decided to have an impromptu picnic to finish up the left over chocolate cake and ice cream from the party (I know, hard, but someone has to do it):

Tuesday came and brought with it T’s open day and interview for a day release Engineering program at the local college.  He got to make a tool and a name tag and he came away so excited about his future.  The program will run every Tuesday for two years and he will end up with a BTEC level 2.  It is practical based rather than writing and exam based, which I am sure will suit T down to the ground.  We will hear whether or not he has been accepted in a few weeks time.

The older ones held a video night with their friends on Tuesday night, but spent a lot of their time together plotting how they can have a sleepover in our new teen nook.  There are many ideas floating about…..

S15 joined us the next day, and the ‘Choir Squad’ as they call themselves have all decided to start a band.  They have renamed themselves ‘Harmonic Conversion’.  There will be five members, all girls bar T.  S will play piano or drums or flute…basically any instrument necessary – she is very talented; T will play the guitar; L will sing and C will sing or play the bongos.  They spent the entire afternoon trying to decide what their first song would be, and I think when they emerged from T’s room (where the piano is kept) they still hadn’t actually agreed on anything!  It was so much fun listening to them try out a variety of songs though:

I had to snap the following photo because it was a sight I thought I would never see:

A7 voluntarily reading her book!  Over the past few days, B5 has seemed to need lots and lots of cuddles, so at night-time instead of me reading a bed time story, A7 has been reading her book on the top bunk out loud whilst I have been snuggling on the bottom bunk with my cutiepie five-year old.  The story has grabbed her attention, she is up to chapter 21 (!) and she is now reading whenever she has the chance 🙂

After weeks and weeks of telling me she wants to be an artist, B5’s wish has come true.  We are reviewing an art curriculum and she has been drawing a cat.  I think she has done a great job:

Next, she will be learning all sorts of techniques for shading and colouring in.  I have promised I will buy a frame and frame it and hang it on the wall.  She is just a little bit excited 🙂

Last but not least, I wanted to share a photo of the collage our youth group has been working on lately.  We have been spending a few weeks looking at who we are in God.  I intend to write a full post about it, but suffice it to say they have blown Gary and I away with their creativity, song writing skills and team work:

I have a free printable to go with it, and when I have figured out this whole YouTube thing I will, with their permission, play the song they wrote (it is written in the sleeves of Jesus’ garments).  So blessed to be working beside these incredible teens 🙂

Well, that’s it for this week.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of love and laughter <3