School Trip

Little Prince was off on a school trip today to a Viking Museum and an archaeological resource centre. He was more excited about going to J's house after school tonight though!! By the time Mr Messy got up Little Prince had started to pack his own lunch box (although Mr Messy thought he needed some more variety than 4 cheese strings and some fruit flakes!!). He rode up to school on his scooter with his Dad who waved him off on the coach and then came home. I had just started bathing Princess Lollipop so Mr Messy helped keep her calm and distracted while I combed her hair through, she hates it and sobs all the way through the combing even though I only do it when her hair is soaked in conditioner (and its even conditioner specially formulated for black hair). Once she was finished Mr Messy took her for her breakfast and to get her dressed so that I could get ready in peace, which is much easier than trying to stop Princess Lollipop grabbing everything in my room while I'm trying to get dressed lol.

Once we were all ready we went off to the home decorating shop to get things for OUR shop. Mr Messy wasn't very co-operative and kept vetoing my choices, which got very irritating!! Anyone would think it was his shop!!! We eventually agreed on which ornaments and cushions to get and picked out some other bits and bobs and set off to deliver them to OUR shop. We were just unpacking the car when we got a couple of customers coming in :-) One lady had a daughter the same age as Princess Lollipop and they looked very similar too, apparently the lady is originally from Kenya. It turns out we had met before in a local National Trust like property when Little Prince and the lady's son played together and found it funny that they had sisters who looked alike (both in the same style & colour coat and both with lots of gorgeous curls). Another lady wanted to book a shoot with her 5 week old son, awww cute :-)

Mr Messy plonked the new ornaments down all haphazardly and I had to rearrange them nicely :-) Then I had to go round OUR shop and pick up all the mess Mr Messy had left lying around when they were in at weekend!! He really does live up to his name!!! After that we went to chat to our friend in the children's designer clothes boutique, and we called in at the florist next door to place an order for some flowers for Saturday's opening :-) We told them we wanted Autumn colours, fairly modern and left the design up to them - I can't wait to see it. We also said that this would be a regular weekly order and that we'd collect on Saturdays. I noticed they had a lovely decorated wicker wreath hanging in the door, and when Princess Lollipop isn't so desperate for her lunch I'll be back in to order one of those too.

The first two places we tried for lunch were full, so we ended up in the large pub, Mr Messy wasn't that keen as he hasn't eaten in there for a long time. I assured him that it was different now and the food was lovely - he was pleasantly surprised :-) He had a fillet steak and jacket potato and I had a tuna/mayo ciabatta with potato wedges. Princess Lollipop shared with both of us, but wasn't really in the mood so didn't eat much. I can never get her to eat much before her afternoon nap, and that's why we didn't order her, her own meal. She fell almost straight to sleep when we got home and must have been tired as she slept through the phone ringing (loudly!!) twice.

One of the phone calls was J's Dad checking if Little Prince still wanted to go and play at their house, I imagine the answer is yes as its the first thing Little Prince mentioned this morning!! J's Dad asked if it was OK to take the boys round to their new property (an old barn they are converting to be their new house) so that the boys could run round and climb trees while J's Dad got some work done on clearing the trees. Again the answer was yes, Little Prince will LOVE that :-) And he is already in old clothes from the school trip so it won't matter when he comes home covered in mud, notice I said WHEN not IF!!! J's Dad said he would pick the boys up from school to save me having to go out, which is great as Princess Lollipop is still asleep and she'll be grumpy if I wake her up!!

When she does wake up I've got some paperwork to take round to our accountant and then some things I've sorted from the attic to take to OUR shop. I found the girl's old wicker child size sofa, it has a hinged lid so I can store Princess Lollipop's toys in there and she can sit on it to play. I found some of their old wooden cars to take up there too, the public part of the gallery has a clients toy box with "posh" toys in lol. Of course Princess Lollipop thinks all the toys are hers and scatters them all over the place :-) I also found Drama Teen's old portable dvd player which I'll take to OUR shop so that Princess Lollipop can watch a dvd every now and again too. I've just got to find Little Prince's old toddler sleeping bag so that Princess Lollipop can have her nap in the shop and I think I will have finished robbing things from home lol.

Tuesday

I've had a quiet and boring day today :-) Mr Messy took Little Prince to school and then came home and picked up Princess Lollipop and took her for breakfast with him and then to OUR shop. He also visited the new "horsey" shop that has opened in the same town as OUR shop, to buy a curry comb to sort out the mane and tail on OUR shop's vintage rocking horse. He got talking to the new shop owners (who are in the shop we originally wanted to rent, but lost at the last minute) and they laughed and said they had originally wanted the shop we now have!! Mr Messy, however, is glad we have OUR shop, as the "horsey" shop seems very small inside now they have their displays up and OUR shop is much more roomy and airy, which is way better to display Mr Messy's photographs. While they were at OUR shop Princess Lollipop found a new way to dust the coffee table - full body rolls all over the table top!!

I spent the morning waiting in for a delivery (new Converse trainers for Drama Teen) and sewing nametapes in Little Prince's new school trousers. I just need to shorten them slightly now and he's all set :-) Well until he has another growth spurt anyway!! It was a wonderful luxury to have the house to myself and to enjoy the peace and quiet :-)

Mr Messy came back with Princess Lollipop at lunchtime, although she was desperate for a nap not to eat! She was almost asleep before he even left again to go to his photoshoot! So I had even more quiet relaxing time to myself :-) Until I had to pick Little Prince up from school that is! He wanted to go round to his friend J's house, but it wasn't convenient with J's Dad which caused uproar from both boys!! Little Prince was eventually persuaded to go and pick his scooter up from the scooter park, but as soon as he got to the car with it he threw it at my feet and stomped into the car! I told him to get out and put the scooter in the boot, and to apologise, after much grumbling and whining he did as he was told!

Mr Messy brought a chippie tea home with him when he returned from OUR shop, and by the time we'd tucked into that it was almost time for Little Prince to get ready for bed. I'd just got him all tucked up when Drama Teen rang to be picked up from her swimming jaunt with her friends and boyfriend. She arranged where to meet her Dad and he set off, with instructions to go to the next door supermarket and get Little Prince some wellies for his school trip tomorrow. By the time they got back Princess Lollipop was in bed and I was ready for some company and someone to talk to lol. Drama Teen had a great time swimming with her friends and was telling me all about it as we watched a programme about children in the UK care system.

Monday

Mr Messy is off work all this week, so he got up with Little Prince and gave him his breakfast and took him to school. Which meant that me and Princess Lollipop could get up a little later and have a leisurely breakfast without having to rush around :-) Soon after we had finished breakfast we got a call from Mr Messy who was at the DIY shop. I had made a note of the measurements of an ugly storage heater in the shop, that we want to cover with a radiator cover. However the storage heater is too deep for the standard ready made radiator covers and we'll have to have the joiner make one specially. He did manage to get hold of new picture hooks to re-hang the photographs he put up yesterday. He'd originally used hooks from a cheap multi pack we bought, but they were so flimsy and bad quality that we weren't sure they would hold up for long!!

On his way back from the DIY shop he called in at home, to pick up his camera gear. He also nipped over to the Post Office for me to pick up a parcel that they had tried to deliver this morning, it must have been when I was still getting ready. It was the de-humidifier we've bought for the shop, which he put straight into his car to take down there. Princess Lollipop wasn't happy when he left, she likes everyone to be here with her :-(

While he's been at OUR shop, Mr Messy has had two more customers call in :-) And I've just had a call from the sofa delivery man to say he is on his way :-) He should arrive just in time for Mr Messy to be able to get back here and get changed before going off to do today's shoot (a calendar for a local primary school). I can't wait to see how the sofa looks in OUR shop :-) Its the last big piece of furniture to be delivered :-) Next is the FUN bit - all the little bits and pieces of decor - cushions, flowers, ornaments etc :-)

Party time

Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived home just before Princess Lollipop woke up from her nap. Once she was properly awake she was fairly happy to be left with Dad and Big Sis, while I took Little Prince to his friend D's birthday party. It was at an indoor play centre, and like all the boys in Little Prince's class it was a kids Laser Quest party. I really started something when I booked that for Little Prince!! The weather was ATROCIOUS on the drive to the party, so we were a little late, much to Little Prince's disgust!! He had been wanting to leave an hour earlier so that we wouldn't be late!! We were just turning to the car park when we noticed another car, with Little Prince's friend C's family in it, they grinned, turned round and followed us to the car park. The car park isn't that obvious if you haven't been before and I don't think they knew where they were going lol. Even though we ran to the entrance we still got very wet, hope the rain lets up soon!!

Little Prince signed himself in, insisting his age was written as 7 AND A HALF on the sign in sheet :-) As soon as he got in he threw off his shoes and ran off to find his friends, I saw a few Mum's that I recognised and went to sit on an adjacent table. I was shocked when Postlady and her husband called me over to sit with them!!! Relieved too as I didn't want to sit on my own, especially on the table next to H's Mum and Dad, Little Prince and H have always had an adversarial relationship and H's Mum blames it all on Little Prince! Postlady chatted away as though we had never had any problems, it was quite bizarre!! She told me how the building of their new house was going, we gossiped about our mutual friend K and various other village happenings! I had to laugh to myself when she told me that she was shocked at how quickly K had got involved with another man since splitting with her husband. And then in the next breath she was telling me about her new friend, who they went to the cinema with every weekend and were going on holiday together next year! I don't think she saw the irony lol.

The party went well and all the kids seemed to have a great time. However, when it got near to food time they were getting a little silly, which of course meant Little Prince got a LOT silly!! At one point he slid down the slide right into two of his friends who were climbing up the slide, which made them both cry. Even though the girls shouldn't have been climbing up the slide, I still made Little Prince apologise and asked him not to slide down if there was someone climbing up! Next the boys started hanging from some bars above the bottom of the slide, or standing at the bottom of the slide as people slid down and then jumping out of the way at the last minute. Even though her son was just as involved as the other boys I could feel the disapproval emanating from H's Mum and made Little Prince stop this trick!! Luckily the food was ready moments later and that distracted them all. Little Prince was the first to re-appear from the party food room, he isn't that bothered about ice cream and wanted to get back on the play equipment instead. I let him have five more minutes play, before the party bags were given out and it was time to go home.

On the drive home Little Prince told me he hadn't eaten much as he didn't like the food, so I got him a Happy Meal at the drive through, he loved the extra treat :-) When we got home Princess Lollipop ran to me shouting "Mummy Mummy" and clung round my neck for ages - its lovely to be wanted :-) I had to detach her and go and help Little Prince complete his homework, which she wasn't too happy about! However, we couldn't find the homework sheet from earlier in the week!! I looked all over but couldn't find it, so I got Little Prince to practice writing his spelling words instead. Of course as soon as we'd given up and I'd got him to get ready for bed the sheet turned up, buried under Drama Teen's post from LMS!!! We'll get the homework done after school on Monday instead, Mr Messy is at home to help look after Princess Lollipop so we'll have enough time. Luckily Little Prince's teacher is VERY understanding about the difficulties I have getting him to do his homework and will be ok about it being a day late.

Princess Lollipop spent the evening obviously very very tired, but refused to go to sleep. She eventually fell asleep lay next to me on the sofa, but not until after a LOT of protesting!! She did however, sleep well through the night so perhaps it was worth it :-)

Sunday

Mr Messy left the house before anyone else even woke up! He was going down to OUR shop to get it ready for its first partial open day :-) There was a fun run in the town today, and the starting point was right outside OUR shop, all the businesses in town were opening so we have rushed about and slaved away to make sure we could be open too. Everything isn't quite finished off, but its good enough to open the doors for the first time :-) Mr Messy says it is so light and airy (great for a gallery) when the display boards are removed from in front of the windows :-) The vintage rocking horse has been a HUGE hit with every single kid that passes too :-)

I tried to get Drama Teen to look after Little Prince & Princess Lollipop while I had a shower, I had barely turned the shower on before Drama Teen and Little Prince were shouting at each other!! I had to bring Little Prince into the bathroom with me and he sat there chatting while I had my shower - no privacy once you're a Mum!!

Once I was finally ready, I put all the seats back up in my car (they were still down from transporting the desks and chairs to OUR shop yesterday). I then had to wrestle the littlies car seats back in the car too, Little Prince's is so easy to install, Princess Lollipop's turned out to be a nightmare!! The instructions are so vague and unhelpful - I'm not totally sure I've got it right but it doesn't move about so I'm thinking its ok!! I drove down to OUR shop with the three kids, to drop Drama Teen off with her Dad so that she could help out in the shop for the afternoon. She also needs to take his photo in the shop doorway for a magazine article he's being featured in soon. Due to the fun run the road down to OUR shop was coned off so Drama Teen had to walk all the way from one end of the main street to the other, which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't throwing it down with rain and she was carrying a huge box containing the framing display board!! She was not a happy camper!!!

Once we were back at home Princess Lollipop went for her nap, me and Little Prince played Solitaire on my computer for a while before he got bored and went to do some of his "Jedi Training."

Mega Busy Saturday

Princess Lollipop had her worst night yet! She tossed and turned and crawled over me all night! At one point she sat up in bed, I leant over to lie her back down and she started screaming "NO NO NO" at the top of her voice!! Thankfully she did eventually settle back down to sleep, well wriggly sleep, but at least it was sleep!! Mr Messy took her downstairs and left me in bed once it was obvious that she was awake and not going back to sleep. I had a glorious extra hour of undisturbed sleep - no being kicked, hit, poked or tickled with curls :-)

Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop eventually woke me up, so that Drama Teen could have a shower. I made her have the quickest shower ever, which is no mean feat as she practically lives in there!! Then I had to go out to a furniture shop in the nearby town to buy the office desks and chairs for OUR shop. I didn't have a lot of time as I had to get back in time for Drama Teen to get the 12 noon bus to go and meet her Boyfriend and go shopping. The desks and chairs were in huge boxes and weighed a tonne!! Thankfully a shop assistant helped me squish the boxes into my car. I had to have one of the chair's boxes on the passenger seat next to me, and its only because my car is automatic that I made it to OUR shop!! It was a cosy drive to say the least!!

I drove straight round to OUR shop and dropped the purchases off with Mr Messy for him to get them assembled and in position. While we were there one of LMS's school friend's Mum was walking past and came in for a look round and a chat, she said OUR shop was looking great :-) During the morning Mr Messy's framer had dropped off all the samples he's ordered for the shop, and they look FANTASTIC :-) He was also telling me that he got a booking this morning, someone just walked in and booked him to do a shoot - RESULT :-)

As soon as we'd got the boxes out of the car, I returned home with Little Prince and was just in time for Drama Teen to catch her bus :-) Phew!! It was time for Princess Lollipop's nap, so I was finally able to get my breakfast cum lunch :-) She had a long nap so was able to have a relax and play on the internet. Little Prince was playing with his new monster truck, mostly in the dining room so he could crash and bang it without waking his sister!!

Chaos returned when Princess Lollipop woke up, followed by Mr Messy returning home almost straight afterwards and that all threw Little Prince into a spin! He has been mega hyper all afternoon but he's only had me in tears once!!!

Drama Teen and Boyfriend arrived home from the shopping trip, and went straight upstairs!! After it became obvious that they weren't going to come and say "hello" or "we're home" we sent Little Prince up to get them!! Drama Teen was very contrite and said they were just putting her shopping away and would have come and said hello as soon as they were done!! I'm not sure I believe her and she's been told it was rude! This morning I gave her some money to buy a new coat and to buy Mr Messy's birthday present - when I found she had only spent some of that money I asked for my change!! I was quite cross to find that my change had got amalgamated into Drama Teen's own money and she'd spent it on cr*p!! I've told her I expect my change - even if she has to do a couple of hours ironing to pay me back!!!

I put Little Prince in a (fingers crossed!) soothing bath, we got about twenty minutes peace and quiet before he returned!! Luckily it was time for him to have his tea and then almost bedtime!! Drama Teen made his tea while she made hers and Boyfriends, which caused a huge meltdown from Little Prince as he wanted salmon fishfingers not ordinary ones! We then heard him messing about in the hall, but when we asked what he was doing he said nothing!! Minutes later we heard more crashing and messing, Mr Messy sprung up and ran to the hall and shouted at Little Prince - who then ran upstairs sobbing. Mr Messy had put some tools in the hall ready for me to take to OUR shop when I take Boyfriend home, and he had panicked that Little Prince was messing with them and going to hurt himself!! It took ages for Little Prince to calm down and then to persuade him to eat his tea!! He is now in bed reading the last chapter of his Harry Potter book, and is very proud of himself for reading it all, all on his own. And me and Mr Messy are so proud of him too :-) He's such a clever little lad :-) And hopefully that will show at school too once we finally get him some treatment for his ADHD.

I've got to take Drama Teen's Boyfriend home soon, and on the way home I'm calling at the supermarket and buying some snacks for Mr Messy to give out at OUR shop tomorrow. This will be our first "almost" open day lol. There is a big charity fun run in OUR shop's town, and all the businesses will be open, and we have been working our socks off to make sure we were ready to open our doors too. Not everything is in place, but enough to make it worthwhile opening :-) Especially if today's custom is anything to go by (two new customers before we've even opened!!). I've also got to get a birthday card for Little Prince's friend D, who's birthday party it is tomorrow. Hopefully I'll remember both things lol. We've then got to call round at OUR shop and drop off Mr Messy's tools before coming home. The whole of the town centre is going to be a no car zone tomorrow, so the more I can take tonight the less Mr Messy has to carry for miles tomorrow!!

Friday

Mr Messy works from home on Fridays so he got up and got Little Prince ready for school and dropped him off before going and waiting in OUR shop for the furniture to be delivered. I got up later and me and Princess Lollipop went to buy a sofa for OUR shop, me and Mr Messy had already chosen it from a nearby factory shop. Its a brown leather, three seater in a distressed/nubuck leather. Luckily they had one in stock and I was able to arrange delivery for next Monday :-)

Then me and Princess Lollipop called at the supermarket to exchange Little Prince's Halloween costume for the next size, which was very straight forward and only took a few moments. The next job was to get some new contact lens solution, as I've completely run out. I normally go to a different opticians but have had my eyes tested at the supermarket optician and as soon as I've run out of my existing lenses I'll be ordering from the supermarket. The optician was a complete jobsworth, and said due to health and safety (isn't it always!?!?!) he wouldn't be able to tell me which was their equivalent to my usual solutions, I'd have to go back to my old optician!!! How stupid!! I don't have time to visit there at the moment, and besides their contact lens department is up a steep flight of stairs which is difficult with Princess Lollipop!! So now I can't wear my lenses until I can find the time to get over to the original opticians!! I'm extremely peeved!! Especially as its raining and I keep having to clean off my glasses!!! Urgh!!! We did manage to get the other bits of shopping done that I'd forgotten yesterday - a present for a birthday party Little Prince is attending this weekend! And also some nice board books and a couple of wooden toys for in OUR shop :-)

While we were shopping I got a text from Mr Messy to say that OUR shop furniture had been delivered! So instead of going to the other shop I was considering visiting, we drove straight round to OUR shop. The furniture looks FANTASTIC :-) Although I'm not sure the cupboard is big enough! We'll have to wait and see once we've got the sofa on Monday and the other bits and pieces from Mad Cat Lady. I'm really excited that we've reached this bit of getting OUR shop ready, this is the bit I've been looking forward to - getting all the bits and pieces to decorate it :-) I'm going to get ornaments/decorations in Autumn colours this time, and then as it gets closer to Christmas change to a more Chrismassy style and keep changing the decorations for each season/holiday.

Me and Princess Lollipop chatted to Mr Messy in the shop for a while, before we returned home so that Princess Lollipop could have her nap. I was hoping she'd only have a short nap, so that we could go up to church for Little Prince's school's Harvest Service. However, she must have been really tired and has slept for ages! I hope Little Prince isn't too upset that we weren't there!!

Well Little Prince wasn't upset, he was devestated :-( Most of the children went straight home from the Harvest Service with their parents, and only 7 children went back to school. Little Prince was so scared that I wasn't going to come and collect him :-( I feel so sad and guilty that I hadn't realised that would happen and gone and collected him earlier :-( Poor little lad :-( He was still hyped up when I took him for his swimming lesson, and his teacher noticed how much more active he was tonight! She was laughing saying she didn't think he'd ever get to sleep and that I deserved a huge cup of tea!!

During the evening Drama Teen got some more ironing done, probably because she is going shopping tomorrow and wanted more money to spend lol. She also did a tonne of photo editing work for Mr Messy, which she is being paid for - with a pair of green Converse pumps she has been wanting for ages!! Bribery and corruption - works every time lol. So that meant me and Mr Messy could have a slightly more relaxed evening together, which was lovely :-)