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i have alwasys thought that when I have kids - I will wrap a box empty box for christmas and prbide parkly stuff and glue and pens

hours of fun!

Super bp x

Morning Chris,

How adorable is little Noah, I could just scrunch him up and bite his ears off xxx

Agree about toys, kids have way too many these days and hardly ever use any of them - most are a complete waste of money. Give him left over boxes and tubes and he'll have hours of fun xx

Happy Days

AliB
xx

Morning all.

You wait until Christmas when all the expensive gifts are left to one side whilst he plays with the boxes they came in!!

Morning Christophe and SBP
was always told to spend very little on teeny ones as they are always more interested in the packaging!

I know others have asked Chris but are you doing any signings with the book?

Laters
Tiggs xxx
PS - thanks for playing my ARF on Friday!

Morning Chris,

Couldn't agree more. I spoil my little uns with gadgets whilst the CMM has created what is basically an arts and crafts workshop in the playroom.
What they can't build using shoe boxes, pipe cleaners and coloured paper isn't worth mentioning.

From the last blog:

Hold it right there Deev!!!!!

I shall be the judge of whether Cheryl Cole is to skinny or not - have her scrubbed and sent my office immediately, if not sooner.
Shame she's got such a daft first name ;^p x

Ali - I would have missed you had I been here to miss you x
Love the smell of a new car - only ever had one (after saying I would never buy a new car!)- the current one and that smell is still just about there.

Eb - A naughty night out eh! enjoy.
Oh and if you want something to do - I am willing to share my workload lol

Rips
x

CLP ....... QWIK - lock Noah away ..... AliB wants to bite his ears off!!

AliB - go get a bacon sanger love!!!! If you eat Noah's ears, he'll have nowhee to plug his iPod phones in when he's older!

Yep, he sure is adoreable tho!

Thunder - you are soooooo in Big Trub now with Beez for mentioning the C word in September!!!

Deevs, with the giggles thanks to Rips
x x x x

CLP...empty Kitchen Roll does the job too......

RIPS.....re Cole...funny......even funnier, the Cheryl gagg!!!!!????

Sorry Deevsta...lol

TBx

Too much information as far as Terry is concerned btw!

I left the two nippers this morning, making the instruments for their ABBA tribute band!

We told them yesterday that we are taking them to the Hyde Park ABBA concert that you are hosting a week on Sunday.....Excited doesn't cover it.

Ali - that would have sounded like a threat coming from anyone else....haha!

Tango - Don't know what you mean buddy?! Ahem.........*whistle*

Rips

x

Morning CLP...

The boys toy box has a mixture of shiny, noisy things and toilet rolls, bits of shiny paper (good excise for choklit!) and all gets played with in equal measure.

But he's now also just happy to run up and down the hallway screaming...........oh to be a toddler again!

Rips - not sure about a naughty night out.....two glasses of wine and I'll be asleep!!!!!

ebx

Boys

Noted. For future use!

Deevs
xxx

It was a term of affection about the ears honest, please don't lock me away xx

Morning again!
From last blog: my Corsa is white and called Maddy (sis's kids named her, Corsa/corset/Madonna hence Maddy) and my last car was called Floss (short for Florence as I lived in a town with a Magic Roundabout)

Deev - totally agree with best Beatles cover, Siouxsie Sioux's voice on Dear Prudence, amazing
My fave Beatles - Here There and Everywhere
Glad you like the vid I posted last night Deev, that's my fave Bazza song (or one of the ten faves that is!)
Offski again, need to drag hubby out of bed so he can buy me an anniversary card!!!

Tiggs xxx

One more thing Chris......

About those white sofas you seem to be so fond of - have you been around many toddlers?

Good luck

Rips

x

Hahahaha bless Noah and 'is bog roll bazooka.

What used to do it for the GD was a bucket. Sit in it, wear it on your head, use it as a big bass drum, a trampoline, frog Alcatraz or HMS Foghorn in the paddlin' pool.

Funny, really. Because, as Renee is livin' testimony to, the appeal of the bucket wanes in adult femail life till you get the bus pass. Then they feature largely again.

Well, must be off. Oo is that the sun peekin' through? Hurrah.

Clodagh.xx

Rips - I was thinking the same about the white sofas.....we're still learning, but the boy could get filthy in an operating theatre!!!!!

And how do they wake up with grubby hands when they went to bed clean???

ebx

P.s. if you want to sent some work over - I've got a couple of hours before anything comes my way from the boss.....

Morning Blogeroonies!

CLP he's adorable!!! I was only discussing yesterday the idea that we are offered too much stimulation as babies/kiddies now which then stifles imagination.

Luv
Lyndyloo
Boobooo & El Bumpo
-x-x-x-

Hahaha eb - very true!

As for the work - it could be argued that if I spent less time on here, I would be less busy.
Enjoy your bit of peace and quiet.

Two glasses - woohoo a cheap date!!! Lucky man.

Rips

x

Bless im Christoph - gets bonnier by the day. Ali ? bite ears? nah bum !!!

Thunder !!! noooooooo norty step right now no C word - not for months!!

Rips - you run out of food? All these dates being made - you need to go shopping.

There it goes again, phone been red hot this morning!

Beez xx

Morning! What a lovely piccie of Noah!!

Yep, empty boxes - the bigger the better, plastic bottles filled with beans (great maraccas, oooh eer missus!!), an upturned saucepan and a wooden spoon - deprived, my child???

T xxx

Mornin Peeps in blogland how's it all hanging?

Fabby photo Chris, loo rolls are much more fun that toys at that age!

Talking (or not as the case seems to be) I went into a shop esterday and was confronted by crackers and tinsel and I promptly walked straight back out again. I HATE HATE HATE shops that bring it forward. It's no fun taking the tiddywinkles with you to be asked "when's Santa coming?" -FOUR CHUFFIN MONTHS BEFORE HAND!

C'mon shopkeepers give us a break - PLEASE.

Rant over, away to the opticians, then if I can still see - a lovely wine bar might be in order (OOOOO and it's only Wednesday)

Toodle Pip

BLYipE

GAwjuss Boy!! I'm with Ali, could eat him up. My Dad says Baby oil should come flavoured so you could drizzle a little over.

I always wanted a toy for my littl'un that was all made of labels, tags, ribbons, buttons, toggles, etc as they loved holding onto all these.

Now the thing-we-can't-mention list consists of half the A*g*s catalogue or, in case of boy1, any general camping or climbing stuff

Seza xxx

Tins - Tic Tac boxes with lentils in - hours and hours and hours of fun......

And the big nappy boxes - but we have to play boo with it on MY head and him trying to poke my eye out through the carry flap....

ebx

PS, Thank you Christoff for these pics of Noah, making us all smile.


Seza xx

Hi Seza
Need a pic of your bouquet, get it on FB!!
Tiggs xxx

OK But they never look as good when I've put them in a vase.

xx

Hello

Empty wrapping paper tubes get loads of play out of them in my house, LM uses them as swords!

Debbie

Hi Deb! xx

morning Debs, good to see you!
Tiggs xxx

Photo on fb. Not very good, doesn't do them justice

Debs, use of tube as sword doesn't stop when they get big. 12 years old still battling!!

xx

Hi Debs...

Seza....I agree, my 12 yr old still does that....in fact he can pretty much make anything in to a sword....e.g. a banana, sticks, twigs etc..........wish I had his imagination....

Did you hear the story that when Ewan McGregor started filming Star Wars, he picked up the light saber and made "the light saber noise" as made by all boys, can't think how to write it. The film crew had to tell him they could actually add that after. Not sure if it's true but brilliant story.

xx

Yep, my 18 year old joins in too....in fact he is worse than the 5 year old. Who is 6 tomorrow and is so excited he might burst.

I love that he has such a great imagination. I can go into his room and tidy up what looks like a totally random pile of toys, and get told off for destroying his star wars battle ship!

Debbie x

ps: I really miss you lot!

Hi Seza,

Have you heard Michael Mcintyre doing his bit on Argos? - he is properly funny.
You may not eat Pineapple ever again though!

Rips

x

Rips, Nooo? Do I need to go look this up? Argos & Pineapple???

xx

Trapped at home with 2 boys who REALLY need to go back to school!

Help

xx

Awww Debs.....HUGS!!!!!!!!

Seza, mine are both back to school next week.....yippee!!!!!! As that means they have to get up with me as opposed to hiding under the covers going back to sleep as I trundle off to worch each day..

TBx

RIPS......am luvvin McIntyre....yep, proper funny...in stitches me...

Sorry - that's a bit misleading as the Pineapple stuff is from a different part of the show - WARNING - It's a bit rude aswell!!

Try googling his show from the Hammersmith Apollo, not the live from the Apollo stuff though as it is all shortened and you lose bits of the sketch.

Also try finding the bit about disabled parking spaces - Had me in pieces!

I took it on holiday and the CMM thought it was brilliant to....praise from Caeser!!!!

Rips

x

Tango - best comedian I've seen in ages, very cleverly woven together.

Just found two tickets for Ricky Gervais at the New theatre Oxford in October too.

Saw him there last time round....Excellent!

Rips

Baz, boy2 back tomorrow, boy1 back monday.

am going to take them swimming this pm, try & use ups some energy - theirs not mine!

xx

Hi Chris,

I really can't believe how fast Noah is growing up! He is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks to you and Tash for sharing these photographs with us.

When my daughter was two, we bought her a wee Wendy House (just a wee cheapie thing from Argos - there's that word again) and she used to play in there for hours - with no other toys! She would pretend to cook and was forever bringing us lunch which consisted of nothing but fresh air!
Her imagination was just brilliant!

Well, I would say that, wouldn't I?!

C xx

Beez,
Consider me suitably admonished! This step you sent me to is ** cold on the nether regions! I should have stayed on holiday.

We saw McIntyre late last year in COlchester - he was amazingly funny! ot tickets for Sean Lock in November - that should be fun!

As for Argos - I like Bill Bailey's "laminated book of dreams" bit from his Part Troll tour - comedy gold!!!

Deevs
xxx

That's the idea Thunder !!! - you don't move until your bum goes to sleep!!!

Rips/Thunder/Tango any other boys lurking. Bet you've got a McIntyre Man Drawer !! Gwon tell us !!

Beezer xx

Chrissie,

My daughter has has a wooden playhouse in the garden which her own little haven.
She regularly vanishes inside and reappears with plates of ice cream sandwiches and bacon cornets which I pretend to dislike.
She then tells me its tough luck, just eat it......which is pretty much our attitude towards them at meal times.....funny how they turn things round on us isn't it?

Rips

x

Going back to swords... I have visions of being able to take my little boy around all the castles in the UK in a camper van with a sword/light saber/cardboard tube during the summer time... I guess that should be enough to keep us amused.... 'nuff dreaming...
-x-x-x-

Beez - I only have Man drawers and they all look like a clear out shelf at pc world - what a waste of money!!!

Hi Debs and Thunder - with you on the holiday thing!

Rips

x

Chrissie/Rips - my wendy house was a blanket chucked over the washing line - then I was tied to the tree and told not to move!! I was a holy terror though !!!

Beez xx

Most fun I had when I was younger was with an empty yoghurt pot with a piece of string hanging from the botton and some tin foil in a ball at the bottom of the string. The game was to see if I could get the ball into the pot without touching the ball!

Oh happy days......

Rips - we have a skip here - Mr B been taking bits out of 6 (yes 6) computers. All lined up ready to dump but he just can't bring himself to throw them in ! Watch me!!!

Beez xx

Beez, I have rope, a blanket & 2 trees. Do you think I can get away with it now?

My OH has a Man Loft, like the elephants graveyard for computer parts. Never what's needed to solve a problem tho

xx

Beez - I'll help!!

xx

Haha Seza - he covers the man loft aswell - get the dvd - you'll love it!

Beez - you never know when they will come in handy though?
I'm willing to bet you've got Man Drawers too - you just won't let the poor buggers have them back!

Lyndy - that sounds ace, do you need a co-driver?

Rips

x

Aha, the empty loo roll holder! I give these to my dogs all the time and they're also great for pups as they just go soft and squishy if they chew on them.

Does anyone know where people on yesterday's blog were seeing pics of the photo for CLP's new book??? Drove me mad searching the blog etc and I still haven't found anything.

Help please if poss. Cheers all. xxx (V excited cos I've got tickets for the Blackpool gig on Saturday night but gutted to see that our esteemed leader is bug*ering off to play golf instead of staying around.)

I assumed that the pics are on the Amazon site where you can pre-order it.

Rips

Am going to try feeding the troop to see if that keeps them quiet for a while

Laters

Seza xxx

Quick pop in.

Howdy all.

Beez, we did the sheets over the washing line tent too.

Then if we were really lucky, as Mum and Dad were folding away the sheets, we were each allowed at turn at lying in them and being swung as if in a giant hammock.

Free fun was the best.

Just managed to do all the lawns before it rains, from the look of the clouds, it wont be long.

Anyone got anything exciting planned for this weekend.

Seza has a special birthday, Lyndy off to Spain, have I missed anything else??

Going to have a quick blog catch up.

Good day .

MTF>xx

AAhhh! FOOOOOOOOOODDDDDD!

It's only a salad - and is actually pretty boring - but I was starving after an hour and a half meeting where alot (they were talking funding streams and money) was going straight over me head!

had to go home and walk the mutt as well, as weather looks like it's gonna be awful later, just in time for me to finish work!

Lyndy - can me and the boy come with you too please, we're only little.......

ebx

Afternoodles everyone,

looking a bit shonky on the weather front.

Michael McIntyre , sheer genious, nearly died laughing at him on TV, man drawer and man loft got to be the best stuff have heard in years. MrMC wouldnt let me up in the loft at weekend either and we fell about laughing . Tried to get tickets for forthcoming showns in Manc but all sold out.

Dont have kids, but love looking at all the toys , ;-)

MC xx

Afternoon peeps - sorry not been about for a couple of days but loving your work!!

Free fun as children ...? Tent over the clothes line - check.
Making dolls houses out of boxes. Lollypop stick fences around mud=pie mini gardens. Making rose petal perfume!

Crumpy xx

Ah, rose petal perfume, I remember it well. And how it stank!!!

And then when you're a little bit older there's the secret clubs in the shed, with the password before you're allowed to enter - Brill!!!

Crazy, check out Amazon to see our CLP looking very cool indeed!!!


T xxx

Painting the concrete posts with water and a paintbrush.

Then going to have to do it all over again once it had dried!!

MC, holliobobs looming.

Is it ever raining here now!!

MTF.xxx

We could all fit in next doors dog kennel, too small for adults to get in! ( oh the dog had gone to doggy heaven so kennel redundant! )

MTF.xx

MC, love the word shonky.

Gonna make it my word of the day.

MTF.xxx

MC

Loving the word "shonky" - had me almost choking on me rice crackers!!!

Deevs
xxxx

Snap!

Done all of the above apart from the rose petal parfum.......nice memories....I wondered off to age 8 for a moment....and I wanna go back there...now!!!!

MC...still hate u LOL x

Mud pies Baz?

MTF.xx

i used to make camps out of bed sheets and mums old wooden clothes horse!

Magic!

Deevs
xxxx

So.... just what happened to our imagination then???

Does it disappear along with good looks and hair as you get older????

TBx

Good ole' mud pies......most of the pics of me aged 18 months to 4 are me in the garden making mad pies.........

ebx

Hi Chris,Lovely pic of Noah, hes adorable,such a chutey.
I remember well when my kids were young at christmas, they always played with the boxes.My grandsons Harri& oli, prefer whats inside.
So do I. love to all.xx

Right off to work I go.

Will keep my eye out for a shonky looking donkey when I get to W.S.Mare.

MTF. Easily pleased LOL.xxx

Still got all my hair Baz!

MTF.xx

Tinsel - yes we had a secret club in the shed. Me, younger brother and older cousin. Passwords, secret code, the works.
MTF - had forgotten about painting with water.
Mum used to have an old mangle in the yard and we pretended it was a printing press and used to make newspapers!

Shops, of course with empty packets and the shopping basket was one of those cardboard 'baskets' with a metal handle that had mushrooms in.

Camps in the long grass - used to knot it to make tunnels.

C x

Loving all the talk of tents, camps etc. Done the rose petal perfume too! Happy days! We're all exhausted after yesterdays antics, but heading out for a walk shortly. Sorry folks, but it's still lovely and sunny here in Norfolk!

Yup Crumpy, maybe it was a North Wales thing Eh?

Gotta dash.xxx

Baz - If I had the time, I think I would still be out there playing in the garden......
I've always said the best age to be is six - you go to school (and in my school anyways, learned through play), come home, get food given to you, play some more then bed.
All the fun and understanding.......none of the responsibilities!

I'm hoping the boy's childhood will be like that too, but they seem to have it tougher than us.......

ebx

Good 4 u MTF.....

Damn shonky lookin weather in Brighton now....we await the predicted monsoon!!!

Mud pies......FAB.

TBx

It's funny we are all in a retro mood, as I am reading Nigel Slaters book 'Toast' and it's bringing back loads of childhood food memories - so much so, I have just had a sandwich with tinned red salmon for lunch - all squishy with sarsons malt vinegar. I was 12 again.

C x

Cept you had to pay for it Crumpy, really Ive gone!

MTF.xx

Funny you should mention hair Tango (#70)

I always had dead straight hair, not a kink nor a curl to be seen. Then, when I was about 30 it weny wavy, then curly - as those of you who have met me at blog meets will testify.

This last couple of weeks it seems to be going back to straight.

What's that all about ....???

Deevs
xxxxx

I'm gonna go buy me some 'sherbert lemons'....and make sure the paper sticks to at least 6 of them....haha

TBx

Arh Happy Childhood Memories,

I used to make rose petal perfume too (agree about the smell). Also used to play shoe shops with tree leaves - don't ask.

Never had a Wendy House, but some neighbours up the road had a tree house that I used to practically live in and if my Mum wanted me home for tea she would stand on the back door step and shout.

I used to play farms in the back garden as well, used the dustbin to sit on pretending it was a tractor - happy days.

AliB
xx

Loving all the childhood memories stuff!

Rips #45: your daughter is a smart wee cookie!

Lyndyloo #46: lovely wee dream for you and your boy. Wait until you see so many dreams unfold with him - it is incredible, really!

Beez #48: my "Wendy House" was hiding under the huge dining table in the middle of our room. I would get a sheet and drape it over the table, and stay under there for hours! My mum must have loved the peace!

We recently went to visit my sister in law - they look after their grandchildren on a regular basis, and their spare room is like a toy store! Just crazy. Especially when you consider their wee grandson's favourite toy is a brush and dustpan!

C xx

Rips & eb... it may be a couple of years from now but you are my alloted co-driver and co-companions for the Castle treck!

All this talk has reminded me of when I was an ickle girl and how (as my Mum will still tell you now) I couldn't stay clean for 2 minutes!

We had next door neigbours with a little girl of about my age who was always pristine clean and couldn't even stand icky fingers which probably made me seem even more of a mess but there was this one day when Mum had dressed me up in a beautiful pale dress and white T bar sandals and socks and asked me to just stay and wait for her for 2 minutes while she checked her hair before we went out. I wandered off into our enormous garden and found a bucket. The bucket was full of soot (yes the stuff from up the chimney) that my Grandad had collected and saved for putting round the base of the runner beans or some other veggies in the garden to help them grow. Well for anyone that has never found themselves confronted by a bucket full of soot... you have to touch it to see what it feels like... it feels like heaven!!! It's the finest of powder with a soft silky feel (I can still remember it to this day!) and what's more if you add some water (out of the outside tap) to it it's divine!! It feels far nicer than the foundation make-up I'd managed to smear all over myself and the wall of the bedroom a few weeks before... By the time my Mum had come downstairs it was all over my hands, face, legs in fact any skin I could get to with it!!

Needless to say I was hosed down on the back yard and we didn't get to go out and show off my pretty little dress... but I was told afterwards by my Mum that a passing neighbour who had seen me in all my sooty glory had remarked to her that... "The prettiest things grow in the dirt missus!" Bless him!

-x-x-x-

Lyndy - that tale has made me laugh and I agree about soot - just the softest thing and the most 'floaty'.

The thought of you being hosed down outside brought back another memory for me. The aforementioned secret club (No 75) had one unfortunate meeting when my cousin Hazel (old enough to know better!) and I painted my brother with a tin of paint we found in the shed. Fortunately, it was emulsion not gloss, but he was stripped down to his pants in the yard and hosed down.
Hazel and I had a proper telling off!

C xx

Phew!! Glad it wasn't just me Crumpy
-x-x-x-

Lyndyloo......soot story very funny......felt I was with you in the garden for a moment.....

Just you wait....you got it all to come, now you will be on the receiving end.....haha x

Afternoon Christoph

Fab photo Chris, stockpile the loo roll holders and when he's old enough give him some glue and a box and he'll make you a castle!

Loving your stories blog peeps, I probably go back further than a lot of you and we used to play in the woods, tie rope to the branches to make swings and be gone all day and only come home when we were hungry. Sadly can't be done today without an adult in tow!

F-I-L (now brown bread) was a fully fledged chimney sweep!!!

Pen xx

peeess blustery and scrawly here today and COLD!!!!

Pen.....so you farmiliar with soot then.....bet you're not as messy as Lyndy????

TBx

Bazza, lol, it was much more fun to be messy, than being prim and proper!!

btw anyone heard from Bondy?

Pen xx

Lyndy that cheered me up no end. Just been chucking it down again here since this morning and half the stuff needing to be done hasn't been!!

Pleased I was not the only tomboy!! I was permanently dressed in dungarees after my mother gave up trying to make me look girlie! If we were going anywhere, I was put on a chair and told not to dare move cos if I did I would be filthy in seconds!
My poor mother must have been so relieved when my younger sis started playing with dolls, dressing them etc. The only dolls I had, I pulled the hair off them and stuck them in my second hand dolls pram - which I hated - wedged in the mud!! Next door were not over pleased either when I had just watered my mud in the pram and put their cat in for a mud bath!!!
Told you I was a horror!

Beezer xx

Right then.....

I'm off home through the monsoon......if I don't get swept away, I'll see yous lovely lot when the boy is safely tucked up in bed!!

ebx

Yes Pen - we used to go off to the woods for hours on end. Strangely enough I was the lightest and I was always the one put on the pond to see if the ice was strong enough to hold us.
Sometimes it wasn't!

Beez xx

Beez...honestly that's norty...poor pussy cat!!!!

Pen...no re Bondy, he's gone very quiet indeed??? Hope things are OK...I know he was not getting in 'till late at his new job, so with the time difference...????

TBx

Afternoon all,

Loving all these childhood stories - great memories. Used to do all of the above except for the soot Lyndy!! Also remember walking on 'stilts' made out of old tins with string pulled through them - good old days!

Darce xx

Darce .... stilts ...yes and telephones with cans and string.

C x

Oh Yes Crumpy - I'd forgotten about the telephones!

Darce xx

Beez, did the ice thing as well, tried desperately to dry off before going home, no such luck with it being so cold. Got told off but still went back for more. Loved it!

Hi Darce, also did the tin can stilt things! Made hell of a racket!

Wouldn't be allowed to do half the things today........elf'n'safety and all that rubbish!!

Pen xx