Tag Archives: Children

Weekend Photo Challenge: OOTD and Posing :)

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{OOTD: I’m wearing my new (ish) Odd Molly dress and keeping my Autumn resolution of not just reaching for my jeans every day.}

For once I’m actually early (OK then, on time at least) with my Weekend Photo Challenge post. We have had a quiet weekend so far (for a change) and this afternoon my husband has taken the boys off to the golf course, leaving Clemmie and I to relax at home. I have to prepare dinner in a little while but I’ve got time for a quick post. This evening I’m going to the movies with a friend to see the new Woody Allen film, Blue Jasmine. I’m not a huge fan of his but it has got good reviews so fingers crossed it will be a good film. Have any of you seen it?

The second part of this weekend’s challenge was a picture of your child posing. Well, that was easy! When it comes to our family there is no contest: my eldest son has got the posing down to a fine art:

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This Week’s Favourites

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{The walk to school takes twice as long when it’s been raining and there are puddles to jump in}

‘Swoosh’ it said and yet another week went by! Seriously, I’m beginning to think that time really does speed up when your kids start school. The seven weeks between the start of this school year and half term (which is this Friday) have gone by so much quicker than the summer holidays did. It has been a quiet week, mainly spent catching up on things that were were put on hold while preparing for last weekend’s party, like completing my tax return and buying the last of the boys’ birthday presents.

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{Clemmie chose her winter hat when we went into Gap during a shopping trip earlier this week. Leopard print is a firm fave of mine as well – like mother like daughter!}

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{I am one step closer to creating my dream home office after buying this print}

The highlight of the week was undoubtely Casper’s seventh birthday today. My youngest son is very much an old soul – wise, thoughtful and kind but, boy, can he throw a tantrum when that way inclined. Today, however, he was all smiles when we woke him up at 7.30 with presents and cake. As both he and his sister had birthday parties to go to today we’ve delayed his party until next weekend. Then the following weekend is my eldest son’s birthday – a busy month but that’s the way I like it!

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{Big brother helps out with the present opening.}

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{A very happy boy. Judging by the smile, I think we got the present right!}

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{It was a bit of a squeeze to fit seven candles onto a very small cake. There will be a bigger one at the party next weekend.}

Clemmie cake

{Someone is enjoying having cake for breakfast}

This Week’s Favourites

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I suppose the title of this post should really be ‘last week’s favourites’…I’m a day late but with all the party preparations last week and then the clearing up yesterday I have a feeling I’ll be playing catch-up all week. Anyway here’s a quick round-up of the last seven days:

1. My thermos mug from Ikea comes in handy on busy mornings when I end up having breakfast on the run.

2. I made another batch of low carb muesli this week (find the recipe here) – my favourite breakfast.

3. Banana bread is great to put in the children’s lunch boxes and as an afternoon treat with a cup of tea. (Recipe here)

4. The week started off very warm and we made the most of the sunny weather with a trip to the playground after preschool. As the week went on it got progressively colder and I think it’s definitely time to dig out the hats and gloves (although I think the chances of finding a matching pair are very slim, given how many gloves were lost at school last winter).

5. Beautiful autumn colours on a crisp, sunny morning.

6. I had been looking for a new ‘smart’ winter coat for a while but not found anything that was quite right. I have a padded coat from Zara which is great when it gets really cold but I wanted a slightly dressier one to wear for nights out. Usually buying coats is a nightmare as I’m small and unless I find one in a petite fit (which means much less choice), the sleeves are too long and it swamps me. But I went into town mid-week to take a few things back and there it was – the perfect coat. As luck would have it there was one left in my size and, being H&M, it was a total bargain at only £39.99! I tried to find it online to link back to for a better picture but for some reason it’s not up on the H&M website, so you’ll have to make do with the picture I snapped in the changing room. The main body of the coat is a black and white tweed type of pattern, with black sleeves and a detachable fur collar which you can of course wear with other coats and jackets as well.

7. It was only a quick trip into town but I did manage to have a wander through our local department store where they were setting up the Christmas display. I know a lot of people complain that the stores bring out the Christmas decorations too early but I kind of like it. The boys’ birthdays are at the end of October and beginning of November but after that I like to start planning for the festive season – I can’t stand stressing about it in mid December when the shops are full of people and things are starting to run out, or worrying about Internet deliveries arriving in time. Only ten weeks to go until Christmas Day folks!

8. Every Friday Clemmie and I go to Gym Tots with my friend and her daughter. The girls love running around, climbing on all the gym equipment and bouncing on the trampolines.

9. As you probably know by now the week culminated with a birthday party for my husband which went on into the early hours of Sunday morning. We all had a great time and he got some fantastic presents – almost all of them golf related!

Hope you’ve all had a fantastic start to the week! X

Weekend Photo Challenge (even later than usual!)- OOTD and ‘sleeping’ children

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{My lovely children having a cuddle in our bed. Not sleeping strictly speaking but close enough I think!}

I haven’t had a chance to sit down at the computer all day, but better late than never! We didn’t get to bed until 3.30 this morning (I can’t even remembered the last time that happened!) so I’ve not exactly been full of energy…

It’s my husband’s actual birthday today so we had a lovely lunch at the in-laws when we collected the children (sooo nice not to have to cook – dinner will be takeaway pizza). Apart from that, the day has been spent clearing up the house after last night’s festivities, opening presents and all the usual things like overseeing homework and music practice. There is still some cleaning to be done but, you know what, I’m going to leave it until tomorrow and curl up on the sofa with my husband, eat my pizza and watch Homeland.

Have a great evening. X

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{Me, in last night’s outfit, a black dress bought from Asos last year and jewellery from a local boutique}

Weekend Photo Challenge: OOTD for Mummy and Child

Posted in Family Life, Fashion by

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The boys were not keen to participate in today’s challenge so here’s another picture of Clemmie (in Zara waistcoat, H&M skirt and shoes which my friend bought for her in New York). I will get them next week when the theme is sleeping, no escaping then!

And because she asked so nicely, here is a picture of me in my new Yoga tops especially for Eszer. My eldest son asked me to also mention that he took the picture 🙂

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday. X

PS. I think the challenge is really meant to be for the Saturday but it’s such a busy day for us that I usually struggle to post anything, let alone take any photos. So I’m always a day late!

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Weekend Photo Challenge – OOTD and Eating

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As some of you may remember, I was invited by Ezster (check out her blog Kukolina here) to take part in the Weekend Photo Challenge. This week the challenge was to post a picture of Saturday’s outfit and (if you have kids) a photo of your child eating.

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I’m afraid my outfit today is not vastly different from last Saturday’s – the same boots, Paige Denim jeans in a darker colour and another white H&M tee, paired with an H&M scarf. Same jewellery as well – how unadventurous of me!

Clemmie Eating

This picture of Clemmie eating her dinner was actually taken last weekend at my parents’ house. Sometimes my kids are happy to let me take photos of them and other times they go all camera shy on me. Today was one of those days, hence I had to use an old picture.

Wishing you all a great Saturday! X

This Week’s Favourites

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Clemmie started preschool this week. I stayed with her for an hour on the first day and, yes, there were tears when I left but she also had lots of fun; We got creative with stickers and crayons on a rainy morning; Breakfast at my desk while flicking through the latest issue of Grazia; I made a really yummy (if I say so myself!) apple cake. Recipe to follow; Casper has kept the tooth fairy busy by losing three teeth already this month; We went to a traditional crayfish party at my parents’ house, complete with schnapps and lots of singing.

I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest but we had such a busy Saturday (football practice, swimming and golf lessons, tutoring session, a birthday party and dinner at my parents – I’m exhausted just thinking about it!) that today was spent catching up on all the jobs we needed to get done before the start of the new week. My husband cooked a yummy roast dinner before heading off to the golf course leaving me and the kids to curl up on the sofa under our duvets and watch Alice in Wonderland.

Now they’re all in bed and, as has become our Sunday tradition, we’re about to watch yet another movie. We haven’t decided which one yet but I’m hoping for something lighthearted to take my mind off tomorrow. My youngest son is having an operation so I’ve organised for my parents to look after the other two as my husband and I both want to go to the hospital. Although it’s a minor procedure he is having a general anaesthetic so we’ve been told they may want to keep him in overnight. He is quite excited and not worried at all which is great. I know he’ll be in good hands but to be honest I just want to fast forward to tomorrow evening and have it over and done with. I’ve always been a bit of a worrier but since having children it has got 10,000 times worse. I really have to remind myself to think positively and not always picture the worst case scenario. Sometimes easier said than done!

Happy Friday!

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We’re only a week into the new school term and already our summer holiday seems but a distant memory…

I downloaded our holiday photos from the big camera today and it was fun to look through them and remember all the good times we had. This picture of Cameron jumping is definitely on my list of photos to print out for my planned photo walk (more on that project next week).
The first full week back at school has sped by and I can’t believe it’s Friday already. I only realised it was the 13th when I had to write a cheque for my daughter’s gym class earlier today. The date used to spook me a bit but ever since I met my husband, who was born on Friday 13th, I don’t think of it as unlucky anymore. Are you superstitious or do you treat it as any other day?

Whatever the date, I wish you all a happy Friday! XO

 

Home Sweet Home ♥ (So why do I still feel homesick?)

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After all the yummy but not necessarily healthy food I've been indulging in over the last two weeks it was nice to start the day with a healthy breakfast of low carb muesli (recipe here), yoghurt and fresh strawberries

After all the yummy but not necessarily healthy food I’ve been indulging in over the last two weeks it was nice to start the day with a breakfast of low carb muesli (recipe here), yoghurt and fresh strawberries

We’re back from our holiday and while it’s nice to be home (despite the mountain of washing and sorry state of our cloakroom – see here), as always I feel like I’ve left a part of me behind. There is a saying in Sweden which roughly translates to ‘Away is good but home is best’, meaning that it’s good to go on holiday but the nicest part is often returning to your home and familiar routine. But what if the place you go away to is also your home or at least used to be?

I was ten years old when my dad was transferred from Stockholm to London and apart from a couple of years in the US and Ireland I have lived in the UK ever since. We were only meant to stay here for 2-3 years but once they were settled my parents didn’t want to leave and despite my father now being retired they still have no plans to move back.

When I was a teenager I had no desire whatsoever to return to Sweden as I thought (rightly or wrongly) that London’s fashion and music scenes where infinitely cooler than anything my home country had to offer. Now that I am older and have children of my own I find myself appreciating my childhood more and more – the fresh air and open spaces, being able to go ice skating and cross country skiing in the winter and swimming in the lakes in the summer.

In an ideal world I would like us to live in Sweden for a year or two so that the children learn to read and write in Swedish and, perhaps most importantly, really embrace the country and culture as part of their own identity. At the moment they definitely think of themselves as more English than Swedish which is hardly surprising as they were born here and have never lived anywhere else. And while they all understand Swedish it is a struggle to get the boys to speak it unless they’re with their cousins who haven’t learned English yet. One of the hardest things is that my sister and I have lived in different countries for the past 18 years as she moved back to attend university and ended up staying. We keep in touch via Skype and email but often talk about how nice it would be if we lived closer, especially now that we both have children.

For now, however, such a big move is not possible as my husband’s work necessitates him being near London. While that may change at some point in the future, I imagine that as the kids get older it will be more difficult to uproot them from their friends, not to mention disrupting their schooling at a crucial stage. I don’t want to relocate permanently though as I love our life here – our friends, our house and our lovely village with its great sense of community.

And it’s not that I want to impose my own nationality on my children but I would like them to feel that they could choose to study or work in Sweden when they get older (there are some benefits over the UK: further education is free and property prices are generally lower). At the same time I like the idea of putting down roots and creating a family home to encompass all their childhood memories from toddlers to teenagers. We have been in our current house for just over six years now and it’s the longest time I’ve lived in one property since I left Sweden.

There are no easy answers but for now I’ve resolved to carry on speaking Swedish to the children, even if they insist on answering back in English, and upholding traditions such as St Lucia and Midsummer. It would be great to visit more often but for a family of five plane tickets are not exactly cheap so at the moment two or three trips a year is probably all we can manage.

Maybe one day we can get our own holiday home somewhere on the coast of Sweden. Something like this would be amazing (a girl can dream can’t she?):

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Pink is for girls and blue is for boys?

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As someone whose dissertation was entitled ‘The Social Construction of Masculinity and Femininity through Fashion and Clothing’ (or something along those lines, it WAS almost 20 years ago) I was intrigued to come across this article in Smithsonian magazine.

These days, when you visit the home of someone with a newborn you can generally deduce whether the baby is a boy or a girl just by looking at the colour of the greeting cards displayed around the house. Similarly, children’s clothing stores are divided along gender lines with rails filled with pink on the girls’ side and blue for the boys. According to the article, however, it was only in the early 20th century that certain colours acquired gender connotations and until the 1940s blue was generally associated with girls while pink was mainly worn by boys.

Some argue that gender specific colours help to perpetuate traditional masculine and feminine stereotypes from the moment a baby is born. In Sweden for instance there is a big and very vocal gender movement, and some daycare nurseries operate a gender neutral policy where children are encouraged to dress against stereotype and are never referred to as ‘he’ or ‘she’. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places, but I have not seen the argument taken to that extent in this country.

I do remember that some people thought it was strange that, as babies, I put both my boys in (navy blue or white, never pink!) tights as they were born in the winter and socks never stayed on for long. Until he was three and a half, my eldest son’s favourite colour was pink but then he started preschool and suddenly decided that it was ‘for girls’.

I have to admit to sitting on the fence of this debate. While I think gender stereotyping can be very damaging, especially in the education system and workplace, I’m not wholly convinced that adopting a gender neutral dress code is the answer. When, after two boys, I had a girl I promptly bought a pink cover for the buggy and I was so excited about finally being able to cross over to the ‘girlie’ side in stores that I didn’t even contemplate dressing her in boys’ clothes (although I probably had enough hand-me-downs to last several years). She often wears jeans or leggings but I’m not sure I would ever pair them with a dinosaur or monster truck T-shirt. Whether this is because I’m a slave to social convention or simply because I myself tend to dress in feminine clothing is open to debate (and I suppose one could argue that the latter is a direct result of the former).

That’s not to say that I expect her to behave like a ‘dainty little girl’. She’s as likely to play with the cars and trains as with the dolls and tea set and I’m hopefully bringing all my children up to believe that, as long as they work hard, they can choose any profession they want. Maybe I’m an idealist, but I don’t think we should have to dress the same in order to be equal.

What do you think? Does it matter whether we dress our children in pink or blue or are we enforcing gender stereotypes by doing this?