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But you're beautiful, Miss Jones...
Posted by Webby at February 27, 2009 09:25 PM | Comments (0)Evelyn returned from school today with a letter from a visiting optician.
Apparently, Evelyn has defective vision, and we have been advised to take Evelyn to an optician to have her eyes tested with a view to getting her some corrective glasses. Unlike most four-year-old children (I imagine), Evelyn is excited desperate to get her own spectacles.
Jilly and I have organised for Evelyn to have her eyes tested at an opticians in town and, while we were there, Evelyn chose a pair of spec's for herself...and she wants them NOW! She's going to have to wait until next Sunday, though, as that's the earliest we can take Evelyn to Boots.
Just look at the excitement on her beautiful little face. I'm fillin' up, I am!
Are we human, or are we dancer?
Posted by Webby at February 25, 2009 09:50 PM | Comments (0)As well as actually dancing, Evelyn is currently loving The Killer's 'Are we human, or are we dancers', and sings along to whenever it is on the radio. Evelyn is also loving Girls Aloud, 'The Promise', giving a special exhibition of her singing and dancing skills to this track, as we shopped in the White Rose Centre recently...the staff were clearly very impressed, and told us how beautiful her dancing was. I suspect Jilly may have been coaching Evelyn...
...she does have a CSE grade 1 in Modern Educational Dance, don't you know?
Evelyn's first Parents' Evening at school
Posted by Webby at February 24, 2009 09:54 PM | Comments (0)Jilly and I visited Evelyn's school for our first parents' evening tonight, and everything went better than we could have hoped.
Evelyn's teacher, Mrs W. told us that Evelyn, "is exceptional"! Evelyn has an excellent understanding of letters and numbers; such a good understanding that her knowledge rivals and surpasses that of many of the children that began school full-time in September.
If Mrs W. had one criticism of Evelyn, though, it was that she regularly forgets to raise her hand before speaking in class. What took the sting out of this particular tail, was that Mrs W. quickly added that, all too often, what Evelyn had to say was so interesting and relevant to the discussion, that she found herself listening to what Evelyn had to say, rather than stopping her and reminding her to raise her hand.
We were proud to tell Mrs W. about Evelyn's recent (very short) reading. Stood waiting for the bus into town, Evelyn announced, "That says BUS STOP!", as she pointed to the markings on the road. Jilly and Kieran were both very impressed. Typically, Kieran immediately asked Evelyn if she could spell POO-POO HEAD yet? Evelyn told him that she couldn't. "But I can spell 'POO POO'!", she added, "And NOO NOO!". Which, of course, she can; and did!
And...in an effort to help Evelyn settle into the school week, Jilly is volunteering to go into school on Monday mornings and help with food technology classes! In truth, I believe it's likely that this volunteering will be more beneficial to Jilly as she is definitely missing the Monday mornings and Thursdays that she and Evelyn used to share! Ah! My beaudeeful liddle laydees!
They say the cutest things...don't they?
Posted by Webby at February 15, 2009 09:29 PM | Comments (0)As I was putting Evelyn to bed this evening, she told me, "Your neck has two names. The back is called the neck", pointing to the back of her neck, "and the front is the throat, isn't it daddy?"
I told her that she was quite right, and congratulated her on pronouncing the 'th' sound, instead of 'f' when saying 'throat' as saying froat would make her sound rather stupid. "Saying 'stupid' is naughty daddy!", Evelyn quickly reminded me, and then continued, "'Throat' rhymes with 'scrote', doesn't it daddy?" I nearly choked on my tea! Not quite sure how to continue, I decided to explain that 'scrote' was a contraction of the word 'scrotum', and explained (as delicately as possible) what it meant, adding that she really oughtn't use the word. I told her that it wasn't a swear word, and that she wasn't in trouble, but that she really shouldn't say it - especially at school. Evelyn simply nodded, as she continued tucking her Ariel mermaid doll into bed. Beautiful!
Black Sheep Brewery and The Kings Head Hotel
Posted by Webby at February 9, 2009 10:36 PM | Comments (0)Very generously, Jim and Helen offered to stay at our house over this weekend - to look after Evelyn - while Jilly and I spent the night at The Kings Head Hotel in Masham.
Jilly organised a very special surprise trip to the Black Sheep Brewery in Masham for my birthday...er...although it wasn't really as a surprise as she let me know what she had planned for me at the end of the week.
Although we both began the day missing Evelyn, we knew that she was having an excellent time with the Harriseseses, and soon began to relax. We had a light lunch at the Brewery followed by a very interesting trip around the brewery, which was, inevitably, followed by a couple of very tasty pints of the finest Black Sheep Best.
After the brewery trip we returned to the hotel for a glass (or two) of celebratory champagne and then on to the restaurant where we enjoyed a lovely meal (though it was good, I probably wouldn't order goose again in a restaurant.
As the weather had improved by Sunday morning, Jilly and I went for a wander around Masham and then drove to Ripon for a look round before returning home.
And then...as if our weekend hadn't been fantastic enough; we got home to find that the lovely Mrs. Harris had prepared Sunday dinner for us. Brilliant!
My 40th Birthday
Posted by Webby at February 4, 2009 11:48 PM | Comments (0)As ever, Jilly tried to make my birthday as special as possible. Unfortunately, events conspired to make celebrating my birthday quite a challenge...but a challenge that Jilly and I rose to.
In the morning, Jilly made Evelyn and I breakfast in bed and brought me my cards and presents from our lovely family and friends. Evelyn opened all my cards, and then continued to eat half my breakfast.
In the late morning, Jilly and I planned to go into town for a little birthday retail therapy, but the car wouldn't start!. Fortunately, a very helpful AA serviceman arrived at just 40-minutes, looked at the car and, after diagnosing the problem, pointed out that my AA membership would enable me to get up to £500 worth of remedial worth paid for by the AA (Huzzah!). More than a little pleased by this news, Jilly and I followed the very nice AA man to a garage in town, had a lovely spot of birthday lunch, and returned home in time to take receipt of a loan car organised by the said lovely AA man.
The AA? I can't fault 'em!
Kieran had previously offered to stay in with Evelyn so that Jilly and I could go out tonight so, having taken receipt of a spankin' new Renault Megane, Jilly and I drove to 'Slawit' where we enjoyed a lovely meal at the Monsoon restaurant. The food was lovely (especially Jillys Chicken Saag), but not (in my opinion) as good as the Memsahib in town. Of course, as I was driving, I was a very good lad (given that it was my birthday) and treated myself to ONE bottle of Cobra beer at the beginning of my meal (I'm only human, after all!)
I'd like to say a very heart-felt thank you to all my family and friends who sent me lovely cards and presents (or planned to send me lovely cards and presents, but who forgot! &:-)})...you know who you are! I am planning to put any and all generous contributions to my birthday 'collection' towards the purchase of this Toshiba laptop. I'm loving this video, but don't tell Jilly (she thinks I'm mad!)
De Ja Vue...er...Two
Posted by Webby at February 3, 2009 03:43 PM | Comments (0)
With even more snowfall over night, Jilly's surprise trip for my fortieth birthday is looking increasingly at risk. Of course, perfectly oblivious to my concern over the coming weekend, Evelyn is loving the snow and being off school.
De Ja Vue?
Posted by Webby at February 2, 2009 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
Evelyn and I had a rather inpromptu Daddy/Daughter day today as the whole country seemed to grind to a halt as it was covered in snow (it snowed throughout the night, last night, and has continued snowing today). Unfortunately, the same thing happened this time, last year, leading to Jilly and I having to cancel a birthday trip to Kendal. I was really pleased to discover, yesterday, that Jilly has organised another birthday trip for my fortieth...but that, too, is dependent upon the snow stopping for the weekend.
Watch this space...or keep your eyes on the sky!
