When Kids Just Won't Share a Room

We've had a problem. A rather frustrating, exhausting, irritating and stupid problem: my kids won't share a bedroom. Reason that's an issue? We only have 2 bedrooms!!

In our old house we had 3 bedrooms and everyone was happy. Mr B and I had more room than we needed and enjoyed it, Midge had her pink stickers and single pink bed in her own sanctuary and A had his bed and room which overflowed with his cars, trains and other random bits. We were happy! Now we've moved and one room is a good size for sharing (ish, we couldn't get their original beds in so had to get a bunk bed) and then we have the single room which is mine and Mr B's...

Or rather it was...

Because my children kept coming down the stairs eleven billion times* after bedtime, because they wound each other up, hit one another, bickered, got giggle fits, had tantrums and all the rest and nothing else has worked (shouting, crying, begging, bribing, confiscating, staggered bedtimes, reward charts, me sat outside on a stool and so on...) I decided enough was enough!

bedtime
Taken from a stool I sat on until they fell asleep..which they didn't!

Now Midge has her own room again and is happier. Well, she has our double bed, her bedding, she likes my cupcake theme and isn't bothered about collecting her clothes from the other room (there is no room for drawers in the her bedroom) A is happier in a way. He has Mummy and Daddy on the double bed below him and if he has a bad night he's easier to settle.

It's a little odd I'll admit but I'm tired. Mr B needs sleep for his 12 hour shifts as a carer, I need it for my mental health, my role at school and to be a decent human being (read mother) and my children need sleep for obvious reasons!

Now we're all sleeping better I'm looking into getting the rooms done up and moved about. My dad bought the bed from Amazon and it's ace. I'd like to get my book shelf into my room and give Midge some of her possessions back if they'll fit in some how. I still want a reading corner for the children like this one I found on Pinterest in our room, plus some blinds: VELUX do so many styles of blinds. I think we need some more photos on the walls too.I like my photo wall in the lounge so I can't see why I can't do one in the bedrooms!

Have you ever had to change around this dramatically before? Perhaps I'm being a pushover but I guess they've worn down my patience and I'm desperate for sleep and quality time with my husband!

* May be an exaggeration

Cupcake Mumma


Reasons to be Cheerful #2

Midge had a sleepover last night which was really good fun. We had a few mishaps and a couple of tears from the youngest but once we settled down with food and movies everything went really well. We all painted our nails and watched Secret Life of Pets and Hocus Pocus. I took Little T up to bed but the girls didn't settle until 1am so they'll all be tired today no doubt!


This photo of me and my nieces made me cheerful. It's not very good quality, my phone has always been funny when you turn the camera around but I'll still post it on here because I really like it. There's a funny one on my phone after this one, G and I are the same but Little T who popped the crisp in her mouth isn't because it was a mustard crisp!


I've been volunteering at the children's school and it's be going really well. I'm getting a fairly good insight into what a TA actually does, which is pretty much everything without the tonne of paper work to take home at the end of it! I work really well with the main teacher in the class and have enjoyed working 1-1 with some children helping them with their phonics. I get to change book bags on a Friday which isn't as much fun but being a bit of a hermit I like being on my own so sometimes working on my own suits me. Am I 100% sure on a role as a TA? I'm not sure. I don't like the idea of leading a class on my own when teachers have meetings etc but I guess that's not a case in all schools or perhaps it is and it will something I would be better at than I think. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the volunteering and the experience.

Reading and happy mail
I've read 3 books so far in January, all 3 I have loved. I've got loads of happy mail to catch up on plus 2 new pen pals! I haven't had much time to settle down, plus with the children not settling at night that time hasn't be easy to write in either!

I hope you all have some reasons to be cheerful this week to.

Cupcake Mumma

R2BC at Mummy from the Heart

Plymouth Aquarium

A week ago I went to Plymouth Aquarium with year 1 including my little man. We did the panto and Pizza Hut too but it's the Aquarium I want to blog about because I love them.

We were greeted by two members of staff and were soon being shown around by Stu who was lovely and energetic. We started the tour looking at starfish which I love but I have to say I distracted Stu somewhat by asking about the Spider Crabs which I was fascinated by. He didn't mind and all the children who were fascinated along with me got a quick education in rather cool looking creatures. We moved on to a starfish chat and a little story before heading over to the Jellyfish, another sea creature I love.

Lots of lovely Starfish!

Close up of the Starfish

Beautiful Spider crab 

The Jellyfish didn't disappoint anyone least of all me. I took to the upside-down Jellyfish because of their beautiful colours. There were slightly larger Jellyfish, some smaller and a tank which must have been full of baby Jellyfish but I forgot to ask. All their colours were amazing.

Upside down Jellyfish

Beautiful, brightly coloured Jellyfish

Next we moved on to the big boys, the sharks. There were some big ol' sharks swimming happily around the plane wreck in their tank with their fish and stingray friends. Enzo the shark was hard to miss given his bizarre shape. Turns out he's a sand shark, one I've never heard about before. It was quite surreal being this far down, trying to imagine how much water was above our heads! Stu gave us a brief chat on the different sharks in this giant tank and a talk about the anatomical structure of some fish.


We viewed another part of the tank, going even further down! Then moved on to the last section of the tour before lunch. The beautiful octopus who stayed still in his corner during a quick talk soon showed his beautiful long tentacles off to us adults the moment the children moved on. Something that looked so bunched up, small and vulnerable suddenly didn't look much that way once his tentacles splayed demonstrating he was easily the length of his tank.

Octopus giving us a show!

We learnt that octopus can stick their tentacles up their noses and can reach around up there fairly easily. There were some other gruesome facts but they made me feel a little sick to be honest! The final stop was to look about the reef where the children spotted their favourites (Nemo! Dory!) It was sad that the turtle had passed away but she lived a much better life with Plymouth Aquarium than she would've done in the wild; something to do with her shell I think but I forget. It was a great tour, I really enjoyed myself and really want to go again with my family so we can look around the whole aquarium and take our time (the one luxury you don't get on a school trip with 5 year olds!)

Little crab walking along his tank



Cupcake Mumma

*Apologies for the photo quality! Understandably you can't use a flash as this upsets the fish..and my isn't what it was *laughs*

Adventures In Websterland

How am I Supposed to Feel?

Grief is unique. There is no one size fits all. No 'this is how it's going to feel and here's how to deal with it,' book and if there is I'm not sure I'd be picking it up. I know there are stages of grief though: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. That's what Google tells me anyway *laughs*

I've been shocked. That came before, where we had to accept that Uncle M was ill and never going to get better. No one expected to hear the news; at least as far as I'm aware no one did. One moment he had an illness he could recover from and the next he has an illness that he can not and will not recover from. I went briefly to not believing this could be true that once more cancer had invaded my family but this time it was taking someone with it. Then that made me understandably angry.

I have to say guilt was a big feeling for me over the first few days. But that's more private. I was lifted when I heard him speak on Wednesday evening. He was tired and weak but I heard him and heard everyone with him, all my family there by his side. I'm so, so happy I told him I loved him. Wednesday appeared to be a good day for him, one of his best. My parents came home on Thursday, he passed away in the early hours of Friday morning. I chose to deal with it later, after my first session at school with reception. I came home and I started to deal with it.

Now I'm just sad. Or I'm okay. I didn't know my uncle well. I wrote to him a number of times, I sent photos of his growing great niece and nephew. I called the hospitals whenever he was admitted with an illness to find out how he was. I now know it doesn't matter that I wasn't able to or never got around to meeting him again and more often. I cared about him and loved him just like we all did and I hope he knows that. In fact, I have no doubts that he knew that.

So I am okay. But I'm also sad. Really sad. Then I'm okay again. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel but I know that whatever it is, it's okay.

Cupcake Mumma

Reasons to be Cheerful

I haven't been feeling very inclined to blog at the moment so I missed last weeks link up. We've had some upsetting news in the family but we're all coming together as you do in these times and I suppose that in itself is a reason to be cheerful.

Other reasons to be cheerful:

This photo of my beautiful little girl. She will be 9 next Tuesday and I can't believe it. This was a quick snap before school. She does her own hair in the morning now and is starting to take pride in her appearance which is always nice to see.


We have implemented some new rules in our house this week and I made some homemade reward charts for both Midge and Little A. I enjoyed getting crafty and using what I could find instead of buying a chart (even though I later found some in Poundland mine are prettier!) they are working..still no stickers for bedtime though...

I called my mum yesterday to find out how everyone was up on Portsmouth. They are all good and my uncle though very week is still happy to see everyone and I think he's enjoying their company. He's very unwell now and isn't going to get better. I haven't spoken to him in many years because of various reasons; mostly his health has always been poor and he's moved about a bit. I was put on loud speaker last night and I told him I loved him. He tried to say it, everyone was saying 'he's saying it back, he is!' And just writing it now my heart aches yet I'm so happy. I never want to forget this so I am putting it down here, on my lovely blog full of my most wonderful memories.

Finally, I've read one book and have started another (an as yet unpublished book which I'm reviewing in a way I suppose.) I've written some letters, received some lovely ones back and I'm happy with my budgeting too.


What are your reasons to be cheerful?

Cupcake Mumma

R2BC at Mummy from the Heart

2016 at The Cupcakes

2016 has come to an end and like many other's I'm feeling reflective. I've been writing this blog for 5 years now and every year I enjoy looking back on the year just gone. It would be more than fair to say that there has been so much tragedy this year, almost more than other years it feels; none of it personal for which I am so grateful for but I do know people who have lost close family and my heart hurt for those friends.

2016 may be a year a lot would prefer to forget and although we've struggled through a good part of this year due to many things, mostly it was good and I have some memories from each month (I think!)

January
I always look forward to January. I like the energy it brings to me. It's Midges birthday first on the 17th and last year she turned 8. She had a party, my friends visited, she got a new bike and had a Frozen cake. Mr B also has his birthday in January but both of our birthdays are low key. We went to Plymouth as a treat for Midges birthday but tied it in with Mr B's too!

 Birthday tea

 Family Selfie

Frozen birthday cake
February
Little A turned 5 in February. He had just started to get really into all the superheroes so his cake was a mix of his favourite heroes plus The Joker.

 Birthday boy 

Topper of Little Mans cake
March
It was probably March that was my worst month because it was consumed by my teeth and the pain they caused! I ended up having a tooth extraction and then finding a new dentist. There was good in March of course. I had a lovely Mothers Day with homemade gifts, I spent time with Midge, read a lot, had a good parents evening and saw my sister who visited for her birthday.

April
Again April was dominated by tooth ache but was so much better and my mood lifted this month. I traveled to Bath for 3 days to see my friend and her children, we pretty much just chilled out. Trevithick day was a good day again last year, we actually got into it more than previous years and a trip to my parents house was just what I needed at the beginning of the month with my little ones.

A at the beach

May
We had fun discovering a few walks in May and one walk in particular must've taken us over 2 hours where we picked flowers, paddled in a stream, squelched in mud and made friends with horses. We really embraced getting outdoors even just in the garden doing messy play and taking nature photos. Half term was spent bike riding and visiting the Sea Life Sanctuary.

 A met some horses on our walk

 Peppa dog went for a paddle

Pops, A, Grandma and Midge at the Seal Sanctuary

June
I started my counselling for my anxiety which has gone really well. Mr B and I had some quality time together when the children were at school but not much else happened this month.

July
Before the holidays there was a very fun and successful sports day and Mum and I did the race for life in memory of my friends mum who lost her battle just weeks before. We took in a homemade cake to say goodbye to reception before the holidays.

 Me and Race for Life

Goodbye for the final year of reception

August
There was a trip to my Mums to celebrate her birthday, we visited Marazion with the family, had some back garden picnics and BBQs plus we saw the amazing Man Engine which toured Cornwall to honor our mining heritage which was just amazing.

 Me with the T-Rex at Paradise Park

 BBq at home with the cousins

 The Man Engine

 Midge and A at The Man Engine event

 A and Auntie Issy at the beach

 Grandma with the mini cupcakes

 Little Man at Marazion beach

 Midge after a summer party

Little A enjoying his pasty in town

September
My little ones returned to school as a year 4 and a year 1! It was quite emotional actually but I always love watching them start another chapter of their school year. It was a quiet blogging month after getting news that we needed to move house.



October
We moved into our new place early October and settled in fairly quick, although we still miss the space and the road we lived. Halloween was good fun as always with school discos, trick or treating and decorating the house. I had a lovely birthday at the end of the month too and great fun at the hotel with Mr B for a night on the 30th.


First cake made in the new house by Midge!

November
We celebrated dads birthday at his house by having a roast dinner, cake and board games. The beginning of the month was mostly dominated by tonsillitis for me, then a bug and lots of antibiotics! I thought I'd never be back to normal! Thankfully I was after a couple of weeks and I started Christmas shopping.

December
We had a lovely Christmas. We did all our traditional things on Christmas Eve, opened our stockings then gifts together on Christmas morning then travelled to mums where we had a delicious dinner cooked by my sister and her boyfriend. A was poorly overnight but we all managed Boxing Day at my Gran and Aunts for more food and gift giving. A was unwell again and then Midge came down with sickness so Mr B and I were tired. Luckily, everyone was better after a chill out day so we headed for a buffet with Mr B's mum and sisters as well as seeing the little ones. Breakfast with my father in law the next morning was so nice. The children loved seeing their Grandad and we all waved him off on his train to Plymouth to catch his ferry.

A in his new onesie//Midge looking pretty for Christmas//Midge and A//Peppa waiting for her gifts//Me and A//A at dinner//Pops and Mr B//Mum and Dad at dinner

Midge helped decorate Grandma's tree

So that's our 2016 rounded up very nicely. There are many smaller moments I've missed out but they are all on the blog for us all to look back on. To all my family, my friends, fellow bloggers and lovely followers, may you have a wonderful 2017. Happy new year.

Hannah

Aka
Cupcake Mumma x

Adventures In Websterland

January Goals

Looking back at December's goals I didn't do too badly. I visited my Gran and Aunt several times before Christmas, we had a wonderful family Christmas and Midge and I have played with make up, painted our nails and spent time with our colouring books. 
Money wise, I paid off Little A's trip to Plymouth and there's only 1 more payment to make for Midges London trip. I tried out the money app my sister recommended and several others on my phone but they're not for me. Lastly, my personal goals. I enjoyed Christmas, I baked mince pies, raw food cake and a vegan chocolate cake for school so I definitely spent more time in my kitchen. I got up to date with my letter writing and donated a package to the food bank, plus other acts of kindness inspired by my project kindness list.


January's Goals

Family
Plan and give Midge a fantastic 9th birthday
Celebrate Jason's birthday

Money
Pay off Midge's school trip
Complete the first month of my new savings jar
Pay £30 extra on my first debt I'm tackling
Budget for this month and maybe draw up budgets to March

Me
Lose weight gained over festive period
Finish the book I'm reading
Reply to all pen pals

Cupcake Mumma