‘…a pixie, the faeries, a grumpy troll and the witch’

Am feeling better now - yes, I’m sure you’re glad (need a sarky smilie again!)Went down to Civic Offices to sort of C.Tax benefit claim form, Alex & Hermionie sorted that whilst Natalie & I went to the library and got a childminders ticket that allows us to have 20 junior books as well as the kids usual allowances - no more worrying about overdue kids books on my ticket again - needless to say we filled the new ticket on the first go. Picked lunch up at Co-op and picnicked in Victoria Park - had remembered food for the Rabbits and Guinea Pigs pinny-gigs, so kids were happy feeding them. Had just enough time to trundle back though Cascades to Claire’s Accessories where Natalie had her ears pierced - she looks so grown up now! - We had discussed getting her ears pierced with her and said maybe she can when she’s 8, so it came as a surprise to her when we asked her if she wanted it done today - not too much time for her to get too anxious about the pain factor either!She was nervous waiting in the chair for Mummy to sign the forms and for the lady (who was a walking advert for every type of piercing you could have!) to draw the dots in the right place, and I thought that the lady would do it by herself, one ear at a time and run the risk of Natalie having only one ear pierced, but she called someone over and they pierced them tandem stylee! Natalie’s eyed well up a bit but she sucked the tears back and smiled as soon as she saw her reflection in the mirror! An early birthday present for her.Scooted back to Cosham (yay! - getting bored with that now) for Alex to see the Solicitor - we can get legal aid - phew! Me and the kids got Tesco out the way, we changed Need for Speed Carbon for the DS that we got off ebay and a few £££’s for Animal Crossing WW  - Natalie is getting a DS for her birthday - Shhhhhh, don’t tell her ). When we got home NanP popped in for a visit, she’s been on holiday to Lyme Regis for a week - we didn’t realise she’d been away .Kids played out in the garden sprinkler for a bit - sprinkler aimed at pool to catch water to water plants later - The cheap garden sprinkler - cost £2.49 from Tesco has done a much better job at ’sprinkling’ the kids than any of the naff pricey kid’s sprinkler’s we’ve had!We’ve decided we should really have passports in case we want to escape have a holiday, so I whipped out Alex’ camera, Photoshopped them and came up with some that make us look like criminals as all passport photos do are passable! Managed to print them more than satisfactorily on my good ‘ol Epson 680 that had rest in the loft for about 5 years! The Epson 2100 that we bought for ‘other business plans’ that we had is a pain-in-the-butt - everytime I go to use it, it needs head cleaning/prints lines through everything or is just plain rubbish - oh and then there’s the Epson CX500 one of the multifunction ones - but now only the scanner works ‘cos of some duff cartridges I got that naffed up the printing part! (look for all these coming to ebay or a car-boot sale near you soon )Put littlies to bed and watched Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind from the DVD rental trial we’re using this fortnight! I quite liked it - not our usual taste - I don’t think Alex really liked it - he knows that the times I get to choose a DVD to watch means that he’s not going to like it!! - tough - he made me sit through Catwoman amongst others!