Another busy week for us with Milly's birthday and Mother's Day and of course lots to smile about:

• On Wednesday it was the reception class's Parents' Lunch at Tinker's school. She was sooooo excited, which was lovely, and she was counting down the sleeps for days beforehand. When I walked into the hall where she was waiting in line expectantly with her friends, I saw her eyes searching the parents and then her little face lit up with joy when she saw me and she was jumping up and down excitedly as she proudly took my hand and showed me where to line up in the dinner queue. I have to admit I didn't have high expectations of the food, but the roast turkey dinner was surprisingly tasty and the banana sticky toffee pudding was absolutely delicious. It was lovely to see Tinker eating well at school (for the first few months she had a jacket potato almost every day!) and being so independent asking for what she wanted and showing me how to clear away. When we had finished she turned to me and was happy to dismiss me saying 'You have to go now' and giving me a swift kiss and cuddle before happily joining her friends in the classroom for playtime as it was raining.

• On Thursday it was Milly's birthday – I honestly struggle to come to terms with the fact that she is now 17!! She is such a lovely sweet girl and we are so lucky to have her. It is never great when birthdays fall on school/work days and as a result it was inevitably a bit rushed but I'm pretty sure she liked her presents and enjoyed her day. We all went out for dinner which was lovely especially as Nathan was home (just for 24 hours) and Jess came over so all six of my babies were together (and probably for the last time as next time there will be seven of them!!) Although I took a few random snaps I totally forgot to get a photo of the six of them together – serious mummy fail! 

• Mother's Day – obviously having so many children has lots of advantages (alongside a few cons at times) but one big upside is getting spoilt on Mothers Day! I had a lot of lovely presents, we spent the morning at the park and walking to the shop (although both girls were a bit stroppy!) and in the afternoon we went to Jess's (along with my mum and dad) for our first barbecue of the year. It was nice to not be the one hosting and cooking for a change (although don't get me wrong, I absolutely love hosting and cooking for all the family!) and Jess and her partner Raj made sure we were all ridiculously well fed and looked after. On Saturday we went out with Grandma and Grandad T and Uncle T for afternoon tea, which was lovely and so it was a really nice (though busy!) Mother's Day weekend full of treats! 

• The clocks have changed – ok so I bloody hate the clocks changing especially this time of year when we lose a precious weekend hour (I wouldn't mind if they went forward at 9am on a Monday though!) and this year it seems it was planned just so mums everywhere were tricked into thinking they had had a Mother's Day lie in! I mean what is even the point, there are the EXACT SAME amount of hours of daylight whatever you do with the clocks! However, it's done now and the light nights are very welcome so I will stop moaning about it! To make the most of it today we went for a walk to the park before dinner with Uncle T.

• Our new truck for the girls – we have been given it by a friend this week and the girls love it! It's great fun for them and has already had a few outings to the park (even though Totsy had her first ever proper meltdown because she wanted to pull it along herself without any help while Tinker was in it, which she just couldn't manage but still kept refusing a helping hand!) 

• We have two new parks – technically speaking they are not exactly new, but after living in our house for eighteen months we have this week discovered not one but two parks that we didn't even know were there. Both of them are only a couple of streets away from us, less than a five minute walk away – it's ridiculous that we didn't know they were there but in our defence they are in quiet cul-de-sacs!! They are really lovely well-equipped enclosed parks and we will be regular visitors. 

• No birthdays for a while – don't get me wrong, celebrating birthdays is really lovely but in the space of a month we have had Tinker's, then Mr T's, then Totsy's, then Milly's! Incredible bad planning I know!! So for a little while it's nice to have a break from the present buying and the organising. And now the next birthday we will celebrate in the circus will be Twinkle's arrival in July! 

Keep smiling xx