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Japanese lemonade caused us amusement and amazement today. It has a marble in it. 

Sushi for lunch to celebrate John's birthday today and Jude's yesterday. 'Twas delicious, and trying to sit/kneel at the table on mats made us smile. As did trying to take pictures of each other. 

Sushi was delicious and then it was off to theatre to see To kill a mockingbird with Isaac who feared we may never make it as I kept pausing to admire shop windows. I soon stopped (but BLT because there aren't any shops between Colmore Row and the theatre!) 

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Today this little munchkin became a teenager. 

Great excitement as 

a) he had a teacher day so had no school

b) Isaac's first exam. wasn't until 11.30 so we all had a bit of a lie in before presents

c) he loved his presents

d) celebrations included food and cuddly toys 

e) presents included hats

And possibly most exciting of all...

He's finally old enough to have a Facebook account! 

Happy birthday Jude x

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Tired smiles but smiles nonetheless.

Year 5 singing carols like they were at Villa Park amused me but it made me smile when they actually sang 'properly.'

Year 2's constant enthusiasm and excitement at learning Spanish, pushing their knowledge beyond what I plan because they want to use other animals, shapes or colours, or want to count higher never fails to make me grin even when I'm exhausted. Today we went outside and played Spanish playground games.

And planning for my baby boy's birthday tomorrow makes me smile although it's a little sad that he needs to grow up... ;)

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Every Wednesday I walk into the staffroom at WPS at break and smile broadly. Because every week a lovely lady who comes in to work with some of our vulnerable children makes something yummy and leaves it on the table. And every week I forget. This week it was coconut flapjack.
It's the little things.

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Jude's been cooking again! Quiche today and very tasty it was too. Still half left for tomorrow. More goodies next week I think. 

I had a lesson observation this morning which went very well so that was worth a big smile. 

Arriving home before it was very dark was also rather pleasant. Makes the evening so much longer and gives a chance to relax too. 

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I love Paddington! 

 Although this is the Paddington I know


Still, I can love the new one too ;)

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Smiles today cane in the form of

A lie in. 

A long run during which I ran up the steep sandy stoney incline that caused me trouble in a recent race. 

Chocolate y churros with the boys. 

A wonderful baptism service at church during which I realised that the bloke on the front row (husband of the lady being baptised) was in my class at school which explained why he looked so familiar. 

Another week begins...

NB these are not the ones we ate ;)

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There we were enjoying our juice at Touchwood and along came lots of white chess pieces with LED lights on them playing drums.  Followed by dancers and other randoms. I suspect that it was 'switching on the Christmas lights' day in Solihull as it was heaving outside. 

Jude and Monty the penguin. How cute! I made him sit there so I could take a picture for our little girlie friends but he liked it really ;)

And I still have all of the £500 vouchers I won to spend in John Lewis/Waitrose as I didn't see anything I wanted (that would fit in the house anyway!)

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I think I gained a few 'excellent Mummy' points today when I found Jude a shirt covered in trumpets, just in time for the concert this evening in memory of his music teacher Mr Elliott. It's a bit big but at least it'll last ;)

A wonderful concert - very long but worth every moment.  And lovely to see some ex-pupils including Chloe who is now on Y11 and who I started teaching when she was 5 right at the start of my primary languages journey!

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This article made me smile - the Ampelmännchen makes me smile anyway as he's so cheerful so I'm all for having an Ampfelfrauen to keep him company. Apparently it's not just about gender equality but also because her skirt  uses more lights and therefore makes her more visible.

Other smiles today: J in Y2 once more gave me good reason to put him on my G&T list. When told that he could only use triángulos, cuadrados, rectángulos and círculos in his drawing as he didn't know how to say pentagon, hexagon etc, he was not going to be defeated. 

"Ok, Señora. So, is a pentagon a pentagono?"

'Well, it's a pentágono but muy bien'

"So, this is an octágono and that's a hexágono then."

'Sí'

"And this must be a semicírculo."

'Ok, J. You win. You can use the shapes.'

"¡excelente! Gracias"

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Jude made chicken balti in food technology today. It was delicious if a little heavy on chunks of pepper for our liking. However, Jude could definitely be called onto service for Saturday Curry Night soon!

As part of some work I'm doing, I got to speak to a lovely little girl from Canarias today via Skype - so sweet and whilst I was very cold, she was complaining that she was to warm there! Never happy, are we? 

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This made me smile today.

Firstly, Y6 and I survived the afternoon without falling out; always an achievement. 

Secondly, they managed to use mini ink pads to make fingerprint characters and no one decided to decorate themselves or the room; major achievement although I did read them the riot act as I have out the inkpads...

Thirdly, the child who tried to avoid my lesson a couple of weeks ago was again very reluctant to go to his music lesson as he was having far too much fun!

And finally, given the week I'm having, the caterpillar's comment made me smile :)

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Tried hard to smile today. This photo made me smile though - none of us are 'ready' for the photo. No idea what was going on but it's fun imagining! 

Happy times - although you'd never know from Julie's face! 

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I really found it hard to smile today but when you live with this pair it's virtually impossible to go a whole day without smiling at all! Special boys who I love higher than the sky xx

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Cabaret rehearsal today. Great to be singing - and we sound good (not speaking too soon I hope!) Just got to learn the words and remember the harmonies - especially one line in Rocking around the Christmas Tree that is currently eluding me.
I bought two new shift dresses from a new shop in Sutton this afternoon.
And Jude's just come home from playing with Swing Band in concert at The Hawthorns and has a video of his friend telling the story of Cecil the Caterpillar. That made me smile as I recalled my friend Karen telling  it to me at university, 20+ years ago!

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Aching already from Boxercise yesterday, I made it worse - but also better - by running 5.4 miles and doing another 30 minutes of core exercises. 

Swapped back name tags and fun with my colleague who had mine (we blame exhaustion after the aforementioned exercise class yesterday for the switch)

A y5 child looked at me as I left school and said "You're wearing glasses. You like a gangster." Not my intention but it amused me! I suppose it's a compliment...

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Henning Wehn - love him! So so funny! 

John and I went to see Henning Wehn at Birmingham Town Hall and had a great evening. And we got a souvenir pen too which now belongs to Isaac! 

Y2 make me smile every week: this week it was great excitement over naming 2D shapes in Spanish. Unfazed by the IWB crashing in the middle of the lesson we had a lovely morning before I had to move on to Y5. 

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Marking this morning, I found out that one of my pupils thinks there's a Christian denomination called the Quackers! 

Smiled too as one of the y6s who causes me most angst on a Wednesday afternoon had a really good lesson and I was able to reward him with a marble for the class and a sticker for him (he was so happy!) 

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Y4 and I joined the people in Trafalgar Square for the two minutes silence at 11am. One lad saluted for the entire two minutes. 

Y6 betting on the meaning of verbs also made me smile, especially as a lad who dodged my lesson last week by 'forgetting' that his music lesson wasn't at the start of the lesson but at the end  was very very reluctant to go this week! 

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I survived a lesson observation today - always makes me smile when not everything goes pear shaped ;)
I left school at a decent hour.
Shopping arrived promptly.

It's the little things!

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I love running. It makes me smile - even when it hurts. And I enjoyed my run today, even if I forgot to switch my Garmin back on after I stopped to do up my laces! 

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Football boot shopping isn't my favourite task but it meant we had a Costa coffee and cake :)

Classic lines in Dr Who. 

HIT training this morning - hard work but very satisfying, even with a "pain in the arse" 

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Thank you to little Swiss Misses LBP and HBP for sending me a bag of smiles on a rainy day  :)

And thanks to Jude for making a delicious tomato sauce in Technology for our tea - yummy with spaghetti :)

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A good day at school - felt like I was back in the zone and the children enjoyed their Spanish, joining in with great enthusiasm which always makes me smile.

Sixth Form Open Evening at BVGS was eye opening, and I certainly smiled to see how Isaac was greeted warmly by all departments we visited and encouraged to do their subject. His French teacher had been dismayed when we left the language room having spoken only to German (we had to go and listen to the Head!) and expressed great relief when we returned! Our nifty body swerve to avoid being coraled into Maths also made us both laugh as did various comments we muttered to each other as we wandered the corridors, mostly about the idiosyncrasies and dress sense of various teachers. 

And the thing that made me smile most? Isaac was worried about Jude being hungry so insisted on hurrying up so he didn't have to wait too long for dinner! As his English teacher said "my brother would've made me wait even if I was starving. You're a very good brother!"

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This picture I saw on FB made me chuckle. All very good advice!

Loved dramatically reading a Spanish firework poem with WPS Y3 this morning - repeat performance tomorrow with WCPS Y2 - and glad we were 'caught in the act' by the Head who gamely joined in and pretended to be a firework too! 

And highly amused by the child who told me that she'd met Guy Fawkes in London then when I told her that he lived in 1600s age said "oh, it was my Grandad who met him actually!"

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Lots of 'finishing off' today along with some fine singing from year 4. Some lovely pieces of work produced - now to find a way to display them! Doing creative things can be exhausting, and some classes are VERY hard work but it's worth it when kids are desperate to finish things and do them properly. 

Optician was pleased with my eyes - my eyesight hasn't got worse and I haven't been banned from wearing contact lenses so that's good. Plus I survived the 'puff' machine without having to repeat it for flinching! 

Jude, I discover today, impressed his Headteacher with his French yesterday and won a gold card - "not a literal card, Mum" I was informed. 

Liverpool managed to only concede one goal - odd to be smiling at losing but it could have been much worse...

And I'm going to bed early to read. So that's a smile!

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Going back to school wasn't as bad as I feared! Perhaps feeling slightly downhearted at the start of the day is good ...?

Arriving home at a decent hour without getting stuck in traffic helped my mood as did Only Connect. 

And debate about this Superhero chart made me smile too.

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Finally got to see what Jude's been doing this week as Holiday Club took over church this morning and we met Diver Dave and Scuba Stevens. Very funny! 

I got absolutely drenched on my run this afternoon. The only dry bit of me were my feet thanks to my wonderful winter Cloudrunners. Swiss engineering at its best! 

I can't say I'm smiling at the prospect of work tomorrow but it did make me smile to see how much I took out of my school

handbag at the end of last week and trying to put it all back now! 

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Beautiful toadstools in the garden. 

And a walk in the woods today; crunching through the leaves, trekking through the undergrowth and exploring the towpath. 

Good to spend time with my boys! Love all three of them!