Merry in March

The best part about creating a blog with its main purpose being a record for yourself – moments, anecdotes, memories that might otherwise be forgotten – is that when you sadly neglect the blog, you can totally justify posting embarrassingly belated photos and olds (what you get when news is no longer new). I will not care in a year or decade that I posted Christmas snaps in March, I will simply be glad that I bothered at all. That’s my spin and I’m sticking with it!

We enjoyed a lovely family Christmas, nicely spread out over about 5 days – my extended family the weekend before Christmas, our own personal present opening on Christmas Eve morning – this kept it just between us AND meant we didn’t have to cart so many presents to Swan Hill with us ;) and then both a Christmas Eve and Christmas Dad celebration “up the hill” with Andrew’s family where it happily wasn’t 47 degrees for a week like last year.

Andrew managed around 3 weeks off for the first time that I can remember (just look how relaxed and happy he looks) and we swanned around Victoria, staying at one relative’s house after another – after Swan Hill came Ocean Grove, followed by a quick trip back to Melbourne for the fabulous 20/20 cricket match we gave Andrew for Christmas and then back down the beach to Point Lonsdale. We are very lucky.

One of the highlights of Christmas was giving the girls one of the most exciting and best-kept secret presents of all time (and I managed to not accidentally drop the secret too!). We gave them a travel bag with eye mask, travel pillow and travel journal which perplexed all three girls. Kate was on to it quickest, leafing through the journal to find a mocked up Qantas boarding pass to LA and a “certificate” entitling them to visit Disneyland. She just SCREAMED! J But of course Amy and Sophie didn’t know why yet, so they each had to find their own passes – Amy didn’t make a sound but was in Andrew’s arms in a flash and Sophie did a fabulous happy dance.

So yes, we are off, leaving on a jet plane in just 5 sleeps for a family holiday of a lifetime (well, it’s true, we will not be taking the girls to Disneyland again in this lifetime) – Disneyland, followed by a short road trip through the desert to Las Vegas to do the Grand Canyon, Cirque de Soleil at a casino, Universal Studios, Legoland in San Diego and we’re spending a few days in Santa Monica, walking distance from Venice Beach which should be fascinating. Incredibly exciting, although I am a walking list of things to do atm as Andrew will pack for himself, the girls will probably manage to charge their nintendos and ipods (IF I remind them) and I organise everything else of course.

Next term, it looks like I will be lucky enough to have a day off which is like the greatest gift from the universe landing in my lap – TIME :) Trying hard not to immediately fill it up and just breathe….. So hopefully the next update won’t be 3 months after the fact…..

Happy holidaze everyone

xxxxx

busyness as usual

Port Douglas - a great place for a birthday...



my brown-eyed girl



the pool maketh the holiday



travelling in style



Gorgeous (Mossman) Gorge

We could fit him in our backyard, couldn't we Mum?

"OMG Emily, you won't believe it, I just saw that guy off Neighbours...."

Enjoying the marquee

they scrub up pretty well...

Where to start? It’s certainly not for a lack of news to report that this blog is so sadly neglected, rather a surfeit. It’s a busy Jennings life, but fortunately almost entirely good busyness, so no complaints here.

So how about a dot pointed executive summary? The pictures tell most of the story anyway, don't they?

· a gorgeous balmy September holiday in Port Douglas, filled with pools, beach, visits to lush Mossman Gorge, the amazing reef, an entertaining crocodile farm, a stunning skyrail ride through the mountains, not to mention some scrumptious buffet breakfasts where the girls had to laugh at the huge pleasure their mother derived from made-to-order-in-front-of-my-eyes omlettes – what’s not to get excited about – just what I wanted and I didn’t have to make it/clean up after it! Happy happy days with my very favourite people, so relaxed and fun.

· A new part-time job for me, writing creative training materials (and from home – yay!) Earlier this year, the very creation of this blog was partially an attempt to get writing back into my life, after too-long a hiatus. I could never have picked that life would lead me back to paid writing again, I love it. It has also created a beautiful life balance for me – teaching in the morning (sociable, fun, rewarding), writing in the afternoons (thankfully sedentary, creative) and Mum/taxi after school (fun, being involved, present and enabling a full life for the girls). Andrew had a laugh at my first project – writing a Personal Financial Management training program for VFL footballers! Loads of fun coming up with non-boring sessions like investment competitions and games, rather than arid slabs of financial jargon.

· Amy’s unlucky break when a thoughtless child threw a plank of wood in her path as she scootered down our street. She swerved sharply, lost control and badly fractured her wrist. Stoic as they came, not a tear was shed, from the spill through 9 hours of multiple hospital/emergency/radiology/ct scans/consultants/local anaesthetics/crunching it back into place/remanipulation and replastering a week later – whew. She amazed even the hospital staff with her pain tolerance and calm (yes, calmer than her mother). Much discussion about plates and pins, but she has avoided that for now. She will need xrays of her wrist every 6 months until she stops growing as the break went through the growth plate in her wrist. It’s been a huge frustration for my active girl who has badly missed school cricket, netball, horse-riding, piano etc and most of the (water-based) fun at school camp. We’ll keep our fingers crossed everything grows in the right direction in the future.

· Sophie starting Aikido classes (Amy is in a holding pattern and will join her next year). She cannot wait to earn her uniform and first belt and loves to come home and try our her moves on her pretty unwilling family members!

· Kate joining the school jazz band playing the trombone and enjoying playing Tequila and Tuxedo Junction just like her mother did a generation ago (some things, like good ole jazz standards and school bands, never change).

· Excuse one little maternal boast (sorry!) Kate and Amy both won netball awards this season – Kate for magically turning herself from a defender into a goaler in one season - height works at both ends of the court ;) - and Amy’s 2nd award of the year, this one for the extra commitment of continuing to go to practice plaster and all, working as the coach’s assistant and umpiring while she couldn’t play.

· Well, that’s the highlights, rounded out nicely with a mélange of spring races (see pics - can you believe that leggy young woman chatting on her mobile is my 13yo?? - oh, and look at my poor wounded equine-mad Amy looking wistfully at all those horses, she'll be back in the saddle herself next year and really what can I say about that cowboy hat except well, it's very Sophie and her sisters nearly killed Andrew and I for letting her wear it LOL), weddings, birthdays, school fetes, concerts, presentations and of course, now Christmas gatherings of all shapes and sizes. If I don’t get back here before Christmas (I'm well-meaning but realistic) – I hope everyone I’ve enjoyed chatting with in blogland has a warm, happy time enjoying their lucky lives and loves. xxxxx

Celebearating with Amy

So busy belatedly waxing lyrical about my pintsized birthday girl, that I completely neglected to mention her birthday festivities. Lover of all things furry, she was so excited about her Build-a-Bear party. Build-a-Bear workshops let kids select their own bear, stuff it (including its heart), brush it, name it, dress it etc - it's a whole business and don't little girls just love it. Love Amy's funky dude dog. Oh, and there was even bell ringing for the birthday girl - and see the friend standing on Amy's left when she's ringing the bell? she is YOUNGER than Amy!

Being a mid-afternoon affair, catering was oh-so-easy. Amy requested her favourite trampoline icecream scooped on top of Krispy Kreme donuts - turning them into yummy donut sundaes, so apart from her castle cake, all I had to do was hunt and gather the aforementioned delicacies and present them to the appreciative horde of hungry girls.
Happy birthday my sweet
love Mum
xxxxx

Heroes come in small packages

How did we get to here so quickly?



Just minutes ago.....


















It would be cliché indeed to make a fuss of my baby’s birthday; write a glowing tribute to the tumultuous teen and then struggle to find time to celebrate my darling in between girl. Way to help nurture a case of middle child syndrome ;)

Belated happy birthday greetings to Miss Amy - our dog-whisperer and rescuer; my darling Queen of Spots; the anti-girly-girl; sports junkie; fussy-little-sh…; "most determined on the netball court 2008"; horse-canterer; - my small-statured but big spirited hero and the one who conjures up my very fiercest mother-tiger instinct. Flanked by her boisterous sisters of Amazonian proportions on either side, Amy has always had an instinct for choosing not to compete, but instead carving out her own niche, her own path.

By the tender age of 2 1/2 , she was able to take a good look at her older sister (who was stereotypically pink personified at the time) and set her sights at the opposite end of the spectrum. She simply WAS Woody the Cowboy from Toy Story for about 18 months after that. It all started when she rejected Kate’s fairy costume for a party coming up with a “but I want to be a cowboy Mummy”. When I replied “ok, I can find a cowgirl costume for you”, I was gobsmacked at her utter disgust – how is a toddler capable of such derision?! “NOT a cowgirl Mum – a cowboy, Woody the Cowboy” and that costume was in one of 3 places from them on – on her back, in the washing machine or on the drying rack with my little blonde cowboy checking on it hopefully every 20 minutes or so…

Her passions turned to superheroes by the time she reached 4/5 – batman, spiderman etc with a concurrent fondness for dinosaurs on the side. I remember making her a castle birthday cake with superheroes perched all over and dinosaurs in the moat. I will never forget her rapt expression when she saw it, she was in heaven! I had always done the preparatory party chat with her – “if someone gives you a Barbie or a girly present, it’s important to be polite and say thank you because they did their best. Not everyone knows you and what you like”. She opened a present from a friend and came hurtling excitedly towards me across the room, yelling at the top of her voice “LOOK MUM – Imogen REALLY knows me, she REALLY knows me!” with a beloved pair of spiderman pjs in her hand.

Kate has been carving out a nice line in Daddy’s girl for the last few years, specialising in attending AFL matches (go Tiges!) and cricket games and cuddling up on the couch to watch everything from NBA basketball to soccer and rugby – gorgeous to see. Amy is so instinctively clever – true to her nature, she doesn’t compete or try to crash that party for two. Instead she has laid claim to the title of Playstation 2 buddy, carefully selecting games for Daddy’s birthday for the two of them to share and master together. And instead of spectating football and cricket, she chooses to head on down to the local park at the weekend with Andrew and hit the nets or have a kick themselves. It’s like an unconscious custody arrangement that works very well.

One of the best things we ever did for Amy (and she waited patiently for years for me to be well enough to do so) was to adopt her darling, her beloved, her childhood soulmate Lucky from the RSPCA. If Sophie is Amy’s occasional, easygoing whipping girl and outlet for venting anger, then Lucky is certainly her outlet for love, passion and affection. We all love Lucky, but he has always been and will always be, hers. And to underscore the relationship, she almost immediately married him – very seriously - and even now, at the much more grown up age of 11, she publicly speaks about him as her husband to her friends. She has patience beyond her years to teach him to beg, walk on his hind legs, jump through hoops etc. Another entrepreneur like her older sister, she has already started working on her dog-walking business, recruiting neighbours with savvy marketing strategies and a genuine love for all things canine.

Amy’s a perfectionist, is way too hard on herself, despite being very deliberately parented in an easy-going style. She is shy outside her comfort zone, is a deep thinker (and worrier), yet has a madcap sense of humour too. She is a true snuggle-bunny and incredibly, at the age of 11, I can still comfortably sit her on my hip while chatting. She loves having secret things in common with me that her sisters don’t share – from both being left-handed to having the same chameleon eye colour. She’s good at many things, but socialising does not come naturally to her. She has always been one to appear out of her bedroom at 10.30pm at night to ask me in a trembling voice “where will I live when I’m a grownup?” or “what will happen to Daddy if he can’t stop smoking?” and break my heart just a little. I’m teaching her to challenge her catastrophising negative thoughts and she knows she will always be heard and understood. We work hard together to take the steps that can be so effortless for siblings and peers and so big for her little feet. She is buried so deeply in my heart, it’s the fiercest bond I can imagine and I have to make myself fight the instinct to protect her from the world. She is my angel bear and my hero because as I remind her, it’s easy to do things if you’re not scared, but if you’re scared and you do things anyway, you are the bravest, biggest person I know.

And she is.


Love to Mrs Lucky on her 11th birthday


xxxxx

Feeding time at the zoo

And no, I’m not talking literally about our house for a change…

The school holiday program at the Melbourne Zoo “totally rocks”, according to some very happy Zoo Detectives of mine. Despite a wild, cold day, the Jennings girls and gorgeous, but camera shy Tom Fewster headed off bright and early to detect their way around the zoo. Please excuse the amateur photos, with some trepidation I gave custody of my camera to the girls for the day and remember, they’re just kids, not gifted photographers ;) If they had their way, this blog would have 50+ slightly unfocused and honestly, rather boring shots of sedentary animals and plants LOL

The undoubted highlight of the day was a spectacular behind-the-scenes experience - getting to handfeed the giraffes, from inside the back of the enclosure – seriously! Now, there’s something different to write in your first day back “what I did in the holidays” essay. And just to show what a fabulously educational blog this is, did you know that giraffe’s tongues are 40 cm long? “More than a ruler Mum!” And they have 7 bones in their necks – “the same as humans, but longer of course Mum”. Amy got a little lion toy for being a good helper for - get this - sorting stick insect eggs – as you do. Apparently they are often deliberately laid in ant nests as they look like ant eggs, so the ants get fooled and look after them, clever little things. The things your kids learn, every day …..

It’s been a week of critters for us. As well as the event-filled afternoon rescuing Tiger the puppy (see previous post), I also had the experience of arriving at the school gate to pick up Amy and Sophie on the last day of term, to be greeted with a joyous “SUR-PRI-ISE”. A surprise that comprised custody of several class yabbies in a large fish tank for the school holidays – a surprise that was met with an ever-so-slightly forced smile on my part. In addition to a bit of an “ick” factor (they’re not exactly cute and cuddly pets and I’m a more traditional dogs and cats lover rather than a rodents and reptiles kind of gal), I had an immediate flashback to when I was a kid and we killed the kinder budgie on our weekend visit. Actually that really should read – the kinder budgie died while at our house – we didn’t actually torture it or anything, but oh the shame, it has clearly stayed with me in a post-traumatic syndrome kind of way. Do you think it didn’t like us and committed suicide???

I did manage to bail on looking after last year’s class mice (by the way, whatever happened to a nice simple class fish??) after having to put up with the smell each day in the classroom and being completely grossed out by the tale of what happened when one of the mice happened to have a litter of babies one weekend and then proceeded to eat the lot of ‘em! UGH just doesn’t do that justice at all…..

Anyway, please send good yabbie vibes our way for the next two weeks as I’m sure I could never face Amy’s teacher again if we didn’t keep her beloved crustaceans healthy. And I, for one, am sticking to dogs – nothing exotic or slimy around here!

And a quick link especially for Tom's Mum - the lovely and erudite Kate Fewster (who I'm sure wears the "bad grammar makes me [sic]" badge I gave her with pride):

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

http://www.apostrophepolice.org/mission


Its vital that you enlist, Constable Fewster and keep all of blogland safe from those apostrophe criminal's .....

Overheard.....

sex education: 10-year-old-big-sis-to-9-year-old-lil-sis style

9yo: "So can you go for a swim when you have a period?"

10yo: "No way - of course not! "

9yo "Why not?"

10yo "Because a shark would get you, wouldn't it?"

9yo: "Ohhh, ok" (files that little gem away)

well, der...

FOUND

We are the Jenningsgirls dog rescue team with a great reputation for protecting the canine lost and helpless and reuniting them with their loved ones. Amy can sniff out a lost puppy a mile away and won’t rest til we’ve saved it.

A few months ago I walked our dog Lucky to school on a sunny afternoon to pick the girls up. We wandered around the outskirts of the local park on our way home, throwing sticks for our obsessive-retriever until Amy spotted an unsupervised little terrier. “He has no owner Mum” – “I’m sure his owner is around here somewhere sweetheart” – “no, he doesn’t belong to anyone, we can’t just leave him here” – “sigh”.

So after sending Amy to ask any likely suspects about ownership with no success, I did have to reluctantly admit that this dog looked like he’d gone AWOL. Fortunately he had a mobile phone number on his tag and I had my phone in my pocket and moments later I was speaking to his surprised owner who was 20 minutes drive away at work – he was an escapee! I offered to drop him off on our walk home only to find that she lived further up the street from us, so in the end Kubrick came home with us to have a playdate with Lucky until our neighbour came home from work.

Amy has stopped another neighbour’s dog Luigi from being accidentally run when he got out (there are clearly armies of North Fitzroy dogs tunneling away merrily each day) and today we saved the adorable Tiger. She is just the sweetest puppy, scampering down the middle of the road all on her lonesome this afternoon - thank goodness she hadn't been hit by a car. I called out "puppy, puppy, puppy" to her and she just leapt into my arms and snuggled in, trembling, poor little thing.

So we scooped her up and tried to find her owner, but to no avail. Went to the local vet to find that she had no microchip, they wanted to take her to the animal shelter, but the look on the girls’ faces - oh no! We couldn’t give her up without trying for a reunion and said we planned to doorknock first – she brought out the protective instinct in all of us. LOL

We doorknocked a little, then decided to try again after 5.30pm as I figured her owner was probably at work (no convenient phone number on the tag this time). The girls just cooed over her happily while I worked on a FOUND poster (with the photos above) until a knock at the door revealed her frantic owner who had been directed to our house by someone we'd spoken to – she was wildly grateful and relieved as it was her sister’s dog who had dug its way out while she’d been at work. We were all sad to see her go – she had burrowed straight into all our hearts, but she’s another dog we can proudly add to our SAVED list! (Oh and just to show what equal animal opportunity rescuers we are, we also saved our neighbour's cat Oomi from what Amy called "the bully cat" who was beating it up thoroughly.)


Thanks for the great suggestions for a holiday song to send out into the universe with hope, but this is my fave oldie-but-goodie on the topic. Love vintage Madonna - her style, her choreography (kind of a groovy aerobics routine) and maybe that she looks like she's really enjoying herself - long before she was British Madge with the wincingly cut biceps, leotards, botox etc. Or maybe I just feel so affectionate because this was from when I was just a teenager, taping my favourite songs off local radio 3BA in the days when the dinosaurs roamed the earth... ;) Imeem is down for maintenance at the moment, so here's the youtube video clip in the meantime. And it is the last day of term today (YAY), so v. appropriate...

it's a whine-win situation

As a number of friends can testify, I have a kind of space-cadet, looney-tunes, new-age-esque hodge podge of a belief system. I don’t believe the number of fateful coincidences, precursors, apparent messages and kismet that life serves up is entirely random. I believe we send energy, karma, messages out into the universe and it invariably responds if we’re listening. I believe messages and opportunities are placed under our noses and it’s up to us whether we’re ready to receive. I guess I simply believe in method in the madness. But I’m probably just talking madness LOL

Ahem, the point of all that Sue? Well, I am trying to remember to change my blog music on an at least monthly basis in the hope that this doesn’t become of those annoying blogs where you have to remember to turn the volume off before you visit ;) So after a blog desert and a fertile little big life in the month of May, Emmy Rossum’s “Slow me down" seemed an appropriate accompaniment to this mad juggling act of mine. Out into the universe I sent the sentiment:

Rushing and racing
and running in circles
Moving so fast, I'm forgetting my purpose
Blur of the traffic is sending me spinning
Getting nowhere

My head and my heart are colliding, chaotic
Pace of the world
I just wish I could stop it
Try to appear like I've got it together
I'm falling apart

Save me
Somebody take my hand, and lead me
Slow me down
Don't let love pass me by
Just show me how
'Cause I'm ready to fall
Slow me down
Don't let me live a lie
Before my life flies by
I need you to slow me down

Less than 48 hours later, the universe answered, in digital forum naturally – an email:

Subject: SUSSAN - Congratulations you have won!

Dear Sue,

You have won a relaxation package from Sussan.

You have won:
1 x Sussan Organic Lounge Outfit consisting of pants, jacket & top
valued at $124.95
1 x Massage Voucher valued $100
1 x 3 month Fernwood Gym membership

:-O I never win anything! And thanks Emmy. Now I have just two questions – is the universe telling me to get fit? And does anyone know a song about a holiday in Tahiti I can put on my blog?

Thirteen years ago

Now...



Then ...











The day the universe expanded, exploded - in direct proportion with my heart. The day my life changed – a quantum leap, paradigm shift, transforming the very landscape of my path, the person I would be – changed so completely, so quickly, so utterly, so unrecognisably. From high-flying, ambitious corporate workhorse to stunningly contented SAHM, it was a reincarnation that surprised pretty much everyone, including myself.

The day Kate blazed into this world. I had no idea how hard I would fall for this divine, squalling creature we created. What a gift she is.

So let me introduce my darling big little girl Kate. Please understand that this post is going to be completely self-indulgent and dripping with sentiment. If this is likely to have a nauseating effect, please feel free to pass on by and return on a day when I’m feeling more acerbic or silly ;) I would just like to record all of this before it evaporates into the ether/falls out of the sieve that is my head….

Katie kitten is the quintessential big sister to the world. She even big sisters me on occasion, especially since she started towering over me. If Andrew and I are not around, Amy and Sophie will turn to her to make everything better – and she does. She has a gorgeous, generous soul with just the faintest streak of hormonal tween bitch LOL In fact, the occasional flashes of hormonal attitude in such an easygoing daughter put the fear of her sisters reaching adolescence into my heart! There is part of me that secretly respects the way she challenges me, that somehow she is metamorphosising from a compliant child into a woman with her own mind – that suddenly I have this wonderful, complicated, fiery, opinionated other woman in our house.

So yes she does have legs that go forever and come in handy on the netball court – I’m proud that she doesn’t stoop, she walks tall, owning her space in the world. Life is about people – friends, family are what make her world go round. She wants to try everything, is impossibly self-possessed and takes such enjoyment out of life. She has hit the ground running (actually she was so impatient she tried to head on out of the womb 8 weeks early, giving us all a scare, but I put up a fight to keep her a little longer and held on til 38 weeks when she insisted on greeting the world). Not much has changed, she has always taken every single step further into the world at full-tilt, at a run, eagerly embracing each new friend, each new experience. I am always so glad that she does everything first, scales every new mountain, starts every new chapter – she makes it so stressfree. She has effortlessly moved this year from a primary school that she could walk to in less than 5 minutes to a secondary school which she needs to take a train and then a tram to get to. She loves it – both the independence and of course, the inevitable mobile phone LOL I love her school uniform after 7 years of none at her primary school!

She came home from her very first day at high school talking animatedly about a term-long alpine residential camp which nearly made her mother’s head explode. It’s not til year nine, but she was ready to go on the first day. Next it was the school trip to France which she’d love to do this year but which has been vetoed til she a) speaks more than half a dozen words of French and b) gets a part-time job to contribute ;) Which really won’t be a problem as she’s lined up at least 3 jobs at the tender age of 12, the little A-type that she is. We are trying to stall friends with babies and toddlers and wanting her to babysit to “wait til she at least turns 14”! Lil ones just adore her, it’s no wonder she’s in demand already. Not to mention how oh-so-comfortable she is already behind the register or pricing gun at her beloved Kate Fewster’s shop, Little Smarties (see link on the left).

She told me she wanted a bank account at the age of 9 and started saving. What for, I asked and she airily explained she was saving for her apartment (a beloved babysitter was moving out of home into an apartment at the time). When I asked when she was moving out, she declared “12,” and when I explained that most 12 year olds didn’t have their own apartments, she decided she could wait til she was 15 LOL I will never have to worry about this child/woman. She is going to make magic happen in her own life, the sky is the limit and I’m pretty sure that’s where she’s aimed herself.

She loves a sleep-in, has only two speeds, full steam ahead or sloth. She can argue til she’s blue in the face and even in the face of complete wrongedness, can achieve an impressive level of articulate denial. She already ties up the bathroom for half an hour at a time. Bald for more than 18 months, I despaired as friends played with ribbons and pigtails – of course she grew an impressive mane of blond curls that were certainly worth waiting for, christened “Kate with the Bubble Hair” at kinder. She looks so very much like her Dad if you can get past that cloud of curls and even my mother said so the day she was born. She loves clothes (what a huge surprise!), wants to be a children’s fashion designer and stylist who coaches netball on the side when she grows up.

I truly don’t know what I’d do without her, I rely on her so much with Andrew away regularly and with a few physical challenges myself. I’d say we are so very alike, except it’s like she’s really a new, improved version with extra features, new technology, stronger, better, louder, faster, taller LOL She is a kindred spirit, I am already starting to enjoy books, music, cooking, girlie shopping trips and chick flicks with her.

So this is thirteen. Happiest of happy days my big little girl

Love love love
Mum
xxxxx

and the festival of Kate continues…..

She’s in sleepover heaven at this very moment, with her BFFs, a couple of chick flicks, tv and dvd player IN HER BEDROOM no less! (don’t get used to it Kate, it’s going back to the playroom tomorrow).

They had dinner out at the roolly noice local pizza restaurant on their own (no younger sisters allowed), called the Mum taxi (which handily also pays for dinner), then back home for the homemade mutant chocolate covered icecream creation (ice cream and melted chocolate are natural enemies – the hot chocolate melts the ice cream, the ice cream warms the chocolate back to solid too quickly – hard to work with, but hilarious and most importantly, YUM). They are still giggling away happily, all is well in tween world.

And no, she’s not actually 13 yet – roll on Monday LOL