Kat - you are BEAUTIFUL! Apart from anything else, how else could you have produced such utterly edible children :)? You sound just like me though - when the people at the Tidy Books Blog said they wanted my image for the guests posts I'm doing, I cringed down into the carpet, and told them that I hate having my photo taken as I invariably look like a troll. Everyone else is less skinny/more attractive/more photogenic than me. I still hate the final picture. But rather that than looking than an identikit Barbie doll.

Beautiful photo, as always. I hope you all had a fantastic day, and that you managed to get a much-deserved break. x

Happy Anniversary! PMSL at the final photo - I don't think my husband would ever forgive me if I did that!

You deserve all the success you're getting. Although deep breaths and wine are probably obligatory.

Oo, thanks! I haven't got the first clue about crochet but have dropped large hints that I'd like some beginner's crochet things for Xmas, so hopefully in several decades time I might actually be able to make something!

So you feel like crap, you've got visitors staying, you've got Georgia being very cute but making unholy messes, you've got children who come back from play dates with black eyes, but you still have the energy not only to make gorgeous dresses but take no less than 47 lovely photos of them? Bloody hell - you really are superwoman! No wonder Georgia's tights are 'holy' (says me - master of the typo)!

There's a very active spinning group at the farm just up the road from us. Yes, in central London. They even grow their own plants on the farm to make natural dyes. And one of the best things about it is that while it does seem to be largely confined to elderly ladies, they come from all races and backgrounds. It's fantastic! Something I'd love to do if I had all the time in the world.

But if they're anything like my lot, one day Theo will get his own back by making it very clear that he's not a doll. Thomas put Jess in her place fairly early on, and I'm sure it's no coincidence that while my first three didn't use the word 'mine' for ages, 'mine' was one of Oscar's first words! Love the photos, as usual. They always make me melt.

Those photos made me smile!

Was that a 'spot the odd one out' competition? Because if it was, I think I have the answer! They all look edible, except for the roses.

Can you get cute children delivered in a box too?

Whenever I look at my children are they're being cute and adorable (or even better - cute, adorable, and asleep), it suddenly makes all the hard work and exhaustion worthwhile. Until they start up again... But you're right - your children are absolutely edible.

Theo is just the cutest! If I get seriously broody again it's all your fault!

Ah yes, watering one's younger sibling. We get that too. If only a good watering would make Oscar grow! But I'm very jealous of your garden. We've only got a tiny space out the back, which has pretensions of being a yard.

Like other posters, I always secretly looked down on my mother for 'just' being a housewife. And when she did go back to work, I could never understand her complete lack of ambition. Here was a woman with a first class degree in history from Oxford, for god's sake, who had chosen to devote her life to her children and to helping other people as a social worker. Except at the time, I didn't see it as devotion. I saw it as madness, and was determined to never be like her. It's only recently, when I've found myself in a similar position, that I've really began to appreciate what my Mum did, and what she continues to do. Not that this realisation makes it any easier. In an ideal world, I'd love to go back to study and do a PhD, and enter the world of academia, but I know that's never going to happen. I'm hoping that one day I can at least gain a small amount of recognition for my children's poems. Meanwhile, a bit of social recognition (without the whiff of patronisation it so often seems to come with) for the role of the mother might be nice.