As the oldest of four girls we are a pretty big family for 21st century Britain. We live in a small 3 bed house in various states of chaos. And you know what, mad as it is, growing up like this is also pretty awesome. 

1. Privacy? What even is that. You will never get to be alone while you shower or pee. Someone will always need to brush their teeth and get to bed the instant you get in the bath. Relaxing evening ruined.

2. On the same note you have never slept alone until you went to uni. Your parents would need to be millionaires to buy a house big enough for you to each have separate rooms. Until then you share and shut up.

3. You will constantly fight with the sibling whom you are forced to share your space with. You hate the way she leaves the light on when she gets up early and she hates that you leave your dirty pants all over the floor. These things never change no matter how old you get.

4. There was probably a pointless room switch up to try and solve these arguments at some point. Only for you to realize that your new sibling roomate was a million times more annoying and you missed the routine of arguing with the old one. Best swap back cos better the devil you know.

5. Being made to let the youngest play even though they would ruin everything about the game.

6. The constant shifting pattern of sibling alliances. Today we are friends because the other two are annoying me more. Tomorrow: who knows what might happen

7. Hand me downs. Even if you are the oldest there's an older cousins who's clothes are destined to be yours.

8. No matter how annoying your siblings are though you stick together when it comes to Mum and Dad. We all understand it is us verses them. There's safety in numbers so best to stick together.

9. If the youngest ratted you out to your parents they would suffer the consequences of breaking the sibling code. It might not happen straight away but we'll get our own back eventually.

10.  Being dressed in the same outfit on family days out so your parents could keep track of you all.

11. Little old ladies cooing over you constantly wherever you went. Usually about how sweet we all are and don't we all look alike? No we do not.

12. Having to own an enormous car so that you can all fit in it at the same time. A car that your mum cannot park.

13. Family holidays consist of camping trips to Devon where we all pretend we're having fun in the rain.

14. Ensuring your siblings will never make friends and are stuck with you for life by refusing to act normal when potential new friends come over for tea.

15. In fact the friends you do have are desperate to come and play at your house although their parents seem strangely reluctant. They usually mutter about how their children come home covered in mud and totally hyperactive.

16. The more of you there are, the more toys you collectively have. How much you want to share them depends on your mood.

17. And if you are all into the same thing then it can get out of hand *spends 24 hours building a My Little Pony empire*.

18. Christmas lists were tactically designed. "You ask for the Barbie House and I'll ask for the Barbie Car, then we'll have both".

19. Bath time was the best part of the day when all of you were small enough to fit in together. It was a chance to make a huge splashy mess playing imaginary games.

20. In fact the best games were the totally random ones that involved large amounts of imagination

21. Despite being the first person to ever hold you, your Dad still gets your names muddled up.

22. Teachers have no clue which one of you is which.

23. You genuinely never understood why your friends always complained about being bored in the holidays. When there's so many of you there's always someone to play with.

24. Fighting over who gets to read the newest Harry Potter book first.

25. Pretending that you still play with dolls because you can't spoil the youngest ones fun when really you're just not ready to let go yet.

26. Making a huge effort to not ruin Father Christmas for the younger ones. Now you get to eat the cookies you put out yourself.

27. It is almost impossible to find a picture where all of you look nice.

28. Although its difficult at times you wouldn't swap it for the world <3

Things that have made me happy this week

 

I've got so behind on doing these posts I've ended up posting two back to back. Never mind, life gets busy sometimes. Its been a great week all in all and I've been pretty busy.

1. My sisters Ellie and Kiera came to stay (Sorry Tigs but you're too young) and we went out for a gorgeous dinner at Turtle Bay. This was then followed by sharing a sundae in Sprinkles which was just pure chocolate heaven.

2. Valentines Day. I had such a blissful day preparing a roast dinner from scratch with my boyfriend, playing music and getting drunker throughout the day. The recipes included honey roast carrots, lemon, thyme and garlic chicken, homemade meat stuffing and garlic and rosemary potatoes roasted in butter. So indulgent! I had then had a long shower and got myself ready just before the meal was ready. My boyfriend got some family recipes off his parents (thank you for that) and made us a very boozy trifle which was great. We followed this with yet more wine and a cheese board. Feeling so full I couldn't move we settled down with more wine to watch Harry Potter. It was literally the perfect day, thank you so much Jared <3

3. Taylor Swifts new album. I know I'm about 48659754 years late with the Taylor hype but my flatmate has been playing 1989 all week and I just had to get it too. Its making me so happy! If like me you were a sceptic then swallow your pride and just get on iTunes.

4. Painting my nails. I bloody love painting my nails and have done several times this week. Theres something so relaxing about it as you need to be zen else you will end up painting your whole hand.

5. Dior J'Adore perfume. I got bought this for Christmas by my extremely glamorous Nanny and it just smells like paradise. Until I found out how much it cost! Seriously Nan! So now I am using it very sparingly. I decided that Valentines Day was a worthy use of this delight and I just feel so elegant when I wear it.

6. Diet coke. Seriously, how does anyone even get through the day without this? I've been using this as a coping mechanism for a shit weeks lectures. Is it bad for me? Probably. Don't even care.

7. Continuing on the food theme, I've discovered that Doritos do a sour cream dip that goes perfectly with Sensations Chilli crisps. So effing good! It took me three films to get me through the whole lot and it enhanced the (shit) films I was watching immensely.

8. Watched 10 things I hate About You for the first time ever. One of those classics I've been meaning to watch and I was left alone with the boyfriends netflix... Such a great film! I absolutely loved it, my friends were right, I should have watched it sooner.