Tom and the "choo choo's!!"

After my day out with Emily last week I decided Tom should have a go too and so with Emily happily spending a couple of days with Nana I took him to Didcot Railway Centre.
Once we got through the entrance he started shouting "choo choos" "look mummy choo choo!" So score to mummy - good response so far!! We looked at all the trains and went in a couple and Tom loved it - he pretended to drive the trains and we had a picnic. Then a quick trip to the shop for a small train and a Thomas the Tank Engine flag and we headed home! He was a little disappointed that Thomas, Percy, James and Gordon were not there so he will be thrilled when we go back for the Thomas day in October!!

Emily's new "hobby"

Yesterday a friend of ours invited us to go and see her pony. We went to the stables where the horse, Tinkerbell, is kept, then walked her down from her field to the yard. We watched as she was cleaned and brushed and saddled then we all walked over to another field where the children could ride her!

Emily's friends James and Lucy have been practising on Tinkerbell for a while and they are really good so we watched them then it was Emily's turn! She put on the helmet and went off for a ride! She tried lots of different things and even got up to a trot on the pony!! After everyone had been on Tinkerbell we took her back to her field and unfortunately Tom fell in a patch of nettles on the way back so he was not happy!

Emily loved riding the horse and now I think that we may end up with a very persistant child wanting riding lessons! She also shows us the Argos catelogue every day and points out the pink Nintendo DS that she wants for christmas!!

We're back!

After nearly a year of not blogging I have decided to come back! We have had a good year so far - a couple of camping trips, a holiday to Turkey, the end of pre-school for Emily, a 4th birthday and a 2nd birthday!

More recently.......

Yesterday Emily and mummy had a "bonding" day out. We left Tom with Nana and Grandad and caught the train to London. When we arrived at Paddington we went on the underground to St James Park and walked to Buckingham Palace. We were hoping to watch the changing of the guards but it was so busy we decided to walk to Knightsbridge and visit Harrods! In Harrods we saw some amazing things, we saw beautiful dolls houses, and loads of Barbies! We also went to the food hall and got some sticky buns! We then jumped on the tube again and had a picnic in Hyde Park - where a squirrel shared Emily's hula hoops! After the picnic we walked through Green Park back to the palace. Then we walked along Birdcage walk down to Westminster - we got to Big Ben just as it chimed 2 o'clock! We saw the houses of Parliment and Westminster Abbey then had a ice cream overlooking the London Eye and the river Thames.

We went on the underground again up to Picadilly Circus and walked up Regent Street and went to Hamleys! Emily got some Barbie bits and we bought Tom a red bus and some Duplo bits. Then we went on the tube AGAIN from Oxford Circus to Marble Arch and went to Clarks to get Emily's school shoes - she is very pleased with them! After that we were worn out so caught our final tube of the day back to Paddington Station where we had a cookie and got the train back to Hungerford where Nana picked us up. Then we had fish and chips before falling fast asleep!!

Newbury Show and back to pre-school!

Emily started back at preschool 2 weeks ago and is loving every minute. She gets quite upset on the days she doesn't go and asks when she can go all the time! She is now doing a wednesday morning, friday morning and all day tuesday. She stays for lunch with her Dora the Explorer lunch box and then in the afternoon they have been going out for walks and getting really muddy. Every time I collect her on a tuesday she is in her spare clothes as they have been jumping in puddles!

The theme at pre-school this term is fairy tales and Emily shocked all the teachers by reciting the exact story of Goldilocks. We do not read this story much at home - we have it but only read it about once a month and she was almost word perfect, the teachers said she was brilliant! They have flagged her up as a "bit special" in that she is more advanced than all the other children of her age. They make notes on it and pass the notes onto the school but they think she is much wiser than her 3 1/2 years!! Unfortunately Emily is signed up to Great Shefford school for next September but we have just heard a friend of ours has pulled their child out as it is not up to standard, so I am going to go and have a proper look around it then suss out the other schools in the area if needs be. It will be a real pain if she can't go to the local school as it is easy to get to - any other school will be a 20 minute round trip twice a day but it would be worth it if she is getting the best education.

We went to the Royal Berkshire County Show on saturday. The weather was amazing and Wayne was in a golf championship so I packed up the kids and a picnic and off we went. I have been a couple of times and we took Emily 2 years ago but she was only small then. We saw sheep, pigs, cows, horses, ducks, chickens and loads of other animals like Llamas and Hawks! We looked round all the stalls, there were crafts, food, clothes all sorts! We had our picnic and Emily had an ice cream then Emily went on a few fairground rides that were there and then I took my sleepy children home! The weather has been great this weekend so we have been in the garden a lot, unfortunately I am suffering with a terrible cold, possibly bought on by a very very long but brilliant day at Alton Towers last sunday!!

Long time no see!

It has been a very very long time since I have posted anything on here so I will try to be better organised from now on! We have had a really busy summer with trips to the zoo, days out, seeing friends and finally a camping trip! Our first ever camping experience as a family! We have a huge tent which Wayne and I managed to set up in just under an hour! We went to the south coast between Swanage and Weymouth and the weather was fantastic. We were so lucky. We set the children up in their own "pods" in the tent, both on blow up beds and crossed our fingers that they would sleep ok. Emily messed around a bit but they were both sound asleep by 9pm every night and then woke around 7am the next day - perfect! We went to the beach every day, Swanage, Weymouth and Bournemouth. We went to Monkey World, Portland Bill and had a BBQ. We also realised that we were missing a few vital bits of camping equipment like a table and realised that if we intended to cook a full breakfast or anything more complex than a pot noodle we would need more than a small gas burner!

We stopped at the Bournemouth Air show on the way home and spent a scorching afternoon on the beach watching the Red Arrows and various other planes pass over us. We had a paddle in the sea and both children were completely freaked out when the new plane the "Vulcan" took a very noisy pass over our heads! We also spotted the site for the Olympics 2012 sailing venues in Weymouth.

On a educational note Tom can now say about 10 words and Emily can write her name, Tom's name and mummy and daddy! She can also tell you what letter most things start with and says "T" is for table and "curly c" is for car!!

Birthday boy, sports day and funfairs!

Tom turned 1 last sunday and celebrated by learning to walk properly. He now walks more than crawling and is getting more confident by the day. He had a great birthday, we bought him a garage and train set and he got loads of ace presents like a ride on digger and loads of trucks and cars and proper boys toys! We had a quiet morning with my dad and then Wayne's family came over for a chaotic afternoon although most people prefered to watch the cricket!!

Emily had her last day of term at pre-school on friday and the Sports Day, she did really well and ran, jumped, carried and hopped her way through the races and enjoyed celebrating with her team mates. I participated in the parents races and did really well despite carrying Tom for half of it! Alot of Emily's friends have left for big school now so she will have a bit of a shock when she returns in september and they are not there. She will progress to 3 mornings in September which will be better for her as there is not such a gap between mornings then as she will be doing Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I went to my first Pre-school Committee meeting on Wednesday night and seem to have come back as the new Chairperson!! I have been nominated and will be voted in at the AGM in September. I will be in charge of the committee and organising fundraising, pre-school funding, trips etc etc. I am really excited about it and I think it will be a lot of work but the committee is great so I should have a lot of support - and if we don't do it all then there wouldn't be such a great pre-school.

We went to Hungerford last night to watch the fun run, carnival and go to the funfair. We watched the fun run as our cousins/godchildren were in it. Issie is 11 and finished 2nd and Harry is 8 and came 5th! I might take part next year with Emily but it was a mile long and probably a bit too far for her this year. We then watched the carnival and went up to the funfair which was good. We finally got home at 9.45pm!! Tom fell asleep on the way home and Emily went straight to sleep within minutes of climbing into bed. They were shattered but then it was about 3 hours later than they usually are up! This morning the slept until 8 so not too bad but I think we are in for a long day!

Finally Emily had 7 inches chopped off her hair on thursday. Her and Finn went to the hairdressers and Finn had his hair cut first then it was Emily's turn. She was great (mostly because she could stare at herself in the mirror for 20 minutes!!) it is a short neat bob and looks fantastic, it looks really healthy and tidy so I am really pleased. We decided to trim Tom's but he wouldn't sit still so ended up with a grade 4 all over - so he looks a bit bald now - never mind it will grow back soon!!

(No pictures at the moment as I seem to be having trouble uploading - there are photos on Facebook though)

Busy busy....

I have been completely rubbish and not updated the blog for ages now. About 2 weeks ago we went to Legoland with Sophie and Hannah for a day out. It was absolutely brilliant, we went on loads of rides, plenty for Emily to go on including a rollercoaster, the carousel, a spinning teacup type ride, a dinasour trail and the fairy story boat ride. Even Tom could come on a few rides too. We were really lucky that the weather was outstanding so after some lunch we put the girls in their swimming costumes and let them play in the huge water park which they loved. It was such a great day the only complaint was the cost of it all. I had to pay £35 for me to get in and when asked how old Emily was I swore blind that she was 2 otherwise I would have been spending £26 for her!!!! We are going to go again in the next few weeks with Wayne but I luckily have a voucher for buy one get one free entry and Emily's birthday will be pushed back a little later again! I wonder how much longer I will be able to get away with it!!

We saw quite a lot of Sophie as we had her to tea the next day so her mum and dad could go to parents evening. They played in the garden on the trampolene for ages and then ate fish fingers, chips and beans followed by a Pizza Hut Ice Cream factory inspired desert! I put some ice cream in a bowl and let them decorate it with chocolate chips, smarties and anything else I could find in the cupboard, they loved it although by the time they had finished playing with their desert it was pretty much liquid!!

Emily also started Ballet this week! It is at the Lambourn leisure centre and there are only 5 girls in the class. Emily knew Hope and Georgie from Pre-school and Ellie from music and there was another girl called India who we didn't know. They all wear pink leotards and little pink skirts with ballet shoes and it was possibly the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Emily happily went off with Mrs Clemenger (the elderly teacher - very stereotype grey hair in a bun - petite and posh!!). The girls go into the hall whilst the mums and siblings wait in the back room. They do 20 minutes of pretending to be flowers growing in the garden, dancing around to teddy bears picnic, "good toes, naughty toes" and all sorts of things such as being a mouse, butterfly, fairy! Emily loved it and pranced around with all the grace of a baby elephant! But she was really good so we are signed up until the end of the term and she should get a uniform next week so we'll see how it goes!



Last night I went out for my friend Helen's birthday and her husband Dan had offered to play slave to her and her friends, there were 8 girls who were waited on hand and foot by Dan, cocktails, beautiful mexican food and even complementary glow sticks to wear to the pub were all provided! We ended up in the Tavern in Hungerford where there was a live band which was excellent. I threw in the towel about 12.30am as Wayne is working all weekend and the prospect of spending all day alone with the children on a few hours sleep was not good! Emily pushes Tom so Tom pulls her hair and so on and so on for most of the day!!

On a plus point Tom is doing really well with his walking and has done about 6 steps unaided now - he is getting better by the day!!