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!!

A couple of fab days out.

A few days ago we went up to Leicester to see my friends Michael and Nick and their beautiful house! It is such a lovely house - completely terrifying taking 2 dirty grubby children into it but still lovely all the same! We had a great lunch then went to Bradgate park which is gorgeous - a real weekend picture postcard type of place, lots of families and friends all enjoying the warm (allbeit cloudy) day. We saw loads of deer and had an ice cream (how many weight watcher points in a Magnum!!!) and played football on the grass. It was a really great day.

Then yesterday we had Wayne for a bonus afternoon and decided to make the most of it, we packed up a picnic and took ourselves off to the Cotswold Wildlife park. It was a really warm day in the end and we had our lunch and walked around the park, we saw penguins, a peacock, rhino, zebras, monkeys, all sorts of birds, farm animals and camels, loads of creepy animals like snakes that can eat a whole person, and lions! It was a brilliant day and we walked so far! One of the best bits was watching Emily get so excited about the animals, we saw some meerkats and she announced "I know about meerkats, they are Sophie's favourite!" (Sophie is Emily's very knowledgeable friend on the topic of meerkats and many other animals!)

On another note - we were at music group yesterday and we were playing with the parachute and Tom was so engrossed by it he stood on his own for nearly a minute, I thought this was amazing but then he did it again and topped it by actually taking a step on his own and balancing himself again! I think he was shocked by me screaming and clapping so he sat promptly down, but his confidence is growing.........