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!!

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.........

Rocky Horror, colds and shoes.

We had a brilliant weekend, after finally fighting off horrible colds we had a really late night (2am) and were so tired and run down that we have them back again!! Wayne is coughing badly and I have a head cold which is driving me crazy. We went to our Rocky Horror surprise party for our best friend Dan, it was hilarious, there were so many funny outfits and we certainly blended in!! It was a brilliant night including a fantastic group dance of the "time warp."

After a long long long day on sunday we decided to test Tom to see if he could stand unaided and he did!! He has been doing it more and more lately and he managed to stand for about 10 seconds on his own, we then tried to see if he would walk between us and he managed a couple of steps!!! He is quite wary and will drop down and crawl rather than just go for the walking but he is getting there. I decided shoes would be a good option so we went to Clarks in Mothercare today and he is the proud owner of a pair of Navy shoes size 3F!!! After telling the sales girl that I am sure Emily's feet haven't grown and she doesn't need new shoes I was shocked to discover that she is now a 7 1/2 F!! Please stand up bad mother Ali who has had her in 6 1/2 G's for about 4 months!! So £35 lighter and 2 new pairs of shoes richer we came home!!

A quick update.

I thought I was about time I updated so here it is....

We went to Cornwall at the weekend and had a brilliant time. We did so much. We arrived in Perranporth on the friday and I expect my children to be very tired and want to go to bed early - but at 8pm we were playing mini golf! We put Emily and Tom in the same room for the first time and at 9pm they were still laughing and not sleeping so I took Tom out in his pushchair for a walk and got him off to sleep and suprisingly they slept soundly until 6.45am the next morning! We woke up to hear them chatting away and laughing hysterically! It was lovely.

On the saturday morning we went to see my Grandma, who for nearly 92 is doing really well. She played with the kids and even managed to hold Tom. Then we headed to Lelant to see my Dad and Mary and decided to go to Flambards for the afternoon. Flambards is a brilliant theme park and there is a fantastic exhibition/museum of Britain in the Blitz and Victorian Britain. Emily liked it but thought it was a bit creepy in the Victorian village with all the manequins! We went in to a science exhibit and Emily tried all the different experiments and Tom was fasinated with the funny mirrors and a blowing machine that blows a beach ball into the air! We went on various rides such as pedal helicopters and a carousel (with Emily singing Mary Poppins) but the best ride was Wayne and Emily on the log flume - but she keeps saying that "the water boat made her sad" as she didn't like the drop and getting soaked! The best bit was the animal centre where they showed us Spiders, Birds of Prey and a huge snake that Emily happily held and stroked!!! The snake did coil around her leg which scared her but we told her the snake was trying to cuddle her and she was happy about that! After Flambards we went for a Fish and Chip supper then back to the caravan. On the sunday we went to Newquay and the Aquarium which Tom thought was amazing, he loved watching the fish and touching the glass! Then we went for a sunday roast and a walk on the beach. On the monday we went to see my Great Auntie Carol and Uncle John who had never met the children or Wayne so that was great fun and then we took my Grandma a cornish pasty for lunch! After lunch we went back to Dad's and took the train into St Ives where Emily and Tom played on the beach - and Tom ate most of the sand!!

Back to reality and I finally have my car back so been really busy this week in preparation for our best friend Dan's 40th party tomorrow night - it is a Rocky Horror theme so the photos will be interesting. Wayne is going as the character Eddie played by Meatloaf he looks like an ageing rocker and I am going as something resembling a cross between a prostitute and a transvestite!!

On a negative note I have had a really stinky cold all week!

A long couple of weeks.

It has been a while since I posted anything, we have had a really rubbish few weeks. Firstly Emily got a throat and mouth infection which spread to her face in the form of blisters. She was really poorly and didn't eat for a week, she was contagious so we had to stay confined to the house! Luckily Wayne, Tom and I didn't get it. Also the main bridge in and out of Great Shefford has been closed so the diversion is about 15 miles long which is such a pain. The bridge opened again last friday - not that we have been able to use it as Wayne's van broke down last week and he has had the car so we have been house bound again. We have been going out for walks and have been on the bus to Lambourn twice to go to music but it is driving us crazy! No idea when the van will be fixed so we could be without a car for a while.

On the plus side the weather has been fantastic so we have been in the garden every day. Emily's friends Finn, Sophie, Fran and Louis have all been over to play and the trampolene is a firm favourite, we have been playing in the sand and on the swing and on sunday we even got the paddling pool out!

Emily had to have a week off pre-school when she was ill so her first day back she got a bit upset and they phoned me 1 hour in to come and collect her. On the friday I ended up having to stay for the whole session so this tuesday I just left her screaming and crying and the teachers said she calmed down after about 5 minutes and she was fine! So fingers crossed she will be good tomorrow.



We are off to Cornwall for a long weekend tomorrow which will be good so I will have lots to write about next week!

Pre-school!

Emily had her first day at pre-school on tuesday. I stayed with her for the session and Wayne looked after Tom. She wore her uniform which is a blue sweatshirt and t'shirt and really looked the part. She was really excited on the way there and when we got there she was given a little cardboard person to put in a pocket on the wall to say that she was there!! Then she put her bag in her tray and got stuck in. The children all take registration and I have to admit I was a bit choked up watching her sitting with the other children and saying good morning!! She played brilliantly and did what she was told, she especially liked playing on the computer and painting. She sat down with the other children to have "tuck" and was chatting away to a few other girls! They sung "the farmers in the den" and another girl Holli picked Emily to go in the middle with her and then Emily picked Rachel who is also quite new! I ended up doing some cleaning and helping out with washing up and bits and pieces as she was really confident and didn't need me at all!! She is really excited to go again tomorrow and is going to take Mary Poppins for show and tell!

Whilst all this has been happening for Emily - Tom has learnt to pull himself up to standing and is very pleased with himself - he will pull up on anything now especially the sofa and it seems to have opened up a whole new world for him!!