Toby's First Day of School

A few weeks after Toby was born I remember thinking that I couldn't imagine a time when there wouldn't be a child pottering round under my feet for the majority of the day."  Well, it seems to have flown round rather fast and it's rather hard to believe that Toby has started full time in reception (kindergarten) and Beth is starting in year two.

Thankfully there was no reluctance to go and both kids happily disappeared into school without any tears, and despite worrying that I might be a bit teary, I couldn't stop smiling! :)

Coming home tonight I couldn't get much information out of either of them detailing what went on but apart from the blisters from new shoes, they both seem happy enough.

I thought I'd add in a few other bits to this post while I'm at it.  Yesterday we spent a perfect last day of the holidays at Clumber Park with the kids and their friends on their bikes.  We parked just inside the park and rode/walked all the way along Limetree Avenue to the cafe and play area.

After a picnic lunch, play and ice cream we headed back a different way, a total of about 4.6 miles.  It was a beautiful day and amazingly we all enjoyed it and the day was pretty much tantrum free (miracle though not totally unexpected since it was the last day of the holidays!).


One last bit of news, on Saturday we went to the wedding of my university friend, Rachel, to Johnny.  It was a fantastic day both because of the wedding and because we got to catch up with Rachel and my other uni friend Holly and her family.  It's been a year since we last saw Holly - see this blog - and over six years since we last saw Rachel!  


Toby jumped straight back into mischief with Rafferty and Beth was thrilled to see Naomi.  They had put on a cool 1940's bus to take us from the church to the reception - Toby sneaked back in to have a go when the driver had his back turned!  Thank goodness the key wasn't left in.  After a great weekend I think we'll have to make more of an effort to catch up sooner next time. 

Camping in France

We have been very lucky this year to be able to take a second holiday. We packed up out tent, sleeping bags and everything else and headed, via the channel tunnel, to the Dordogne.

We thought it would be a bit much to do the whole 700 miles in one go!  The B+B (La Haute Muraille) we stayed at was lovely - lots of garden for us to stretch our legs in and a self-contained 'unit' for us to sleep in.  After a tasty croissant and rhubarb jam breakfast we headed off.

It took all day to reach the campsite which is just outside a little village called St Jory, about 50km south of Limoges.  The site is named after the river running through it, Le Tourolet.  It is pretty small in terms of pitches (only 13) but on quite a lot of land (5.5 hectares) with a small swimming pool, a lake (with dingy), a river perfect for paddling and fishing, swings and slide and a wooden fort and wendy house.

We could quite easily not have ventured off the campsite for the entire 12 days and actually we didn't go to that many places.  Peter, the owner, delivered fresh bread and crossants every morning and we did bits of shopping in the local town every few days.  The kids were pretty happy entertaining themselves but on one of the days, Peter took all the kids out onto the lake in the dinghy.  He followed that with diving for treasure in the pool and a celebratory drink and biscuit.  Not quite kids club as you know it (health and safety went right out the window!), but far more fun I think.



Apart from the local trips we did make an expedition to visit a local 'grotto' on a particularly hot day.  La Grotte de Villars is about 20 minutes drive from the campsite and has spectacular stalactites and stalagmites along with 19,000 year-old paintings of horses.  The tour was perfect for us - just 30 minutes; long enough to feel we'd seen something historic but just about right for the kids not to get bored!

On the same day we also visited the historic town of Brantôme for lunch and a wander.  It's about 17 years since I was last in France and one of the things I had been looking forward to was eating out at a restaurant with a set menu.  Unfortunately I hadn't progressed as far as thinking about how the kids would cope with this!  I'm quite glad their French isn't developed nor the restaurant owners English great since there was quite a bit of "yuck, I'm not eating that!" and "urgh, what is that - get rid of it!".  Having said that, they did eat the 'pomme frite' and loved the grenadine drink.


The highlight for Beth was making friends.  It probably did her confidence wonders since she even adventured up onto the karaoke stage for eight songs (I'm not sure how much she actually sang but I'm just happy she got up there!).  She was fairly distraught to leave her new buddy but thrilled to come home with a penpal!  I wonder how long that will last - hopefully she'll dive into writing with a new vigor that we have found difficult to produce!

Settling back home was a bit of a chore - with two feral kids it took quite a while to acclimatise to indoor living and washing again! ;)  I can't believe that we have been back home for two weeks already and Toby starts school tomorrow!  The six-week holiday has flown by - what on earth am I going to do with all that time . . . :)

Swanage Holiday

We are just back on Saturday from a wonderful week on holiday in Swanage, Dorset.  We stayed in a holiday house, walking distance to the beach, with grandma, grandpa and Auntie Jane.

I think we picked the best week of the year to go as the sun shone and we made the most of it!

When we arrived the kids immediately insisted on a walk to the beach with grandma and grandpa. Steve and I caught up a few minutes later to find the most British of scenes - kids stripped down to undies, paddling in the sea. Unfortunately grandpa didn't finish the look with a knotted hanky- always next time!


We spent A LOT of time on the beach - Beth is definitely a Californian girl, happily trying out bodyboarding. Toby enjoyed the beach but as with most things wanted to move on once he'd been a couple of times - never still, always looking for something new! 

We did try a different beach, Kimmeridge, one morning. Toby was in his element as it was a stoney beach and he could lob rocks into the sea with no one telling him to stop. Nearer the end of the week he did venture into the sea with help from his newly purchased 'jet ski'. Despite it tipping him upside-down he still enjoyed sitting on it; probably more keen on dry land though!




Even with daily visits to the beach we did manage a few trips out. A lovely walk along the coastal path one morning took us to Durlston Castle. The scenery was beautiful and the kids were intrigued by the massive stone globe in the grounds. It took us a while to realise why they were so tired that afternoon - the walk was nearly five miles round trip!



Steve and I were lucky enough to get quite a few hours by ourselves thanks to g, g and Auntie J. Wednesday morning they took Beth and Toby on a steam train from Swanage station to Corfe Castle, a National Trust property about 20 minutes away. 



From the stories and photos, it sounded as if they'd had a fantastic time. I think that when we get into more of the Enid Blyton books we'll have to go back - she spent a lot of time in the area and based many of her books around features. All of them arrived back melting as it was probably the hottest day of the week - a few hours in the paddling pool solved that!

I'm sure I've missed something out and will have to add it later, but as far as holidays go, it was a pretty perfect week. :)

Allsorts

I have been really bad at writing posts this year and only managed to do birthdays and other 'bigger' news.  This one is going to be a mish-mash of all our news from the last few months.


Toby seems to have most news at the moment.  In April he started going to football (soccer).  He is very excited by it and despite looking rather lost for most of the training (and all of the match), he just loves it.  I suspect it's because it's him and 19 other boys with hardly a girl in sight (poor sod, having spent the first four years of his life totally surrounded by girls)!


To counter this, he has also started going to Beth's dancing lessons.  We have always loved these as there is no uniform, you can pay as and when you go (great since they seem to change their minds rather often when it comes to hobbies) and there are no big shows, just smaller ones through the year.  I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it even though he asked to go (rather than me asking him), but so far he is loving it and doesn't seem bothered that he is quite often the only boy.  It could be a very good thing as 'they' say dancing is good for football skills. :)


On top of all this, just this week he started swimming lessons again.  He went for a while when we first moved to the area but just wasn't interested so I pulled him out.  This time he is ready to listen and it is a big bonus that when we arrived for his first lesson, his best friend was in the same class.  Hopefully a bit of friendly competition will spur him on!


Beth has been doing loads at school and it's hard to believe she'll be going into year two in September.  I'm not quite sure when they have fitted lessons in this term since they've done a lot of 'extra-curricular' stuff like celebrating the Jubilee, the Olympic torch relay, a school play and sports day (along with many practices)!


For her birthday, Beth received a live butterfly garden from cousins Adam and William.  We sent off for the caterpillars and spent the next four weeks watching them grow huge, turn to chrysalides then emerge as Painted Lady butterflies.  I would highly recommend it as the kids just loved seeing them grow and change.  When we released the butterflies, they hung around the garden for a few hours before disappearing off.


Half term at the beginning of June was a welcome break and we had a few trips out.  One was to Bradgate Park where I worked as a park ranger for a few years.  The kids were very excited to see Dr Who's tardis as they are both fans!  We also did some rock scrambling and deer watching.  Amazingly the weather was fine that morning - I think we had our summer with 10 warm days back in May.

Finally, this morning, we headed a few miles down the road to bag a prime spot to watch the demolition of the cooling towers at High Marnham Power Station.  It was very quick and quite impressive - if you'd blinked at the wrong time you would have missed it!

Summer Faire 2012

Today was the summer faire in the village.  In previous years it was held on May Day but after a lot of moaning by residents about it getting a bit old, the committee decided to move it and try and liven it up.


There was still the float parade round the village but this year there was a local town crier at the front and a kazoo marching band at the back.  The theme was 'The Olympics' and the pre-school decided to go with a theme for the float of the first Olympics.  Six of us spent a few hours last week building, painting and decorating it.  It turned out pretty well and for the third year in a row, when it came to the judging, we won!


Beth was on the Rainbows and Brownie float - they had to dress as an athlete from the Olympics.  Beth was a runner.  Some of the kids were in their swimming cossie's and hats - very apt since it chucked it down as soon as the parade set off and they all got soaked!


Back at the faire there was sheep racing, water balls (Beth loved going on this with her friend Sophie), face painting, bouncy castle, dog show and Pimm's tent (esp. for mums!).  Thankfully the sun came out and it was a fab afternoon.  Both kids are now worn out in bed. :)

Olympic Torch

Today the Olympic torch came right through the village, by Beth's school and past the end of our road.  Very exciting stuff.  Steve took the day off work and grandma and grandpa came for the festivities.  The roads were closed earlier this morning and school opened early so people could drop off before getting 'locked out' of the village.  


Lots of buses came through dropping school kids off from other villages - ours was the only school in the county that the torch comes directly by.  I think the population of the village tripled this morning - there are only around 460 houses in total and today it was busy!


The atmosphere was really nice, lots of flags and old ladies in deckchairs (!) and both pubs on the route through the village opened early though amazingly we abstained (well, at least until lunch)!


A few minutes before the torch passed there was a convoy of loads of police motorcycles and the three sponsors came by giving out stuff and playing music.  Not sure that Coca Cola is an appropriate sponsor - giving out nice sugary drinks and promoting chubb for a sporting event but who am I to say!  The other two were Samsung and Lloyds TSB; very disappointing that they didn't follow suit and hand out free TV's and money. :(




When the torch arrived it was a little bit of an anti-climax.  A couple of people I spoke to later actually turned to talk to friends and missed it completely!  We did see it and also had the chance to look/hold a torch as one of the dad's at school was a runner on Tuesday.


As soon as that was finished with it was Beth's sports day.  This year they did team sports rather than competitive sports.  The children move round activities and spend five minutes on each.  The idea is good but five minutes is a long time for each and by half way, Beth was disinterested and really couldn't be bothered.  It didn't help that the rain (and thunder and lightening) started but everyone carried on until the bitter end.


At this point we sneaked away for lunch at a new microbrewery that has opened just down the road.  It was very acceptable and after a lovely meal we returned to school for the summer faire.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so it was inside and we only stopped long enough to get some temporary tattoos, faces painted and cakes.


It was a very nice day and very nice to have the family all around for this 'historic' occasion.  

Happy 6th Birthday Beth!

Sorry for taking so long to finish this post - I started a couple of days after Beth's birthday on April 18th but it's taken a month to finish!  I'll put it down to a mixture of lack of time and lack of motivation! 

As with Toby, I can't quite believe that Beth is so grown up - six already!

 

I don't know if anyone else has come across this problem but we had huge issues finding what to give her for presents.  I think the perfect present that anyone could give would have been an hour of their time to be used dressing up and engaging in princess-themed play!  Of course, if you were to ask her she would say that she couldn't live without a hideous mechanical gerbil toy (or some other such monstrosity), but she never plays with those things and is drawn to craft things and imaginative play.

In the end we decided to have a larger than normal party the weekend following her birthday and a few smaller presents rather than one large one.  Of course her friends and family also lavished her and she got some great gifts.  One of her favourites was a One Direction CD from Auntie Jane (though I'm sure she'd like me to clarify that this wasn't sent as a result of personal music choice!!).

Her party was a science party by a company called Sublime Science.  We thought that her friends had done the soft play parties, the magician, disco and general mayhem ones and we should try something different.  The kids were fairly mesmerised with the experiments and bits that Amelia (our scientist) performed.  They got to make their own sherbet (and eat it), make their own goo (to take home) and help out with some of the other experiments.

I didn't do a science-themed cake - Beth still likes a bit of princess pink and I thought a variation on Toby's cake would be easy. :)  As much fun as her birthday was, I'm very thankful birthday season is over for another year!