Happy 4th Birthday Princess Aurora Tigerlily Rose (a.k.a. Beth)

On Sunday it was Beth's fourth birthday. We spent the weekend with grandma and grandad and had lots of fun. Given the chance Beth's ideal day would be spent on the beach and her favourite person to spend it with is Adam so that's pretty much what we did Sunday morning. The weather was fab (for April) and the kids all loved running along the beach, digging and in Toby's case, falling in (an easy one to predict!). The beach we went to (Saltburn) is the traditional British beach resort with a pier, donkey rides and a 'lift' from the cliff-top to the beach.

Just before lunch the weather began to change so we had a wander along the beach back to the car with a stop at the playground on the way. Back at grandma and grandad's we were just in time for Beth's party with all the family. Both kids got spoiled with attention, Beth spoiled with some great presents and the rest of us spoiled with great food. Unfortunately it started to rain so we couldn't turn under 5's out into the garden but they weren't too boisterous.

Today (Tuesday) we had a party at home with a few new friends from the village. Beth was very excited though thankfully she didn't ask what had happened to all her old friends who she requested me to invite . . . I was inspired by two things to bake her a cake; first was that I couldn't find a Princess Aurora one and second a friend who is much busier than I managed to find time to bake her daughter one so I thought that really I didn't have much of an excuse. Thankfully it didn't take too long but it was a bit fiddly and looked rather dicey at one point. The end piece doesn't look bad for a first attempt at birthday cake baking though as you can see, I believe the Princess had one too many birthday cocktails as she started to lean rather alarmingly! I think Beth liked it and she loved the rest of the party so birthday number four can be classed a success. :) One last thing, here's Toby making a new friend.

Goodbye Sweet Mog

Poor Mog fell ill last Monday and spent the week at the vet. They had problems finding what was wrong with her but eventually narrowed it down to her intestines (all rather vague!). By the end of the week she wasn't looking good and we were getting rather worried about her but thankfully she 'rallied' and got to come home on Saturday morning for the weekend - spending her time lolling in the sun and keeping us company in the garden.

Unfortunately when we took her back to the vet on Monday for a check up her breathing was poor. During an x-ray it got worse and they couldn't sort her out. It seems she probably has had cancer for quite a while without us knowing and it finally got too much and her body just couldn't cope.

We're going to miss our little Californian friend who adopted us back in 2004. Originally she was found by our neighbours having been dumped in Signal Hill. They named her Dumpling but we thought that she suited Mog much better as she looked so like Mog from the series of books by Judith Kerr.

She made herself known by coming and sitting on the tailgate of the truck with Steve while he was taking a break from clearing out the garage. She started coming in to the house to see us and always seemed to make herself comfy! It got to the point where she didn't leave.

We thought that perhaps with the arrival of Beth she might have second thoughts about her chosen home but it turns out that they got on pretty well together and Mog 'joined in' many games, most involving dressing up!

When we decided to move back to England it wasn't too hard a choice to bring her with us. Getting her passport was rather a labourious task involving test after test and rather more money than we'd have liked but thankfully everything was sorted before we moved and she got to fly cattle-class back with British Airways. It seems Mog was rather laid back and suited to traveling as she behaved impeccably and staff at the London handling centre had only praise for her.

Again with the arrival of Toby and the challenge of British weather we thought Mog might have had enough but still she appeared to love being part of the family though did give Toby a wide berth.

With this last house move we were looking forward to being settled and in the same place for a long time, glad that Mog along with us could relax and get to know the area without being whisked off again. Unfortunately in her case it wasn't to be and she did indeed get whisked off far sooner than we were ready for.

We're glad that she adopted us as her family as she brought a lot to it and we're thankful she had a relatively peaceful end, we all loved her dearly. It's sad to think that Beth probably won't really remember her little friend, and strange that she doesn't seem to miss her much (yet) - the reality of death thankfully isn't fully understood yet but I suppose we should be grateful for that. Mog was definitely a positive presence in all of our lives, something that Beth knows since she is already asking if we can go and get a new cat!

Bolsover Castle and Beds!

Our English Heritage membership cards haven't had much use - there really isn't much around us to go to so today we thought we'd put them to good use and visit Bolsover Castle. It's a pretty impressive place that you can see from way off. This pic (left) is courtesy of someone else.

It wasn't as big as it looks though having said that, we didn't get to see the entire outside area as it was pretty windy. We were quite lucky as the local re-enactment society was practicing their sword fighting for the St. Georges Day festival. Toby was totally captivated; Beth was for a moment or so but got distracted by the sand on the floor so stood kicking that around. The building was interesting to a point but there weren't any information plaques up as they do an audio tour instead so we weren't really sure what anything was. Most of the rooms were empty making it a little less stressful to take the kids around but both were a bit hyperactive (I think from the wind) so they were screeching and I would imagine annoying to everyone else around.

When we got home, Steve put up the new single bed we bought before moving. It was intended for Beth but she didn't want it so we thought Toby could have it. Anyway, somehow Beth came to change her mind so it's going in her room and Toby is getting the toddler bed. We thought we'd wait a while to move Toby out of his cot - give him time to get use to having the bed in his room and playing on it. However he had different ideas and made it quite clear that he wanted nothing more to do with his cot and that he is absolutely grown-up enough to go in a big bed. Amazingly he settled pretty well into it and although enjoys the freedom to explore his room, he hasn't been too bad about staying in bed once the lights are out. I guess we'll see how that all goes though I would imagine he’d have something to say if we try to get him back in the cot!

Happy Second Birthday Toby

Saturday was Toby's second birthday and so we had a celebratory weekend. On Saturday it was just the four of us and on Sunday we had an open house for all the family to come and see the birthday boy and of course have a nosy round the new pad.

Toby's main present was a playmobil farm that he loved. Well, more specifically he particularly loved the combine harvester ("Frank") and the tractor and trailer. However the present he liked the best was a chocolate Easter egg that eventually had to be pried from him hands amid hysterical crying. I suppose I could just have let him eat the entire thing but it just seemed rather unwise since his sugar intake for the day was already a little on the high side.

Sunday saw some more fun and lovely gifts, the favourites for him being a red racing car and another tractor and trailer (a boy can never have too many it would seem!). In our family it is impossible to have a birthday without needing at least two cakes. This birthday was no different and Toby managed to got a football one on Saturday and a red racing car on Sunday. So far the second has not been broken into, I'm hoping Steve will take it into work for it to be disposed of in the least wasteful way.

Thankfully we had fabulous weather on Sunday and the kids spent much of the day playing in the garden. I didn't manage to get that many pics (sorry, I was taking care of the cake in the kitchen;)) but did snap a few here and there. Not long till Beth's birthday and I'm still racking my brains for party ideas . . .

Happy In Our New Home

I'm not doing so well with keeping the blog up-to-date this year, suppose it's a good thing in some ways as it means we're busy!

On Monday and Tuesday of last week (8th and 9th) we moved in to our own house. We've been looking for somewhere for over a year but it has been very difficult to find an area that we like and that has everything we want. Eventually we found a lovely village in the north of Nottinghamshire close to Sherwood Forest and Clumber Park. It has a lovely little school (with the high school just in the next village), a couple of pubs, a butcher and grocery shop, lots of green area to explore and no main road cutting through it. Perfect!

The house is just the right size, the kids have space to have toys in their rooms and we now have a spare room to accommodate our guests (bookings now being taken . . .). The decor is a little 1970's - not quite sure how since the house wasn't built until the 80's but I'm sure we'll correct that in time (donations also being taken ;)).

So far we're loving everything about the move. Most days the kids get out on their bikes in front of the house and the neighbours seem really friendly. Mary the post lady called by to say hi and spent ages showing the kids all the parcels in her van - Toby was desperate to jump on in but the allure faded when he knew the packages weren't for him.

Yesterday we went for a walk around the village and made some new friends; the church warden came racing out in her socks to say hello and Toby spent ages with an Alsatian that had a nose bigger than his head. We watched the gliders take off from the far side of the village and at the end of the village, much to Toby's delight, watched trains go by.

Beth started her new nursery yesterday afternoon and seemed to enjoy herself despite being insistent that she wasn't going to like it. She has made a couple of new friends though none to rival Maisey who was her best friend at the old nursery. I'm sure soon enough she'll settle right in and become obsessed with a new best friend.

Just thought I'd pop this in at the bottom. It's from the last snowfall in February. The photographer for the local paper lived round the corner from us at the old place and she took a few snaps of all the kids on the estate. The picture of Beth made the cut. :)

Northern Ireland Adventure

We just arrived back this morning from an adventure to Northern Ireland to visit the great grandparents. I did take Toby over in the Autumn for a visit but it's been well over a year since Beth saw my grandparents and a couple of years since Steve was last there - we were due a visit!

Usually you can pick up some cheap flights but when you have all the paraphernalia related to young children it bumps the cost up. We decided instead to take the night ferry across from Liverpool to Belfast. The theory was that both kids would fall asleep in the car on the drive over to the port (about two hours), we would transfer them into the cabin to set sail at 10:30pm and they would sleep until we disembarked in Belfast at 6:30am.

The reality was slightly different . . . Beth fell asleep in the car but woke up energised and ready to party when we reached Liverpool. Toby didn't sleep at all (the promise of going on a boat probably kept him awake) and was over-tired and totally past it by the time we boarded. We went and had a look to see what the complimentary meal was but just opted for a plate of chips to share and slabs of chocolate cake to start the holiday off. As Steve pointed out, it was my own fault that they still wouldn't sleep at 11:45 and I didn't have an excuse for being extremely grumpy and annoyed. Obviously I have a different take on this; mainly that as a tired, overworked mother there are times when he needs to step in and advise on problematic actions!

Amazingly the return journey did go much better and Beth was transfered from car to bunk without waking up. Toby of course would not reform and chatted away until around 11 - at least it was happy chatting. Even with a decent (by ferry boat sleeping standards) sleep, it was still pretty touch getting out of bed at 5:30am ready to get off. I didn't get a picture of the boat as it was dark, but here's one as it passed us on the lough on Saturday.

While there we rented a house almost on the beach in a little village called Groomsport. It was lovely to be able to look out over Belfast Lough and watch the boats go past (as you can imagine Toby loved this). The weather wasn't great on Friday and rained pretty much all day. Luckily both Saturday and Sunday it was quite nice, not warm but not wet or that windy.

On Saturday we walked from Great Grandma Ruth's house down the glen and along the shore. Toby was mesmerised by the waves hitting the rocks and stood watching for ages. It's hard taking him actually on to the beach as he has no fear and just launches himself towards the sea, he would not stop until up to his waist so it ends up being a real struggle. Beth also loves the beach for the shells and rocks, she doesn't like the waves very much. Neither of them were impressed to see a seal bobbing just outside the harbour.

Our main reason for going over was to see my grandparents, Ruth and Harry. Unfortunately Harry is in the hospital so we went to see him a couple of times with the kids; much as he was happy to see them I think they wore him out so I went without them quite a few times. I'm not sure that Beth recognises either of them except from photos but hopefully she might retain memories from this trip of them - the addition of chocolate might help. We also spent quite a bit of time at their house with Ruth. Their garden is fab for chasing round and both Beth and Toby loved playing with the tea trolley and silver tea service, step up from their plastic one! Of course as is the tradition we got fed lots and both kids happily joined in and ate their weight in pies and chocolate cake.

On Sunday we walked from the house down to the beach and along to the village. I had hoped to spend ages collecting shells with Beth but had forgotten about that tide phenomenon! The whole beach was covered right up to the grass so we had to make do with watching the waves and the dogs playing. It would be lovely to go back in the summer or at least when it's a bit warmer so we can make sand castles and do all that kind of beach stuff without wearing hats and gloves. :)