London

Been a while since I posted - never seem to have a minute and the enthusiasm at the same time!

Anyway, for Steve's birthday we decided to book a trip to London (with the kids) to go to the Science Museum and see the sights.  Neither of the kids have been before so it seemed like a good idea.

We caught the train from Retford direct to Kings Cross on Friday afternoon. All went well until the outskirts of London where we were delayed for 45 minutes due to a 'knocking' - they couldn't find anything wrong so eventually just carried on!  Not quite sure how to feel about that, at least the train held together until we arrived.

We stayed at the Park Plaza County Hall, just the opposite side of the river to the Houses of Parliament.  It wasn't a bad room at all as it had two rooms and a mini kitchen along with a great view of Waterloo station (in the photo it is the building with the crane in front of it and blue windows)!


Can highly recommend it as it was great for kids - they were given treat vouchers to spend on ice-creams, sweets and drinks.  They also let us extend our check-out time till 2pm with no extra charge.  I also think it's fab that we paid £7 per night in advance for breakfast for all of us when it costs £13.99 each if paying later!

On Friday night Auntie Jane visited us as she had been in London 'on business'.  We went to Ned's Noodles for some nosh and had a short wander with two tired kids (though to give them credit they weren't grumpy!).

Despite not dropping off till after nine, our two home-grown alarm clocks were still up at their usual time of 5:58am to ensure we were ready for breakfast when it started at 6:30!!!

After breakfast we negotiated the tube and headed to Buckingham Palace to wave at the queen - she didn't appear to wave back so we took a long, slow walk from there to the Science Museum, stopping for a quick coffee on the way.  I think both kids were ready for a nap before we arrived at opening time, 10am.

They did perk up somewhat with all the interactive displays but I think that despite a whole host of interesting displays, much of it is made interesting by the information provided with it.  We found it rather hard to keep the kids in one place long enough to pass on the info!  Of more interest to them was the trip to Hamleys where they happily spent their spending money (with some gentle persuasion away from the horrible yappy mechanical pink puppy!).  We then had a bit of lunch before heading back to the hotel to put our feet up for a few minutes.

In the afternoon we went on the London Eye, something that I've wanted to do for years but last time I was in London (2001) the queues were too long.  I loved it but it was rather wasted on the kids as they preferred to look at the info on the computer screens rather than out of the window.  Beth was also rather disappointed that it went so slow; I think she had visions of it being like a big wheel at the fairground!!

After that we had a wander over to Trafalgar Square where the kids had fun climbing on the lions.  I felt like a country hick for most of the weekend as everywhere was so busy.  You would think that the beginning of March would be a pretty quiet time to go but no, it was packed everywhere and quite overwhelming.  Beth didn't seem to mind and has put in a request to move to London, she didn't seem particularly put off by the issues of not having a house, jobs or school to go to!

Today (Sunday) we went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs and have a poke around.  There were some impressive sights, not least the dino bones.  The kids enjoyed it but didn't seem overly amazed by things - I'm not sure if they properly realised that things were 'real' or if they, at the ages of three and five, have just seen everything and there's nothing left to astound them!!  Hopefully it's the former or they are going to have rather dull lives.

To finish off the trip we met up with one of Steve's housemates from uni, along with his partner and their five-month-old son.  We met them in Kensington Park at the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground.  It was a great playarea but we didn't stay long as it was bunged.  Instead we had a walk down to the lake and watched the remote control boats before a quick stop at the hotel for bags and back on the train home.

A very enjoyable weekend away, definitely one we'll be repeating in a year or two once we've recovered!

Our Little Outpatient

Yesterday Lucy came home from the vet as (I hope) an outpatient. She has to go back a few times a week for a while but hopefully she won't have to stay in overnight again. We're back in for a check-up on Monday

Unfortunately she still has an open wound that ideally needs cleaning and medicated gel applied five times a day - fun! I've
included a close-up photo for your viewing pleasure; if I have to poke and prod it five times a day you can all stand to have a peek at it!

She seems happy enough and is very lively. I'm scared that Ned will catch her leg with his claw when they're play fighting. If not that, she will catch it when chasing madly around the house - it seems that four weeks of confinement have been saved up and are all tumbling out now.

Ned is fine and loves having his sister back home - I've included his photo as he's been rather left out on that front recently.

Snowy Day

Well the Internet and phone have only just been restored - nine days without has made us realise how much we use it. I thought I'd do a quick post just in case the four inches of snow persuade it to go down again!

The snow started yesterday afternoon and carried on, very lightly, all night so there was a perfect amount for sledging when we got up. We wrapped up very warm and spent a few hours around the village messing about and sledging. I'm quite surprised how long we all lasted without getting cold. We met up with some friends and carried on for a bit longer before a break for hot chocolate and coffee.

This afternoon I think we'll light the fire and lounge about in front of it doing very little. Perhaps we'll have a little wander out before bed to enjoy the snow before it turns to sludge.

As for Lucy, she again stayed at the vets all week, just coming home yesterday. She's back there again tomorrow morning (along with Ned who's getting 'done'). We're not sure if she'll be home again during the week, I suppose it depends how her leg is looking. At the moment she still has a full leg bandage but while at the vet she only has a little one on, I think they know that she'll be jumping and playing with Ned and the kids at home so want to give that extra protection.

A Week in January

I've been meaning to do a post all week and then the Internet (and phone) went down and still hasn't come back on as it seems repair people don't work over the weekend! I'm going hi-tech and doing this on my phone.

Lucy is doing well, she spent all week at the vets as they wanted to change her bandage every day. She's home for the weekend but has to go back first thing in the morning. They are talking about letting her home on Wednesday with dressing changes every few days but I think it depends on how it looks then. The vets have a Facebook page and are going to feature Lucy since she will be a long term patient! I'll let you know the address once it's up so you can have a look.

In other things, we went for a wander at Clumber Park last Sunday and had a really nice morning. We walked around the lake and through the wood to reach the discovery centre and play area. On the walk we climbed trees, played hide and seek and generally chased and played our way around. Toby got a bit tired by the end but it was a fab morning.

Oh, and Toby made his first cake - it turned out pretty well and was gobbled up by hungry children. :)

Poor Puddy Cat

Lucy has been having a few adventures in the last week. On Saturday night she didn't come home - we were up every hour seeing if she was about as she has never not come home and it was -2°C (28°F). Eventually she appeared at 7:30am with a chunk missing from her leg. We think she had a play with a fox.

Of course it would happen on a weekend when only the emergency vets were open! She was operated on, got stitched up along with a couple of drains and given a nice cone to keep her from pulling them out. Unfortunately she had lost some skin so what was left was pulled pretty tight. On Monday morning it pulled open, not where her stitches were but further round. Thankfully I was already taking her to our regular vet Monday afternoon.

They looked at her skinless leg and decided to keep her in. They operated again and have coated her wound in medical grade honey and then put her entire leg in a bandage. We went to visit her this afternoon and they said we could bring her home for the weekend as long as we keep her fairly immobile (yeah right!). She doesn't seem very comfortable and can't work out where to put her leg - she keeps falling asleep in her litter tray, standing up with her chin rested on the side.

Anyway, she is back to the vets on Monday and they're going to take the bandage up and see if her skin is showing signs of repair. Think it could be a long process as there's talk of a skin graft. Thank goodness for pet insurance! I'll keep you updated.

Oops!

Beth woke up on new years day with her first wobbly tooth - all very exciting since a couple of her friends have lost teeth and she has been desperate to join them. I seemed to remember loosing teeth as a rather long and drawn out process, never quick enough. It seems not for Beth. On January 2, she bit into her breakfast sausage sandwich, knocking out her wobbly tooth, which she promptly swallowed; oops!

Steve and I were concerned about the blood and hole - we couldn't see if it had just fallen out or been snapped, but Beth was far more concerned about the implications for the tooth fairy visiting! Thankfully the letter of explanation she wrote did the trick and there was a shiny £1 waiting under her pillow the next morning. She won't have a gap for long, her new tooth had already popped up behind it and is halfway up (I'm not quite sure how we

missed that before!).

Overall we had a very lazy Christmas and new year with the kids staying in their pjs all day at least twice. On the last day off, we took a trip to Clumber Park to look at their new discovery centre. We use to go quite often to Clumber but with school and pre-school we just don't seem to have had time recently.

I thought we'd probably last a few minutes in the centre and end up at the play area but we were there for over an hour. There were two guides and since to begin with we were the only ones in they pretty much took a child each - very handy. There were creatures to find, crafts to do, an insect/fish tank and loads of other bits. We all really enjoyed it. Of course we did end up at the playground after but it was quite chilly so didn't stay all that long. On the way back to the car we tried, unsuccessfully, to catch a squirrel for lunch!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, here's hoping it's a better one than 2011! Our little family of four had not a bad year but looking at our wider family and friends it was filled with rather too much death. Thankfully 2012 started on a better note as we celebrated the new year surrounded by friends.

Here's a few pics we had taken just before Christmas, I think they have captured the kids pretty well. ;)