Happy 5th Birthday Toby

Wednesday 20th was Toby's 5th birthday; he's been looking forward to it and counting down for months!  He was up and ready to celebrate at 4:55am and I felt a little bad sending him back to bed, though that only lasted for half an hour.

Apart from wanting any advertised tat he saw on tv, the only thing he really asked for was a big box of chocolates to share (like daddy got for his birthday).  That was easily arranged and we supplemented that with a portable football goal, some new shin pads, googles for swimming and a few books.

After last year and his big party, this year was going to be a small one.  We thought perhaps he might choose to take a friend or two to the cinema or bowling but all he wanted was a few friends for tea.  I was quite happy with that though surprised by just how noisy five boys can be (especially after lots of sugar)!  We did our annual chocolate egg hunt, usually it's nice enough to go outside but this year it was freezing and it was snowing again this weekend.  I don't know if the other boys had done this before as it caused great excitement.  I suspect we will be finding undiscovered chocolate around the house for at least the next week or so.

There was also a few mini games of football as the goal was up in the dining room - probably not the most sensible activity at that point and it was only by small miracle that nothing got broken (bones included in that statement!).  Toby requested a dragon cake and after looking for ideas that I might be able to replicate, I decided to cheat a little and do a Chinese dragon rather than a 'dragon in a cave' type one.  He seemed happy enough with it so that's all that matters and greatly enjoyed his party too.

Today, we planned on going out for the day, somewhere of Toby's choosing.  However, with the snow and the fact that it is freezing, we changed our plans and stayed local.  First we went swimming and took his swim toys (and googles of course) to the pool with us.  He's doing pretty well with his swimming lessons, has ditched his armbands and keeps getting moved up groups.  As much as both he and Beth enjoy lessons, they predictably far prefer fun swims!  After that we had a takeaway lunch and that is being followed by a movie afternoon complete with popcorn in front of the fire. :)

A perfect birthday week!

Oh, the last photo on the left is from 5:35am and Toby saying, "So, where are my presents?"!

The Magic of Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone!

After a few hectic days travelling to France and back we have spent a couple of very relaxed ones.  On Christmas Eve we went down to Leicester to see grandma, grandpa and Auntie Jane and have our Christmas lunch.  It was very nice - lots of lovely fodder, a few tipples and lots of treats.  The highlight for Beth was having Auntie Jane curl her hair.  Amazingly it is still a bit wavy two days on - she has the straightest hair and so it's surprising it stayed in at all!  Thankfully the kids were quite dozy on the way home so after putting out their stockings and sorting out Santa's milk and Rudolf's carrot, they were happy to go to bed.

Christmas Day was spent at home.  It started slightly earlier than desired (5:30) but the single present left in each bedroom kept the kids occupied and upstairs for about an hour.  I think it is the first Christmas that the kids have actually stopped between presents to play with what they opened.  Usually it's like having a couple of Tasmanian Devils whirling round ripping everything open till there's nothing left!  This year it was after midday when the last present was opened, quite a miracle.


Beth's favourite present without a doubt was a pair of pink sparkly party shoes from Auntie Jane, closely followed by some make-up (just what every 6-year-old needs ;)).  Toby dotted between his presents and didn't seem to have a favourite though the Hot Wheels Mega Loop seemed to keep him occupied for quite a long time.  I suspect he wasn't feeling a 100% since he had a temperature of 103.4 (39.7), not that he complained much!

Grandma and grandad came down for lunch and we had a massive rib of beef, yorkshires and all the rest; quite an informal meal for Christmas lunch but very tasty.  It was a lovely, relaxed day where we didn't step outside once; guess we'll probably get outside today as it's mandatory to have a walk on Boxing Day.  Hope you all had great Christmases too!

The Magic Before Christmas

This year we started Christmas early and went to Disneyland Paris for three days. We left very early on the morning of December 21, arriving just before check-in, and headed straight into the park.

Beth has absolutely no memory of going to Disneyland all those times in California, so it was like a first for both the kids. We only told them the day before as neither of us could cope with the expected levels of excitement for a prolonged time!  Having said that, Beth was rather disappointed at first as she wanted to go to London shopping (she needs reminding that she was born in Orange County in close proximity to Disney rather than in LA County, where she lived, that was closer to Rodeo Drive!!!). Thankfully she did get excited and we had a great few days.

Considering we weren't trying to meet the characters, we managed to bump into a surprisingly large number of them. My favourite was Mickey as we got a family pic with him. Beth's was probably Minnie (we bumped into her in the hotel shop!), and Toby's was definitely Buzz. We saw him meeting and greeting with a massive half-hour queue and decided it wasn't worth the wait.  Instead we went to the area up near the front where you can watch him but not meet him and just looked.  I'm sure the people in the queue were less than delighted when Buzz spotted Toby in his Buzz hoodie, broke off greeting and came over especially to see him!  For any of you that know Toby, it's quite a spectacle to see him speechless, quite sweet really. :)

The rides were met with a mixed reaction. They loved the teacups, the carousel, the Buzz ride, the Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours and the haunted house. There were a few rides that were 'fine' but had no requests for a second go, and two that they totally disliked.  One was Big Thunder Mountain - Steve and I loved it while Toby didn't like it and Beth hated it as she came off with a tummy ache and banged hip!


The other was RC's ride (the remote control car from Toy Story). Beth was only just tall enough so Steve took her on.  It looked right on the edge of her comfort level, and it was.  At one point Steve was concerned she was going to puke on her fellow fun lovers!  Thankfully she held it in but I doubt will be tempted back on until she's a teenager at least.

We all loved the parades; we saw the Stars in Cars parade in the Disney Studio Park - Jessie waved and waved at Toby who was again in his top (appears that it was worth buying - thanks gran & grandad). We also saw the big main parade in the main park - Prince Charming waved and waved at Beth in her princess dress. :) They are definitely impressive and fantastic to watch but I do wonder how much ibuprofen the cast members have to take after to get rid of their smile-induced jaw aches!!

The kids are thoroughly knackered; Disneyed out, but we brilliant time and look forward to going back. Hopefully next time we'll make CA as the weather's better, the cast members I remember being even smilier and the most of the locals are friendlier. ;)

Oops, Too Long!

Well, it's been a while since the last post - I'm really getting quite bad at updating these days.  Guess we just have so much going on!

We're all well, just had half term - much needed and we made good use of it by staying in our pj's until far too late, trips out and generally relaxing.

I think I'm just going to have to list everything we've been doing or I'll loose momentum halfway through and stop!  Here goes . . .

Toby has started playing football one night a week and so far he loves it.  He is very motivated by the possibility of getting star of the week and the trophy that accompanies this.  So far he's got it twice but is quite indignant when someone else gets it - in his mind he is the best!  I'm not sure that Pele would agree but he certainly tries hard.

We have all started Taekwondo twice a week and are enjoying it; Beth is very good at it as she is flexible, quick and has the memory of an elephant.  Toby spends the lessons looking anything but concentrated but annoyingly knows all the moves when it comes to graduating!  

Unfortunately I have no photos of us in our uniforms (or costumes as Toby calls them) but there is a Halloween pic of all the kids outside the academy.

On the topic of Halloween, I think this is the first year that both kids have designed and mostly carved their own pumpkins.  I think they did a pretty good job of it.  I always forget how easy and fun carving is, I'll really have to be more organised next year and have a pumpkin carving party for adults (alcohol and knives, what could possibly go wrong . . . ?).  



We went to the usual Halloween party at the village hall, appropriately Toby was a devil.  Beth was her usual witch.  We extended our trick or treat route this year and even ventured in to the extremely scary house (previous years this has included the owner jumping out of a coffin).  Neither of the kids was scared in the slightest - I guess when you have a father that hides under your bed well before bed, stays there till you're about to drop off then either jumps out or scratches the wooden bed boards and 'heavy breathes', you don't let the little matter of expected ghosts and ghouls bother you too much!!

Over half term we did a quick overnight ferry trip to Belfast to visit Grandma Ruth.  The cabin we got was pretty cool - right at the front in the middle overlooking the bow by the radar.  Shame it was so dark that we couldn't really see that much!  It was a great weekend, we got to swim in the hotel pool, walk by the shore, go on the pedal swans (Steve managed to deposit his iphone into the lake) and spend some quality time with g'ma Ruth. :)

Over half term we also had a few trips out for the day, one of them was to Clumber Park for a bike ride and leaf kick.  It was beautiful, slightly foggy, with lots of autumn colours.  Despite being a little soggy, we had a fantastic walk/ride and play.  It makes me sad that the kids are in school and we can't go more often.  I took a few photos of the kids but couldn't resist attempting some 'artistic' ones too.

These last two photos are lovely ones; the one on the left is from a trip to see Great Gran Ess.  The other is Beth entertaining herself while Toby was playing football.  She was very pleased to manage to swing to the third rope before falling off!

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 . . . :)