Amie's first book...

Amie made a book at nursery, or at least she came home with a few pages stapled toogether, with some drawings on them. When I asked her about the story, she delighted in telling me it in some detail. She asked me to write it for her while she dictated it, and this is it verbatim... the next Booker Prize winner pehaps?

"Once upon a time there was a boy playing hide in sick in the garden and then all on a sudden the warm sun came up and then the boy saw that there was a monster in his garden. And then the boy ran in to tell his mum there was a monster in the garden and then the boy called the mans to come pack all his toys in a big box and put them on a plane to go to the new house, and they flew in the airplane to the new house.
And then the monster called to the plane "Please can you put the steps out at the front please" and then the monster climbed up them. But then all on a sudden the plane goed faster and then the other plane with the monster got shocked and then the monster fell out and then when he looked up he saw a big thing and it was cross. And they lived togeather happily ever after"

Noah has decided he's ready to wear pants. On Tuesday at toddler group he asked me to take him to the toilet, and he sat on it and did his business.. so I've bitten the bullet and put him in pants only during the day. We've had a few accidents but more often than not he gets it where it's meant to be. His sticker chart is filling up fast, and we're well on the way to no nappies anymore.. Hooray! :)

Heeeeeey

Noah insists on holding onto a big fistful of my hair whenever I have him on my shoulders, even though he insists before I lift him up that "I won't pull your hair mum"





Well we've moved house, that was the big bit of news that I meant to report. We've actually bought a house, so the bank owns it, but we have to pay less rent which is good :)


Eoghain and Tanja paid us a visit, and it's thanks to them that we have some photos to put up on the blog :)



We have a new addition to the house, a butterfly, who as yet has no name. Eoghain got the kids a butterfly set for Christmas, and we've seen 4 caterpillars turn into butterflies.. however one of the them has a dodgy wing, and even though I did release him yesterday I felt a bit guilty being sure he was going to end up as some other creatures dinner, but then I figured that's the way nature works. However, Amie found him this afternoon on our back step.. looking even worse for wear, so we've decided he can spend his remaining days, or weeks living in the hatching habitat... he cannot fly so it's not as though it's cruel to keep him captive, and at least we know he'll be fed and not end up getting eaten. (and he's less work than a puppy)

May Fayre

I know my spelling is terrible, but actually that's how they spell the May Fair here in Wokingham. It's really nice, they have a free Family Fun Day with free rides, candy floss, puppet show, face painting and a petting zoo kind of area in a local park. Luckily the weather was lovely and we were able to spend at least an hour in the queue for face painting. I think you'll agree the end results were good, but I don't think they really had to be so intricate with little kids... but still, Amie and Noah were very happy with it. I've been trying to upload a video of Amie on her 'new' bike, but it won't work. I got this bike for nothing from Freecycle, but had to spend 30 pounds on it getting new wheels and the brake fixed. I decided to try teach her to ride a bike without using training wheels, because in Holland really young children are out riding bikes and I've never seen training wheels on them, so I guess they don't use them. Anyway, within about 10 minutes she had the hang of it. I think it'd due to the fact she had a balance bike for ages, and she could to downhill on that with both her feet up, so she had the balance already.. she just needs to remember to keep peddeling now.

A day at Beale Park

Well, the L plates may not be long in the bin, but I decided to be brave and drive the kids on a 40 min drive to Beale Park this afternoon. We all made it in one piece, thanks to our good friend Tom Tom.. whos sage advice and non judgemental attitude more than makes up for having Rich in the passenger seat (though his conversation skills could do with some work, Tom Tom's that is, not Richard's). The only major embarrasment was stalling on a roundabout in Reading with rush hour traffic piling up behind me.. but ahem, we didn't do too badly really for our first trip out. We met up with their friends from the Easter Egg hunt of the previous week and spent a very fun afternoon picnicing, and looking at all the animals. We rounded off the day with a trip on the mini train :)



"I love you this much.."




I thought Noah looked very cute sitting in these blue flowers, until I realised he was EATING them!






http://www.bealepark.co.uk/ This place is well worth a visit if you are in the area!

Easter Egg Hunt at Basildon Park

In an effort to stop the mothers going (even more) insane, we decided to take the kids on an Easter Egg hunt (a bit late, but the chocolate still tastes the same) at Basildon Park this afternoon. We were VERY lucky with the weather as it started lashing rain just as we were packing six very tired and happy children into the cars.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-basildonpark.htm










Mission complete

Finally, the moment she's been waiting for.. keeping her eyes on the prize, she blows out all her candles...


..eventually.


Having a gossip over lunch.


Acting the clown around Wokingham town on Saturday.