Benny and Cornwall

Wednesdays are busy now. The children have started Judo lessons in the morning at 8am, and then Amie has Brownies at 5:45. So a lot of eating quickly and rushing around today! Judo is very cute, especially when Noah demonstrates on daddy what he's learned.

Seamus is a funny cat.The other day as I rushed out to swimming with the kids I glanced into the play room where he comes into from being outside. There in his foodbowl lay a mouse.. he'd obviously caught it and decided he was going to save it till later. I just had to laugh at the way he put it in his bowl. Was tempted to take a picture and label it cat food..but thought you might not want to see a dead rodent on the screen, so went with this one instead.

Amie's Party

Amie and her friends had a great time at Haa Hoos Pottery studio today for her party!

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A lot has happened since the last time we posted. Both children have had birthdays, so Noah is now 5 and Amie is 7. Noah's also started at Amie's school and has settled in really well. And Amie has won the Chess Championship for the second year running.

We've had a trip up to Cumbria and York during the Easter break, and dug the annual passes out for a trip to Legoland. We're busy preparing for Amie's party tomorrow and are going to make some rice-Krispie cakes :)

Amie opening her cards on her birthday, Easter Sunday. She was ill on her birthday so we had to save the cake for the next day.

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Amie trying out the new bike she got for her birthday.

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Noah trying out the present he bought Amie, a gross science set. That's him with a wound and maggots on his hand, no wonder Amie felt ill!


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Amie finally getting to have her cake the next day. We've just bought a Moshi Monsters cake for her party tomorrow.

Amie bought this puppy called Benji with her own birthday money while we were in Legoland.

Noah enjoying his party back in February.

Amie and Lily, dad's friends daughter in York enjoying a stroll.

Amie and Noah in York Jail... they managed to get out.

Noah's happy to ride Amie's 16inch old bike, and doesn't seem to mind that it's pink. We're trying to sell his old one and will buy him a boy's bike with the money.

However going on a girls bike seems to have had a strange effect on him, as we couldn't get him to take off Amie's hairband later that day!

Amie makes the paper

Santa dropped into see Amie's football team

http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2105868_santa_drops_in_to_see_reeves_rangers_youngsters

Happy New Year

Here we are again, at the start of a New Year. I don't make New Year resolutions,if you want to make a change in your life why wait till the calender says it's a certain day. So this year I'm not making resolutions, just putting plans into action for improvements. So improvement #1: Stop impersonating a pregnant woman. I didn't look this fat when I was pregnant, so why I'm suddenly looking like I'm smuggeling cushions under my jumper is anyone's guess. It's certainly not connected to the habit of drinking cider and eat a packet of crisps every evening. Still, nothing like your 4 year old telling you you look pregnant to get the ol motivation going.... Weight watchers here I come (again) for the ritual humilation and patronisation that eventually leads to you eating less just so that you don't have to listen to your leader simpering on about "Why do you think you might have gained 2lbs this week?" as though she expected any other answer than "Um, I ate my bodyweight in pringles".

Rich and I on the start of our walk today. You can tell it was at the start of the walk as we are both smiling.

So today the kids were both back in school, and Rich had the day off work. What were we going to do with ourselves for 6 hours of freedom? Wipe that smirk off your face, we are married now in case you'd forgotten and besides, I said 6 HOURS (not six minutes). Rich came up with the idea that we should go for a nice country walk. I wasn't paying attention so when he looked up a walk online and shouted to me "Do you want to go for 6 miles or 4?", I thought he meant did I want to drive for 6 miles or 4 to get to the start point, so being a rebel I said 6. He actually meant 6 miles, or tracking through fields in the middle of nowhere and ploughing through fields full of sheep and horses.... 2 hours later we arrived at the pub at the end of the trek which only served Courgette Risotto as it's veggie dish. I hate courgettes so we drove back to Wokingham where I had a nice plate of cheesy Nachos (looking forward to telling the leader THAT on Saturday)

Kendal

Kendal

We went up to Cumbria and to Bolton over the New Year to see Rich's sister and his parents.

OK so improvement #2 is to try to improve the children's sleeping habits, as although they go to bed early they mess about every evening till around 9:30. We've sort of just let them get on with it as long as they don't come downstairs and annoy us, but it's not really good for them so have been policing them a bit more and also have stopped them watching tv for an hour before they go to bed as apparently watching tv changes their brainwaves and makes it harder for them to sleep. We shall see how it goes.

This policing is in direct opposition to improvement #3: Stop policing the children all the time. I get sick of hearing myself nagging them about how much tv they are waching, computer time, psp time, game on camera time. I think these things are great for short distractions but hate to see the children on them for too long as I have this urge to think they are somehow either damaging their eyes, or stunting their development (This is how bad it gets!). Ok, I realise that this is not the reality, so I'm easing up a little but also making an effort to set up some other things for them to do. Screen free Sunday is going to be making a MAJOR comeback. If I had my way there would be a Snoopje Saterdag... where they get to eat sweets on Saturday only, but that is just not going to happen. Our friends in Sweden did it and I thought it was a great idea.. but I think I've let the sweets and treats in the door.. so cutting them back will be a bit harder. But it can be done, right? At the moment I'm contenting myself with limiting their chocolate to after dinner treat..will see how it goes.. everyone needs a treat eh?