Monday 29 August 2011

Week 5

I'm officially on countdown (not that I haven't been for the last 5 weeks too, but hey...) until the kids all go back to school. Just over one week to go!!!

This week Alex was at Mad Science and he loved every day he was there. He still hasn't found his "niche/thing", but he does enjoy his science....


Nicholas was at Deanes on Monday doing Rounders & Dodgeball. Once all kids had been picked up, we headed over to the in-laws as it was Barbara's birthday, for tea and cake - yum!


Tuesday saw us meeting up with Lyn and her two sproglets Zach and Paige - were supposed to be venturing over to the woods, but the wet weather put paid to those plans, so it was a play date at our house instead.


On Wednesday i got to spend the day with my youngest son and I'd promised him breakfast out, so we found a lovely little cafe in Leigh called "Hippo's" and we've made it ours. Although may just have to find another one as I wasn't that impressed with it. Toast and a bacon sandwich later, we were full and ready for the cram packed day Nicholas had planned for us both. I really enjoyed spending some quality 1:1 time with him, even if he did end up playing on the PC for a bit in the afternoon whilst I sorted out my Avon!



Thursday was kind of a chores day/mess about day and on Friday we met up with Michelle to go over to Wat Tyler on our bikes. However, despite it being the middle of summer, the constant rain made that idea not viable, so we tossed a coin and ended up over at Partyman in Basildon. £30 later to get 4 kids and 2 adults in for 2 hours of play - we wont be going again! Still, Mich and I got to have a good catch up!


Saturday was THE day I'd been looking forward to all holidays. Mum had kindly agreed to have Cassie for the day as I'd booked for Lee and I and the boys to go and see "Batman Live" at the 02 Arena and we weren't disappointed. It was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! I dont' know who enjoyed it more, Lee and I or the boys?!!! We had fabby seats (and so we should of for the amount of money they cost) but it was a show like I've never seen before and I've been to a few! The "bad guys" were just great - The Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Harliquinn, Two Face, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow , but the best bit had to of been when the batmobile came on stage and Batman drove off in it!! Lee and I were jumping around and yelling and the boys were just looking at us like silly people. Pure classic comic book stuff was at the end when Batman and Robin ran off with their capes flying behind them... just brilliant.


Sunday was a bit of a wash out day as Alex was rather poorly - so it turned into a "jobs" day - cleaning out the guinea pigs, tidying out the shed, homework etc etc. I also had to sort out some stuff and load the car as Blenhim's bootsale was scheduled for Bank Holiday Monday and I wanted to do a boot. The Belgium GP was on too, that was Lee gone for the afternoon whilst doing all the ironing of course - what a good hubby... OU study in the eve led to brain overload and an episode of Vampire Diaries before bed.

Bring on "Week 6"!

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Saturday 27 August 2011

Week 4


This week was just as full on as the others with visits to the local library to complete the Circus Summer Reading challenge for the boys - they were pleased they got a free bowling voucher each!

We meet up with Sarah on Tuesday as her two boys are friends with my two boys which was nice and then Lee and I took them all to Chalkwell fair in the afternoon - half price rides!






Wednesday was a lazy day all round, in readiness for a full on day at Adventure Island with Dawn and her kids Andie & Max and Tara and her little boy Lennon. Everyone had a brill time and everyone got to go on lots of rides - The mummies included!






On Friday, I finally managed to catch up with my friend Gemma who'd had a baby boy two weeks earlier and to say he's yummy is an understatement. Got me all broody again.....


I escaped on Saturday and spent the WHOLE day scrapbooking in good company at Eastwood Scrappers where I got lots of layouts started, although not many totally finished!

And it was Josh Duce's birthday this week, so on Sunday afternoon, I took all the kids over the road to Charmaine's for lots of bouncy castle fun!


So, another week closer to the wee ones going back to school... you never know, they may just make it!!!

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Friday 19 August 2011

Week 3....


Well, all 3 kids are still breathing - just... and this week we were still all on the go..

On Monday - our first prot of call was Pets at Home (again) to replace Alex's guinea pig Muffin that escaped from the run last week and we think got eaten by the fox. Custard is now our new addition. From there we met up with some of the other Mum's and headed over to Grays Beach - which a smaller version of Promanade Park, Maldon - just more enclosed - felt a little safer letting the kids go off. Will def. be going there again (if I can find it that is)!

Tuesday was a day spent with Mum and we took the kids down to the beach for a bit in the morning and where we were had one of those small pool areas that stays full of water when the tide goes out, so I ended up buying them all crabbing nets, not that they caught anything!


The afternoon was spent at Southchurch park - do like it there, enough for all the kids to do.


Wednesday was the first day of Nicholas's 3 day mini football camp and he was well excited. So wants to follow in the footsteps of Robin van Persie! Cassandra was at nursery so I got some much needed 1:1 time with my eldest. Alex and I went into town to our "little cafe" and had a late breakfast of toast and then just spent the day doing stuff together which included making some stacking candles!


Thursday Nicholas was again at football, so I took Cassie and Alex swimming to Garrons which was a lot of fun.


Friday Alex joined Nicholas at Deanes - for Dodgeball & Waterzone which he absolutely loved. Cassie was at nursery so I had about 4 hours to myself - which were spent cleaning and catching up on paperwork /making phone calls :) When all 3 sprogletts had been collected we zoomed into town to Clarkes (great place, they now do appointments) so I could fork out nearly £100 on 3 new pairs of school shoes... Cassie went up 2 sizes!!!!
I treated the boys on Saturday by taking them to Empire Juniors to see Rio which they liked whilst Lee spent time in town with his daughter.


And the last day of of the week - Sunday Lee spent time with the boys building a run up for the guinea pigs to the top level of their hutch and raising the hutch higher off the floor - to avoid any cat/fox encounters...

So - into week 4....

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Wednesday 10 August 2011

We find, we loose....


The saga of the guinea pigs is far from over..

To cut a long story short, we got two guinea pigs last Monday - Muffin and Donught. Within 3 hours of having them, one had squirmed it's way out of my hands and escaped! Then came the entire rest of the day trying to catch the dam thing. We put rows of food out, Tina cameover and we tried to find it under the shed, I brought the other one in, left the cage open, etc etc, but no return...

Tuesday came and went and Nicholas was getting more upset. So Tuesday night I said to him that Donught was probably off on an adventure with a new little mouse friend or something and we'd go and get him a new pig the following day.

Which is what we did, another £25 later, Biscuit settled in nicely...


But then a couple of hours later - Donught was spotted - hiding under the hutch - so then came the palava of trying to entice him into the "squirral trap" that we'd bought (another £20) which we finally did. So now we have 3 guinea pigs - Biscuit now being Cassie's...

Well, actually not. As on Sunday, I'd put all 3 guinea pigs in their run that we'd bought, but Lee had moved it from where I'd placed it. So we come home from spending the day with friends, to find that Muffin had escaped - gone under the run and through the gap as our garden is not entirely flat. So now I have Alex all upset....

Despite us doing all the same things as last time, Muffin is still on the loose...

Think it may cost me ANOTHER £25 to get another dam guinea pig at the weekend at this rate...

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Monday 8 August 2011

Week 2.....

And the summer hols continue..

This week saw us on Monday meet up with some of the other Mum's and kids from school. We all ventured over to Promanade Park at Maldon. It was a beautiful day so all the kids managed to get a session in the splash area and the pirate sand ship was a big success as always too...




On Tuesday, Mum and I took the kids to Tropical Wings - Nicholas' choice as he'd been there recently with his class on his school trip. Although we had a nice time, the kids all played up so much we came home earlier than planned, which was disappointing, but hey ho..


Cassie so didn't like the big chickens!!!


On Wednesday, Alex came over with her little boy Harrison to play with Nicolas and Alex and her daughter Courtney came too. This was a golden opportunity knocking as I signed them up as one of my team for Avon! Hope they do REALLY well...


Thursday was the day Lee finally came home from South Africa and it was great to have him home. He had a GREAT time at Kruger National park and took over 3,000 photos - I'm soooooooooo looking forward to seeing all of them!!!


On Friday after dropping Cassie at Nursery and doing some "gem work" (6 weeks is far to long for kids not to do any work over the hols), I took the boys to Rayleigh Mega Play for Nicholas to play with Niamh in the soft play area and Alex to go for a game of quaser with Calum. They all had a good time and Rachel and I got to sit and have a good ole chat and catch up..


The weekend finally arrived and Saturday was my day off - a well deserved day of scrapbooking at Jackie's crop in Benfleet and I had a wonderful day and got LOADS of pages completed.

Sunday saw us driving over to Tiptree for a late BBQ lunch with Claire and Graham and their 2 kids - (Nicholas has a "thing" for their daughter, Eloise) and despite the rainy weather everyone had a lovely day.

So, onwards to week 3 - I may just get through these 6 weeks yet....

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Tuesday 2 August 2011

Two new additions..

After much deliberation and encouragement from the kids that they wanted a "pet" we settled on some guinea pigs! We actually went to get them last week, but despite every other time we've ever been into the pet shop, they've always had both rabbitts and guinea pigs in stock, when we wanted to buy some, they didn't have any!

So, yesterday morning the kids and I were there at 9am to choose our two boy guinea pigs :)

The boys both got to choose one and funnily enough they both chose a cream colour one, Nicholas' having a paler stripe down it's head. We brought them home and set up all the hutch with bedding, food and water etc and then introduced Muffin (Alex's) and Donught (Nicholas) to their new home...


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The first week..

Well, we're into the second week of the summer hols and my 3 kids are still alive and kicking - I must be slacking!

We've as usual, had a busy week - although on Monday I tried to keep things a little low key and we just went to the library to register the kids for the Circus read, and popped round to see Mum - the kids wanted to put on a show for us, but they also wanted volunteer's to take part - reminded me of me when I was little!


On Tuesday, I took the kids over to Thorndon Country Park to an Indiana Jones morning - we had to follow clues to find the Holy Grail - all the kids had great fun running around in the woods..
On Wednesday, Cassie was at nursery - which is good as get to do stuff with the boys that I can't always do with her around. So in the morning I took the boys over to a cosmetic workshop and we made bath bombs, bath oil and aftershave. Then we met up with the Harkes' at Chalkwell park for a play..

Thursday was an emotional day as we had to take Lee to his parents as he was leaving for South Africa to go on Safari with his Dad and Brother-in-law. So after, I took the kids to a big "Working Together against Crime" event in Basildon - on the train! They love travelling on a train for some reason... they were all quite good and both Nicholas and Cassandra had their faces painted whilst we were there..



Friday, Cassie was back in nursery, so I took the boys to Fun Swim up at school and then treated the boys to an event of their choice at "Action Park"- they choose to go on the quad bikes!! They both said they were awesome, even if Alex did take the corner too fast and stack the bike!!

Saturday was really just a dossy day, although Nicholas wanted to count all his money, but one of his moneyboxes the hole was too small to get anything out, so I ended up smashing it. Then came the adventure of trying to find another moneybox - how hard can this be - very actually! We ended up over at The Factory Shop in Rochford, where Nicholas choose a globe. This was good as I was able to point out where Lee had gone in relation to England :)



Sunday saw us over at a Family Fun Day in Eastwood where both Alex and Nicholas enjoyed a go in the Water Walkers there and Cassie loved the old fashioned swings.


After that one, we ventured over to Rochford as one of Mum's friends had told us about a Pony sanctury that was having a charity event, and the kids loved that one even more as they had some cheap 20p/30p stalls they could have a go on. The best bit for Alex was the actual pony ride though...
So, all in all we've had a good week..

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