Twisted Weekend

Its been quite a good weekend. On Friday night the Train Gang came over to ours for a little take-away get together - we decided it was easier than trying to find a suitable time for everyone and arrange babysitters. It was a really good evening - not least for some amazing insights into Jo's job!

On Saturday afternoon we went to CocoNuts with Dave, Kellie, Matthew & Emily and the kids ran about like lunatics for a couple of hours. Then we had tea at a nearby Pizza Hut. Ben's tea must have disagreed with him though as he spent most of last night projectile vomiting which was nice!!

Today was a big day for Steve some trifling football match between the Super Ipswich (aka "The Donkeys" according to Amy) & Narwich so he left quite early to journey to Ipswich. It turns out this is the first time in 8 years that Ipswich have beaten Norwich at home (3-1 for the record - Ste) and apparently that is quite important.

My Mum, Dad & Ally popped over and we decided to go to lunch at the Queen B. It was a complete disaster with Ben practically covering me with his dinner and I have vowed not to set foot into a restaurant with him until he is 13!




This afternoon the kids (both large & small) had great fun playing Twister in the kitchen - I didn't realise how hard to was to play as an adult!

Ben has been practising really hard with his walking and is now up to 3 steps without falling over so he's getting there.

Kids Say the Funniest Things

I wanted to recount a conversation I had with Amy in the car the other day - just in case I ever forgot it. It went something like this....

Scene 1 - Amy is in the car writing out little notelets and putting them in envelopes

Amy: These are invitations to my wedding.

Mummy: That's nice dear, who are you going to marry?

Amy: For my first wedding I am going to marry Ben.

Mummy: Oh so you're going to get married more than once are you?

Amy: Yes, 1st I shall marry Ben, then Ollie, then Charlie McKechran, then Charlie White, then Conor.

Mummy: Won't it get confusing marrying two Charlies?

Amy: No, I'll see one just on the weekends!

Mummy: (giggles to herself)

Amy: But Charlie McKechran says that girls can marry girls if they can't find a boy they like. And boys can marry boys if they can't find a girl they like

Mummy: (Speechless!!)

I'm not sure which is worse, incest, bigamy or the gay/lesbian marriages and all of this at the tender age of 4!! Whatever next I wonder.

Happy 60th Mum

Well all in all it's been a fairly exciting weekend for Mum's birthday. As you can see below we had the dogs on Saturday and then on Sunday we went to The Alma for Sunday Lunch. The Alma's an odd place really - at the front its a dark little pub but at the back it's this uber-modern haute cuisine restaurant which does some of the finest food in town.

Amy behaved quite well considering she's had a sleepover the night before and was obviously shattered and Ben wasn't too bad either considering he woke up in a strange restaurant surrounding by lots of people. I think the big bowl of chips might have helped!

Hopefully, Mum enjoyed her 60th celebrations. I think she did!

One one final note and it's definately a case of last but not least. Ben took his very first tentative steps this weekend. Ok so it was only 1 step without falling over but its a start! Go Ben!!!

Night at the Dogs

Saturday night at Romford dog track - that's what my Mum said she fancied doing for her 60th birthday celebration so Romford dog track it was.

Steve and I sorted out the transportation and a lovely black stretch limo was the order of the day. Mum really enjoyed it and I think we all could have easily gotten used to the celebrity lifestyle!

Dad organised for us all to have dinner in The Chase restaurant and we had great fun throwing good money away on the little greyhounds. Mum and I kept getting mixed up and asking for £1 to win on Horse number 4!!

Everyone had a lovely time and Amy & Ben more so than anyone because they got to have a sleepover at Auntie Kirstie's house. Steve & I enjoyed our 9.30 lay-in quite a bit too!!!

Ben's Baptism

The 5th November - a special day for many reasons, my late Grandad's birthday, Guy Fawkes Night and now Ben's Christening.

Everything went really well. The service was a little long-winded but aren't they always and Ben spent most of his time by the pulpit slapping me about the head with the programme but that's about par for the course really.

After the service everyone came back to our house for a little party. Thank goodness the weather was nice because we seemed to have invited a fair few people.


All the kids played together really nicely and the adults didn't do too bad either. Amy & Ollie especially liked sneaking away up the stairs with a big tin of Roses!

Sylvie made a beautiful cake which was too lovely to cut - well almost.

We got to see Natalie, Kev & James again too which was nice. James is a little sweetie and was completely unfazed about being surrounding by loads of people he didn't even know.

Many thanks to Ben's lovely new godparents Paula & Daniel for doing such a splendid job. I look forward to sending him your way for spiritual realignment when he gets arrested for drunken behaviour at junior school!

Fantastic Fireworks

On Saturday we went to Lily's house in Danbury for a little fireworks party. Amy was, naturally, thrilled to be seeing Lily and several of her old nursery friends.

The Parker's house has a spectacular view down the Danbury hills and as the sun was setting it was truly beautiful. - I can see why they brought the house.

Amy is scared of fireworks as it turns out so spent most of the night watching through the dining room window but seemed to enjoy herself nonetheless.

Ben had a great time too but was a little frustrated that we wouldn't let him crawl on the wet grass or hold a sparkler!

Halloween Fun & Games

Now I'm not a big fan of Halloween and I definitely don't agree with Trick or Treating but I'm not one to be a killjoy so I on Tuesday 31st I was equipped with a large bag full of sweets for any costume-clad littlies that came knocking.

I was quite surprised though that Amy got so into it because I really haven't made a big deal of it. We cut out a pumpkin (well Auntie Kirstie helped!), baked a spider cake and she & Ben dressed up.

We had a little impromptu party (naturally Granny had all the necessary bits "at home somewhere") and we opened the door to tonnes of trick or treaters.

Ben enjoyed it too until a slightly larger than average trick or treater rang the doorbell and that scared him a little bit but apart from that it was all good fun.

Boo Hiss to the kids who took off with the whole bag of sweets that I left out for any late-comer trick or treaters whilst we put the kids to bed. In the 5 years I've been doing that it has never happened before but I guess that's the damning indication of what our world is coming to eh!