May The Force Be With You...

After the blink-and-you'll-miss-it holiday, the summer seemed to crawl along, due mainly to the distinct lack of any discernible length of sunshine. The highlight of the 'greyest August ever' then materialised in the form of Cousin Laszlo's 4th birthday party. Despite only just turning four, Laszlo has a great love for all things Star Wars; he just LOVES it! It came as no surprise then that this should be the theme for his party. Having read the invitation and the fateful words no mother wants to read on a party invitation of 'Fancy Dress', Will declares his immediate desire to go dressed as Han Solo, and Josie as Princess Leia. A few long hours with the sewing machine later, I think we achieved something worthy to fight the Dark Side!
I'm not sure who had the most fun - the birthday boy or his dad!

The Great Camping Disaster...

Well, it was, or it wasn't, depending on who you ask. My children, the Eternal Optimists remember only the highlights and think it was a GREAT holiday! (for highlights read - everything new and exciting - sleeping bags and torches feature very highly...)

09:00 I pack up the car in record time so that we are all ready to go.
11:30 Great Granny Mu arrives from Manchester so we have to visit with her before we can leave otherwise we won't see her all week.
11:31 The car won't start.
11:32 Adam decides it's the battery and starts fiddling under the bonnet as there is some 'corrosion' on the battery that needs getting off.
11:45 Great Granny Mu comes to our house instead.
12:00 Adam goes out to buy a new battery.
12:05 The campsite we wanted to stay at rang back to say that their pitches were too waterlogged.
12:10 After several attempts I find a campsite in that will take a tent as big as ours and has space (and has shower facilities!)
12:30 Adam returns after realising that although he took his wallett, his card was not in his wallett...
12:35 Granny Jack goes home to get some jump leads to see if we can't just get it started.
13:00 We get the car started.
13:15 Everyone piles in the car and we get going!
15:30 As we head towards the campsite, we can't help but realise that it's in the middle of a town between the sports centre and a playing field. Not the country. This is the problem with the campsite guide not having a picture...
15:31 Adam does a U-turn in the campsite entrance.
15:32 We start ringing another campsite that has 'Farm' in the title. They have space...
16:15 We arrive at the 'farm' which is a working farm down a country lane - much more like it. But we can't see any other tents.
16:16 There are however, a load of dirty old caravans bunched together in a field.
16:17 The farmer's wife comes out and tells us we can camp in the immediate field in front of us which has two of the abandoned caravans in it.
16:30 Seeming as it's heading for dinnertime we cut our losses and start putting up the tent facing away from the caravan graveyard.
18:00 Adam sets off for the local town to find some milk for the morning and some more gas for the cooker...
18:15 We unpack in the tent and tidy up so it looks rather cosy. The children get their pyjamas on SUPER excited to be sleeping in a sleeping bag.
18:16 Josie needs the toilet so we all put our shoes on and trek over to the ONE toilet that although clean is rather primitive. Not ever having to have used such basic facilities NEITHER Will or Josie will go, and suddenly 'don't need to go anymore'. I go, to prove that it's ok and no spiders are attacking me, but they still won't go.
18:30 In desparation Josie now needs to go so badly she's considering the previously unconsiderable, and we all trek over there again. Will however, with his legs crossed, practically hopping on one leg, does 'not need to go'...
18:35 Adam rings as the gas shop was closed and he's in Sainsbury's wondering what to get for dinner that doesn't need cooking.
18:40 Will has held out valiantly, but his bladder is winning and meekly he asks if we can go to the toilets AGAIN!!!
19:00 Adam returns with a selection from the deli, some chips and dip, and mini muffins. We all dig in.
21:00 We finally get the children into bed, who have waited all day to sleep in the sleeping bags. Buzz is so tired that he barely makes a noise and conks out like a light.
21:30 It's cold and I have no way to heat water for my hot chocolate, so we decide to get an early night and hope that the children all sleep all night...
00:34 Buzz wakes up with a dirty nappy. I change him and glance at my watch to see the time. It's not particularly dark and in my sleepy state as I look at my watch (which has no numbers on it) - I read 06:00 (one hand at the top, one at the bottom).
00:40 After wondering why Buzz is acting so tired when he's slept all night, I look at my phone for confirmation of the time and read 00:41.
00:41 Buzz goes straight back to sleep.
02:00 It starts raining.
02:30 We are woken by little voices unzipping their sleeping compartment. We unzip ours to find Will and Josie huddles together with Josie's little lantern in their hands a little excited but also a little worried that 'it's raining on their roof'. I usher them back to bed and we all lay there listening as the rain gets heavier.
04:30 Two little voices are at our beside again, saying that they are cold. I pull back the blanket and they both pile in between me and Adam. The rain is sufficiently heavy that Adam comments that we probably wouldn't hear Buzz if he was crying... I get up to check him. He is flat out sleeping like a log.
04:35 Before I can get back into bed again, Will informs us that there was rain in the tent. Slightly worried I ask where. I start walking over to the children's bedroom and find myself with rather wet feet. A quick shine around of the torch reveals the living space of the tent is rapidly filling up with water.

What followed was two hours of Adam and I wading about with our pyjamas rolled up, pausing for a documentoral photograph of the scene for posterity, Adam then stripping off to the waist as he belted back and forth from the car getting soaked to the skin with firstly: children, then bedding and then almost literally throwing everything else into the car whilst Will and Josie jumped about inside the car with the engine running and the heaters on, listening to Harry Potter. Buzz didn't wake with the rain. He didn't wake with our splashing in and out of the tent. (It was over our ankles by this time). Eventually all that remained in the tent was Buzz asleep in his travel cot and us. Once woken, and rather unaware of the whole palava, Buzz sat and ate a banana whilst we tipped the water out of the tent and folded it as best we could and squeezed it into the back of the car and drove off. Despite being a working farm apparently, and it being about 6am by the time we had finished, no lights were on at the farmhouse so we just scarpered!

Sitting feeling cold and damp in front, and hearing clamours for some food from the back, we stopped at McDonald's for some breakfast. Refusing to get out of the car in my muddy pyjamas and woolly cardigan, we drove through looking I can only assume, like a bunch of vagrants, and sat and warmed ourselves with bagels and hot chocolate.

We then drove to Granny Jacks to use her shower as a) we had turned out hot water off when we left, and b) we don't have a shower!

The nightmare finally over, we headed home to unpack and attempt to dry my parent's tent out...

Summer Journals.

I'm not really sure how it happened, but Will has learned to read so rapidly that I'm almost thinking of getting Harry Potter down for him to peruse. I'd like to think that I did what any good mother does, and read bedtime stories, played games with flash cards, and pointed out words on signs and packets and so on, but as my mother commented: 'he's broken the code' and can work out any words he doesn't already know and is just loving this new skill!

Am I gushing with pride yet?

I decided that since they are now well and truely into the Summer Holidays, with no more formal education until September, Will (and with that read 'and Josie', who can't possibly not be doing what Will is doing!) should create a summer journal/scrapbook, where he can practise his writing, and maybe we could squeeze a reluctant piece of artwork or two from him. (no encouragement is required in the literary dept.)

So we started this week with just a few cover pages. If we had a scanner I would display some images as they were fully enthused by what we had accomplished! On the page of "My Favourite Things" we had some lovely illustrations for:

Will
Lightsabres
Pasta
The X-Box

Josie
Pasta
Zebras
Wall-E

Now all I have to do is keep up their enthousiasm for it all summer!

All Grown Up.

So on the way back from a Primary Activity with the children on Saturday it suddenly dawned on me that Monday was Buzz's 1st birthday and we had no plans, no presents, and no cake for the little lad, who by all accounts didn't really know or care that he had been on the earth for a full twelve months, he was soley engrossed in getting through an entire apple as best as one can with eight teeth.
So we swung the car into Mothercare's car park on the way home, Will and Josie getting very into the idea of going to select presents for Buzz.
Now, our Mothercare has an Early Learning Centre dept. within and it's always fatal going in not knowing what you want to purchase. Being the third child there is relatively little that Buzz needs (and I use the word 'need' lightly here) by way of toys. We have bricks; we have shape sorters, ride-ons, cars galore, pop-up toys, pull along toys, stacking cups (Buzz's current favourite)... what else do I get? I have to get something!
Buzz and I head for the younger toys and I wander up and down looking for something that a) isn't too big, b) doesn't play a really annoying song, and c) isn't just a regurgitated version of something we already have.
And I think I came up trumps!
We found a drum, which isn't something we already have, which plays songs that are relatively pleasant, and best of all, has a quiet setting!!!
And little Buzz just loves it! He's just such a jolly little love though, that I think if we had given him the cardboard box it came in, he'd have been just as happy with it!

All my best laid plans fell apart however as we set up the garden with homemade bunting and all, went inside for tea, and the heavens opened. So we endeavoured to fit 16 people into our living room!

Is there a doctor in the house?

So, the other day I was sitting at the computer in the study when Will comes in looking a bit sheepish, and asks: "Come with me Mum" and, taking my hand he leads me into his bedroom.

Sitting on the floor is Josie surrounded by various random toys. "Sit down Mum". I do as I'm told, wondering where this is all leading. Sitting in front of me he looks me square in the face and says: "I'm Doctor Hurley. What is wrong with you today?"

A smile starts to creep across my face at the seriousness of it all and I try to remain equally straight faced. "um, I have a bad tummy" I respond with some trepidation. Doctor Hurley then turns to his assistant Josie and whispers "what do I do Jose?" to which Josie without a word hands Will a plastic drumstick from their little drum kit. Smiling now that he gets to poke me with a stick, Will proceeds to probe my belly button with the drumstick.

That done, he turns to the 'all wise' Josie and whispers "what do I do next Jose?". Some unidentifiable plastic piece of something is handed over and Will repeats the poking. Done with being prodded I ask: "Do I need to take any medicine?" Obviously Josie is the only one who knows, so after consulting with her Will hands me a plastic play bottle of ketchup. "How many tablets do I need to take?" I ask. A few hurried whispers later with Pharmasist Josie, Will annouces it's three.

I take my ketchup and return to the study rubbing my poor belly button. A few minutes later, Will's head appears around the door: "Are you coming again Mum?"

So to save myself and any other unfortunates from the perils of the plastic drumstick, for Josie's birthday we bought her a proper medical kit with which to examine us with, and with her birthday money from Great-Granny Mu and Great-Grandad Don, she is now offically kitted out with white coat and all! And her first patient? Will!

Argos quality...

So the entire bed build has been jeopardised by one very dodgy post. 2 days to ship a replacement...

The one post is chipped:



has flaky lacquer:



And although hard to demonstrate with photos, has a totally misaligned hole. This is the actual reason we can't build the bed in it's entirety! The metal widget thingamajig goes in the top, and a screw goes in the top and bottom hole.

What's hard to tell from the photo is that because it's not aligned properly, the screw goes in at a variance of about 15 degrees! Which by anyone's reckoning is really wonky:

The bunk beds cometh...

Well today is the day the kids have been waiting for. Today we take delivery of a bunk bed for Will and Josie. I'm pretty sure they think all bunk beds have slides coming from the top bunk after we saw one in a shop. I've tried to tell 'em, even showed them pictures of the one we're getting:



Don't get too excited, that is the catalog picture. The really cool thing is the trundle bed, which means that their recently-moved-to-Swindon cousin, Laszlo can come over for sleepovers - which he's doing on Friday night!

Pics of the build and kids in their new bed to come later...

I made it

After the brief bike ride on Saturday, I felt pretty good and wanted to keep going. Neal didn't seem very keen so we headed on back. I decided on Sunday that I'm really excited about the idea of doing the London to Paris trip, and have applied today for the information pack. I'm not sure that I'll get accepted so soon before the ride, but we'll see.

I also decided that if I am going to stand a chance, I should get back in the saddle, so put the bike in the car today and took it to work. Towards the afternoon I was beginning to think maybe I'd bitten off more than I could chew. It's a little over 21 miles home, and I'd only done 9.1 miles on Saturday.

In any case, with the help of Katie at work, who kindly schlepped my suit and laptop home in her car, and Paul tomorrow (kindly giving me a lift back), I set off. Immediately I could feel the saddle again, and thought to myself that this was going to be a long 21 miles!!

I'm so happy with myself, didn't stop once, even with a couple of killer uphill climbs. A lot of the motivation for keeping going was to see how far I'd get before Katie overtook.

You can see the route I took below.


View Larger Map

It follows an old Roman road, Ermin Street which used to be an unbroken road from Gloucester (Glevum in Roman) through Cirencester (Corinium) through to Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum).

I plan on attempting to go from Swindon to Cheltenham on Saturday, we'll see!

A Beginning...from Hannah

The other day I came across a piece of paper on which I had written all the funny little things Will used to say when he was learning to talk. It felt like such a long time ago now, and I wouldn't have remembered any of it had I not jotted it down on a scrap of paper and filed it somewhere. Buzz is going to be one in a couple of weeks and Josie is gearing up to start pre-school, Will to Infants School - where is time flying to!?

So I intend to try and capture a little slice of life in the Hurley home with this blog; the funny, the cute and the crazy that is always going on!

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."

Really should do better...

It's only been 6 months since the last post. I get the feeling that these Blog things take a while to get into the habit.

Well I'm beginning again to turn over new leaves. Neal has recently moved back to Swindon and now lives just a short walk away, which is fantastic. One of the main benefits is that we decided to start running together. Normally this story ends with my complete sup rise at how shockingly unfit I am. Well this time I was surprised at how well I'd kept my fitness, especially so as it's been months since my last bout.

So we're up to 2 miles with only three 30 second walk breaks. That sounds so weak!!! Oh well, you've got to start somewhere.

Keeping with the fitness theme, on Saturday morning, he and I went out for a bike ride - much more my thing!

9.1 miles was a good start even though my bum kills now.

So now I'm seriously considering training to do a London to Paris sponsored bike ride, inspired by Hannah's "Race for Life" cancer run. I really need someone to do it with though...

Boxes for Beds

After the surge in toys after Christmas, we decided to buy an under-the-bed plastic storage box. Josie had misunderstood a "box for under the bed" as a "box for a bed" and therefore was psyched to come to bed tonight and sleep in her new box!!

Well who am I to disappoint an excited 2 year old?! So I carted it upstairs and Hannah proceeded to line it with her duvet and pillow.

Will, not to be out-done, then wanted to sleep in his "rocket ship" - the cardboard box Hannah's cello came in. So I carted that upstairs too.

Both are as quiet as dormice as I type this, no mention of "Milkies" or "5 minutes reading".

Rufus on the other hand just wanted his cot, give it time though...