The Hurley Birds

The Hurley Annual 2010

2010-12-29T21:16:00.005Z

This year things have just seemed to get busier as the children get older! We took a well deserved break in the early summer to have a family holiday in Devon, and as I write we are just stripping out the old kitchen, and trying to get our new kitchen fitted before Christmas. However, I fear that we are outgrowing this house faster than we can finish renovating it! This year everyone has written their own updates for you to read. The slideshow below has the kids updates in it:

http://hurleybird.co.uk/blog/annual2010/

Hannah
I am 29. The best thing about being 29 is not being 30 yet! In between juggling the busy lives of our four rapidly growing children, working part-time in community care, running the local toddler group and serving as a youth leader at church, I endeavour to find time to read, play the piano, and try to learn the ukulele alongside Will, make and sew things, and work on the house.

Adam
I am 31. There is nothing special about being 31. I have no one favourite food, I enjoy pretty much all food. I like to cook food, eat food, read about food, photograph food, and watch other people cook food on TV. This year I bought a pizza stone for the BBQ – a sound investment in food. I changed jobs this year, and am enjoying my work again after a dreadful year at 2e2. I have a wonderful family.

Christmas

2010-12-19T16:47:00.001Z

I am looking forward to Christmas. When it is Christmas instead of writing a list of toys that I want for Christmas I am going to have a surprise. I know it is 6 days till Christmas & 5 days till Christmas eve. Today it is my aunty Mools's birthday. My aunty Mools is 32. The boys bedroom is quite tidy the girls bedroom is nearly 100% tidy but right now the girls bedroom is 97% tidy. The reason why we have to tidy our rooms is because we won't have presents on Christmas if the bedrooms are tidy.

YouTube Videos

2010-12-13T23:13:00.007Z

I suppose the one thing I'd never have foreseen in my children's lives is the pervasiveness of the internet. I quite frequently share with them things I've seen/read that I think they'll enjoy. Seeing as this blog is an attempt to document moments in our family life and inspired by YouTube's Rewind Page - I thought I'd put up some of the videos that have punctuated 2010 in the Hurley house.

Pogo

Very much a discovery of 2010, Will can't get enough of Pogo, but it was a big hit with all the kids. They all try to sing along - which is a feat in itself.

Simon's Cat

A huge hit with all of the kids, but especially Rufus who won't let you on the computer without pulling it up. This is one that gets requested after bathtime and just before bed. All the kids huddle round and laugh their little heads off at it!

Baba O'Riley

This isn't strictly a 2010 moment - this pre-dates Rufus. It is though very much a Saturday-morning music session with Dad. I would pick up Will and Josie and dance to this. The ending requires a lot of energy!

Will Hurley is online!

2010-11-28T16:27:00.002Z

Hello! My Dad asked me to write on the blog. We created a new email address.

In the morning, we sat in Mum's car to set off to Church. When we got our seatbelts on, Mummy put the engine on and we reversing but suddenly Mum's brakes were frozen because the temperature was -3 Celsius. So we put hot water on the brakes and we tried it but it still didn't work. Soon we got off the drive and Dad told Mum to go off the path and drive forwards and then turn right then drive to the traffic lights and come back on to the drive. Then Dad decided to go in his car. We set off to Church and Mum told us to go into Church and put our coats on the peg, me to send Rufus to nursery and tell Josie to go down to Primary and me to tell the teacher in young womens that Mum would miss her lesson. When I went down the corridor, Megan Slade said "We're going to go in Josie's class because Teresa Draper is poorly". So I went into Josie's classroom and we told Caroline Chrimes stories like Daniel and the Lions and Jesus dying on the cross and other stories.

After Church, me and my brothers went in Dad's car and Josie went in my Auntie Kate's (Mools) car. Then we drove to my house and while we went in Dad's car we thought of a little race and when we reached home Dad's car won the race. When we got out of the cars I told Josie that we won the race and Josie thought that it wasn't actually a race, when it was. Then we said goodbye to the Malyons and went into our house. When we got into the house we took our shoes off. So we went into the dining room and me, Dad and Mum had the left over Domino's pizza and dip. The three dips that we had were barbecue, honey and mustard and garlic and herbs. The pizza that was leftover was Texas BBQ.

After that, Dad changed Albert's nappy when I came into the bedroom and when Dad finished Albert's nappy, Daddy started to unlock the laptop and opened a program to tune the guitar. Then Daddy started to play the guitar and the song that he played was "Silent Night".

Then Daddy remembered that I needed an account so gmail knows that I am part of gmail. Then Daddy thought of putting me on this Blog and wrote emails to my mum and dad saying that I am part of gmail and never forget that I am on gmail. Then Daddy opened up the Blogger website and let me write this Post on the Blog.

I'm now going to play Donkey downstairs with my family and I hope that I am not the Donkey.

See you soon!

Let them eat cake!

2010-08-01T20:35:00.001+01:00

I always have to take a deep breath and dive into July, and hope to emerge at the other end with a reasonable amount of sanity intact. Not only is it the month that involves numerous school assemblies, concerts, trips, sports days and open days as the school year comes to an end, but between them my children clock up numerous birthday party invitations (currently they have one every Saturday between now and September) and other events that just fill every hourly crevice of the month. We do our own fair share of filling July with birthdays too: in the second half of July we have three in our immediate family alone - Albert who achieved his first birthday on the 16th, Rufus who turned 3 on the 28th, and Adam on the 30th. Add to that my nephew and my sister and a couple of friends, all in the last week of July, it's quite a celebratory week!

It always amuses me at how a first birthday celebration, those who are the most excited is not the birthday boy or girl themselves but virtually everyone else around them! Hounded by Will Josie and Buzz, we made sure he had presents and cards, and were all up as early as they could be (for that read: as early as Daddy allowed!) to present their gifts to a rather nonchalant Albie who as a typical 12 month old was just as interested in the paper and boxes that surrounded his gift than the gift itself. It was also interesting to note the plethora of noisy musical additions to the toy box...

In contrast to Albie, Rufus was acutely aware of his impending birthday and impressed me with his mathmatical knowledge as he counted down the days faithfully (but only down from ten, he hasn't got the fingers for more than that - or the patience!). We had planned to coincide the showing of Toy Story 3 at the cinema with Buzz's birthday and had the tickets booked. Overhearing a conversation between an excited Buzz, Josie and Will, I heard plans developing for the cinema trip to include what characters they were going to be dressed up as: Rufus as Buzz, (naturally), Josie as an alien, and Will as Woody. I laughed to myself as I listened to the discussion of what Daddy could go as. I abruptly stopped laughing as I they continued on to what Mummy was going to dress up as. Fortunately, Daddy was given 'grown-up Andy'(Jeans and T-shirt, I think we could persuade Daddy to that) and Mummy 'Andy's Mum' (the other choice was Barbie, but I think that may have required a bit too much effort, not to mention plastic surgery).

Big School

2009-09-05T13:20:00.006+01:00

I got back late from work on Josie's first day at school. So when I woke up the next day, I asked her to tell me all about it. She did so in her own inimitable way, I'm glad I had the presence of mind to record it!

You join the story a little way in, because that presence of mind kicked in only after she'd begun.

Little English Scholars.

2009-08-23T19:54:00.003+01:00

The English language by all accounts is a complex thing for a grown up to fully master let alone for four and five year olds. But they try...

Josie had been invited to a birthday party at 'Jolly Roger's', one of the big foam slide/tunnel/ball pit establishments here in Swindon. A brief, but heated discussion was had when Josie failed to see that clambering about on giant foam blocks was not easily accomplished whilst wearing a long flowing party dress, even for her. The scales were tipped when I informed her that everyone might see her knickers when she was climbing about. But The-Queen-of-all-that-is-pink-and-girly was only willing to compromise to a degree. Hence we ended up with her least best dress that is slightly too small and therefore not so long - with a pair of coordinating leggings on underneath... The party appeared to be a success (food, cake,and giant wobbly slides - how could it not?) and as I collected a rather tired and dishevelled Josie from the party I enquired how it had gone. With a slight hint of wishfulness she told me that Denan (the birthday girl) had been wearing a very pretty dress and had "proper clip clop shoes" and sparkles on her. Not entirely sure what that meant, I asked where she had had sparkles.
"On her arms, her cheeks and on her eye-pods"...

It was rather hot when we got back to the car after church, and since they had been fairly good the whole three hour block AND then sat through choir practice with me, I figured that we would just roll all the windows down instead of just switching on the air-con. As we pulled out they all started giggling as their hair started whipping about and I glanced back at Buzz who was grinning like a Cheshire Cat whilst trying to breathe. Now, there are two routes home - the quick way down the duel carriageway, or the slightly longer route round the houses. I realised as I pulled out that my I'm-hungry-let's-get-home-quickly auto pilot had turned right - the quick route home. As we approached the slip road, Will realising that I was about to wind the windows up before we hit 70mph yelled from the back of the car, "Mum, leave the windows down on the George Carriageway!" And you know what? I did!

Will's Show and Tell Friday 26th June 2009.

2009-06-25T22:09:00.001+01:00

When I am a grown up, I want to be a baker.
I am going to give bread to everyone. I am going to bake some bread in my Baker’s shop. I will bake bread every Thursday and cakes every Wednesday.
I have made some bread to show you. To make bread you need special flour called Bread Flour, and you need salt, and sugar, and yeast. Yeast is really special because it makes the bread go bigger and bigger when it gets warm.
I measured the ingredients. You have to let the mixture rise and get bigger and then knead it. When you knead it you push and pull and squash the bread dough. I baked the bread at my Grandma’s house.

Twenty Five Days To Go...

2009-06-18T12:39:00.002+01:00

Can you hear that? No? Me neither. It's as quiet as it comes at home this afternoon as everyone is either at school or sleeping!
I've taken this rare opportunity of solitude not to take a pleasant siesta, but to finally get around to packing a hospital bag, as there are indeed only, 25 days until Hurley Baby no.4 (a.k.a "Nono") arrives. In all previous pregnancies I have been packed and ready to go at least a month before my due date, and all that seems to have done is tempt fate and they arrive late. So I'm naively trying to trick fate into giving me an earlier baby by being laid back (to the point of slight panic creeping in)!

We have all been getting excited this week though, as I brought out all of the littlest tiny clothes for Nono from the loft, and Buzz kept attempting to try it all on! It's hard to believe that they were all once that small...

This is the life

2009-05-31T18:28:00.000+01:00

I'm sat outside, all I can hear is birdsong and my children playing. Although I'm sat in the shade, it's warm.

I'm sat waiting for the coals to heat up, before cooking a whole chicken on the Weber. I'm also going to be trying to do jacket potatos seeing as this chicken is going to take some time. Later we'll pop on some corn on the cobs too!

Today we went to Bideford, the Barnstaple branch meet at Bideford College. Seeing as we weren't up particularly early, we just went for the Sacrament meeting. It was interesting mostly due to the branch not having a piano or organ, so we all sang acapella. The branch president was very kind, he came up to speak to us after the meeting and offered to have us round for dinner.

I got changed into my shorts and t-shirt in the car park, much to Hannah's amusement/bemusement. We drove off towards Bude looking for a nice cliff to enjoy our picnic on. We ended up at a place called Hartland Point, which had a lighthouse. It was very plesant, Hannah had made up some ham and cheese brioche (something I'd discovered in France a week back).

We packed our things away in the car, we went wandering to see what we could find. We walked along the cliff edge, which provided a nice cooling sea breeze to what had turned out to be a stifling day, without a cloud in the sky.

I took Will and Josie on a slightly more daring path, to see how far we could make it. The drop down was a bum clencher of a cliff, providing magnificent views - I wished I had brought my camera.

We stopped off at the shops on the way home to buy some potatos and boursin for our meal tonight.

The house we're staying in is really nice, it's a converted barn, which sleeps up to 10. We're in the deepest countryside, which is peaceful without being smelly.

If this weather keeps up, this will end up being a very nice holiday!

Best see how that chicken is doing...

The Great Camping Disaster...

2008-08-20T20:28:00.006+01:00

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.

2008-07-31T20:50:00.002+01:00

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.

2008-07-29T19:32:00.004+01:00

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?

2008-07-20T20:19:00.006+01:00

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...

2008-07-16T17:55:00.005+01:00

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...

2008-07-16T08:12:00.002+01:00

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

2008-07-14T19:12:00.000+01:00

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

2008-07-13T20:43:00.000+01:00

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...

2008-07-13T20:27:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-04T03:38:00.000Z

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...