Half Term

I usually try and have a little plan for school holidays that involves getting us all out of the house on most days ; Tuesdays mean Story & Play time at the Central Library in York, Fridays mean the weekly shop in Tesco (hardly Disneyland Paris, but hey! it gets us out of the house for two hours), and the rest is divvied up between going to the park, Wacky Warehouse if its wet, and either visiting or being visited by friends.

We've not done too badly at all this week, although yesterday was a bit of a washout - I decided to sort out all the filing in Doug's office as we haven't done any since we moved up here, and Doug hasn't opened a single envelope; there was a mountain of unopened envelopes in the corner of his office. I made a start on it at half ten and I wasn't finished until half five. The boys were pretty good most of the day, but by about half four I could tell they were climbing the walls; not even Spiderman on the tv was enough to keep them entertained and just when I thought we might go for a stroll to the local shops and get a bit of fresh air, the heavens opened rather spectacularly.

This has got me thinking about the summer holidays. The normal school holidays last six weeks, but in Jacob's case, its more like to be eight or nine weeks; the nursery staff spend the first two or three weeks of term making home visits to meet the new intake of pupils, so they don't open at the same time as the rest of the school. Its a bit of a pain, frankly.

Anyway, I'm looking at eight straight weeks of entertaining both kids all day. You can't help thinking that the routine of library, park, play area, shopping is going to pall a bit before too long; it'll have probably palled for me by about the second week. Certainly once Jacob is at school proper we'll be able to take two weeks of the holiday up by having our annual summer vacation; it might be more expensive at that time but it actually uses up a third of the holiday, so it must be a GOOD THING. However, this year, we haven't been that sensible and we're holidaying in early July.

With any luck, the school will come into its own; earlier in the year I indicated that I'd be interested in any summer holiday activities that they might be running, and once I know what they are I'll probably have to stop myself from signing Jacob up for as much as possible :)

Hopefully we'll have a better summer than last year, weather-wise; my driving is more confident, which means we're not reliant on public transport. Although being able to drive doesn't get away from the logistical problem of being the sole parent in charge of two pre-schoolers outside of the safety of home; just taking them to the local park presents all sorts of challenges when you're on you're own, especially as they're both fairly independent and want to play in completely opposite areas of the park. I doubt I'd want to sole charge of them at, say, the seaside or near any open water.

So, the planning campaign starts here; visits to family, visits from family, events in York, events not too far from York, things at school, things at playgroup. We welcome all-comers.

Who knows; we might have a blisteringly hot summer that involves us existing mostly in the garden, moving inside only long enough to get some cold drinks or more food for the bbq. I can dream.....

Grant Gone

Having spent the past 8 months wishing that Roman would sack Avram Grant, now its actually happened, I'm a little sad.

I was really starting to warm to him by the end of the season; true, he cocked up mightily in his tactics and team selection for the Carling Final and the FA tie against Barnsley, but he took us to within a hairsbreadth of our third Premiership title and even closer to winning the Champions League.

I don't really think that this was entirely down to him; the team is fantastically well organised and runs like a well-oiled machine regardless of who is at the helm. Also, I think as the season wore on, he, Clarkey and Ten Cate cobbled out the managers' role between them.

We were showing some signs of producing the sort of exciting football that Roman desires as the season got to an end; the second half of the CL final showed some scintillating football, with the midfield in total control and the defence mopping up what few balls Manure managed to get through to the final third. But I think it was some justification of Jose's stance over Scheva that he didn't get much of a look-in under Grant's regime either; that said, I wouldn't have minded him on the pitch at the final whistle in the final, he'd have probably slotted a penalty away no probs.

Anyway, good luck to Avram in his next endeavour. He always did look like he'd arrived at Stamford Bridge on a boat made out of skulls, so I expect his deathly long-oarsmen will be rowing him back up the Thames (the Styx?) as I type this.

So, who next? Sven, maybe; Rikjaard? My choice of Ancelotti is not available, unfortunately. At least, not this time on the managerial roundabout. Just as long as its never Wenger, that is all I can ask for; or Glenn Hoddle, for that matter. Or Ruud Gullit. Or Ian Porterfield (yes, I know that's technically impossible). I could go on ;)

Gazebo? No thanks, I don't

Its the morning of Jacob's first proper birthday party. I have spent the week tidying up the accumulated piles of debris from around the house and giving the place a good clean; this is mostly to get the maximum floor space from the house, but also to make sure that the visiting dignitaries don't catch anything from the festering piles of food in the dark corners of our living spaces.

I'm mostly ready - some burgers to make this morning, and the lawn to mow - and I've got a pass the parcel wrapped, and a long list of other games that we may or may not play depending on how the kids are. Up till now, our parties have been all about free play, but for the first time, we've got Jacob's own friends coming along (as opposed to our friends' kids), and there'll be about 12 kids here. Luckily, we shall have Bev with us, who is a school teacher and uber good with kids; she doesn't know it yet, but she's having a busman's holiday.....

But we are on the horns of a dilemma. Up until last night, the forecast for today has been partly cloudy, if a bit on the chilly side; however, having seen the forecast this morning, it looks like there is going to be a lot of rain in the S Yorks area. Bearing in mind that there will be 12 hyperactive under 4s, plus parents, in my house, we have to decide whether to fork out for a party gazebo from one of the DIY places up at Clifton Moor. Obviously, it'll take a little while to put up, so we have a cut off point by which time we have to get it. However, if it remains dry, it will be in the way and a bit of a pointless purchase.

Time to get Doug out of bed and discuss the subject. Maybe let him come round first before I tell him he was to get dressed, drive to Wickes, buy a Gazebo and then bring it back, mow the lawn and then erect it before 12pm.....

Catch Up

Has it really been a month since I last posted? I'm sure there have been occasions when I've had something to say, I just haven't seemed to find the time to say it.

For instance, I've started doing a family learning course at Jacob's school - Making Number Games for Children - which is free and comes with a free creche place for Sam. These courses are fantastic, not so much the content (but its v good), but just the fact that you can have a couple of hours time to yourself with other mums and chat and drink coffee and sit and make brightly coloured number games for your kids! They'll be running others in September term so I'm going to sign up for one or two, just as soon as I know what playgroup sessions Sam will be attending.

In other news, Sam has now got both his hearing test appointment and his Speech Therapy appointment; he's actually babbling quite a bit more recently, but not forming words, and stubbornly refusing to make any attempt if you try and encourage him. I took Jacob to see Lazytown Live last week, which he loved; it was miles better than I expected, and it was an absolute delight to watch his face as some of his favourite TV characters sung and dance on screen. Chelsea have finally made it past Liverpool in a Champions League Semi Final and although I fully expect them to lose against Man U in the final, its a great thing to be in the final. I made it up to the level cap in LOTRO, and despite thinking I'd immediately lose interest, I'm now working my way through the deeds like a trojan - good to watch my morale/power increase with every little thing I do in the Shire.

And we've finally arranged all the little components of our annual holiday. Two days in Brighton, mostly to attend Julian's twins' christening, then down the coast to Pagham and the Haven Holiday Camp there - we're staying in one of their top of the range static caravans, although I'm a bit apprehensive about this because since booking it, I've heard a few bad things about them. We'll be there for a week and then head up to Reading to deposit the kids with the in-laws and the day after will be heading for London for three days of wining and dining. When we first planned this, we thought of doing Paris, but I decided I'd rather be less than an hour away from my kids, just in case of emergencies!

We haven't planned much for London (I'm going to have a look at what exhibitions etc) are on, but we have booked afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason (the Ritz books up about six months in advance, it would seem) and a trip to see Spamalot at the theatre. We are hoping to go to J Sheekey for dinner on the night of my birthday, but you can only book a month in advance, so at the moment we don't know if we'll only be able to go as a couple or whether there'll be bigger tables available so we can extend the invitation to our friends. I have had some memorable evenings there (wedding "breakfast", wedding anniversaries, past birthdays etc), so its a nice thought that we might be there on my 40th too.

I have also been busy reading my friends' baby blogs; it takes me back a couple of years! But although babies are lovely and I do feel occasionally broody, I'm glad I've got older kids; mine are incredibly demanding, but so very rewarding. They're still very dependent on you for everything, but in different ways and you get so much back from them (even from one that can only grunt!). I'm finding it hard to believe that Jacob will be starting school within 7 months and that from September, Sam will be old enough to attend playgroup without me! How time flies.....