Spring Break

Wednesday saw Jordyn break his wrist at school so that necessitated an impromptu sleepover for Aimee here with Lily while Tamsin spent all afternoon and early evening at the hospital. They got home about 9pm with an arm in plaster cast all the way up to his shoulder and lots of painkillers. The girls probably fell asleep round about 8 ish which isn't too bad for a school night.

Saturday saw the start of our spring break adventure.

Tom, Lily and I were going down to Orlando again to join up with Kate and her kids (Ben, Alex & Maddy) and Dorothy with her kids (Paige, Seth & Riley). Our first day trip was to Universal Studios which saw some of us going on such delights as 'Revenge of the Mummy' and 'Jaws'. Everyone enjoyed the 'Men in Black Alien Blast'. I reckon that was my favourite.

The next day we went to Sea World where Lily, Maddy, Paige, Tom & I sat in the scorching sun for half an hour in the 'soak zone' of the Shamu show. Unfortunately for us we were just 2 rows too far back to get soaked by the water. However after an hour in the sun we were all rather disgustingly soaked in sweat. Not sure if you wanted to know that, but there you are.

We had a slightly more relaxed day on Tuesday and went to Wet n Wild water park. This was great fun and not too busy so there wasn't much waiting around for your turn to go down one of the slides and we were able to spread out all our stuff quite happily.

Our last day took us to the Universal Islands of Adventure. We all got completely soaked on the Popeye ride except for Kate who had rather cunningly packed a poncho - smart girl.

Today we came home so we could be here for Nick's birthday tomorrow and have a few days to relax from all our adventures. The others are staying on until Saturday.

In case you are wondering why Nick, Anthony & Neil didn't get to come it's because they were all working this week and don't get their spring break until 30 March.

Summer seems to have arrived

Summer seems to have arrived already, we are having unseasonally hot weather now after all that unseasonally cold weather the other week. I have just been sitting out in the back garden for half an hour but had to come in again as it was too hot - its about 80F today.

Last week we had a Brit night out with AnnMarie and Shaun & Marie and a visiting dignitary from the RAF. We all went to Bonefish Grill and had a lovely meal and some very nice wine. Marie was driving so she gave us all a lift home and then they came in for a few more drinks. I am happy to say I still managed to go out for a run at 7.40am the next morning however I felt terrible that evening and ended up going to bed before Tom...
Jordyn & Aimee came round after school to play and stay for tea. As it was a warm day they all decided to go swimming in the pool. Rather them than me, the water must have been freezing.

On Saturday we all went out for breakfast at Applebees - the school was hosting a fundraising event there so we went to support the school and eat pancakes. Tamsin took the children off for the rest of the day so I went back to bed around noon and had a lovely sleep for a couple of hours. Needless to say when I went to collect them they had all been swimming again - obviously the water isn't that cold however I think I'll stay out of it for a few more weeks yet.

Nick and I were out again on Saturday night, this time at a wine tasting with some of his colleagues. The wines were all in paper bags so you couldn't see what it was you were drinking and you had to rate them on taste. There were a few surprising discoveries as one of the wines that was well liked was only $5. I was designated driver for this event so rather than drinking wine I got to eat all the food instead. Yummy.

Sunday we headed over to Tim & Deanna's for lunch and more delicious food. Then to compensate for all the eating I have been doing, so far this week I have been out for a run, played tennis twice and been to my personal training session and it's only Tuesday. Phew. Still got two more runs another personal training session and 9 holes of golf to go before it's Friday again. You'd think with all this exercise I'd be losing tons of weight and looking fab, sadly this is not the case. I'm hoping this is because I have only just started running again so am woefully slow at the moment and not going for very long. Give me a few weeks and the pounds will be dropping off....here's hoping anyway.

Weekend in Destin

This last weekend saw us in Destin again. Even when the weather is too cold for swimming the children still enjoy a day at the beach. I'm happy as long as I have a cup of coffee and a doughnut to keep me going.

As you can hear from the video above it was a very windy day..Later on we went round to friends for dinner and a few drinks. On Sunday while everyone in Montgomery was enjoying the snow we headed over to Pensacola to the Naval Air Museum. Nick, Tom & Lily had a great time here. Tom & Lily really enjoyed being able to sit in the cockpits of all the different aircraft.

The children got a pleasant surprise today in the post. A christmas card which we thought had gone missing in the post finally turned up today with a postmark of 19 December on it. I had to phone Caroline up and let her know it had finally arrived as we thought some sneaky postal staff person had stolen the contents...but no, it finally turned up today complete with money for Tom & Lily to buy a christmas present each. What a happy day.

Skiing Video

Here is the freshly edited ski video of Tom & Lily, thanks Tim. I am sure Lily will be pleased with the result.

Fun with Friends

Friday night saw us celebrating Ross's 40th birthday at his house with fabulous food, (well done Kate & Kelly) wine and a game of 'Pin the Boobies on the Babe' - this one was just for the men and is a variation on 'pin the tail on the donkey'. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so there are no pictures.
Saturday was a quiet day with nothing on so Lily had Seth & Riley round to play and with Tom in tow we went off to the park for an hour or so after lunch and picked up Maddie & Paige along the way for a run around in the fresh air.
Yesterday saw us descending on Ray & Kate for lunch along with the Staintons, Ann Marie, Scott & Nick. What a feast. Roast beef, yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. Then apple crumble and custard to follow. Yum.
After lunch we played a brilliant game called 'Humm Bug'. I haven't laughed so much in a very long time. You have to hum a tune that is on a card and the others have to guess what it is. It's that simple but it is hilarious. I will be off out to buy it this week.
After we had exhausted that game we had a game of ten pin bowling on the Wii, and I won ( I was brilliant). This is great because when I play proper ten pin bowling I am really rubbish and always come last. All of a sudden it was 6.30pm and time to go home to watch the Oscars. What a great weekend.

Skiing in West Virginia

We had a great time in Snowshoe and would recommend it for a short break, there is not enough to keep you busy for a whole week but a few days is perfect.

As you can see the weather wasn't exactly ideal but we still managed to have a great time, the children did 2 mornings of ski school and are now brilliant, Tom especially. He has no fear and even went down a couple of black runs.

Lily goes down the mountain faster than me (not difficult) but this is because she doesn't remember to turn to slow herself down so she just bombs off, looking slightly out of control but never falling over - brilliant..we will work on the turns next year before she has a nasty accident.

Our drive home yesterday started off at 6.30am in snow and ended at 8.30pm in horrendous thunderstorms and tornado warnings - very exciting to say the least. All glad to be back home in our own beds, not so pleased about having to get up for school this morning though, I had two very tired children to rouse out of bed. As is usual when we have been away, the sun room flooded last night during the storms before we got home, so the carpet is soaking wet again. Luckily it is cold but sunny today so the doors and windows are wide open to try and help it to dry out.

We took two short videos of the children skiing, one is just of Tom on a Black run, the other one is of Tom & Lily but until I can edit out Lily's 'little outburst' directed at Tom, she doesnt want it to be shown to anyone!!! If anyone knows how to do this, let me know because I have no clue.

Happy Birthday Mum

Gosh, not a lot has been going on these last couple of weeks, except for the usual tennis and gym work. My elbow has been hurting me a lot and it is affecting my tennis and general day to day activities so Bernice (who is a physio) has had a look at it for me. Apparently my neck is the cause of the problem and because I don't hold my tennis racquet properly all the time it is making my elbow sore. Weird, and very annoying.

Nick was away again last week on a course, but I had a quiet week on my own and did not invite the girls round for a glass of wine this time. Instead I got 'Mamma Mia' out on dvd and watched that on my own. I guessed,correctly, that Nick wouldn't mind missing out on that one...

I also had the chance to see 'Slumdog Millionnaire' at the cinema while Tamsin had Tom & Lily round for a play date with Aimee & Jordyn last Sunday. It was really good, go and see it if you get the chance.

The children have a three day school holiday next week so we are off to the mountains of West Virginia for a mini ski break this Friday afternoon. Will post some photos when we get back.

Happy Birthday Mummy, love you.