Roughing it!

Madness or not, we went out today and bought a tent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited.  I used to do quite a lot of camping in my "youth" with various social groups etc etc and loved it, but Lee's never been into it, so my 2 man tent has for the last good few years been in the shed.  

But a very special offer from Go Outdoors saw the family over there today buying an 8 man tent, along with an under ground sheet.  It's great as it's got 4 compartments inside which could be individual bedrooms and a large area in the middle.  Then, as we were walking back out of the "tent area" I thought if we're going to do it, do it properly, so we then bought a small stove & gas bottle and 2 liter kettle!!!

All we need now is somewhere to go...

Suggestions on a postcard please.

Now I can see - not...

Well, it was all booked and then it all went wrong.  After consultations and tests and re-checks and organisation for childcare etc etc I got to Lakeside on Friday with my good friend Rachel for my laser eye surgery, only to be told that I shouldn't of been wearing my contact lenses for at least the previous week, so sorry, no can do.

I was sooooooooooooooo MAD!!!

So, re-scheduled for 4th July.  More stress then then...

Boot camp

I think I'm having an almost 40 mid life crises as I've enrolled on boot camp!  Lee can't believe that I'm actually paying someone to yell at me to do more sit up's!

Still, I'm a week through and I'm very proud of myself as I've switched camps and twice this week I've been up at 6am (didn't even know there were two of them in a day) and done bootcamp to be back home my 7am for Lee to go to work.

If you follow the plan and I am - (starving in the process, but the means justifies the end) they gurantee you'll loose a dress size.  It's only for 28 days and even I thought I can do it for a month.

We'll see....

When I grow up...

Alexander had his school assembly this week and the theme was what I want to be... At the ages of 7 and 8 it was great to see so many of his class already knowing what they would like to do when they are older.

Not sure if it will actually happen for each of them (I wanted to be an air hostess until I flew and got totally air sick) but it's wonderful that they all have dreams...

Alex still wants to be a fire fighter, but also a chef and he's apparently going to open a restaurant called - what else could it be but "Alexander's"!

All the kids did a little sketch showing off what they wanted to be - from scientists, to police officers, to pop stars...

The class then all sang this song that brought a tear to mine and many other parent's eyes about growing up and that..

Alex thinks the world of his teach Mrs Ambrose and she was very proud of all of them today.

School Jubilee

The kids school worked extremely hard the other week and put on a great event to celebrate the Jubilee.

Each year group had picked one of the 6 decade's of the Queen's reign and had chosen a song to go with it.  Alex's class "Hera" had chosen "60's" and they danced away to the Hand Jive!

A rendition of "God save the Queen" had to be done and all the kids joined in as they'd been learning the words over the previous couple of weeks in preperation..

 Nicholas' class "Artimis" had chosen "90's" and their song was one of the Spice Girls..

Nicholas had been practicing his "wiggle" for ages!

I'd taken Cassandra out of nursery early to join in the fun too..

700 odd balloons (that I hasten to add that I helped blow up - with the help of a helium tank) were then let off - one for each child in the school...

A picnic on the field and a mini fete afterwards rounded off  a great afternoon before half term.

Jubilee

Despite my efforts to orgainise a Street party and the council's reluctance to close the bit of road I wanted to, all was not lost as we were guests (or shall I say officially crashed) the right hand side of Sandhurst Crescent's street party :)

There I was just before 9am with loads of other people helping to put the big marque's up that would keep us mostly dry for the day as despite the weather, we are British and we will enjoy ourselves.... and we did!

From face painting

to dancing in the rain,

 Lunch was a real community event..

 Cassandra found a friend to play with..

And Alexander decided that he wants to be a professional face painter now!

A small selection of the cakes entered into the cake competition - we all got to have a slice or two after the judging!

 Even the local fire brigade turned up to join in our celebrations!

God save the Queen, Land of Hope & Glory and Jerusalem all got sung and danced to and flags were waved in abundance...

Alex found a new girlfriend in Ellie

And we all had a simply BRILLIANT time.

Thanks to all those that put in months of organisation to make it a truly wonderful day for us all.

Footie & Karate tournament

I'm kind of going with the fact that football is going to play a big part in our family's lives - last Sunday saw Lee and I split ourselves in half....

I went with Nicholas to his football match, whilst Lee took Cassie to support Alexander in his first Karate competition.

Nicholas played really well and the team won 3 games out of 4!  All the kids got a trophy and Nicholas' is in pride of place in our display cabinet in the dining room :)

Whilst this was all going on, back in Southend, Alex was showing off his kata skills in his first ever tournament...  Although he didn't get very far, he enjoyed himself very much and is very proud as are we all, of his medal which is hanging in his room.  A big cuddle from his little sis brightened his spirits too :)