Fun days,Holidays and dog days!!

We have had a lovely couple of days.Both Emily and I have been in good moods and have managed to have fun and laugh a lot:-)It isn't that it is an unusual occurrence but there are times when it seems hard going and I thought a nice reminder of the days we have fun would do no harm;-)

Yesterday we had an outing to the local aquarium.It was bitterly cold and frosty and the hilly roads going out of the village were a real test of nerve!!We had lunch and Emily spent some of her Christmas money at the shop then we had a whizz round the exhibits before going out to the big park(closed out of season) and trying the new exhibition centre(usually open but closed that day) Emily handled both disappointments well and we had a stroll along the harbour in the very cold but sunny weather.Dropped Milly off at home(got stuck on our hilly little drive, but managed not to panic and got up in the end and made sure we got some salt on before I attempted to go out again!!) with Alan.He hadn't been able to go into work as he had fallen on the ice walking Beauty in the morning and had aggravated the injury to his wrist he got when he had the bike accident,he isn't normally accident prone don't know what is going on recently.

I went shopping and then got home to have tea and start some searches for our holiday next year.Looks like Emily will have her wish and we could be off to Mamma Mia Island!!It is years since Alan and I went to Greece, in fact Corfu was the first holiday we had together.Our honeymoon was great because it was our honeymoon but it really couldn't count as a holiday. We hadn't actually been planning going away but Alan (the old romantic that he is)had been secretly taking driving lessons (he was in the navy and was over in Ireland)and passed his test just days before our wedding and surprised me with the fact we could have a touring holiday.We were on a very tight budget and we managed to hire a clapped out old car from some dodgy garage,broke down 500 yards from home,exchanged car for slightly more roadworthy model and drove our Best man home to Whitby where we stayed overnight then toured the seaside towns of,Scarborough Bridlington and Blackpool,staying in very dubious B&B's!! Being young and totally in love it really didn't matter a jot.Corfu was lovely though and we always said we would go back to one of the islands.Emily had fallen in love with the scenery in the film and asked to go and chose it over Disneyland Paris which was our first thought for this year.Fingers crossed we can juggle things financially to enable us to book a villa.

Today we were at home as Alan had the car.First thing this morning Emily went down to watch some TV and left me in bed,unusual because she rarely goes down on her own and hangs around "talking" to me till I drag myself out of bed. I tried very, very hard to wake up but failed miserably !! She only watched a little of Basil brush and decided she didn't want to watch anymore and came up to listen to an Agatha Christie CD.I eventually surfaced and went to make us breakfast and took it back to bed to listen with her for a while.

I then made some Banana oat muffins whilst my assistant did this.



ate a bowl of ice cream whilst talking.talking,talking!!

Emily asked to go up to the park in the village so she could climb tree's so we left the muffins to cool and went out for a while.Lot's of families making the most of the last day of the holiday and were sledging on the grassy bank in the field.We knew most of them and went over to say hi,but in reality I have so little in common with them that the conversation soon dries up.They are nice enough people but we are so far out of their clique .Their children are all at the very highly sought after local school,the one that Emily spent her Nursery Year in. We went back down onto the swings and Emily practised her jumping off,terrifies me how high she is when she leaps off!!Home for hot chocolate and a muffin.Emily had nuts and apple with some chocolate coins but surprised me by actually tasting my muffin and declaring it ok although she didn't want one. We had talked about her having one when we were walking home and she said no she wouldn't have one as she hates bananas,I just said it was a shame to limit herself and she might be pleasantly surprised at how they tasted.

When we got home I went upstairs to discover a trail of destruction from the stairs, where she had opened the pack of new socks I had left there, on to our room where pj's and various other bits of clothing were discarded all over the floor,more chaos in the bathroom and even in her room the clothes she had considered putting on and then deciding against!! I collected things up tidied around quickly.
As I came down the stairs with some of the things I felt a little frazzled,she was going into the living room and I said,
Milly I love you very much and I know you had other things on your mind but it would help me enormously if you could help out a little by picking up things after yourself instead of just leaving them on the floor in every room.
Sorry Mummy
She then went outside and came back and presented me with this as I was sitting reading E mails:-)



Freshly picked from the garden.She said she wanted it to be flowers and it was the only thing she could find with any colour!!

Started reading The dog star by Jenny Nimmo this morning(Interrupted as Milly decided she couldn't sleep and has come down again so we have just finished the book.)At present we have so many books we have started and she has decided to start another and we are flitting from one to the other.Her and Alan have just finished a Jacqueline Wilson one(she joined in a challenge at the library to read or listen to 3 book over the holidays)and have now started The Golden Compass again,They started it shortly after seeing the film but she got them on CD/tape from the library and has been listening to them on and off ever since!! The reason she wants to read the book is because the CD she got of the first book was a dramatization and a shortened version, not cover to cover like the other CD sets she borrows of the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spy Glass.We have a warriors book on the go and also Sophie's Story a book we have read before that she loves and desperately wanted for Christmas.

I found a website on the radical unschoolers site that has taken quite a bit of our time up this afternoon Furry Paws You can create your own dog and feed it train it etc.Early days to give any detailed feedback but so far she loves it and has created two dogs already.It has also inspired a fantastic story that she narrated to me while I was washing up then continued when I was in the bath and getting ready to go into town to have my hair done.Alan had the pleasure of a walk with her where she apparently never stopped talking all the way round as she added to the story!!