Feeling hot, hot, hot

It is hot.  When I think back to May last year although they were lots of nice days, there was lots of rain too.  Not so much this year.  Every day in May so far has been and nice and some have been absolutely boiling.  The fans have retrieved from the loft and an outside lounge has been created to get away from the insides of our hot little house.  It feels like the middle of summer and so as its still mid spring I think we're in for a hot one.  Ste has suffered a bit with his hand all bandaged up and the kids have found sleeping difficult on occasions but in general its been bloody great!

On a particularly hot day Phia and Hannah play in the water sprinklers in their knickers!

Chilling in the sun

Park fun

Loving her swimming!

Hanging around

Fabulous Phia

Sian – 'So kids, as a treat, would you like to go to McDonalds for lunch?'

Both – 'NOOOOOOOOO!!'

T – ''But I don't like Mac and Donalds - waaaaaaa'

S- 'I want a cheese sandwich'

What is wrong with our children??!! What child doesn't like McDonalds?? Still, I suppose the are worse things.

Despite her intent to eat nothing but cheese sandwiches Phia is currently having the time of her life.. She is enjoying her swimming lessons with such gusto. Goggles have been bought and she already got her face in the water as shes moved along. And all with a huge smile. Due the departure of Ana (her best friend) at preschool (who’s gone to Bulgaria for a month) shes taken up a new friendship with Alexia. She's spent so long in the company of Natalie and Hannah I think she believes shes their sister.

Her drawing, which has always been good, is now out of this world. She drew a picture of herself playing on the computer, which was the standard of someone way above her years. She may be missing the links of phonetical reading (which school better sort out this year or I shall become a thorn in their side!) but she can easily read basic books and can even read words like 'rainbow' and 'beautiful' from sight.

I think mum said it best when she commented that out of all of us Sophia has definitely has the most successful year. And to say she was the one I was most worried about. It goes to show all worrying is fruitless. I should learn from this!

So, the next step of course is Kindergarten. As much as I want it to happen I'm now feeling slightly anxious. It will be a huge change for all of us. As she got into the school we picked (hurray!), I should think that the biggest change is going to have to be getting up and being somewhere for 7.50 (school starts at 8!!). And of course, the changes in friends and new and difficult social situations. And of course, on top of this, actually being bloody 'taught something'! I have heard so many negative viewpoints 'It's rubbish, no resources, teachers don't care' to 'its far to easy, my child is bored' to ' its far to hard, this standard of work used to be Grade1' I really don't know what to think. I suppose only time will tell.

But anyway, shes ready to go. With school uniform in her cupboard sent all the way from England (thanks Lizzie) shes going to look the part. A playdate in the park for all the new kindergarteners is already arranged for next Wednesday so here we go.

All that remains is to say bye to preschool. She has a fantastic year there and I can't thank them enough for helping to bring her out of her shell. She's going to miss it a lot. After all the altercations regarding T I've managed to sell his time for the summer so they now have a very long summer break.. This will include the 3 week trip home to England and then visits from Granny, Grandma and Grandpa and Grandad and Andrea so is not going to be quiet!

So farewell Teacher Joyce, Ian (who makes her laugh), Jessica (who's very pretty). Kymn and Maria. And for T's room Teacher Jan (who's English – we love her!), Josette and Fere. Its been a pleasure.

Broken Bones

So, we've been back in CA less than 24 hours. The kids are safely ensconced in bed and so as its a soccer night, Ste decides he'll go and play.. Bad move. Less than an hour after after he's left I get a phone call. He's in hospital and he's broken his finger. Some kindly soul returns him home after midnight but the damage has been done. It turns out that an idiot has kicked him in the hand (and in the head for good measure) and twisted his finger so badly he's going to need surgery. At this point I would have quite willingly gone round and stamped on the hand of the person that did this. Less than 3 weeks till the kids and I take off for England, leaving alone a man in a cast is not my idea of fun.

Today has been surgery day. All has gone well and Ste is now sleeping soundly. He had to endure a round with the eye doctor for Tommy (straight after he'd come round as there was only one of me but 2 appointments to keep). Everyone has ended the day well though, especially Sophia, who got the spend the entire afternoon and evening living it up with Natalie and Hannah. 'I had the BEST day out of everyone, didn't I mummy?' - well, yes Sophia, I think you did!

123 – Ha...wai....i!!

All is quiet. We are watching a Hawaiian Luau. The Hawaiian dancer on stage is doing a slow dance underneath a pretend waterfall. Very beautiful.

Then, from the peaceful audience, comes a voice, loud and clear. 'ONE, TWO THREE – HA..WAI..I'. A little fist pumps into the air too just for good measure. Whilst Ste and I are pissing ourselves laughing we try and stop him from doing it again. Although, it definitely was the highlight of the show.

So Hawaii was great. Kauai was beautiful and we spent long lovely days by the beach and pool. Our most relaxing family holiday ever. On the last day, a huge sea turtle swam past our feet in the sea, about a metre from shore. A truly wonderful sight.

Phia wrote a diary every day, willingly at first, under pressure at the end! She did it so fantastically and it summed up the holiday so perfectly, here it is :-

I wanna see the sunshine after the rain

So, second year in, and I've decided we must start doing the blog differently if we are to keep it up. Instead of waiting for months and having the ordeal of writing some tremendous essay, we should do what other people do and do it little and often.

Obviously its now May 10^th and we haven't written anything since the the first weekend in April so this is not quite working out according to plan. However its all in my head so am now going to write it down...quickly!

So Easter weekend came and went and so did the summer sun. It appears that the whole of the winters rain was waiting for the arrival of Mum and Rich. For 4 days and 4 nights (thank god not 40!) it pissed it down. The weather had never been so bad in all the time we'd spent in CA so far. Not the best time to have visitors but there you go.

The first few days were spent doing indoor activities. Going to the cinema with Lorraine, Natalie and Hannah to watch 'Mirror Mirror'. 'I love this show' T screamed at one of the random trailers....'when is the show going to end' he asked as soon as the film started. At least the girls and the adults enjoyed it! The Monterey Bay aquarium was next on the hit list. Always fun. The night was spent at a hotel with a lovely little indoor swimming pool. To rewind a couple of weeks, I had just put both the children into swimming lessons. Phia is already like a little fish, head bobbing and floating away. T, on the other hand, screamed like a bashee. And even away from the formal swimming lesson, would he get in? Would he heck as like. So he stayed on the side whilst everyone else had fun. Boded well for Hawaii!

Then, finally, the sun reappeared. Big sur was next on the list. Beautiful as usual. And then Santa Cruz and the beach and the boardwalk where we signed up for a season full of fun. We all came away happy and a bit pink cheeked. Fabulous.

We returned to Mountain View to celebrate my birthday and Mum and I spent a beautifully sunny day together in San Francisco. We went on the trams and to Giradelli Square where we deliberated for a while on what type of chocolate to buy the boys (being Ste and Pops). We had lunch at the sourdough factory and finished it all of eating ice cream outside the Ferry building. Bliss.

By this point the rain has turned into searing hot sunshine and the paddling pool was promptly brought out. Sophia loved it, T gingerly poked his toes in. We sadly said our goodbyes to Granny and Pops. But our next adventure was only days away.......Hawaii!