Happy New Year

After all the rush of Christmas, you would think we'd get a bit of a break, but no!

The day after boxing day I was straight back to work, up at 4AM....yes 4AM to start at 5Am, for all the nutty sale shoppers to get their bargains. Didn't get much chance to recover as I worked the following night till 11, back in work at 9 on Saturday and worked all day Sunday. Wes was the same and we were passing on the doorstep again, he worked today, but has tomorrow off.

We are all looking forward to the New Year and our new lives.........when we eventually get there and hope we get next Christmas and New Year off. We are already planning our New Years Eve pool party, to which you are invited if you can afford the flight! ;-)

We would like to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR and hope 2008 brings best wishes and lots of happiness to you all.

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Boxing Day Evening

Last stop was Mum and Dad's for Boxing Day. Luckily George fell asleep in the car so he was able to get some energy back before the present opening began again. Still waking, Nanny and Grandad helped George open his presents. Grandad got the job of taking the tags off, fixing the toys together and the playing began.

Mum filled us up with a lovely dinner and George enjoyed the entertainment of pulling the crackers. He worked his way through nearly 2 boxes ans still wouldn't let me take a picture of him with a hat on!

After dinner we chilled watching telly and munching on nibbles that didn't need nibbling. Was well and truly stuffed!

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR A LOVELY COUPLE OF DAYS XXXXX

Boxing Day Morning

After packing all our stuff up at Rod's and dropping it at home, we were on the move again to Dad and Dianes.

We arrived quite early as they were still in bed! Made them tea and then George got to open more presents. He was lucky to get more Thomas the Tank Engine and didn't want to open anything else. He was content driving the train and trucks around the track.

By the time we had finished opening presents, playing and driving ourselves mad with the bedlam cube, it was time for lunch. 'Just a buffet' Glenn said, there was still a feast to feed plenty. George tried a sneaky olive and was not impressed, he just wanted to play with Thomas.

Diane's Christmas cake was lovely and had enough alcohol to put you over the limit driving through the reservoirs! After lunch we were on the move again.

Christmas Day

Hooray.....Father Christmas has been!

It was an early start on Christmas Day, George was awake at 5.45am but luckily he went back to sleep til 7.45, a lie in at last! George went to wake up Josh and Grandad and we waited for Nannie to come over to open presents. I think Wes was more impatient than George! We opened all of our presents, George was a bit overwhelmed by it all. After a while he just wanted to play with the ones he was opening and wasn't as interested in opening any more.

Rod made bacon sarnies and Wes cracked open the champagne.......a sawbo tradition....apparently! Wes started the drinking games early, with his own version of 'cowboy draw'? He was rubbish and had to down more shots than anyone else!

Once dressed, we just relaxed and played with George, helped Rod get dinner ready and sat down about 2.30pm for a lovely dinner. Ate too much as usual but hey ho it's Christmas. George got a bit ratty as he didn't want to have a sleep, who can blame him it was Christmas Day. He gave in when we put him to bed. Can't believe it but we ate tea, not that we needed it, especially Wes who chomped through 2 huge bags of crisps, 3 mince pies, turkey sandwiches and no doubt more!

We sat down to watch Pirates of the Caribbean and was made to feel sick with the scent that Wes was giving out....Merry Christmas!

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE FOR ALL THE PRESENTS WE RECEIVED, IT WAS VERY KIND OF YOU TO THINK OF US ALL AND WE HOPE YOU ALL HAD A LOVELY CHRISTMAS XXXXX

Christmas Eve

After finishing work and all the present dropping, we arrived at Mum and Danny ready to start some merriment. George was straight in the drawer to play with the trains, unfortunately Josh had taken the helicopter home so no rides today ;-) Lunch was lovely, not sure Wes enjoyed the gammon, although I thought it was lovely. George enjoyed Nannies Christmas Cake and it was definitely better than the last! We sat around drinking and listening to the latest tunes......Grandad singing and hitting the bars in Spain!

Taking Rocky for a quick walk and a a dodgy watch made us late for the Carol Service, we made an entrance and George made sure we were heard and smelt! With 'Dad....Dad.....Dad.....Dad...Hi Dad.....Dad......Dad' and the smell off poo, it was an eventful service. We forgot to stay for the mince pies and mulled wine......how Danny missed this we don't know? It was then on to Rod's for a light dinner.

George ate loads and was allowed to open one present. He loved the plane with people and suitcases you could take out of it. Was zooming it over his head. He was really good, had a bath and put him to bed, whimpered a bit but went straight off, not bad considering he was in his travel cot and is practically the size of it!

We managed to hook up with the Aussie Baileys, as Father Christmas had already visited down under and see them open their presents. It was lovely to see the kids getting excited and rushing to the laptop to show us what they got.

We all then had to wait for Father Christmas ..........not sure Wes was going to be able to wait the night!

Josh's Birthday

Last week we celebrated Josh's Birthday. This included lots of food, drink, plate passing, helicopter flying, trains crashing and generally a lovely evening.

Thanks Mum and Danny for a nice night x

Halloween Party

George had his first Halloween Party today with a couple of friends, Dylan the Werewolf, Riley the Little Red Devil and Ayla the Kitten. Mums included Bat Kate and Batty Meagan :-) Meagan liked her bat ears so much, she wanted to wear them home!!

There was LOADS to eat, lots of e-numbers for the kids to bounce off the walls with, from witchy finger crisps to coffin sandwiches and spooky decorations surrounding. Kate managed to tangle herself up in the spiders web, whilst chasing after Riley, who was keen on the stairs!

We played some games and the kids enjoyed the spooky tunes, plus tunneling behind the chair!

I think George enjoyed his first Halloween party, but with no sleep, I dare say he will be in bed early tonight!

(Some pics of the party above)

We got our Visa!!!!!!!

Well it finally arrived. We got our passports back this week with the all important sticker inside. Got to be there by August, so we've just got the house to sell and it's Oz here we come. Had a viewing last night and have had a phone call from the estate agent to say they want to come again for a second viewing, so fingers crossed it may be looking promising.

Harlow is currently cold and miserable, we are looking forward to being hot and happy in a our new life down under.

George is having a Halloween lunch on Monday with a couple of friends so will update with some pictures soon. Spooky!

EuroDisney.....the final installment

After an early rise, breakfast and another swim/slide and dose of 'again...again...again', we packed up and headed to the station. Luckily Wes clocked that we could store our stuff in the lockers at the station, so as not to waste time later going back and forth to the hotel. Had to get in as much of Disney as we could! Spent the day getting more photos, autographs and going on the rides. We queued to see Winnie the Pooh, who George loved, plenty of pics taken. After lunch, we made sure George had a sleep so that he would be wide awake for the parade. Wes thought I was mad sitting on the main street kerb at 3.15pm, but I had to make sure George (and us) got a good view, after all, he's not as tall as me! Well, not yet anyway!

The parade started, George woke and we waited. Slowly it made it's way to us and the first float was Mickey and Friends. How jammy were we........it stopped right in front of us. Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale all got off and danced around the float. George was loving it. I managed to film some, but you'll have to wait for our DVD to see it - (having a total mare!)

After the parade it was time to get food. This took the form of a weird restaurant in the jungle, in the dark! George was not impressed when an elephant started moving and making strange noises. Then it was all go, go, go to get our bags and get the Eurostar back home. Luckily the train was empty so we moved to better seats. George spent most of the journey either playing with his cars or taking Wes back and forth to the buffet cart ;-)

It was a lovely break and we are glad George got the opportunity to see Mickey Mouse.

More pics from EuroDisney

EuroDisney.....second installment

We had an early start on Monday, George was in his element as we all slept in the same room. He thought it was great saying 'Hi ya' right next to me. We went down for our continental brekkie and then went swimming. George learnt to say 'again' after coming down the water slides and guaranteed he would go down again!

On we went to the park for our first ride, 'The Grand Prix', only queued for about 20 minutes, but that was enough trying to keep George entertained. He enjoyed being in the racing car and wanted to drive, only problem was he wasn't allowed to sit on Wes' lap so he got really upset being wedged in between us. We managed to start seeing some characters and queued to see Mickey Mouse, again George didn't want to stand and wait, but I was determined for him to actually meet Mickey. When he got to the front, he was itching to get up the steps and rushed over to say hi. He gave Mickey a kiss on the end of his nose, a big hug and then gave Mickey 'five'. Mickey was the first autograph for Georges book.

Wes took the mickey (literally) out of me because I wanted George to meet all the characters and take photos, so he'd have some memories of his trip. George enjoyed meeting Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald and Daisy Duck. We managed to see some other characters as we wandered around the park, some we have no idea what they are from.....will have to swot up on our Disney films. George finally fell asleep, so we decided to go to the Disney Studios. These were so small compared to MGM, but it gave us a chance to wander round.
With George awake, we took him to see a car show. He loved seeing the cars skid and engines roar, whilst dipping his hand into a pot of popcorn!

Wes had booked a meal and show at Wild Wild West, which was a whole new experience for George.......eating dinner in the dark whilst watching Indians ride horses, guns shooting and buffalo roaming, not to mention the cheering from the crowd. He joined in clapping as he ate but burried his head in Wes' shoulder a few times when it went pitch black :-)

We got the bus back to the hotel to have a drink in the bar...well I did whilst George dragged his dad into the playarea. Both came out with red faces and were in need of sleep after a long busy day.

George and his new Friends!

EuroDisney.....first installment

At the start of the month and for my birthday treat, we decided to take George to meet Mickey Mouse. We took the EuroStar - George's first train ride - from Ashford to Paris, only taking a couple of hours. George was brilliant considering he had to sit still for the journey.
We stayed just off of the Disney Resort and had to catch a shuttle bus to the hotel. The Explorers Hotel was lovely and had a pool, slides and playarea for George. Although, having been in the room less than half an hour, he had already banged his head on the bed twice!!!
Itching to go, we went swimming and then on to Disney. It was abour 4pm when we got there and George was exhausted. He fell akip and wes and I went to get a much needed caffeine fix (and pastry!) We wandered around the park, checked out the Grand Prix cars, queue was massive so decided to see what was going on around the castle. The Disney Train had arrived and music was blastin, so George was awake and seeing the characters for the very first time. But still no Mickey! We got dinner, went to Fantasy Land, took George on 'It's a small World' - he was looking in every direction, didn't know what to look at next! It didn't seem that busy, but little did we know, everyone had gone to see the evening show with Mickey dancing. We managed to see this, albeit from a distorted view, but George got his first glimpse of Mickey Mouse - hooray!

George says 'Hi'

George just wanted to let his cousins know that he's still missing them xxxxx