The In laws visit

Hiiii

Just a quick one.....

I am well and truly in the remit of school holidays now.  Isaac has been off for a week, Oliver well over 2.  Although, it doesn't feel like it quite yet, as we have had the in laws here...

Granddad and Isaac in the pool

It was nice to have Keith and Chris stay with us.  Chris was not well when she arrived, so I took them to check out the standard of American health care (like me, they are well used to how the NHS works...).  Fortunately, they were seen, given a prescription, charged under $180 (including prescription) in under an hour.  Went well.  I swapped cars with my friend (thanks Anna), so I was able to run them around, without the necessity of them hiring a car to start with.  They saw Greenville, the mall, and went to the pool quite a lot with the boys.  On Monday, they hired a car, and headed to Atlanta, to see Fleetwood Mac in concert.  I think they enjoyed it.  They then headed to some mountains above Atlanta, for a night away from lots of noise, for some rest and relaxation, before heading back here on the wednesday afternoon.  We went for a nice meal on Thursday evening, and they headed back on Friday night.  They are already being missed by the boys, and us.

The boy LOVES water

Flight simulator

While they were here, we took a trip to The Children's Museum in Greenville.  The boys loved it, and it was nice for Nanny and Granddad to be able to do something new with the boys.  We liked it too, as you can imagine my boys were completely taken with the Formula 1 bit, the supermarket and the building site area.  It was a lot of fun.  We went quite late in the day, so a lot of the areas were pretty messed up and some of the activities were not working at all.  There were also some quite rude kids, but we wont dwell on that....

Upset boys

 We were also able to experience the Farmers Market in Downtown Greenville for the first time.  What enticed us out was 'Touch a Truck' day.  It was billed as a great opportunity for kids to see large vehicles they normally see on the road, upfront, and have a play and touch them.  Great, except it was heaving.  We got there about 10am.  Walked out of the multistory into the display area, and were completely taken aback by the formality of queueing.  Every vehicle had a queue at least 10 people deep.  We don't do queues. This should not have been strange to us, coming from the kingdom of queueing, but the formality and organization these people had put upon themselves was beyond me. We walked to the other end of the display, where there was a huge fire truck with a big crane, again queues either side to have your photo on the bottom of the crane, or sit in the seat.  We turned around, and the boys were fortunate enough to be able to go in the back of the school bus.  There was then a small baby sitting with parent in fire truck next to school bus.  Baby liked the LOUD horn on the fire truck.  So we had a very upset Isaac and Sebastian.  Wasn't really worth it.....

So the holidays 'proper' begin for me tomorrow.  This week we are meeting Liene at a local library for an event involving kazoo's, lets hope Isaac does not freak at the noise.... Having some friends round on Wednesday afternoon.  Thats all so far, let hope more things appear.  I imagine we will spend a bit of the time at the pool, it is so nice to have.  I need to do a type of reward chart for Oliver and Isaac to entice them to do their school work, reading and help a bit more with the chores.  The summer time rules are working ok so far, other than the above mentioned things......

Catch up and Oliver is 7

Ok, so I have 2 weeks of activities to fill you all in on.  I will make it as quick as possible.....

We have mainly been catching up with our friends, and going to peoples houses.  It has been lovely.  The weather has been steadily improving, which has meant many trips to the pool.  I still have not taken the boys on my own yet, but the time is coming.....

Birthday cake

I had Isaac's school conference last week.  He is doing really well, his number skills are good, and he is starting to show real interest in writing and reading.  He can write most numbers, and a variety of letters.  He can write his name, and is starting to recognize words.

the best present ever

It was Oliver's birthday last week, I cant believe he is seven now.  Man, time flies.  He got a variety of presents.  His favorite is the Xbox game 'Nascar- Inside lane', he loves it.  The boy is obsessed by Nascar.  He chose to go out to TGI Fridays for dinner on his birthday (thanks mum), then to the pool afterwards. He also had a Spongebob cake, which I purchased from the local supermarket.  It was yummy, and so much less hassle than me making it.  Particularly as he had requested I make 21 cookies for him to take to school as a special snack.  Oliver also had a school trip on his birthday, how lucky is that.  They went to the happy cow creamery, and got to eat ice cream. At the weekend we went to Frankie's Fun Park, where him and Isaac played some miniature golf, then we had a meal at Johnny Rockets. Yummy milkshakes.

New hair

I had my haircut last week.  It was time to go short.  I just was not managing it in the heat.  I got an awesome hairdresser at a place in the mall.  She was very good.  It is now just below my ears, but I feel like I want to go a bit shorter, so will probably be back there before our next holiday.

We relaxed over Memorial day weekend. Aloft was on at Heritage Park, but we just wanted to stay home, and enjoy family time.  We did get to see some balloons in the evening, which was nice.

Oliver finished school on thursday.  He does not go back till 26th August.   Isaac finishes on friday, and goes back the first week of August.  This is when Sebastian starts.  We have been offered for him to do 3 days, rather than 2, so we are going with this.  I am so looking forward to having some me time, even if I will be spending it doing Uni work.  I am a little worried about how he will settle, but if I have done it with 2 already, the 3rd should be a doodle (I hope....)

I was able to go out with some friends in the week to Greenville.  I chose to drive everyone, which meant I could not drink, but I was ok with this.  We had a nice time, with yummy food at the Lazy Goat, then drinks at Greenville's newest rooftop bar, SIP.  Very nice, even is I was just on the diet coke.  Was late though, didn't get home till gone midnight.

black rat snake 

I took Oliver and Seb to the zoo on friday.  It was good.  Seb got to walk, which he loved.  As it was only us, and the boys keep a brisk pace round the zoo we were done in just over an hour.  We did see a black rat snake in the flamingo enclosure.  Nice to know what those things look like.  The boys even got the opportunity to play in Cleveland park after, which was good for them


My in laws arrive tomorrow.  So looking forward to seeing them, as are Paul and the boys.  It will be nice to have some company, and to help keep the kids amused. I hope they manage the traveling ok, it can be very tiring.....

Excitement builds.....

Given how unsettled Seb was on Wednesday night, he had managed to wake both the boys up by 4.30am on Thursday morning.  It seems Seb doesn't like the noise of his brothers moving around on airbeds.  I took both boys in to the living room at my mums at 5.50, they were well awake and had been for at least an hour.  They sat down and watched tv, while I dozed on the sofa, and Seb went back to sleep. My mum got up about 7, we got the boys some breakfast about 9, Seb was still asleep.  He eventually woke about 10.30, but still was not hungry.  Got the boys dressed and they went back to playing on the wii.  Seb was still not well, and fell asleep on the sofa about an hour after he woke up.

Paul and his parents arrived about midday.  I gave the boys a snacky lunch, paul and I were not hungry....

The taxi arrived about quater to 2.  Keith helped paul take all the bags downstairs and loaded into the car.  Then we began our goodbyes.  It was very hard, I knew I had to say goodbye to keith and Chris and my mum and get into the car quickly.  The boys said their goodbye, but I can't remember if Isaac did, probably not.  There were a few tears, none from me, not that I am cold hearted, I just found it hard.  I didn't want to get upset in front of the boys  I think paul found it harder than I did, he felt like he was taking me away from my mum....  I told him what she had said the night before, that I would not be away for ever, it was only a few years and we would be back eventually....

We got to Heathrow about 3, and loaded everything onto 2 trolleys.  It just about fit.  Oliver was brilliant and pushed Seb.  I had read on Lufthansas website that we could check our bags on the night before.  Turns out they cant do this at Heathrow......  They don't allow any bags to be checked overnight.  At least we were able to check ourselves in and pay for the cat.  We headed to our hotel, all squeezed into a Mercedes people carrier.  It was quite a squeeze with 5 large suitcases, 1 small suitcase about the same size as our 3 carry ons, not forgetting 2 car seats, my bag, a. Rucksack, a cat and a buggy.  We checked in fine, ordered our taxi for the next morning, and got a very nice porter to bring all the luggage upstairs in a big trolly.  We hung around the hotel for a bit, then took the boys for a McDonalds for final dinner in the UK..

We came back and had all the boys in bed by 7.  They fell asleep quite early.  We were in bed by 9, after repacking the bags for a final time, trying to get as much as possible in to the big suitcases, so we would not have too much to carry.  I struggled to fall asleep, knowing we were getting up at 3.45 the next morning.....