Coral Reef and meeting relatives

The boys awoke in good time on the wednesday morning.  Again we had plans for them.  We wanted to try and make the trip to England as fun for them as possible, given what would be happening the next day.

We got to Coral Reef at about 11.30 am.  This is a water park that has been in Bracknell for about 25 years.  I remember going as a small child, aged 7-11, pretty much every weekend.  It was always packed and always fun.  Oh the joys of being there when everyone else is in school.  Because it was counted as off-peak, and Sebastian was free, it cost us less than 20 quid to get in, always a result for a family of 5.  Ok, the big slides weren't open, but only Oliver would have been able to ride them anyway.

We spent a good 2 hours playing in the pirate ship, the  hot tub around the rapids, and generally just having fun.  It was so worthwhile going for the boys, they had a great time.  People watching was also fun, some of Bracknell's finest were out.  Then hunger struck.  we thought about just getting a snack at the pool, but it was already past lunch time, so we decided to go for a full on meal.

We headed to the local Harvester, about 10 minutes down the road.  Their grill was broken.  WHAT?  how can a Harvester have a broken grill??? The only food they could offer us was fried or salads.  We quickly exited, and started heading towards Wokingham, when we came across a Beefeater.

This Beefeater (Downshire Arms) has been there for donkeys.  I went there as a kid, and as an adult when I worked over the road.  It was about 2pm by now, so we missed the lunch rush.  We were given a nice big table in an alcove, which was perfect for us.  The boys got diet cokes to drink, while Paul and I indulged in beer.  The waitress was very friendly and prompt.  Paul and I both went with the 6oz flat iron stark, cooked exactly the same.  Oliver and Isaac both had a pizza, while we ordered the popping chicken for Sebastian.  All with fries of course, but beans for Isaac and peas for the other 2.  I really think Isaac misses proper baked beans. Our food didn't take too long to arrive. The steaks were tasty, exactly what you would expect from a Beefeater.  Oliver finished everything, will not be long till he is on to adult meals.  Isaac ate about 1/2 of everything, and Seb only touched his fries.

Since it had been a long time since they had eaten, we ordered dessert. Oliver and Seb had a plain ice cream, Isaac had chocolate sauce.  I ordered profiteroles, and Paul had the chic fudge brownie.  Again, there were served in good time.  Paul and I went half and half, and man, were these desserts good.  The boys even had some of the brownie, which they loved.  We got the bill, it came to about 45 quid with tip.  Pretty reasonable for a family of five.  We then realized that the kids were able to eat for 1.99, due to a promotion they run between 3-5 every week day.  Even without realizing, I stumbled onto kids eat cheap!

We headed off to our friends the Tatum's, where we were spending the next 2 nights.  Our boys were so pleased to have somewhere to play, with loads of different toys. They were even more pleased when Oscar and Ethan got home.  It was so lovely to see them playing together again.  

About 6.30pm, I got a phone call from Lee to tell me my uncles were at the house.  We bundled the boys into the car and drove the 5 minutes round the corner to Lee's.  It was so good to see my uncles again, I swear they have barely aged in the 9 years since I last saw them.  It was good for the boys to be able to meet them too, before the emotion of the next day came into play.  We spent about 45 minutes chatting and catching up before heading back to the Tatum's to get the boys into bed.  

New Years and Old Friends

We headed back to the Goslings for New Years Eve.  We arrived early afternoon to give the boys a chance to spend some quality time with nanny and granddad.  They began with some Xbox.  Here is Sebastian trying out Granddads steering wheel.

Then it was on to making dinner. Granddad had spent the time before we arrived beginning to make dinner.  Now he just needed an Isaac to help make the pasta.  He had great fun flattening it in Granddads pasta maker.  He also helped in laying it out to dry.

Typical Isaac.  As soon as his dinner was in front of him, he didn't want it.  Oliver loved it though. Uncle Tony arrived, and we ate our delicious pasta dinner.  We packed the boys off to bed a little later than usual, and got down to the serious duty of drinking.  We skyped with Jenny and Tariq a little before midnight to wish all a happy new year.  We toasted the new year, the the drinking got a little messy with too many shots.....

We travelled to my mums the next day, feeling a little worse for wear.  We had a Papa Johns for dinner, perfect, as it was buy one get one free on the pizzas.  Plus Isaac got his chicken pops which meant he actually ate something.  We chose to spend the night as my mums, as it was Granddad Lees birthday the next day.  He had to get up for work unfortunately.  Luckily for us he did not wake the boys, and they slept till nearly 8.

We spent a leisurely morning at my mums, drinking coffee, while the boys had too much computer time,again.  We had plans to go to our friends the Tatums that afternoon.  Paul Tatum is Paul's oldest friend, they have known each other for nearly 30 years.  Lucky for us, they live a 5 minute drive from my mum, so we headed there just before lunch.  They have recently had an extension done to their house, and it is amazing.  They have doubled the size of their kitchen/dining area, and added a playroom.  The boys were all pleased to see each other.  They have 2 boys, their oldest being a year younger than Oliver and their youngest 6 days older than Isaac.  Ethan (the youngest) made me laugh before I had even entered the house, by doing a typical Isaac gesture of a shrug, with a 'I don't know'

We had a lovely night.  The boys all ate their dinners and went to bed with no issues.  As part of their extension, the Tatums have made their loft room more accessible.  It is a large room with more than enough space for a double bed, a double air bed and a travel cot.  Once the boys were in bed we had a few drinks, lots of chats, and bored them to death with our photos.  We were very lucky. As the loft has black out blinds, our boys slept till 8am.  We had a delicious breakfast, and the kids played some more while we continued catching up.

We left shortly after 10, and headed back to my mums to say a final goodbye and have some lunch before going back to my dads to pack.  We were quite methodical in this, Paul broke up the lego while I spread the clothes and presents around the 5 suitcases.  Granddad kept an eye on the boys while we did this.  It only took a couple of hours to get our selves packed and ready.  Paul and dad headed out to get our dinner of fish and chips, it was delicious.  We got the boys of to bed at a reasonable time of 7.30 for the younger 2 (they were me than ready, Sebastian pretty much asked to go to bed) and 8 for Oliver.  We headed up at 11, after watching the beginning of Celebrity Big Brother.  Good job we are still not in the UK, or I would be watching it......

The alarms were set ready for the off in the morning.......

Lessons learnt this weekend

Saturday dawned a lovely bright sunny day.  I got up just before Paul, and let him have a bit of a lie in.  I sent the boys up to wake him just before 9, as we had sooooo much to do (people are going to get really bored of hearing me say that).  We managed to get a lot of stuff sorted, ready for the evening when we would have people sleeping in every bedroom.  As you can imagine prior to this our house was a tip, with stuff everywhere.  I like to think of it as organised chaos.

My mum and Lee arrived about 11.30am.  The plan was to go out for some food for Lunch.  First we had to wait for Sebastian to wake up....  He eventually woke about 1.15, so we headed to the Harvester down on Littlehampton seafront.  We had a nice meal, and everyone had desserts.  The boys didn't quite finish theirs, but they had a good go.  We finished by going for a short walk along the seafront and down the river.  Will miss it.  Although we don't go very often, it is still nice to know that it is there if we fancy it.

About an hour after we got home, the Tatums arrived with their kids.  Thank goodness it was a good day, so the adults were able to hide outside from the chaos that is 5 children under 6....  Our boys were tired, the  Tatums boys were tired, they were just feeding off each others excitement.  I got dinner on for the boys very quickly, they sat down to eat, whilst Paul and Paul supervised, and Nicola and I got ready to go out.  They finished their dinner and the 2 Pauls went to get some dinner for Nicola, Paul and Dave (Pauls Uni mate)  who arrived while they were at the fish and chip shop.  They ate their dinner after their youngest, Ethan had gone to bed.  By now Isaac and Seb were already asleep in our room, as the Tatums were having the boys room with their boys in the bunk beds and an airbed on the floor.  Oscar T went to bed shortly after, but when Nic and I were heading out the door at 7.30, both the Tatums boys were atill awake.  The men hung back, to be sure that all children were asleep.

Nic and I headed to the Empress for Paul and my leaving do.  The place was packed, as they were also having a charity event on that evening.  Luckily the owner T had put some reserved signs on some tables and Vicki was already there.  We got ourselves a drink and sat down.  Next to arrive were our next door neighbours, Chris and Gemma.  They were very lucky and had managed to get rid of their kids for the whole night!  Then Paul's work mates started to arrive, there was a fair few of them....  Then the mums from school, then Paul, Paul and Dave turned up, just as my 2 very good friends Laura and Suzie arrived with their other halves.  It was great to see them, especially as I hadn't seen Suzie for nearly a month.  So we got down to the serious business of drinking, and sat waiting expecting more of my friends to turn up.  Not one more did..... The school mums had to go, as they had things on, but it was so lovely of them to make the effort and come along.  Gonna miss you girls.....

A VERY drunk us....

Paul decided he wanted to make things 'interesting', so decided to get some shots in (Tariq and Tony, I fully blame you for Pauls renewed interest in shots).  So we all had a sambuca each.  Still no sign of anymore of my friends.  Vicki had to head home, she had left Paul on babysitting duties (so many Pauls), but she made me open her little pressie before she left.  Thank you sooooo much for the rock, postcard and fridge magnet.  The magnet will look fab on out huge fridge, and I have already packed it ready to go on the air freight.

By now I had already decided that most of the people who said they were coming, weren't.  So I got on it.  I sat down had great chats with Laura and Suzie, before they had to go.  Then I sat with Nic Chris and Gemma and drank lots of alcohol......  The drinks kept coming, and we stayed till the bar closed at 12.  Pauls workmates headed home, everyone staying in our house headed to our next door neighbours.  I got the contents of our alcohol cupboard from out house and took it round, where we continued to do various shots from egg cups.  I put Paul to bed about 1ish, Paul T put himself to bed about 12.30, and the rest of us kept drinking.

this morning was not fun.  The kids all woke about 6am.  Mum had to come and get Seb from our room as he was being really loud, and me and Paul were just sparko......  We got up about 9, after having a lengthy discussion, about why I had so few friends come the night before.  I was pretty p**sed off this morning.  I have calmed down now.  People have sent their apologies, but when I think about the fact that it is going to be a few years till I see some of these people it does make me sad.  I know a lot of people are going to read this and then laugh, cos that is what I would probably do. 

Mum and Lee left quite early, after taking down the paintings that will not fit in our boxes.  the walls seem strangely bare....    Us and the Tatums had breakfast.  Then they had to go.  Man that was hard.  These are good friends, Paul and Paul have known each other for 30 years.  I did well up.  if it was difficult to say goodbye to the Tatums, saying good bye to my good friends around here is going to be VERY hard.  Saying goodbye to family, I don't even want to think about that...

So this week coming..... we have the packers in on Wednesday to take all our stuff for air freight.  Our new suitcases should arrive by then, so once the air freight is gone we can start packing the rest of our stuff to take into the suitcases.  Next saturday we are off to my dads to deposit LOTS of things, then on to Birdworld.  My dad is flying my nan over, so it will be nice to see her.  Then on the sunday Mum and lee are down again.  They will be taking most of our suitcases back with them....

Its all happening now... 12 days and we will be in the states....