If anyone ever earned their money!

This weekend saw the birthday of my lil Niece who turned 5......well to be truthful she has taken after her Mother (and the Queen) and whilst her Birthday was last Monday, has managed to spread one birthday over two weekends the first was with the in-laws who visited, and last weekend was the official party.

After gladly accepted the invitation.....well the whole family had......it was a trip down to Brize Norton to visit the Sister and co, with more pressies than seemed to be delivered at Chrimbo, and airbeds all round to crash in the living room. This seemed like a great idea before a very late, and only slightly drunken night out on Thursday night. At the moment weekends are a chance to lie in beyond 5.20am, although I hadn't really thought ahead, and which wasn't going to be exceeded too far when sleeping on a miniature bouncy castle in a house with a five year old, who was always going to be very excited given that presents were available.

My Sister and her hubby had booked out the families club and arranged for some entertainers. After spending most of Friday cutting cheese and ham sarnies into interesting shapes and frantic purchasing of party rings, hula-hoops and flapjacks these were distributed around the club, balloons inflated and banners put up. It was then that the entertainers arrived. I'm not sure if it was just me, but party entertainers when I was kid seemed to be either a magician who would do the rounds, or a clown who I remembered smelt very odd. The three young people, who looked like the cast of a children's TV programme turned up and swiftly installed two small inflatable bouncy 'things'......I thought that they were just castles.....or used to be in my day! a table for face painting, party games distributed and a magician's stand erected.

The finishing touches were just completed when the herd of tiny elephants turned up (well only about 25) and I take my hat off to the entertainment team. There were no tears, no tantrums, and no pressure. The kids were all kept entertained.......(when not eating ALL the pink wafers......not that I am at all disappointed!) I have to admit that I had been dreading the thought of being stuck in a hall with 25 five year olds running amok, but the whole day went fantastically.

So hats off and a huge round of applause to kid's party entertainers......oh and to all parents, who manage it on a day to day basis.  

Family visit - Oxford Part 1

I think I have probably mentioned that my Sister and my little Niece moved down to Oxfordshire so that they could live with her husband who is in the RAF. They moved a couple of months ago, and although my parents and other sister had been down to see them, I have always been away, or busy or just not around, and so this was the first time that I have had a chance to see them and their house in what has seemed a really long time. So Sister I and I headed down from Hull, whilst her boyfriend and my half sister headed up from down South.

 

I have to say that the house was beautiful (well bungalow!) and although a Friday afternoon drive was hell (well it was the M1, followed by the M40 which at about 4.30 on a Friday afternoon was never going to be an exactly fun journey, but 45 minutes to do about 5 miles really did seem like it was taking the biscuit.....god bless loud music, nicotine and caffeine drinks.) We all arrived at about 7pm and got to catch up on what was happening in everyones' lives, who was seeing whom, how work was going, and where the short future was taking us (oh and maintained the family drinking tradition.....I should be able to update you further on this in Part 3 with a fantastic game!)

Saturday saw us taking my Niece, with my Brother in Law, and Brother outlaw, to a fantastic park just outside Carterton (a brisk walk of about 5 - 6 miles, which was really nice to get out of the house whilst the ladies organised things - Jess took her bike, although very much like her Mum who would insist her bike on any walk, and after about 200m decide that she didn't want to ride, but rather my Dad would have to carry the bike and give her a shoulder carry!)

I remember parks when I was a kid.....there was invariably a couple of broken swings, a slide with something smeared along its length, a see-saw and a roundabout with metal surrounds (I loved that.....is it just me and my friends who used those to see how fast we could get someone else to vomit?) typically covered in empty beer/cider cans, various items of clothing and pages from those top shelf magazines. My "old" parks would not even stand next to this one......a sandpit with cranes and a bucket and pulley system, two sunken trampolines, numerous swings of varying designs, an adventure playground that would have put the US Marines training grounds and the Krypton Factor's assualt course to shame, numerous slides, and a roundabout that looked like a cross between an IKEA table and the Travelator from Gladiators.

After a couple of hours of playing (I mean looking after Jess whilst she played) we headed back to a lunch that the wonderful ladies had prepared (we did treat them for their kindness later with boxes of chocolates and fizzy wine!). We did spend the afternoon either sitting watching rugby or out at Minster Lovell Manor, details of which I will bore you with tomorrow, but in the meantime I enclose a couple of photos of Jess, who is a wonderful bright spot in our life, enjoying her bike!

Lil Niece!

My sister and niece are shortly to move down to Oxfordshire to move closer to her husband's work, so this was the last weekend we got to spend time together as a family for a while, and it meant that we spent the weekend as a family, and it was fantastic....(especially as I will also be moving to Manchester in the next few weeks as well! - something that I have mixed feelings about.....I can't wait to not have to spend four hours a day commuting, but have spent time in Manchester previously and have not taken to it massively and really love Hull)

Spending time as a family meant that there have been a lot of sitting around the table or in the garden soaking up the sun, talking, telling jokes, and remembering funny times and stories (most of which were highly embarrassing and usually centred around one or other of us doing stupid things often as the result of alcohol, or excessive sugar!) Whilst I am certainly going to miss my sister, I am also hugely going to miss my little four year old niece, who is such a hugely joyous part of our family.

Her arrival was something of a surprise. She arrived whilst I was living in Birkenhead, and my half-brother's ex-wife was pregnant (our family is seriously mixed up!!!!!) when I received a telephone call at about 6pm. I was just back from work and my Father telephoned to tell me that I was an uncle again...... (I already had 4 nephews and a niece, and my half-brother had separated from his wife and the child wasn't his so wasn't too bothered.......told you we were really mixed up!).....that went something along these lines!

"Great! Tell R...... and N....... I hope they are well!"
"No, it's not N...... it's B..... your sister!"
"Pardon? What the ******? How can she have had a baby? She's not even pregnant?"
"Seriously!"
"We saw her last weekend, she was definitely not pregnant......we went to the pub and everything!"
"Well she most definitely was as she's now at HRI with a little baby girl!"
"We'll be over next weekend!"

There really was no indication that she was pregnant, an even having been to a Dr that day she really had no idea (I know that this is the sort of thing that you read about in 'Hello' or 'OK' and think "yeah.....right......how can you not know?" but seriously there was no indication at all!) So very bravely my sister brought little niece into the world. She is truly remarkable. Now at 4 she is loves to dance and sing, has known most of the lyrics to "Mama Mia" for about a year and a half, and will take any opportunity to put on a show. She also loves to dance and if she isn't on the stage when she is older I will eat my hat......well maybe not, but she does have the temperament to be great on stage.

So this lil bundle of shock and confusion that arrived four years ago is a huge part of the whole family's life, who touches the life of everyone who meets her, and who is such a caring and loving little person, is shortly to move away, and I know that we will all miss her (although we will be visiting as often as possible!)