Our daughter’s daughters will adore us…

Hands up who can guess which movie soundtrack cd we have been listening to over and over again during our many hours in the car this weekend then?

So, due to my own crapness in deleting the wrong duplicate titled post on Thursday here’s a four day catch up 🙂

Thursday

Went off to work with Ady and was dropped off at The Portico for the day. It started well really – Scarlett went straight through the house, into the back garden and weed 🙁 Within about 20 minutes my two and the younger Portico two were naked in the garden and Scarlett announced she had done a poo, which we couldn’t find. It was later discovered by elder Portico child 🙁 So that was nice! So having fully disgraced herself she managed to refrain from expelling any further bodily fluids in their grounds (unless you have since found anything else unmentionable?!) and had a lovely time playing.

Davies OTOH started well but around lunchtime he suddenly developed a temperature and got all floppy and cuddly. He did perk up after half a tube of pringles somewhat and managed to cuddle up to Portico Boy to watch some gaming going on, but by the time Ady arrived at about 5ish he was fading fast again and in the end we left far earlier than planned 🙁

Still a lovely day though, I got to have some nice chats with Alison, saw very brief appearances from Chris who was diligently working from home (although he did seem to have regular updates on blogging activity…) and also saw Layla (and very briefly Simon) which is always nice as a sort of BOGOF type offer when you go to Reading (sort of like me and Ros when you come to Sussex – oh and Jenny and Ali too if they are in good health 😉 ) . Davies later said it was the worst time ever at Lije’s house cos he had felt ill but he didn’t say so while we were there as that wouldv’e been rude! Tarly who does dirty, naked child so well always fits in nicely 🙂

Funniest moment of the day had to be Poppy’s double take when she saw Scarlett and exclaiming how there was something different about her, only to realise it was that her hair had been combed! Layla later made much the same remark so we have strived to brush it at least once during the weekend 🙂

Friday

We had planned to be up and away by about 8am. We actually had a rough night, had not done any packing or anything the night before so had to do all that and then it was so close to 9am we hung back to take a library book back which was due instead of asking my Dad to do it for me. Davies was still not himself and the decision to go at all was a wobbly one but we dosed him up with travel sickness medication and hoped he would just sleep the journey away. He didn’t, but he did well and was actually quite perky all day. We stopped at services for lunch and arrived at the hotel at 2pm, which was the exact time we were allowed to check in, so that was handy 🙂 Quick investigation of the room and then we walked around the retail and leisure park type complex it was on, got a bit of food shopping and then went back to the room for a rest.

Lynda and Stuart arrived at about 4.30pm from Manchester and having promised to take Davies to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the week before with Ros and co and dipping out as he’d been ill then, and also going to a real life chocolate factory the next day and being on the same site as a cinema it seemed like the logical thing to do 🙂 Lynda, Davies and I went and Ady stayed with Scarlett and Stuart.

It started badly as Lynda had not been super keen to come, having exhausted the original Gene Wilder film when her boys were young some 20 odd years ago and promised herself she’d never have to watch it again. I convinced her she should lay Gene’s ghost to rest and come and see Johnny Depp doing his thing so she came but it meant we were a little late. Davies then wanted popcorn and fizzy so the trailers had started and the cinema was pitch black when we got there. I fell up the stairs, taking Davies with me and then when we managed to scramble into a seat he kicked the popcorn over!

The film was one of the most surreal I think I have ever seen. Very much in the style of the Cat in the Hat I thought (same mad bright colours, same very artificial fantasy feel about it, same just for the adults jokes and one liners running through it, same feeling that you have somehow stumbled into someone else’s very bad acid trip!). I *think* I enjoyed it, but I came out feeling a bit bamboozled by the whole thing really – the oompa loompas songs were what really tipped me over the edge 🙂 Will be getting the dvd when it comes out so Ady can experience the whole thing for himself!

Came out all blinky at the sunshine and relieved to see the real world still there after all the craziness and had a late for everyone else but early for me and Ady dinner in the restaurant. Journey, two huge glasses of wine and a baileys, crap night before and spinny head from Willy Wonka all caught up with me and I fell asleep by about 9.30! Ady woke me every few minutes to give me updates on Big Brother and I went to bed altogether when he woke me to tell me Anthony had won.

Saturday

Early breakfast and out to be at Cadbury World for 9.30am. I thought it was a pretty good day out. Fairly reasonably priced, plenty to do, good mix of informative, educational and fun and something for all ages. Quite impressed 🙂
Davies had a great time actually, he sat and listened to the story of the Cadbury family (very interesting, what excellent employers), enjoyed the Cadabra ride (very reminscent of Dreamieland but only about 10% as good as what we had there – made me and Ady all nostaglic for days gone by…), loved the demostrations of cooling, tempering and moulding chocolate and had a try at all of them including dipping fudge..mmm. Scarlett was slightly less well behaved but in her defense she was tired and she always acts up when Ady is around 🙁 She is only two! Quick drink to refresh and revive and then onto Cadbury Land – a littel panto style show and then the rain came so we cut our visit short as all that remained was a magic show in an hour and a halfs time, the expensive cafe and an outdoor playground. Lynda and Stuart left us to return to the hotel and we drove around Birmingham city centre for a bit, randomly following brown signs and yelling at each other for being crap at following them, Davies sat in the back playing with his new toy Cadbury van and Tarly had a much needed nap.

Finally we followed some signs to the Think Tank – Birmingham’s Science Museum. which was just utterly fab 🙂 There was loads of other stuff going on there which we didn’t have time for – and the kids were not in the mood for but what we did see was excellent. The Think Tank bit was all about senses, how our bodies work and loads more. Totally interactive for all ages with buttons to press, flaps to lift and knobs to twiddle for littlies and really interesting stuff for grown ups too. We played in there for ages and then discovered a really cool kids village section. It had water play similar to the London Science museum bit and then a mini village with a garage, post box, road works, cafe, fruit and veg stall, broken down car and more with all the relevant dressing up outfits and props. Davies delivered post, fixed some pipes in the roadworks and was a lollipop man, Tarly played in the cafe, drove a car and worked on a veg stall – they loved it there and could have happily stayed for hours. We then did the eating creepy crawlies display which had fantastic X60 models of a grasshopper and a stick insect which were animated to take off into flight, looked at stuff like giant landsnails and massive caterpillars and went into the reading area where there were puppets and soft toys of all sorts of insects. Davies put on a show about the life cycle of a butterfly which was cool and we read the giant book of The Ugly Bug Ball. Quick look downstairs at the planes, trains and cars engine stuff for Ady’s benefit and then back to the hotel.

Dinner last night was at the Frankie and Benny’s across from the hotel which is one of our favourite restaurants. It was really busy and very noisy but still a really nice evening with lovely food and well behaved children considering all factors (such as dinner being at 8pm when they normally eat at 5pm and are in bed by7pm, extreme tiredness etc). Once again came back to the room before 10pm and crashed out fast asleep. Oh what a different girl I am with no internet access!

Today

We’d decided to plan today over breakfast taking weather into account considering the rain of yesterday. Stuart had been a bit daunted by the city centre driving yesterday so we decided to come out of Birmingham and go to Stratford instead. We love Stratford anyway and have been there lots of times over the years. I first went on a school trip when I was about 14 and saw The Tempest at the Shakespeare Theatre, stayed for two nights and trekked round all the various Shakespeare did this here type attractions. Ady and I went a couple of times pre-kids on the way to or from North Wales and we went at least six times while we lived in Manchester as a stop off to or from Sussex.

We parked up, walked round a bit, watched the canal boats going through the locks and then walked to the Butterfly Farm. We went there with my parents about 18 months ago and were very impressed then and sure enough it was a good way to spend an hour or so again. Very warm and with butterflies from all around the world you just walk round the indoor garden and they fly (and land) all around you. The kids love it as they are just covered in beautiful butterflies and get to see and touch them which you don’t normally get at such attractions. Really enjoyed that 🙂

Then for some lunch by the river, more marvelling at the house boats and speculating on what it would be like to live on one and have a canalboat holiday and we found a street performer show going on with a fire eater and juggler. Watched that for a bit, wandered round the shops and then came back to watch another performer while eating ice creams. By then we had all had enough and had 150 miles still ahead of us so we parted at the M40 North / South junction and headed for respective homes. Journey home straightforward but I was fed up with the children by then and as they took til 9.30pm to go to sleep and all we had in the house for dinner was garlic bread I am keen to go to bed myself. Will catch up with everyone else tomorrow (when handily, my arrangements have just been cancelled by email!).

Writing this and looking through the pictures of the weekend (which I will flickr tomorrow now) it was actually a really nice couple of days. Retrospectively perhaps Davies wasn’t really up to it, and they were tired getting over colds and having late nights and disrupted mealtimes (I do like to keep to a routine 😉 ) but I did get really irritated by Davies this weekend. He had a variety of odd tic like characteristics at times, normally when away from home, and I’m aware I do not deal with them well (should ignore or support them instead of nagging him about them really) and he was tired and still not feeling 100% but I was frustrated that having travelled down to see us and been really excited about spending time with him he couldn’t make more effort with Lynda. He wasn’t rude but certainly not delighted to see her like I thought he would be 🙁 I did apologise several times and she kept saying that she didn’t know quite what my expectations of the children were but she thought they had behaved impecably so maybe I was being unreasonable. Or maybe she was being polite!

The good news is that not only was Scarlett nappy (and accident) free all day every day including the long car journeys, she also decided on Friday night that she didn’t want a nappy at night either and has not had one on since. So that’s that, dry at night too 🙂 And although it was possibly not actually that sensible we also did not have a pushchair this weekend. So there you are – no nappies, no pushchairs, they have not had juice out of kiddy cups this weekend either, they have shared our bottled water or had drinks when we ate so not only do I not have any babies anymore (hurrah – I now have children instead, far more preferable IMO) I also don’t actually need a bloody great big bag with me to house all the various baby type paraphenalia (double hurrah!) so will be streamlining by bag tomorrow and creating a bare minimum capsule type kit to carry round instead – first time in five years I have not needed the equivalent of a suitcase, bliss 🙂