Lovely weekend

We've had a lovely weekend, full of fun outings and adventures. It's one of the best weekends we've had ages. Friday Lucy and I spent the day at Mum's house as she had Harry over. We all enjoyed playing games and hide and seek, took a breezy walk to the village shop for comics and then watched some Nemo. I cleared out my childhood bedroom which is the now the grandchildren's room. The baby cot needed to be taken down and the single bed pulled out of storage and made up. It looks great now and we got rid of some clutter which is always something I enjoy doing :)

Yesterday we all spent the afternoon with a friend of Lucy's and her family to celebrate little Caoillain's birthday (3 years old). Lucy goes to school with Caoillain and they are firm friends and very sweet together. C's older brother Darragh is 5 and also a lovely little boy who was only too happy to hold the girls' hands as we went on our various adventures. First we all went to a huge indoor play place which was better than any we've even seen before - a carousel, huge climbing gym, ball pit, slides and soft play area, as well as bumper cars, a mini play shopping centre and a huge Lego room. We all ran around and worked up an appetite then headed to Nandos for lunch. The next excitement was at Build-A-Bear Factory where all three children made up a bear and picked out clothes for them. It was a lovely experience and the children were so excited to see their bears being filled and stitched and dresses.

Lucy's bunny from the Bear Factory - picked out entirely by her

I am friendly with Caoillain's Mum Theresa and know the children, but the husbands hadn't met each other or met the wives before. We all got on like a house on fire and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We'll definitely meet them all again and have them to our new house. It would nice for the girls at the very least, and it's always a bonus when us parents get along.

Today my brother Rob and nephew Harry came for the day. We had to get all of our belongings from our storage unit up the road, so roped Rob in to help do the lifting and driving with Joe while I stayed at home with the cousins. We all had a lot of fun. I certainly enjoyed having the children and they got on really well. We played trains and restaurants, we read books and watched a bit of 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', then headed out for a walk in the woods. We wore each other out running around and playing 'bears', watching the (tony but fascinating to a 3-year-old) waterfall in the stream then came home for a snack and a sit down before the Daddies came home.

After unpacking the van we all headed to the pub and had a good nosh and a drink which we had all earned! The cousins are becoming evermore close and clearly enjoy playing together very much. They have the odd argument but generally get on very well. Once Harry had discovered Lucy's new big girl bed, he was keen to play 'going to bed' and several times throughout the day they would cuddle up together under the covers and pretend to sleep. Very sweet!