Less than a week to go!

Less than a week to go!!!! Yipee!! I am so excited! The only snag is, is that I have so many things to think about that I am finding that if I wake up with the children in the night, I am not going back to sleep very easily as then I think of 101 things that I have to do!! Still, I don’t know why I am complaining – it is a lot less stressful than emigrating here!! And a lot more fun too! We have been talking to the children about coming on a big plane and even Esther today looked at a picture of a plane and said “Edda” so she is getting the idea too!

We have had a fun few days since I last wrote. On Thursday, I took Esther to a place called “Pump it up” which is a huge inflatable play place with slides and things to bounce on and climb. After initially being a little unsure, Esther loved it! She had such fun, she laughed and laughed. She is such a good climber that after the first few times I let her go with Caitlyn on her own and they went up and down this slide again and again! She even when on this enormous one and still laughed! She is funny! We then went for a coffee with Rosie and Vanessa and the children which was good too.

Unfortunately, when I collected Naomi from school she had not had such a good time and had been upset during the lunch hour. I felt truly terrible as we had been having such fun and she hadn’t! She had really enjoyed staying the first time and seemed keen to do it again but it obviously hadn’t been such a good experience this time, which was a shame. She won’t stay for lunch for a little while now but hopefully it won’t put her off staying again!

On Thursday afternoon we met up with Paromita and her son and had a fun time on the merry-go-round in the shopping mall. Naomi was tired on Thursday and her behaviour at home was not so good, which made it difficult, but she was back to her normal self on Friday, thank goodness.

On Friday we went to Kent in the hope of seeing all our Russians before we came away. Unfortunately we only saw one of them, which is good in some ways as it means that the other families are finding their feet and places to go! We had a good time with the family that we saw and hope that they will tell the others that we at least tried to see them! It made it easier though from our point of view as we were home early and able to let Esther have a good sleep. I did some clearing up in the afternoon.

In the evening, Melinda and Chad came round and we had a fabulous evening with much laughter! It did us all the world of good after a hard week! They are going to Europe soon after we return here and so we hope to see them before they go!

Yesterday we had a quiet morning at home and then took the children swimming in the afternoon. The children had a fantastic time, although Esther was a little unsure at first! Naomi is gaining in confidence in the water and just loves to be in there playing. Singing “ring a ring of roses” is her favourite! Esther got cold and shivery after about 30 minutes and so she and I came out then but we had all had great fun! We will go again when we come back.

Today we went to church and then to the Seattle Center for lunch and a play on their toys! There is a large space for the children to ride toy cars that they enjoy and then a small play room which is also fun for their age group. It was fun and, since it was pouring with rain again, a good thing to do on a wet day!

That is about it for now – I will try to write on Wednesday but I cannot promise! We will have to see how the preparations go! I will try and keep writing a little bit whilst I am away; if nothing else to make sure that I keep in the swing of it!!

See you very soon!

Esther and the vaseline!

Hello there! Hope that you are well and that you have recovered, Mum and Dad! We are definitely better here, thankfully!

We have had some sunshine these last couple of days and so have managed to get to the park, which has been fun. On Monday we went to the park with Jo and Zoë and fed the ducks, which my two enjoyed, but poor Zoë was a little unnerved! Yesterday we went to the park with our play group, which was great! We are beginning to get to know each other better and the girls are mostly playing well. The 3 older girls are all quite strong characters, which produces some disagreements sometimes!

We went to Gym class on Monday morning as normal and school and music class yesterday morning. The girls love both!

Today we made it to Mum’s group, which was lovely! The girls played well in their room and the mums enjoyed each others’ company. We were celebrating birthdays today and chatting to one of the new ladies whose baby is due when we are away. I am not sure how much help we were! They were discussing the large mesh knickers that they are given after the birth! Helen (the mum to be) and I were both appalled at the description of them!!

This afternoon we did lots of shopping in preparation for coming away next week. The children were very good but Esther especially got bored toward the end.

Esther made me laugh this morning; she continues to remove her nappy and shout “wee wee” regularly throughout the day but today added a new dimension. She was saying “Baby, wee wee” this morning and I found her coming down the stairs with her hands covered in Vaseline. She had removed the top and dug her hands down deeply. However, instead of putting it on her own face (her usual trick and what she did in Target this afternoon with the brand new Vaseline!) she was carefully placing it on baby’s bottom! It was very funny and very sweet!

I bought Naomi some dress up fancy shoes today in Target – she is delighted with them and calling them her glass slippers. She and I have been making a book to bring to England to show people of her weekly activities and we finished it today. It is very good and she is very proud of it. She’s going to take it to school to show in sharing tomorrow.

Sorry for the short blog, but no real news! See you soon!

Ice cream!

Hello there! We are getting very excited here now as we only have one more full week here before we fly to England. Unfortunately the girls and I are all feeling under the weather and so we are not as bouncy as we normally are! Let’s hope we are all feeling better soon.

On Thursday Naomi had school in the morning; it is often very difficult to establish what Naomi has done at school. Mum and Dad are able to watch her on the school webcam from time to time and sometimes I hear more about her school day through them than from Naomi herself! Still, on Thursday it was clear that she had had a fire drill as she said to me “It went beep beep today and we had to stand in a line!” I asked her if she had had to go outside and she said yes; I also asked her if she had to hold hands with anyone but she said no, she had to have her hands down by her sides! I was impressed at how much she was able to tell me!

Naomi and I also had some fun during her together time on Thursday. She made tiaras for her Cinderella dress and one for Esther from a design from a book that Helen had given her for Christmas. They were very good and Naomi was pleased with the result! Esther wasn’t too sure!

On Thursday afternoon we met up with Fritzi, Ulrike and Paromita and her son at the park, which was fun and great to be able to let the children have a run for a bit! It has finally stopped pouring with rain here now – at least for the time being!

On Friday we took Esther to the hospital to see the dermatologist and were pleased to learn that she is discharged from there as her skin has been consistently good for a while and also I know how to control it when it does flare up. We weren’t there long and then popped to Bellevue Square to do a bit of shopping and to let the girls have a play on the boat! We had a good morning and then came home to do some housework. Brooke came this week, so I got a lot done, which was good!

Yesterday was the members meeting for Church which Tim went to, whilst I took the girls to the “Big Zoo”! We had a lovely day – we saw lots of animals as the weather persuaded them to either be sleeping in their enclosures or outside playing! We arrived at the Gorillas just in time to see them eat their lunch and it was fascinating! They came right up to the window and were really inquisitive; the girls and I were really delighted!

They have opened a new exhibit at the museum which is a bird feeding station. I was very impressed with the girls and less so with myself! You can buy sticks with food attached and the birds fly down and eat it from you! Naomi and Esther were able to feed the birds eventually and it was very pleasant watching the bird sitting on my stick eating the seeds, but I couldn’t cope very well with them flying around and over my head and in the end I think my nervousness was not helping the children so we left. We had been in there a good while though! I blame the skuars!

We also saw the bears, the elephants and the tigers which was fun and we all enjoyed ourselves! I was a little frustrated at first though as the children were more interested in splashing in the puddles with their wellies than the animals when we first arrived! It took me ages to persuade Esther to come along and in the end she rode in the buggy if we needed to go a long distance as we wouldn’t’ have got any where otherwise!!

Naomi is good company when she is happy and yesterday we had some lovely chats around the zoo. She was commenting on what she saw, which was funny especially when she saw a man with just a tee-shirt on!! Bless her! She is in bed with her stories right now and I am hoping she will drop off to sleep!

I couldn’t work out whether to be pleased or cross yesterday with Esther! I had left the bag of crackers on the side after I had given the girls one after we had come back from the zoo and had made a cup of tea. I popped up stairs to fetch a load of washing and came down to find that Esther had dragged the little blue chair that she and Naomi sit on to do craft to the side and had stood up on it, helping herself to crackers! I was speechless! I couldn’t work out whether I should praise her for her initiative or tell her off! I was worried because in theory she could have reached my hot tea!! She didn’t but I hope it isn’t something she does too often!

I was giving Esther a cuddle yesterday when she stated to lick me! I think my cardigan feels soft and she wanted to see what it felt like! Anyway, I said to her that I wasn’t an ice cream and so she was laughing and saying “ice-cream” and trying to deliberately lick my face! This went on for sometime and she though it was a great game! She was giggling and giggling! She also thinks it is funny to blow raspberries on my tummy! She is a cheeky girl!

Today Tim took the children to church but they weren’t too well and so they came home early! We’ll spend the rest of the day quietly I think!

Anyway, that is all our news! Take care for now!

Hey Dude!

Good Evening! Hope that this finds you all well. We are getting very excited about coming to England soon and I am beginning to plan what we need to do before hand!

Tim is very happy tonight as he has finally managed to purchase his new x-box 360 and so he is merrily plugging it in as we speak. He also managed to get hold of James and so they both have one – much to Vanessa and my amusement! It is a slim little thing and replaces 2 other things, so I am pleased for aesthetic reasons!

We have had an odd but pleasant day today. WE initially planned to go to Mum’s group this morning and then onto see Vanessa and Maddie this afternoon. However, when we finally arrived at Mom’s group, Esther had had a bout of diarrhea and I didn’t feel that it was appropriate to stay, so without even sitting down, we left! Poor children!

Anyway, to compensate for this disappointment, we went to the Children’s Museum as the children could look around there without passing anything on to others! We had a good time – the children did some painting and enjoyed seeing the exhibits! We had some lunch out and then went to see Vanessa as planned! (I had warned her about Esther before hand though)!

Yesterday Esther and I went to music class whilst Naomi was at school and then we went shopping. Naomi had a good morning at school, but it is hard to extract much information from her as to what she does!

In the afternoon we went to the park (the sun even shone!) with our play group and met a new lady and her children who are roughly the same age as my two, which was nice! The older girl (Acacia) and Naomi played very well together which was lovely! The mum was nice too!

On Monday we went to Gym class and then went to Factoria Mall in the afternoon. We did some shopping and then I let the children play for a while on the boat. It was fun! Naomi wanted to go into the pet shop but we ran out of time –we’ll have to go again!

Esther has been entertaining us this week! She was saying “Hey dude” this evening having watched Nemo! It is very funny! She has also learnt to drink from a cup this week and is doing well, although she is spilling some of it! The funny thing is, is that she has also taken a liking to black tea! The refugees will be delighted as that is how they drink it! Bless her she is funny!

Naomi has been organizing everyone in sight!! She is also asking us lots of questions and putting the answers down in a little book! She loves to play at teacher and at dressing up! We went to Factoria Mall on Monday with her in a fairy skirt – I forgot that she was wearing it over her trousers and took a while to work out why people were smiling at her! She loves to be a princess!

Anyway, had better go as I still have the ironing to do! Bye for now!

"I am 3"

Greetings from Seattle!

We hope that you are well and have had a pleasant weekend! We are fine here!

We have had a busy few days since I last wrote! On Thursday morning, Naomi went to school and I took Esther to the newly opened KidsQuest museum. Esther loved it and I would certainly recommend it to people and would like to go back again! When we arrived, Esther headed straight for the water play area, where she had great fun playing with the water and I had great difficulty dragging her away!

We then went into another area and she spent the first five minutes running from place to place as there was so much to see and do, she couldn’t quite work out where she wanted to start! There were things to climb, trains to play with, stories to read as well as all sorts of things to explore! She had a great morning!

I had registered Naomi to stay at school for an extra hour, which she enjoyed too! She had some lunch and then went out for playtime. She was delighted that she had had 2 recesses that day and had obviously enjoyed playing and spending the extra hour there which was good!

After we had collected Naomi, Maddie, Vanessa and Alex came for lunch and then Naomi and Maddie had a lovely time playing with each other! When they went we went for a short drive to persuade Esther to have a short nap and then we came home and played!

On Thursday evening Tim and I watched the “Bourne Identity”, which we enjoyed but I got very very frustrated with! I had read the book in the summer and it is complicated but an excellent read but the film does not bear any relation to the book!!! Seriously, only the title and the man’s name are the same!! I was furious as I do like a film to be a good adaptation! Anyway, it was fun watching it once I had separated book from film!

On Friday we went to see our Russians!! We now have 3 families to visit and so it is getting hectic!! We had a good time with all of them and they were pleased to see us! We also saw the last family that we had hosted in their new apartment. They were only getting some of their furniture on Friday as we were there! They had been sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor up until then! Poor things!

They had a friend there who could speak a little English and who thought that I worked for world relief as he kept on asking me questions about the beds and told me off for providing a bad sewing machine! Eventually I explained that I didn’t work for WR and then he took it on himself to explain to the family that I wasn’t from WR! It all got very complicated and confusing!! I am always so exhausted when we leave – I have to stop and get a cup of coffee!

Yesterday we had a really grumpy day with Naomi. She seemed deliberately determined to do everything that we didn’t want her too from the moment she got up until she went to bed! We had a lovely day – we saw Becky, Darin and Eli briefly first thing in the morning and then the children and I made some Esther-friendly cookies. After lunch we went to Snoqualmie Pass to play in the snow with Vanessa, James, Maddie and Alex and we all had a great time. Naomi especially really enjoyed playing on the sledges either going down a long slope with Tim or a little one on her own. But she remained grumpy until bedtime!! Today she was back to her normal self – thank goodness!

Today we went to church in the morning and then onto a party in the afternoon for one of our friends children. When we came home the girls and I played games for a little while before we had supper and then they went to bed! Let’s hope we all sleep well again tonight!

Esther has been making us laugh at bedtimes recently as she has very specific ideas as to where her monkey and her dolly should go! She lies in bed and says “there” and points to a spot a few inches above her head! When we try and place it near her, she says “no, no, there” but until we work out how to suspend them above her head in exactly the right spot, she is not going to be happy!! We go through about 3 different locations each night until she is reasonably happy with the position!!

Naomi is very proud of being a big girl of 3 and will now answer the question “how old are you!” We had difficulties the other weekend though, when she miss heard 3 and free! Poor child thought that Tim was saying, “No you are not three” when he was in fact saying “no you are not free!” She was in tears, saying “I am 3, Daddy, I am 3”! Poor Tim was trying to pay for tickets and say to her, “yes, Naomi, I know you are 3 but you are not free” and she got so upset! It took us ages to calm her down and for her to understand what Tim was saying!! Being 3 is important – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!!

Both of the girls are developing a tidy streak! Well, sort of at any rate! Naomi likes to fetch her water to drink at meal times by herself, which is fine but if she spills a drop she is very good at fetching the cloth to wipe it up all by herself! Today, Esther wanted to wipe the table as it was sticky and so she fetched the towel and wiped it all by herself! She was very sweet! Yesterday when we were making the cookies though, they made so much mess that I got half way through them and was thinking “why did I think this was a good idea?”

Anyway, that is about all for now! Will write on Wednesday as usual! Until then, take care!

24 days and counting ..!

It is still raining! We have now had 24 days of continual rain, which is apparently almost a world record and not one that I wish to beat! But they are still forecasting rain and so it looks like we are going to be hemmed in for a while longer. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just a drizzle but it has been pouring and pouring – the type of rain that you need your wipers on full in the car! We were all agreeing this morning that it was getting very irritating!

Still we did manage to get out for a short time today so that the girls could have a jump in the puddles, which they enjoyed! The sun did shine today for about 20 minutes but it was over Esther’s nap time and so we didn’t get out in it! This morning we were at Mom’s group again which was great and so we weren’t bothered by the rain then!

Yesterday morning Naomi went to school and then we met up with our play group in the afternoon. Our group consists of ourselves, Fritzi, Ulrike, Rosie and Caitlyn and the baby boys! We also hope to have another lady join us who has a little girl Esther’s age, which will be great for her, as well as an older girl.
On Monday we had Gym class in the morning and then the girls went to the Dentist in the afternoon! The girls were very good at the Dentist and I was impressed by the dentist, to. It was a children’s dentist and they were all very focused on the children, which was great! Naomi had pictures of her teeth taken and even had them cleaned whilst Esther managed to open her mouth for the dentist – an achievement in itself!

Both on Monday and Tuesday nights, Tim had work engagements in the evening which meant that he was home late. On Monday night I cleared out the garage so that it looks very tidy and last night I tackled the toy room! I did quite well although I need to tackle the bookshelf!

That is about all our news really! The girls are fine and were pleased to see Tim this evening! Esther continues to try and go to the toilet whenever Naomi does! Today I was so determined that I would not redo her nappy 10 times a day by putting her in tights, only to discover that Naomi will help her out of her tights! Great! I think I shall have to try and get her toilet trained but she isn’t showing any signs of readiness except for the fact that she likes to copy Naomi!!

Naomi and I have had some enjoyable together times on the computer this week – she is getting the hang of using the mouse to drag and drop and using the cursor keys to control a game. She enjoys it and we have had fun!

Will stop here and go and do the ironing! Will write at the weekend!

Fun despite the rain!

Hello there! Hope you are all well! We are fine and have a pleasant weekend! We worked out today that we have hardly any free time for ourselves before we come to England and so it was nice not to be able to take it easy!

It continues to be extremely wet this week – I realize how spoilt we were last year now! It is beginning to get irritating, which is an odd thing to say about the weather, I know but really it has been raining hard for the last 3 weeks! It is quite limiting in as much we can’t go to the park, which the children are missing!

Still, school started again this week, which was good! Next week all our activities are running as normal and I am particularly looking forward to seeing all my friends at Mum’s group on Wednesday.

Naomi had school on Thursday morning, whilst Esther and I did a bit of shopping and then some playing at home! Esther really likes sorting shapes at the minute and we spent a long time doing that before we went to collect Naomi from school.

We came home and then webcam-med Mum and Dad for a while; the girls put on a concert for them, which was very entertaining! They were singing ‘row row row the boat’, ‘a dingle dangle scarecrow’ and ‘ring a ring of roses’! It was a delightful sight! Naomi even managed to curtsey at the end!

Whilst we were on the web-cam, Naomi came running into me, shouting that Esther wanted to go to the toilet and wanted to use the proper toilet! This is not something you want to hear, when she is not ready to be toilet trained yet! I found Esther in the bathroom with her nappy off, trying (and failing!) to get herself onto the toilet! She was so funny! I sat her on for a while and said “well done” but quickly put her nappy back on! However, this was the start of phase of her removing her nappy every time Naomi goes to the toilet! Poor Esther is so determined to copy Naomi in everything she does! It is funny to some extent but not when you have put her nappy back on again for the 10th time that day! She has been in tights over the weekend as it increases the difficulty in removing the nappy!! On Thursday afternoon we met Maddie and Fritzi briefly at the boat, which was fun!

On Friday I had an early morning dentist appointment and we had originally planned to visit the Russian families in Kent. However, I had a bad headache and the girls were very grumpy and so I decided that we had better not go. Instead, we were able to go to the park to see the animals and to splash in the puddles, which gave us all some much needed fresh air and cleared my headache! We had a lovely morning! There were lots of puddles and the children got very wet splashing in them! They enjoyed themselves but I had to wash their coats afterwards!

We then went to see the animals and Esther enjoyed seeing the sheep and Naomi particularly enjoyed the rabbits! Naomi was fascinated by the information flaps that were on the fences and I think we must have read them all! Esther calls all sheep “lambs” which was quite funny as she was standing at the fence shouting “lamb” to these very adult looking sheep!!

After seeing the animals, the girls and I performed a concert on the stage to an empty outdoor amphitheater! We did lots of singing which they thought was great! We had done so many other things that we only had a short time at the play ground but the children were quite happy!

Yesterday we went shopping in the sales and picked up some good bargains! Tim and I both found new jumpers greatly reduced, which was good!! Naomi and Esther had a long play on the boat, so we were all happy!

Today we went to church this morning and then briefly went to Discovery Park for a walk along the beach. It was cold and a little wet but still very beautiful! We had a bit of a drive round exploring round the area too before coming home!

The children have been very funny in the car this week! One of the songs on the music CD that accompanies the music class is “you are my sunshine”. Well, even before the first note is played, Esther is shouting “appy” (happy)! Then they both join in with the song and it is very funny listening to “appy, grey, way” coming from the back!!

Esther was very sweet on Friday; Naomi slipped on something on our kitchen floor and bumped her head. As she was sitting on my knee, she didn’t have her glasses on, so Esther very kindly picked them up for me. As Naomi wasn’t ready to wear them again, I was holding them for her. Poor Esther didn’t like this and so she took them off me saying “No, Nay-nay, head!” and tried to put them on Naomi! It was so lovely!!

Naomi has been enjoying playing at being a fairy and waving her magic wand! She particularly likes it when the fairy wand “magics” money into her hand for her Cinderella money box! Sadly this doesn’t happen all the time! She has also enjoyed acting out some of her stories, especially Cinderella, so she and I were playing last night that I was the handsome prince, she was Cinderella (of course)! We danced and then the clock donged and Cinderella had to run and leave her glass slipper! The next day the handsome prince comes knocking on the doors of the bedrooms until he finds Cinderella and she tries the shoe on! Amazingly the shoe fits and we get married!!! Naomi thinks it is great fun!!! I wonder if they have panto’s here! I doubt it!! I shall have to take her to one someday!

Well, that is all for now! Will write on Wednesday!

Welcome 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Good Evening from Seattle! Hope that this finds you all well! We are fine here and have had our first day back to school and work today. The children have found it hard adjusting to the fact that Tim wasn’t here with them all day and were glad to see him when he came in. They both looked for him when we came home from school this morning and Esther said a hopeful “dada?”

Naomi had a good morning at school this morning and enjoyed going back – she went in without being upset, so that was good. Esther and I were looking forward to our music class but that was cancelled at the last minute, so we were disappointed. After we picked up Naomi from school we went to collect her new glasses. It took ages to adjust them so that they fitted her face comfortably and so we were not home until gone 12:30. We had a quick lunch and rest time before going to see one of our friends in Kirkland for the afternoon. Caitlyn is also 3, English and wears glasses, which is nice! We had a great afternoon there with them and will see them next week.

We have had a lovely weekend away and didn’t get back until nearly 8pm last night, so it was a quick bath and bed for the children. Our friends Melinda and Chad came with us and we had a wonderful time! We stayed near Portland in Oregon for the weekend in this amazing suite! The suite had a King sized room, a kitchenette / lounge / dining room, a bedroom with 2 double beds and 2 bathrooms! This was all for $100 for all of us including a delicious breakfast! It suited us so perfectly that I am very disappointed that most of the hotels are in the East of the States and not near here.

It was a quick drive to Portland from where we were staying and we went there twice; firstly to go to the Zoo for the Zoolights experience and then on Sunday to visit a wonderful bookshop and to have a wander around the city. The Zoolights was great fun! There were (I am told!) a million lights around the Zoo mostly in shapes of animals or sea life, which were amazing to see in themselves but there was also a train that took you for a ride around the zoo and a model railway (with Thomas and James!!) that we visited. The girls loved it and so did we! It was wet on and off, which put some people off, but this worked in our favour as another visitor gave us some tickets for free that his party no longer needed but that had been paid for! We were grateful for his generosity!

The children were in bed late on Saturday night but they had had an excellent evening and went to sleep straight away! The rest of us sat up and celebrated the New Year in before going to bed! We slept well that night although Esther was up early! On Sunday we went into Portland in the morning and went to Powells Bookstore – one of the largest in the USA. I think we could have all stayed there all day! Naomi listened to story after story whilst Tim and I took it in turns to have a look around! Esther was asleep for most of it, which made it a bit easier!

After lunch we went for a walk through the city and then caught a tram that showed us some more of it! It seemed a small, but pleasant city that had lots of shops there! Oregon doesn’t have any sales tax either and so I was disappointed that we couldn’t make use of the sales!!

In the evening Melinda and I went to see “Pride and Prejudice”, which we loved! It was a good if condensed adaptation of the novel and once I had got over my initial dislike of Mr. Bingley, I enjoyed the film! Definitely one for my birthday I think!!

Yesterday we took a drive to see some wonderful water falls. With all the rain that there has been they were really full and very dramatic. We had a walk to see one of them but the largest one was next to the Restaurant which was very convenient! We had a long journey home but the children were very good – helped enormously by Chad spending ages entertaining them! I wish we could borrow him for all our long journeys!!

So that was our lovely weekend! It would certainly be a trip I would like to take again with visitors (especially ones who fancied doing some shopping!!) and we all enjoyed ourselves!

We have also spent some time with both Ulrike’s and Vanessa’s families last week. On Thursday we were invited to Ulrike’s house to share in a German tradition called “Fire bowl” (English version!) Basically this is where you have vast quantities of wine, rum and something else in a bowl which you then place a sugar candle over and then set fire to the candle! The difference between this blaze and the blaze on top of a Christmas pudding is like the difference between a home done Firework display and the London display on New Years Eve!! It was quite something! The drink was tasty but too strong to be enjoyed there so we brought ours home to be drunk later!

On Friday we went to the Science Center with Becky, Darin and Eli, which was great!! The girls were delighted to see Eli, Esther especially. We had been calling Esther a “Klingon” on Friday morning as that was all she had wanted to do – cling on! But as soon as we said that we were going to see Eli, she was off to find her shoes like a shot!! She was so funny!

We had a great time at the Center. We spent a long time in the Butterfly area, which I found a little unnerving as they were flying above my head, which I am not too keen on! Having been attacked by Skewers in the Shetland Isles I am a little nervous about flying things! I was also nervous because they children were not allowed to touch them! Naomi understood this and just watched fascinated by them but Esther wanted to run up to the ones that were sitting on the ground and prod and poke them! She didn’t want to harm them; she just wanted to know what they felt like! However we all escaped unscathed!!

A man had one on his back, which Naomi thought was great and so she was also pretending to have one on her back! The children then had a long play in the tot area which they loved too!

That is about it for now! Hope you have enjoyed this long blog – I will write again on Sunday! Bye!