Wednesday was Rich’s birthday. After being bombarded with homemade cards by the children in bed, we got the train into Birmingham and went to the art gallery and museum. The children love it in there. We went round many of the galleries, and into the ancient cultures sections. Alfie was particularly taken with a recreated tomb, whilst Holly was entranced by a dolls house – small difference lol! Afterwards we had lunch at Around the World in 80 Dishes, then walked down by the canal to look at the barges. A shopping trip will be on the cards soon as he received a Next voucher off Steve and Andy as well  as some cash for new shoes off my parents. Most welcome was the £50 curry fund my parents also gave him lol He had lots of other lovely things, like a nice top and chocs off my parents too, a top and trousers off Matt, some books off his parents – and not entirely sure myself what the  laptop port thing his parents bought him was but he asked for it and loves it which is what matters

Yesterday we went to Hatton with Nanny and had a lovely day.

We also made a delicious sizzling sausage casserole with the remnants of our organic vegetables when we got home.

I had a lovely time in the pub with Bex yesterday evening too. It’s always good to catch up with your best friend

Poor Holly was up barking with croup in the night, and Alfie was also unsettled so we are all zombies (yet again lol!) Poor snotty Holly is feeding a lot at the moment and really tired after the disturbed nights – but still manages to sing “ring a ring o roses” constantly and read us the Bear Hunt book over and over again

Today we headed to the nature centre with Nanny.

Holly particularly loved the meerkats and spent ages watching them. Alfie enjoyed scaring Nanny with the giant taranrulas in the invertebrates house We had some lunch in the cafe and the children had a good run around on the soft play as well as the outside playground there. They both walked miles again too. I carried Holly a few times, but not even enough to warrant use of the hip seat I’d brought with us. No wonder she was asleep by 6.10pm tonight!

Grandad came round this afternoon to do a further bath modification (aided by Alfie whilst Holly watched Peppa Pig with Nanny and I cleaned the fridge out lol!) and spend some time with the children. They really enjoyed doing play dough, and Alfie and Grandad also made a giant spider from his Halloween craft kit! Poor Grandad was a bit upset by Alfie crying and restraining him from going, but he soon calmed down, mollified by the thought of seeing them on Sunday for the Halloween trail at Biddulph Grange and the promise of a sleepover soon