THE FROG-ACADEMY

All Happening here...

...and there! We’ve had a fantastic couple of days. No pics ‘cause I keep forgetting to take my camera - must remember it tomorrow!
Yesterday was predominantly errands, but the girls left town with a ring each (silver and gemstone @ £3 a piece) for the older two and a pretty wooden necklace for Belle. Plus P. got her winter boots. I decided against trainers for her as she is such a jeans and floaty skirts girl (I know that is extremes, but that’s her), so boots should fare her well - and she is almost big enough footed to wear a pair of hand-me-downs that are waiting in the garage for her. The boys left with a new piece of Hot-Wheels kit : a ramp that hooks over the door to make a steep drop - battery free and great fun :) and Joel also got his ‘tennis shoes’ he was after like his brother. Only it turns out he needs to boost them a little with insoles as they are a teeny bit on the big side. Also went to the library and did the usual book exchange. Boo has finished her reading mission and Joel has almost - just a couple of chapters of this last book to go. I need to read lots to Phoebe in the next few days and Jake has to plough through two more books, so he picked cartoony type ones to make it easy on himself - although as of today I’m not even sure he’s started one! They also took out 3 videos and 2 talking books (Holes and the Lion Boy) which Jake wanted and I figure that if he’s not going to read good literature of his own free will, he might be more enthused if he listens to more, so I’m happy with that idea :)

Today was a busy, busy day - and broke the bank a bit too! Firstly to ‘Funsters’ this morning, which was great fun. The older kids always have a ball there. Caleb really got into it after about 40 minutes or so and was climbing up and down the mini-frame in the toddler bit. Els was more hesitant. She is not fantastic with heights - not fearful as such, just very cautious and likes to hold on to something, but she is also seemingly quite uncomfortable in confined spaces and this was a bit of a hindrance to her climbing through some of the gaps, but she had fun all the same and grew in confidence when she saw that Caleb could do stuff!

Then on to Pizza Hut for lunch, which was is a rare treat that is always a hit - especially the ice-cream factory afters! Joel was in heaven, with all the cherry tomatoes he could eat and cheese & tomato pizza in unlimited supply :) Jake likewise - Pizza and salad being his favourite foods, whilst Caleb & Ellie tucked into the garlic bread and ice-cream too! Not the healthiest of diets today, but for holidays who cares ;-)

After that on to bowling. I won the first game - yup - managed to get two strikes and a spare consecutively, which bumped my score up some and I only beat P. by one point, but bearing in mind his last points were scored by Ellie and Caleb I guess it’s fair to say he won really! We ended up playing two games, although I think by half way through the second game we had all had enough - except for perhaps Jake, who was loving it! Caleb had a ball (excuse the pun!) and was in his element. You should have seen him trying to push the ball down the runner and watching it go down the lane - and then clapping himself - SO cute! Really wished I’d had a camera with me at that point :( Towards the end he lost the plot though as he was over tired, having only napped for about 20 minutes when we walked from Funsters to PH.

But tell me why is it that, even when you blow over £100 in one day on your kids, they still whine about the one thing you said “no” to - namely a ride on the motorbike game/Postman Pat van in the bowling alley arcade? A little infuriating…!

Tomorrow we’ve decided we will go to Wrexham - provided it doesn’t look to be the only scorcher of the week - to Techniquest. And then on Friday I think we will go to Liverpool instead of Manchester. There just seems to be more to do there - or at least the website is easier to navigate and see what attractions there are, plus, I’ve always wanted to take a look at the city centre and so has Jake (especially good news for him I think, as Liverpool is his ‘team’). It’s looking increasilngly likely that the beach is not going to happen. I’m so thankful for that Sunday School outing to Llandudno - it might be our only chance again this year :( Maybe next year we will have a car and it’ll all be a lot simpler…(we can dream!)