A day of good intentions that were partly achieved! One goal, which was achieved was to make sure that the kids ate early enough to be able to have an early night without going to bed on a full tummy as they are visiting a potential school tomorrow morning.
Chilli con carne was the dish of the day! It was cooked in the morning and with only the rice left to cook the kids were eating by 5.30pm and in bed by 8pm – unlike their younger brother, who insisted on staying up with his Mum and Dad, we eventually got to eat just after 9pm. Edward settled down to sleep at about 9.45 having had a couple of ounces of formula for a snack!

It was a big day for Edward – he found his feet and then spent every opportunity on his back curled up in a little ball playing with his feet whilst giggling hysterically. He’s so cute! He also continued to practice his rolling abilities – from tummy on to his back!

Noo planted up the last of the buckets with bulbs, which will then be sunk into the front garden. The front path has a border either side it.  It is currently covered with pebbles – or at least that is what we thought. Noo discovered that it wasn’t a covering of stones, it was literally filled with stones. So that put the kibosh on planting up the borders with bulbs etc. That is until she had a brainwave – she decided to put the bulbs in buckets and ‘plant’ the buckets! So in a few months we should have a fab show of spring bulbs.

On the wireless network front I have made a little progress. Because our cottage has 2-3 foot thick walls a reliable wireless network signal was just a forlorn hope – the Linksys range expander hasn’t been a huge success yet but I am hoping I might have more luck with it boosting the signal upstairs so that both Jack & Elise can access the net in their rooms. The signal downstairs has been improved by changing the wireless channel to 11 and broadcasting only ‘g’ instead of a mixed b/g.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for Edward – he will be 6 months old and will meet his cousin, Madeline, she is 1 years old and lives in Newcastle but is down with her Mum, Paula for a few days!

I’ll leave the waffle until later and just post some pictures from this morning for now.

Jack smiling under duress having just been dragged out of bed.

Ellie relaxing and waiting patiently with Morpheus

Edward opening various presents and trying to eat the paper!

Sarah x

Edward Bear slept in this morning until 7.30! Shame me and Simon have been awake since 4.45am and up since 6.30am – sigh.

The trip to PC World was eventful, Jack has learned that missing out a vital junction exit can add a least an hour and a half onto your journey time, especially when you have no idea where you are to be able to find yourself on the map in order to get to where you really want to be. But they found it in the end and came home with various gadgets and gizmos.

The additional hour and a half tour around the Peterborough Ring Road meant that swimming and dog walking were postponed until today.

There’s lots to do today – walk the dogs, wrap presents, make a start on the ‘going home presents’ for our group of ‘baby friends’ who are descending on us on Wednesday. These are the women and their husbands/partners whom I met online who were all pregnant at the same time as me. So we have Tamsin and Adam with Tabitha coming up from Bath (although they are actually coming up a day earlier than the others), Helen C (we call her Frank) and her daughter Robyn (her husband Lloyd can’t make it) coming down from York, Shonagh and Richard with Archie also coming down from Yorkshire and finally Helen and KB with Sebastian who are over from Norway!

We’ve met Helen, KB and co and Tam’ and Adam before but this will be the first time we are all together – it promises to be fun and perhaps just a little rowdy.

I must get on – but before I go here’s another picture for you. This is what we see out of the end kitchen window (the one behind Simon in the kitchen photo). Apparently people come from all over the world to see the tower (topped with a splendid octagonal lantern, flying buttresses and 12 pinnacles the blurb says) and 14th century stained glass windows.

Hmmmm…to start from moving day or from today?

Well moving day was long and the drama with Morpheus the following morning looks, thankfully, like it was just one of those things caused by who knows what!

So nearly 4 weeks on are we completely unpacked? Almost! There is a box or two of odd things, that don’t get used often enough to have been found a home, still languishing around but apart from that it’s done.

Cooking anything takes four times as long as it used to a) because the kitchen is huge and b) because Sod’s Law dictates that the thing you are searching for is in the last cupboard that you look in. But we can COOK things in an oven again – the first taste of perfect roast potatoes again was bliss.

I’m sure the kitchen will seem to shrink the longer that we’re here bit at the moment it feels as if there is enough space for everyone to be in the kitchen and still swing a cat – although both cats are still enjoying their dog-free holiday at my mum’s house!

I’ve decided that sofas that are ‘going begging’ are like buses – you don’t see any for AGES and then all of a sudden! three of them come along at once and you end up with more seating than you can shake a stick at.

It didn’t occur to me when I saw the BIG sofa squeezing out of David’s car that it would also need to be squeezed in at the other end. This applied to lots of other furniture and getting some of it in and up the stairs was more than a bit Krypton Factoresque! Some things just weren’t going to go upstairs though no matter how hard the were pushed and shoved or eased and cajoled, so Jack’s desk, which was our desk, is now my desk again. Ellie’s desk is now Jack’s desk and my corner computer cupboard now resides in Ellie’s room.

Simon is now an expert in networking computers in houses with walls that are 2 feet thick. Jack can’t pick up a wireless signal in his room but Ellie has phenominal signal strength in hers (there’s irony there somewhere) so solutions have been looked at from expensive flashy signal boosters through to home-made antennae made from Pringle cans.

The bathroom is nice and clean and bright and the shower emits more than a dribble and doesn’t go RED HOT when nextdoor turns any taps on – heaven. The one issue in the bathroom quickly became apparent – LOW WINDOWS! Of course this isn’t a problem all the while you’re sitting down but anyone walking past when you stood up would have seen more then they bargained for. A quick dash to Rosebys for a voile to put up at the window soon remedied this.

The dogs are slowly barking less everytime someone walks past the house but they still can’t control themselves when the chickens from over the road stroll by.

Me and Ellie have been out exploring and the animals are all registered with the local vets in Thrapston (the nearest place with shops – think of a cross between Steyning and Storrington and that’s Thrapston), we are all registered with the doctor there and have yet to sample the delights of Ben’s Chippy – although judging by the queues we’ve seen there it’s going to be good.

Simon and Jack are off on an adventure to find PC World in Peterborough (20 or so miles up the road), then this afternoon the kids are going swimming with Tony at Kettering as part of their training for the Pier to Pier swim in Bournemouth in the summer. And whilst they’re doing that I’ll be walking the dogs with my mum.

Then it’s a quick dash back home to light the fire in time to sit down down with a glass of wine in time to watch the Strictly Come Dancing Final.

That’s all for now – I’ll leave you with a picture of the kitchen

Sarah x