10 years wed....

I'm torn between asking myself where have the last 10 years gone (which makes me feel old!) and reflecting with amazement on how much has happened during our first 10 years of marriage. Just looking at the number 2010 staggers me - it only seems a few short years ago that we were discussing how we would celebrate the eve of the new millenium and looking forward to our January 2000 wedding. 2010 looks like a number from a futuristic movie - we should be wearing silver suits, eating meals in tablet form (do diet shakes count?!) and travelling around in flying cars. We could have done with the latter last Friday when we were sat as good as stationery in a traffic jam on the M62 for the best part of an hour, with me desperately regretting having downed a large Costa coffee (I was even contemplating flagging down a nearby campervan and asking if I could use its facilities!).

We were on our way to York for a childfree weekend to celebrate our tin anniversary, looking forward to mooching around, sleeping a lot, sharing some candlelit meals and a few bottles of wine. York is an ideal city in which to do all of that and more. The shopping looked great - lots of variety with some lovely boutiques amongst from the standard high street bunch - and coffee shops, bars, ice cream parlours, ye olde tea shoppes on every corner and in between. We abstained from shopping - January is a rubbish time to have an anniversary as we're usually on a frugal stint - but we indulged in lots of liquid refreshment and sampled some of the international food on offer. We found a wonderful little bar serving beers from around the world and spent a couple of hours late Saturday afternoon cocooned in its cosy and unpretentious upstairs room, shut away from the outside world, immersed in our books, and drinking fruity Belgian beer. The sort of Saturday afternoon we took for granted pre children!

But we did miss the little horrors a lot. We spent far too much time planning where we would take them when we returned to York as a family (have already booked a hotel just outside York with a family room for half term!).

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Didn't she do well!!

Abigail hates it when we describe her as "arty", but ever since she's been able to wield a paintbrush she has shown a bit of an artistic bent. I've always loved her works of art, even when I didn't really know what they were, but then I am somewhat biased. I still have a cupboard stuffed full of stiff pieces of coloured paper with flaky poster paints, glitter and pasta (!) dropping off every time I move them. Over the years I have become increasingly hard hearted, relegating pictures to the bin when she isn't looking, but there are certain ones which make it onto the notice board next to my desk - her incredibly detailed cartoon strips, with tiny, intricate drawings and deadpan scripts and the card congratulating me for doing well at the dentist, amongst others.

It's one thing for us biased parents to think she's got a talent for art, but it's fantastic when she's recognised by less subjective judges! When Abigail's design for the Wincham village logo won I was beside myself, especially as I was privy to this information about 10 days before her, as it was revealed at a meeting I attended. She was presented with a certificate and prize in school and we look forward to seeing the logo in use. (Picture & article are from this week's Northwich Guardian).

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Another year younger

Sometimes life can feel like a bit of grind - especially at this time of year when Christmas lights are no longer twinkling, the family of santas, reindeer and snowmen that used to live on the back of the sofa have emigrated and the recent thaw has uncovered streets that look dirty and grey. Luckily our everyday lives are filled with little moments that make us laugh out loud or perhaps just chuckle to ourselves. My kids are at their funniest when they don't know they've said something hilarious. I was trying to persuade a sleepy and reluctant Abigail out of bed yesterday by getting her cuddly polar bear to give her eskimo kisses and telling her in my best polar bear voice that "Mr Polar Bear says it's time to get up." Abigail's deadpan reply "Mr Polar Bear can go fish!" had me rolling on the floor much to her bemusement. (She got it once I explained it to her!)

We were all giddier than usual during tonight's evening meal, as it is Nic's birthday today and I had whipped the kids up into a frenzy of birthday excitement with present wrapping, cake decorating and plates full of calorific and E-number-laden goodies. Daisy was tormented with the chocolate fudge cake placed tantalising out of reach on the table alongside Count Ducula - a squeaky duck from the kids (in Daisy's world if a toy squeaks it's hers). Conversation at the table was unexpectedly challenging with the opener "can our hamsters have sex?" (from Sam who is 6 and who, as far as I am concerned, hasn't even been given the "mummies and daddies have a special cuddle" explanation yet). Apparently the book I bought them on keeping hamsters had 3 whole pages on breeding i.e. having sex. Didn't audit that one very well did I? Never assume that if a book has cartoons in it that it's suitable reading material for 6 year olds. I hardly dare check what pictures are on the afore mentioned 3 pages! Probably the hamster-sutra. This was swiftly followed by Abigail's rendition of "Let's talk about sex, baby", - we've always subsituted the word "sox" for "sex", so her sock puppetry was particularly amusing. So life is anything but boring and all this laughter must help to keep us young. I hope I'd still be decorating cakes with smarties and candles and buying squeaky bath toys if we didn't have kids, but knowing how much they enjoy it all does make it even more fun.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!