It’s THE BIG DAY – Tour De France comes to Cambridge. But it doesn’t mean anything in our house at 6.30am. Instead, because we are having a very special day off school, William and I are knee deep in Lego. Literally. OK, well maybe ankle deep, but that doesn’t visualise as well, does it?

I used to spend my Saturday morning’s writing things about what he’d be doing whilst I tried and usually failed, to keep him quiet whilst Lovely Bloke and Elliott slept in. So this feels very de ja vu like – him making a Lego stand, and then throwing other bits of Lego at it, to knock them over. Like Angry Birds, but using Lego. I think. Whatever he’s doing, he’s happy. He’s wearing the necklace that Emily, his friend from school has made him. He loves it – pink, shiny and it has a shell in it !!!! He’s very impressed with it. So much so, that he’s made her a ring, with a “gem” in it. I asked Lovely Bloke what he’d actually produced – apparently it’s a piece of paper with something drawn on it. Lovely Bloke muttered something about his being happy with that, because it was keeping expectations real from an early age………

In other news, I have not published any posts on our fabulous week at Mark Warner’s Levante resort in Rhodes (it’s an island off Greece and I *totally* knew that before I booked it, honest). It was the best holiday we’ve ever had together as a family for all sorts of reasons and I totally recommend it to you – just not in August when it’s 6K a week, for 2 adults and 2 little people. As the boys at so little, I wonder if they’d let us go back with self catering for them and half board for us? I can live in hope I suppose.

But I digress, back to the main event. My mum and dad are here, sleeping upstairs. Elliott and Lovely Bloke are in another big bed together. And all feels right in the world. It’s hard to explain how I feel when my mum and dad come to visit. I just feel more relaxed. I like to know that they are nearby. I don’t even need to rush in to see them when they arrive. It’s just better knowing that they are there. The opposite prevails for the boys of course – stood on the drive, looking for Grandma and Grumpy – “Hello Grandma! <Big cuddles> Now, what presents have you brought me????”. For shame… Because my mum doesn’t see the boys every week, she buys bits and bobs for them and they think it’s Christmas whenever they visit. But she’s told me of a change in plans – she’s now putting money in a box for them, instead of buying bits and bobs. But I know she can’t help it – she’ll be putting money in a box and buying Horrible Histories mugs and notebooks as well. I hope that if I ever get to be a Grandma, I’ll be half as good as she is.

Later today, we’re off to Anna’s house, as she’s directly on the route for Tour De France – it’s going to be exciting, and also nerve wracking as I don’t want my boys to be the ones that make the TV for knocking anyone over. I did toy with the idea of putting a stake in her front garden, and tethering them to it with a piece of rope, but apparently that’s not the thing to do these days. Such a shame. So instead, I’m going to go down the bribery and corruption route. That usually works. Eventually.

I have to update you all on this. I’m doing some stuff this summer, that’s about getting back to my roots. And I’m even considering a road trip. Some with my boys, some with my mum and dad, brother and his Mrs to be. And some, on my own. I’ve not got all the details sorted out yet. But I’m putting it out there for your input. How do you stick with your roots? Do you want to? Are you happy with your roots – where you came from?

I’m happy with a lot of it to be honest. It would be a much more interesting story if I’d had a pants childhood. But apart from being rubbish at being friends with girls as a teenager, and that being years of secondary school being the worst experience ever, I had a good one :)) Especially when I think back to swingball in the back garden, handstand competitions against the hallway wall of our house – I think there were 10 of them doing it at one point and water fights, and Chris’ dad dressing up as Father Christmas each year. Yes. There was lots of good stuff. And even more when I hit 15 / nearly 16 and met the first love of my life – Nick. So much fun. So many happy times. Yes. I had a good one, and want to do stuff to make sure I remember it!

With long journeys coming over the half term holidays, we have relaxed our sanctions on the ipad a tad and the boys have had a little play with a new free app from Disney. Aimed at 2-7 years, the Disney Junior Play app appealed mostly to William who loved the Jake and the Neverland Pirates games the most. He was happy enough with the free elements of the app – which include multi-level games and a digital sticker book – but the add-ons were great too, especially the songs and video clips. As well as Jake and the Neverland Pirates, the app features other Disney favourites –  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First in a variety of games and challenges.

If your children are Disney fans then this one comes recommended! It can be downloaded from iTunes. What I will say, is that I’m surprised by how much William and Elliott both still love it – they are getting towards the upper end of their suggested age range an still loved it. I need to find more apps for the boys and want something with an element of education and learning. Any ideas?

Disclosure: I don’t need disclosure on this, as I bought it myself after seeing other people talking about it!

I’m really late to the party with this, but I saw the chat about it online and am sharing this because it’s going to be my mission to do this, this half term. Husband bought the yoghurts for himself a few weeks ago on offer and now the boys love them, and so I’m going to give this a go with them! Lots of bloggers were involved in a comp. to make something with ski yoghurts, I think, so it may be a new lease of life for me with my baking efforts! I’ll keep you posted. Here’s the first one I’ll be trying…

Baked Berry Donuts using Ski Sensations – By Maison Cupcake

Makes 8-10

Ingredients
70g pot Ski Sensations strawberries & cream flavour dessert
1 large egg
125g caster sugar
45ml sunflower oil
110g self raising flour
50g raspberries

Equipment needed:
Silicone donut ring mould
Cake release baking spray (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas mark 4.
2. Place the Ski Sensations dessert, egg, caster sugar, flour and oil in a medium size mixing bowl.
3. Gently beat the ingredients together until just blended and smooth.
4. Spray the mould with cake release spray if using. Decant the batter into the mould using two teaspoons.
5. Bake the donuts for 15 minutes until golden and springy to the touch.
6. Allow the donuts to cool for a few minutes in the moulds then gently pop them out and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. When ready to serve, pop a raspberry into each hole.

Tip: if you don’t have a donut mould, try making them with a muffin mould instead.

What the ???? Now I’m actually online, I can’t remember what I was going to write here! I think that’s more than a little reflective of my life at the moment!!

So, things I want to blog about but don’t have time / the words for …..

1. Veet have really naffed me off with their waxing lyrical about women and the need to not be manly. Jog on. Seriously. Idiots. I’m as much of a woman as ever, whether my legs are hairy or not. And that also applies for other parts of my body. So much so, that I took a picture of my hairy leg in the bath. I’ll add it here when I get around to it. I know, you’re welcome.

2. I am going to overhaul this personal blog. Why? Because it’s been reflective of where I’ve been for a while – well, a few years – being subsumed and disappearing slowly, and replaced with middle aged, middle class mummy ness and associated cliches and aspirations. What a crock of shite! Seriously!! I’m a bird. I’ve bought myself some cool trainers with sequins that I’d have bought when I was 20. And am going to get back to my music. And actually think about planning that bit of travelling that I still want to do. The boys can go skiing. And I’m going to get back to adventures in visiting cities and countries I’ve not discovered yet! I know, I sound like I’m having a mid life crisis. But it’s been brewing for a while, so you’ll have to bear with me….

Change is a good thing, right?

In an effort to make my mac run a bit quicker – ie: to not fall over – I’ve started tidying up my desktop. I found this text. And was going to bin it, but I must have felt compelled to write it for a reason, so instead, I’m sharing it now… It looks like I wrote it around 12 months ago….

Every so often I get the a moment where I just want to take a photo, a snapshot, to commit something to memory. And right now is one of those times. I’m sat in a soft play centre – aka parents living hell. And I’m on my own, watching the boys playing together. They aren’t playing with anyone else, just each other. They are hot and sweaty – hair matted to their heads, flinging themselves around each other, bumping, jumping and climbing on and around each other.

It’s proper play. They aren’t on laptops, or our phones. They aren’t watching tv. And I’m here, watching it happen. A friend said to me today that I should call a friend to have a catch up and meet up here, but actually this has been just perfect. I’ve read two loooooong docs for a top secret project Weston Communications will be starting for the NHS in June, been to the toilet three times, watched from a distance whilst E has been to the boys toilet on his own and we’ve each had a piece of oreo’s cookie cake accompanied by the pied de resistance of playbarns – a jug of dilute….

I’m so pleaed that I’ve done this. That I’ve sat here and watched the boys, observed them and been as present as I can be, whilst not being physically attached to them doing an actual hands on game. Mind you, Lovely Bloke has been very good at that for the rest of the week. E has learnt to play draughts and has beaten me twice.

W has played endless games of connect 4, Marble run and “that donkey game where its bum goes up in the air” (Buckaroo).

We’ve been to stay with my parents at their caravan and E has got so much confidence from the bike they got him, that it’s had to come home and used every day since! Good job we packed light – we weren’t banking on bringing another two bikes home with us.