Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Happy birthday Izzy - 8 today! So, like any dutiful parent I made sure the presents were wrapped and I was available this morning for the grand opening (took about 2 minutes as ever) before heading off for work. Feeling guilty that I hadn't been able to drop off today given it was a birthday, I made sure I was home tonight to do pick up, only for the 2 of them plus Grace to disappear off and I haven't seen them since. I'm clearly no longer required for a special birthday evening! It's our own doing - having both been brought up in families where the focus was always relatively low key for birthdays, we don't make a massive fuss and so neither do the girls. I think that's better than expecting the earth and getting all narked if you don't get want you want. Not getting what you want is a good lesson to learn, particularly when your birthday list is a Shetland pony, a puppy or a pig (the last one clearly influenced by a big sister!)... As it was we had

 Back to work and back to school over the next few days - so all back to normal. This will have the advantage of therefore all being back in the house - it feels like I've spent the whole of the Easter holidays wondering when the kids will be home. If they haven't been at a sleep over or away in Wiltshire or Somerset or some other neighbouring county, they've been out with friends somewhere. I shouldn't complain - they've had a wonderful time and we have benefitted from lots of free time to either potter, get out on bikes or do what needs to be done, but I do miss them. I also should be pleased that a lot of this time has been with friends they've made at school - they really have settled so well into Thorngrove. So on their travels they have been out and about with Claire, Adam and Mia - their favourite friend from school and most definitely the best place to go if you want multiple dogs and an endless supply of kids from school. Claire is Earth Mother per

Hooray - all back together again after a long week without Abi. Despite the occasional bickering the girls have missed each other and in particular its been hard for Izzy who's been home alone. I say that, by the end of the week she had taken matters into her own hands and started shamelessly booking play dates which turned into sleepovers on two consecutive nights. Lesson for us - 2 nights in a row is currently one night too many, We set off on Friday to see Fifi, Amanda and the boys with Izzy so tired she could barely string a sentence together let alone a cordial one. My normally quite sunny little girl got all Abi like when asked to go to someone not of her choosing! Abi had an absolute ball away for the week. She's made some great new friends, learned a huge amount about looking after horses on a full time basis, picked up some new skills (and new phrases!) and generally thoroughly enjoyed herself. They were fence judges at the local (international standard) horse tri

  It's oh so quiet without Abi in the house, and we are missing her! Yesterday I set off to Salisbury with my little baby - all ready to embark on her first properly independent trip without us and it felt far too soon for this. Izzy was at a sleepover with Aran which meant Abi and I had some lovely time to ourselves before she went. We had a long chat about how she was feeling - apprehensive but excited as you might imagine. She had butterflies in her tummy but was also looking forward to a whole week of horses and all things horse like. We talked about Imposter Syndrome - she was amazed that the rest of us aren't ultra confident all the time - I wish! As we got closer to Angie's Abi turned to me and said "You're not going to be weird Mummy are you?!" As if! As it was despite the nerves as soon as we arrived she was out the car like a bullet and straight into Merlin's stable to start grooming him. It was as though she had been there only 5 minutes ag