Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

  Having had a beautiful week of sunshine, perfect for Izzy's week of den building and camp out, the heavens have opened this weekend and it has poured with rain. This of course is bad timing, not just for Izzy who was camping out in the shelter she and Grace had constructed, but also for Glenn who this weekend is riding from Newcastle to London - 315 miles - in 24 hours. Yuk! Not only is it wet but windy as well - poor Glenn. Oh well, its Sunday morning, we haven't heard from him yet but we are working on no news is good news. I'm sure he will come home having enjoyed the experience. While Glenn has been away we have been making the most of a girls weekend with Izzy and I sitting down to watch The Golden Compass while Abi was  at a sleepover at Mia's, and Abi and I having a lovely mooch through town while Izzy was at camp, followed by roasting of marshmallows on the fire pit in the sunshine. Izzy had an amazing time at camp, albeit it was very wet on the last

What an amazing weekend we've had, with such lovely memories to treasure. To be able to experience a conservation park such as Port Lympne out of hours and see these rare and endangered animals at all times of the day without crowds of people around is a real privilege, particularly when you can scoot around the park and take private short cuts in your golf buggy - the highlight of the trip for some! Our weekend didn't start particularly well, with the normal stress that comes with any Drinkwater trip. Glenn is not a patient man when it comes to getting 2 kids and various bits of luggage into the car, and of course it required more than one attempt before everyone definitely had everything they wanted, where they wanted it! We set off and quickly hit traffic - and so inevitably we ended up needing to stop for a comfort break (for me - rest of the family never seem to need to stop) and to feed 2 increasing snappy girls. I made the decision to take us off the route to Maids

The week has been mostly quiet, too quiet. We are into that phase of the holiday where the girls are off doing various activities, and for this week (and most of next), it doesn't involve us. Abi went off to Angie's on Sunday - happy as anything - merrily wishing me goodbye and saying "you don't need to ring me too often!" With Izzy joining her on Tuesday morning, her first time away somewhere that's neither family or friends, staying 2 nights and also loving it, I feel like that's going to be a habit that's hard to break. While I love the fact that we've produced these confident little girls who are happy to go and experience new things, I do miss them when they are gone. Not just the noise, the fighting, the mess and so on - clearly I miss all of this (!), but more then anything else I miss the contact and cuddles. I forget just how lovely it is to have small arms around me, holding me tight and whispering "I love you mummy" at be