Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Woo hoo, Glenn is home and we can all get back to normal! This week has been fun but full, with every morning starting at 5:15am to walk the dogs before getting the kids up, watering the new turf, feeding everyone, getting them to school, keeping an eye on the workmen, doing a full days work, walking the dogs again, pick up, riding / school play / play dates / gym, more work and then collapse into bed to do it again the following day. To add to the general mayhem it has been super hot - plus 30 degrees for days in a row and so we've been melting and not sleeping well - perfect! By the end of the week my step counter said I'd done over 190,000 steps and walked 91 miles. Glenn did just as much with his mega ride from Ventoux to the coast, climbing 9000m in 5 days, also in very hot weather. We're all glad to be together again.   The workmen in question have been driving me mad. They are supposedly now able to get on with what they are here to do but it seems that ever...

Happy fathers day... or it would be if Glenn wasn't in France about to do another epic bike ride while I'm here - sad faces on our part.  So while he's away we have had a whirlwind weekend of riding, concerts, friends and sunshine and goodness me its been hot! The weather for the last couple of weeks has been good and this weekend has been no exception. The temperature today has been plus 30 and we got to a certain point and gave up, dragging the chairs into the shade and collapsing in a heap trying not to touch each other. We hadn't helped ourselves by walking the dogs before it cooled down but needs must. So the big event of the weekend was seeing Rick Astley at Westonbirt. This had been their choice and I jumped at the chance - while he wasn't my cup of tea the first time around I've really enjoyed his new album and he didn't disappoint. we had planned to meet a friend there but I managed to lose my phone and so we had already written that off as a ...

So this is the post I meant to write last weekend and then for various reasons I didn't manage to. Given I still want to write this week I decided that at the very least I would add the photo and say something... So - end of exam week, both girls knackered but Abi still had Emma and Eloise to stay which initially ran the risk of Izzy being excluded but very quickly they all sorted themselves out and had a lovely evening. As did we incidentally as their parents came over for tea and we sat in the summer warmth making the most of good company, great food and wine and happy kids. Quick update on Abi's results - she did brilliantly! Her English teacher pulled me to one side in school and said how pleased he was with her comprehension - she came top in her class! For a child that used to struggle with her writing, hated checking her work and found reading fiction really hard she's come so far and we are chuffed to bits. She also did well in all her other exams - a real ...

Half term is almost over and we are now into the inevitable final panic before back to school - in our case a mix of running round town trying to find an acceptable pair of school shoes for Abi (not easy as she's a 3.5H of which there are 2 pairs to choose from in the whole of Newbury), and getting some revision in for mock 11+ exams which start on Tuesday. She doesn't officially sit her 11+ until next year, but they have started to get them up to the concept and technique of exams already and so I'm currently sitting with her in the kitchen while she completes the mock science paper I've just written. Having not seen a real paper I have no idea whether the style is remotely realistic, but at least I'm testing the content! It probably comes as no surprise that it takes a lot of procrastination before she actually gets down to any revision, but hopefully the mocks will help to cement the idea of it's only her in the exam room and so if nothing else some revisio...