Driving East..................Prague here we come!

Not sure what I was thinking to attempt 2 city breaks in the space of a couple of weeks.......with kids!

After a successful trip to Madrid (and great weather!) I was starting to get a little nervous about our weekend in Prague.......driving the 730km to get there.......not to mention the packing (again!!) and getting there in time to meet my mum for the weekend who was flying in (much more civilised!!)

Well everything went to plan and I actually bottled out on the drive all in 1 go and booked a small family "pension" (hotel) in Germany just before we reached the Czech border to break the journey up..........also a beautiful part of the world to see :-)   Of course we virtually drove past where my sister now lives in Regensburg.........shame they were away otherwise we could have dropped in for the night!!!   Anyway - our overnight stay was great (after getting stuck in some horrendous queues on the motorway for well over an hour about 20 minutes before we were due to get off the motorway....VERY annoying!) ........small village, in the middle of forestland, very friendly and huge room for all of us..........dinner there was typical German....plenty of sausages (kids uber happy!) lots of sauce and huge portions!!!!  Including puddings, wine (needed a fair few after that journey!!), beer etc we even got change from a €50 note......amazing!   Kids even had time for a quick game of crazy golf before we set off in the morning!

 Back in the car with not too many moans and groans and we were soon entering Czech REpublic........no passports required at the border.   One of the first advertising signs we saw was for good old Tesco......almost tempted to stop!!!!!!  Thankfully Ruby slept and other 2 watched a film and we reached our destination without too many problems!  

Hotel was fantastic - for any of you wanting a nice weekend there we stayed at Santini Residence which was great location other side of charles bridge (bit away from the MAIN square!!!!!) and the rooms were probably the biggest we've ever had...........pat on the back to me I think!  My mum was impressed anyway and even Shaun made several positive sounding comments (so even he must have been impressed..........doesn't happen often!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Good weekend - great weather - Happy Easter!!

Here are a few of our pics...............

View of the city from the park...........with cable car to boot!!

Dirt and soil..........what could be better??!!!!

Little Easter display

Another view from one of MANY accessible towers!!!!!!

Ruby discovered the fun of scooters......especially when someone else pushes!!

So how does the green beer taste?   Ordering normal beer for his 2nd probably tells you all you need to know!!!

ANOTHER ice cream?  

The mud and soil still wins hands down!!!!

Grandma keeps Ruby in tow!

View from lunch venue :-)

Kids in heaven with enough Easter eggs and chocolate to last them the 7 hour drive home and some!!!!

Bienvenido a Madrid!

Madrid was great.......hot, sunny, busy and we packed loads in.........and I'm loving all this sitting outside for dinner at bars being brought great tapas and wine on tap!!!!!   Trying to catch up on blog writing at the mo so here are some pics of our trip.......will come back to it and write some blurb when I have more time.....as ever it's 11pm and feels like it should be 9!   Need some sleep........for the time being .......enjoy :-)

No we're not at disneyland........but plenty of money making spaniards trying to earn a living.......of course millie fell straight into their hands.......every time!!!1

 Start them early.....one can never speak too many languages.........

 on the other hand........a snooze might be more relaxing!!!

 Smiles all around..........amazing weather.........

 Retiro park.............

 cool chick..........

 Hmmm.......looks somewhat heavy at that end boys......

 too much sun????   lost track of which hat is yours????

 the palace!

 and the princess!!

 no words necessary!   Happy :-)

 football for the boys!

 Conor loving every minute!  Game started at 10pm!!!  true spanish style!

 Goooooaaaaaallllllllllll!

 Conor proudly wearing his Real Madrid personalised shirt .................and signed by Ronaldo to boot!!!   Until I washed the damn thing!   ooops.

eso es todo por ahora.................................buenas noches!

Back to the bubble.....

Taking the kids out of school for a week mid-term makes the weeks fly by so quickly..........no hassle so far with taking kids out......although i waited until the day before to tell their teachers!  "Have a good time" ....great no formal letters required!   anyway now back at school and there's only 3 weeks left until Easter break....fab!   the last few months have absolutely flown!   no wonder it never feels like home here......never bloody here for long enough!!!

So the week are hectic with activities and settling ruby in at creche (again!!) and coffees and lunches and coffees and lunches and coffees.......you get the picture!!!   Book club a huge hit and has helped me off the scale in terms of finding a lovely group of girls to call on :-)   French goes on......slowly slowly..............has my brain completely gone to mush??   i guess really not helped by the fact that my lessons at the moment are at 8pm on a thursday night and i don't make time inbetween to do any learning!!!!   MUST DO BETTER!!!!!   have good intentions at the end of each lesson.......papers get put to one side and before i know it a week has passed and out come the papers again!!!!!   summer......that's when i'll catch up!!!  all that spare time i'll have not doing school runs etc.....yeah right!   just have 3 kids in tow 24/7!!!!!  Anyway I know more than when i arrived in August so must be improving!   why didn't i ever learn the damn thing at school???!

I pluck up the courage to take a 2nd visit to the hairdressers over here......1st time a resounding failure but now with the red/brown and the colour code written down.....how bad could it be??!!!   so first problem.......they have Loreal but not the exact product......colours he shows me which match my note......OMG it looks orange!!!!   HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP.......why is nothing bloody straightforward anymore.......everything is such a chore!   anyway......keeps me on my toes as i spend the next 2+ hours (will anything ever surprise me at being quick in this place??!?!!!!) worrying the colour is going to be a disaster!   end result......ok.........but can't say it was the most relaxing experience people talk about!  Thankfully remembered my kindle so got lost in the midst of Somalia instead!

Other events that happen............I have to do a whole week of school runs as my neighbours go skiing (to the same resort as us and we actually see them there!!!!   my god they have more adults than children (family of 5 (3 kids) and 2 au-pairs!!!!!......what a result! and typically it's the week they are doing a car-parking trial so 1 of the car parks is shut and we end of parking and shlepping across the campus!   not so bad in the end as beautiful sunny days and actually enjoyed a bit of morning fresh air..............oooohhhhh....memories of my UK school run flooding back!!!!!!!!     We host our first proper dinner party!   thankfully mothers day the next day so the house is full of lovely flowers :-))))  i did my usual of drinking too much before i'd served any food but all went well and jsut about managed in the mouse-size kitchen!!!!   the place looked like an absolute bomb-site by the end of the evening though!!! anyway.....very civilised.....no roudy behaviour seen yet and certainly haven't got the karaoke out yet!!!!  in fact a disappointing lack of big nights out........girls nights very few and far between........ need to change that going forward!!! 

oh yes and we go and see Jamiroquai!  oooh yes.........luxembourg obviously a happening place.....or is there some tax reasons they can benefit from too from playing in this small-town arena!!!! 

Millie does her school play with one of the leading parts......probably the fact she can speak the language helped her cause!!!!   A real pain making her learn her lines in the weeks running up to it (and it sounds like they spent days rehearsing .......no school work done there then.........fees obviously well-spent!!!!)   but a great show!   i made sure i got there early so i got a good seat for once (normally i'm racing in last minute and end up standing up at the back!!!)....funnily enough that is exactly where i end up.........shaun ends up in london so it's all down to me.......ruby....video camera.......camera.........waving to millie so she can see me (isn't that THE  most important thing?!!!?!?).........................i'm far too ambitious sitting at the front and within the first 2 minutes Ruby is already running away and getting in the way of the pianist and assistant!!!!   After almost taking one of them out and getting a stern word from this assistant - enough was enough ....she screeched when i made her sit with me and it was all going horribly wrong!!!  at least at the back she could walk to and fro but annoyingly continued to head straight for the guitar case and insisted on walking right over it........by this point I am ready for the thing to end.....and made a hasty exit.......no surprise there then!!!!!

Oh yes - did I tell you of our car disasters???   so after a cracked windscreen and a puncture a bus careers into us and smashes the wing mirror and now we are told we need to replace the tyres.....we've only had the car a year!!!!!!!

End of term arrives and looking forward to some lazy days???!!??   who am i joking......no way........football / playdates / 2 city breaks and all the washing packing unpacking packing unpacking inbetween........who am i kidding....................will we ever have another relaxing holiday before the kids reach the age of 15???!!!!!!!

Anyway - one of my newly found book club buddies who has just given up work (result) and is a brit (up north at that!!!!) invites us for dinner so the hols start off on a good note :-)

In fact the first monday i manage the whole morning with no children........extremely proud of my logistical organisation for that one..........RESULT!    so I now have started taking Ruby to creche for the whole school day rather than just a couple of hours (i'm sure it will help her settle in better....... oh yes and it means i can get soe stuff done.....or at least lunch without chasing after her every 2 seconds!!!!!!) so Ruby goes to creche, Conor at football holiday camp from 9-4 and Millie goes to the park with a friend for play and picnic!!!  Me????  well i make the most of it and go for a run (big shock to the system!) and then meet a friend to play tennis.....and can you believe it - it's fab weather and the courts are indoor!!!!!!  i even have time to potter at home for an hour too :-))))

Causing mayhem at school........

There's no stopping me now.........don't sit down mum!

Spring in the park :-)

Ruby enjoying her change of transport from the buggy!

Millie as the "number dragon" in her school play

skiing and stuff

I can't believe almost a month (and some!!) has passed since my last posting.........MUST DO BETTER!!!!  i don't know where the time is going...........apart from tending to sick children and the usual daily/weekly tasks of a family which most of you know full-well that "free" minutes are hard to come by!!!!!! 

Well we have just got back from a week's holiday down to the French alps skiing.......but before that i'll try and recap on what else has happened..........not much i don't think.........apart from malade......malade.......malade.........yes my french may be coming on very slowly but a word implanted in my brain.........it means sick!!!!   thankfully we got through half term sickness-free......but ruby struggling to get back to any kind of status-quo!!!!!   Feels like I'm running on empty going for weeks turning into months of broken-nights sleep!! 

well my nana turned 103 and I couldn't make her birthday but she sounded well and still swears by her glass of wine every evening.......here's hope for us all!!!!!!  

Shaun went off to Seattle for his usual feb/Mar week of spending the week in morning to evenig meeting (or so he says!!!!!)  and suffering from jetlag the whole week - sonds like he's just about getting over it and back to normaility  (well managing to sleep until 5am anyway if that's normal!!!!) and it's tiem to fly back home and start all over again with the jetlag drain.................completely put me off my original plan for the summer of tagging on holidays in Seattle to his trip.................can see no holiday or sleep for me............majorca for 2 weeks sounds so much more appealing in comparison!!!!!!  Yes we are desperate for some "do nothing" time.........all relative i suppose.........but isntead we have booked 2 city breaks for the easter hols........hmmmmmm - not such great planning!!!!!!!!!

 Anyway - shaun in seattle should mean for me  - early nights / no cooking etc etc etc.........but no - I decide to have a list as long as my arm of things to get done in that time instead......and we al know everything takes FAR longer than planned so i don't think i made it to bed before 1am any night!!!!!   the painting was the start......i decided i needed some colour in all this 80-s style whiteness everywhere!   so a trip to the paint shop and chose a colour (too far away for testers and having to go back so thankfully got lucky and liked the colour..........and no surprise to anyone....but even paint is sooooo bloody expensive.....you think they'd be coming to paint it for you at the price!   So i get t work with moving furniture / masking tape / painting and by the cleaning up stage i'd had enough and this was only evening 1 and the first coat - well to tell the truth i couldn't quite maange the first coat as i ran out of paint!!!!!   yes i know useless women i can hear the men saying!!!!   i'm only painting 1 measly wall - how can i possibly have run out!   so another trip to the shop is infact required and although i'm loathe to shell out for the next size pot (which obviously will mean  i have tons left over and cost a whopping 70€ +)........no it's not the whole house i'm painting jsut 1 wall!!!!!!  i also can't face running out again so the big pot it is!   by night 2 i have lost enthusiasm so leave it until 10.15pm to even start getting the stuff out!   coat 2 goes surprisingly quick and job done :-)   now just hope shaun likes the colour!  I'll deal with the masking tape another day as i start ripping off the paint aswell as the tape.......NOOOOoooooooo!!!!  infact more than a month later the tape is still on  half of 1 side as i can't face getting the paint out again.!!    and you would think that was the end of the saga but in fact the week after when i finally get around to taking most of the masking tape off (standing on a very poorly made plastic chair!!!).....i go flying through the air and land in a crumpled heap on the floor and end up with a huge flippin gash and bruise all down the bottom of my leg!.......chair is obviously broken as is the pc.....so now thinking the wall- painting idea not such a great one!!!!  hey ho......looks much better though - see for yourself.........

To add insult to injury.....ruby still unsettled and waking up every night and then comes down with a stinking cold/chesty cough and sounds dreadful......poor love.......end up at the doctors AGAIN.....aghhhhhhh........and willing her to get better with skiing the following week to look forward to (or not if Ruby is sick!!)   more sleepless nights and enteraining dates cancelled (saves me a job anyway!!!).......another 40th in UK missed :-( but still managed to sneak in a few lunches/coffees, pancake day and finally every one is fit and healthy and we're all packed up and car loaded for skiing!!

Great to be able to set off in our own time and not dicatated by flights etc.....so we travel down to france friday afternoon and stop at the bottom of the mountain for a night - find a pizzeria (although not sure how italian it was as they had never heard of prosecco....who cares - just give me something alcoholic!!!!!) and budet hotel i found online a bonus - end up with interconnecting rooms and manage to fit ruby's cot in the hall area so have a room to ourselves......bliss!!!!!!

We arrive in Morillon about 10am the next morning.......can't see a smidgen of snow ANYWHERE........humpf!!!   are all my great plans going to pot?!!!! anyway we are assured that thenext level up in the cable car (base of ski resort!) there is snow!   we hold our breath!!!!   anyway the chalet is fab.....think te best we have had and the lady oganising was soooo helpful and made our stay kind of home from home!   Our  friends Family THraves arrive frm Bristol and I think that's more or less the last we see of the kids for the week :-))))))  oh and we sent off the boys to do the supermarket runs........RESULT!  thankfully lou had made a list for them otherwsie it would have been beer and pizza all week!!!!

Even though the snow wasn't the best we've ever had -we had a great week with loads of skiing......kids were amazing and just keep getting better and better.........we all managed to ski together on most afternoons.......the little ones legs must have been hanging by the end of the week!   Conor and Eddie's main chant down the piste was "faster...faster......faster!!!!!!"   not going to be long until they are leading us down the pistes! scary thought!  skiing down to the bottom on most afternoons was at best a slushy mush....but always the crepe/beer/wine/ice cream to race back for :-)

the skiing clan (apart from photograher!)....oh yes and ruby who obviously was not on slopes this year!  she was far too busy back at the chalet taking all the books out of the comprehensive library the owners had left .......silly idea anyway to put books starting on bottom shelves......obviously too many years ago of having small children around!!!!!

little gap in the middle for Ruby - bless her she was busy playing elsewhere!

Milli finally got her wish to go ice-skating......not as easy as it looks eh love?!!!  she loved it and i could hardly get her off the flippin rink!   Mentally she's already signed herself up for ice-skating in next autumn's after-school activities!!!!!!

The other two having fun :-)

Everyday lunchtime treat........

posers......................

don't tell me you're already too old for a kiss from mummy??!!!?!?

and what of little ruby??  well she was booked into the local nursery which turned out to be a success......mummy was very nervous after the few settling in sessions so far in Lux which hadn't gone too well......could be a make or break for a good holiday!   anyway it turned out fine........crying in the mornings as was to be expected but the girls were absolutely lovely and same 2 all week which helped :-)   she slept plenty (best way to get through the day quickly poppet!!!!!) and played (as long as one of the girls was there with her......good girl......get our money's worth making them work!!!!!!) and a bit of a bonus for me  - i took her there in the mornings whilst the others went up the cable car to colect skis and get kids ready for ski school......phew....missed all that and had   a relaxing time when they all departed getting ruby ready and enjoying some peace and quiet before taking her to nursery and following them on to meet at the slopes!  

So plenty of ski area covered......my poor legs didn't know what had hit them in the first few days.......too many weeks/months of not going to the gym regularly.......took me until about day 4 to get my ski legs!!!!!  and then i didn't want to stop!!!   we planned to ski an extra half day before we set off home........can you believe it ruby spends all night being sick adn then by the morning millie also sick!   no skiing for us today........oh well - have to wait until next year now!   thankfully sick kids slept much of journey home which made for an easy journy.....phew..........in less than 6 hours!