*a quick catch-up!*

Quick round-up of what we've been up to over the past week; time has run away with me YET again, and I haven't updated as regularly as I'd intended to. Where does the time go - answers on a postcard, please.

Freya had a voucher for Borders which had been burning a hole in her pocket since her birthday last August (!), so she and I had a day out on Saturday, and drove to Oxford which, from here, is a beautiful route down through Moreton-in-Marsh and Chipping Norton. She and I rarely have a day out together alone, and it was lovely to have a bit of quality one-on-one with her. Anja, in turn, had a fab day having daddy all to herself, and had a birthday party to go to as an added bonus. I didn't take the camera with me, but took a couple of photos on my phone, although the quality is pretty poo! Freya still finds real novelty value in any journey on a bus, and she was, yet again, in 7th heaven on the short journey from the Park-and-Ride car park into Oxford!!



I don't know whether I've blogged about it before, but Freya is extremely considered when it comes to making choices when she's spending her money. She takes ages to decide what she'd like, and as her voucher was for a whopping £20, it took us some time in Borders before we were ready to go to the till!! It also meant that I had to keep a running total in my head each time something else went into the basket, which was no easy thing when she was choosing items costing anything from 35p up to £3.99. She came away with a fantastic haul, including another Jewel Fairy book, a skipping rope, a whoopee cushion, a rubber ball, and other items too numerous to mention (and that I can't remember!!) By the time she'd chosen everything she wanted, and I'd done some shopping for birthday presents, and spent some of Anja's pocket money for her (on her instruction - a Horrid Henry audio book and book to read), it was time for a bite to eat. Naturally, we had to stay in Borders and pay a trip to Starbucks - this was Freya's day, and this was what she wanted to do - who am I to argue... She went up to the counter whilst I stayed with the bags, and selected a prawn and watercress sandwich, giant chocolate chip cookie, and a hot chocolate for herself - what can I say, the child has great taste!! This IS as big as it looks:



It was yum!! Chocolate moustaches and sticky fingers all round...a lovely day out.

The girls were treated by my sister to a trip to the Snow Dome at Tamworth on Sunday; they had their first skiing lesson, and had a mess around on the little slope, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I should point out that I have an aversion to snow, and have absolutely no intention of taking them skiing, but my sis and Ed are both keen winter sports enthusiasts, Sian a skier, and Ed a snowboarder, and they would love to get the kids involved. I'm not even interested in the apres ski, so I think they might be holidaying without me!!! Sian plans to go to Whistler next winter, and I think Ed is harbouring ambitions to join her for a week or so, with the childers. I will have to find something else to do...

Am going to go on a blog trawl tomorrow morning, to catch up on my favourite reads, and to tweak my 'links' section; even in the short time since I started this blog last August, several of the links have fallen away, and some blogs that I read regularly need to be added.

Toodle-pip!