D'y ever wonder when it is going to stop snowing??

[Chopstheduck]

Morning girls xx


School is on thank goodness, but not til 10, and dh is wfh

[Chopstheduck]

wow that sounds brilliant! We didn't realise that NY was doable like that at the same time, and wished afterwards we had done that. Wouldn't worry in the least about taking the kids out - that is going to be the holiday of a lifetime.


I have noticed btw, when looking at hotel reviews, an awful lot of americans seem to turn up at a hotel and expect the hotel to provide an extra rollaway bed - might be worth looking into!

[Chopstheduck]

i can't wait to have the freedom to holiday without the kids!

I'm actually really looking forward to going with just two kids, and would love to do NYC with the older two on their own. We looked at driving down from Montréal next month, but it is a 6 hour drive, not worth it when we are only there for 5 nights.


The dts are used to the driving, the most we've ever done is 3000 miles I think, and that was in less than three weeks. I think we'll manage ok!


Hopefully trips will have some good tips! In Florida we just snuck them all in the fire escape and bunked up together, but prob not doable with teens!

[inthewildernessbuild]

we haven't thought about holidays this year. I feel a bit scared of going on holidays with the children, truth be told. We usually go to my family in Ireland, with or without husband. The children are desperate for something a bit more exciting, but we aren't really up for any sort of challenge

On the other hand, I was imagining a holiday without the children, and it was just boring. There are only so many books you can read and leisurely breakfasts. And landscapes. And ruins. Children like ruins anyway.]

[inthewildernessbuild]

Anyway I am very admiring of people who can just get in a car and drive long distances with their children who never seem to complain. We aren't good at driving. I can just about manage a run around but not motorways and definitely not wrong side of the road/continental shift.

Had quite a productive day. Made several phonecalls re: kids improvement of kids washed up. Bedrooms quite tidy. Made a stew. Rubbish out. Hotspots cleared. Still can't find half of the Guides uniform though

Off out now on various errands with children.

[Chopstheduck]

I prefer driving to flying tbh. My children complain about the queues in the airport, get over excited on the plane, constantly ask when we are landing. Thought this was a while ago, and I'm hoping it will be better this time! In the car, we set off, tell them to expect to spend the day in the car, and they pack little bags to keep themselves entertained, plus we have the in car dvd player.

Holidays without children boring??! Nooo! I think with four kids it gets expensive which limits what we can do. I'm off to Montréal next month, without children. I've so far booked to go see a Ice hockey game, a posh restaurant and we're looking into cross country skiing! Plus time in our luxury suite looking out over the skyline, and by the pool, it will be heaven! (I won it btw, I'm not really rich!)

I think it is mainly just having 4 kids does limit what we can do normally. When we took jsut the twins to Barcelona we managed to spend an evening watching flamenco dancing, a Jazz catamaran cruise - neither of which would have been affordable with four, or manageable. One child each on a boat is plenty enough to be responsible for!

[triplets]

:):):):):) Mac nurse phoned this afternoon, ct scan is all clear :):):):):) now all we need to do is get the surgery for the hernias out of the way asap......I am allowing myself to get a teeny bit excited that we just might get to America as we have been offered expensive insurance if this scan was all clear:)

[Chopstheduck]

Wohoooo!

Multiples meetup in Vegas, anyone?

[triplets]

Oh Chops how fab would that be? Rubes d`y mind me asking if you got a good deal on flights? Just had a quick look and coming out around £1000 each!

[shabbatheGreek]

Oh Trips - thats just wonderful. So thrilled for H and all of you. xxx

Our flights to Greece....we have paid extra for daytime flights etc etc but the cheapest we found were with Monarch. Even then they were close on £400 each A package holiday to Venezia would cost us £2,200 for the three of us. This way it will come out at about £1,600 for the total flights/accommodation thing. So saving about £600 doing it 'our way.'
First time we ever went it was £400 for package holiday for the 3 of us but that was in October....this year its last week in July/first in August.

Flights are so very expensive!!

[Sokmonsta]

Yaaaaaaay Trips.

Thankfully for holiday we are going with friends so were taking two cars anyway. It just means we have to pack a lot less and not take my beautifully practical-for-bumping-through-foresty-places-snow pushchair but my just-as-lovely-but-less-practical double stroller. Hmmm. How much stuff do I have to shed to get what we need in a BMW saloon?

Praying that they do give us the two highchairs and cots we asked for so we don't have to take any of our big stuff.

I just so need this holiday, we need this holiday. Jennifer currently appears to be fighting some bug as her temps through the roof today and I'm even considering that she and I might not go if she really is ill.

[bubby64]

Wooohoooo Trips, and well done for standing your ground in the charity shop- jobs worthy really annoy me.
Wilderness welcome!!! I Amos glad you have joined us here, If you don't do cake, how about wine? We like that too!
Soks sorry about the car, has your sister agreed to leanding hers yet?
Chops and Ruby it'd soooo not fair you to going to the US, can you smuggle another lardy arsed lady on your trip, mind you, you would need a bloody big suitcase to fit me in!!
As for here, we have had the school in touch yet again! They are concerned about J and wonders if he would being it from some " youth Councilling" for his behaviour! . Where has my nice little boy gone! I was so ashamed that he has been so disruptive in class and on the bus that they should take it this far!!! I spoke to him again tonight, and it seems he has got into a fight at school, and was shouting at the staff member who was trying to sort it out. I asked him what was wrong, and why he was behaving like this, and all he would say is he hates the school and hates his brother (trying to find out what caused this last comment, but not getting anywhere!) it really feels as if a mixture of hormones and the new school have transformed one of my sons into someone I really don't want to know.
I know things are hard at home since I had this operation, and if I had known it would cause this much upset, I wouldn't have had it done! ( wilderness, had a major op to repair ankle injury 3 weeks ago, stuck in plaster on bed/chair rest for next 5 weeks now)

[inthewildernessbuild]

Bubbly my mum had an ankle fused and had to be immobile for a long time. It caused a lot of fallout in the family, emotional scenes on all levels. It is hard for everyone, but there is always something, isn't there to cause upset whether it was your ankle or something else. You needed to have it done, just like my mum did. And ds1 has been in trouble at school for calling people names. He told me there were so many disobedient people waiting to see the HOY that he (ds1) had to wait 40 mins outside the office! So it is the snow, the darkness, the horrors of Jan as much as anythingelse.

Triplets what a weight off your mind.

Finally, the three children are in bed by 9.30 ish. A very all over the place relaxed evening here, without dh (who is in Stuttgart). Ds1 was playing the piano at 9.30. I pointed out he had the whole evening to start composing why did he choose to watch telly between 7 and 9? Spanish homework, which he did intermittently in between watching Youtube clips of Coldplay seemed to be some crazy version of Battleships, in Spanish. And it turns out music homework IS Coldplay. Why does he need to watch telly when homework is such fun Dd went to Guides, and I found a Goth babysitter there for Sat morning when we have a clash. Always a great source of responsible babysitters, Guides

Hope your little one feels better soon Sok. And that by hook or by crook youmanage to get to holiday.

[triplets]

Wise words from Ruby Bubbs, certainly not your fault. Who knows why they do half the things they do. I have been a mother for the last 34 years and I still don`t understand what makes them tick! Had a long discusssion tonight with dh about a holiday.................no conclusion reached. My heart knows what it wants to do..............my head is telling me to be sensible..........me, sensible? Goodnight all xx

[shabbatheGreek]

Night Trips. xx

Sensible is rubbish!! xx

[Chopstheduck]

Morning girls x

Bubby, just tell dh you are coming with us, you need a holiday! I would grab the counseling. I think a lot of it is because of them being separated, like you said, and he just needs to find his own way. Counseling will help, and like rubes said, it is NOT your fault. DD had to have counseling last year over the whole inappropriate friendship thing and it did her a world of good.


Inthewilderness, I'm mean - dd is only allowed to play the piano while we are out of the house! I need some teen babysitters too. I did have one, but then her mum decided she'd rather earn the money instead, and I don't really feel I can pay her £5 ph!


Trips - what does dh want to do? I tend to go for things and worry about the sensibilities of it later! Really instead of going Cali we should be saving up and moving to a bigger house, but that can wait and this was our chance to do a holiday of a lifetime. We wouldn't be able to do it with all four kids, and it just so happened that we had 2 weeks childcare to build on!

[shabbatheGreek]

Morning girls xx

Seems we are getting more of the white stuff today No matter what the weather is like I AM going to Chellesters tonight. I have a severe case of cabin fever. Been a long 'exam filled' week. Despite the fact that Tom is doing B Tec French and is tested every term they have entered him for his GCSE French as well. Dont know if I have mentioned it but he cant stand French!!! LOL. Says it is a wimpy language and he wanted to learn Greek properly. He wanders round the house muttering 'French, Spanish or German..... stupid piggin' languages ' LOL

[Chopstheduck]

aww poor Tom! He must be so sick of it all now.

I've jsut checked the weather and there is SUN forecast!

[inthewildernessbuild]

This morning has been fine; I feel as if I defused three classic stress scenarios. Ds1 announced he was going to be late for secondary because he needed to be there at 8.20 not 8.30 (starts usually at 8.50, so he is piling on the pressure there!) Spent more time wringing his hands than actually getting ready and GOING. Anyway, hope he got there...Dd announced she couldn't go to school because she hadn't done her homework. Cue demands for me to dictate a passage about imaginary extinct animal. She hates being late and is ultra organised but this does not extend to thinking ahead on Guides nights. Ds2 was no trouble until it came to 8.48 and he was still insisting on watching a tennis match rather than walk to school. He is like a clockwork toy, once you get him on the doorstep he just self winds to school but there is always the struggle on the doormat beforehand.

So here I am again in an house that needs a magic wand! So messy. Will TIDY IT TODAY! And just spoke to a dyslexia tutor for ds2, who said she was completely booked up. Still she may be able to find a space if I take him out of school for PE which is possibility. Feel we have reached a point where school can't complain if I remove him for some lessons. SATS are coming up and he is so low on scale.

[shabbatheGreek]

Its the same 20 kids who they keep pushing to do more and more exams Chops. I am thrilled to bits that he is clever but there is a limit to everything in my opinion. I wouldn't mind if they are just getting them out of the way for these kids BUT they will still have to sit the GCSE's in a few months with everybody else. For instance he sat a Science GCSE last week....a general science one....but after Easter he will then sit Biology, Physics and Chemistry GCSE's - all separate exams????? The Government can say whatever they want about exams being easier nowadays - but, guess what??? ITS A LIE!!

Our Matt had the right idea LOL......'Mam I cant weed and I cant wite...cant even talk pwoper but Im not bovvered....I know all about Egypt, I am a good dwawer, I am gweat at PE, I wove Van Gogh and Im best at kissing giwls - thats all I need!!' Well said that lad.

[Chopstheduck]

That's really absurd, surely no college is going to want general, and all three separately! How ever many is he doing in total?


Well done, Wilderness! My dt2 is on one at the moment, thinks it is hilarious to shout no when I ask him to do anything, and walked to school singing ' I love lexi, cos she's sexy!' he is 7 ffs! And we don't even KNOW a Lexi. He will be going to bed very early at this rate.

[shabbatheGreek]

Chops I/He have no idea how many he will end up with. He was fast tracked through 3 at the beginning of year 10 and has three GCSE certificates already. Statistics, French & Core Science.....he has no idea if statistics is Maths or Science and said he didn't realise they were doing the GCSE in that subect LOL. You are right - it is absurd. The school have always had a terrible reputation, always been bottom of the table for exam results/Offsted reports. Last year they climbed to 7th in the tables (I think due to the new Head teacher pushing and pushing the pupils) and I think they are desparate to improve from 7th. I fret and get angry about it much more than Tom does. LOL. Dont know how he will keep his eyes open today - he looks tired out.