A Great Weekend

I'm Loving - Ebay!! Picking up some great autumn/winter clothes for Jack at bargain prices (Gap etc). He'd be walking the streets naked if it weren't for Ebay!!
I'm Hating - my boys are going on holiday with their dad to Menorca today until the 4 September!! It'll be quiet, but it will be weird
I'm Looking forward to - Seeing Ess and Joe and Jade soon (once we get a date sorted!!)

This weekend we all toodled of to Manchester to stay with my sister and her family. We stopped at mums on the Friday night, she lives in a little village (and when I say little I mean little, 2 pubs, a few houses and you drive through it in 5 seconds!) called Wing in Rutland. On the Saturday we trundled up the motorway to Manchester, getting there late morning. Jack was not happy about another trip in the car as you can see...





My sister, Heather has three kids, Jake 11, Joel 4 1/2 and Poppy who will be 3 on the 1st October. At first Poppy wasn't too sure about this invasion, last time she saw us was at Jack's 1st birthday party last year! After a while though, she and Jack were inseparable. Here are the three youngest, only an hour after arrival, sat watching C Beebies.

Poppy - the only girl out of the 8 children my brother and sister and I have produced (so far!!)

All 3 of my sister's children have inherited their colouring from our Irish bit, though Jake my sister's eldest has brown eyes which compliment his red hair beautifully, Joel got my dad's curly locks which my brother also has and his colouring is like mine, and Poppy is my sister's mini me, but has dark lashes so we think she will go back to her birth colouring hair wise, which was dark brown. whereas her mum, my sister, is still that blond! Jack is also the same colouring, with strawberry blond hair which will probably go back to it's reddish colour in the winter months. My sister's partner, Paul is of italian origin (the surname Bertelli gives that one away!!), dark curly hair etc, and his brother and two sisters are the same. Daniel and Phil are a bit of "odd ones out" with their dark skin! Phil is still a blondie, whilst his brother is dark, but you can't help but notice how much darker they are compared to the other cousins (my brother's two children have pale skin and red hair!) they have inherited the romany bit which not many of us have in our family, and it's considered good luck to have done so.

We went to a barbeque at my sister's in laws that evening, which is literally three doors down, with her sister in law two doors further down from that (very corrie!!). Everyone was there, typical northern gathering where everyone is family, no matter how vague the bloodline, or if there is one! Bit of a culture shock for Stephen, a southerner through and through and a family that keep themselves very much to themselves. Everyone commented on how alike Jack and Poppy are, you can definitely tell they are related!

The height difference between the two of them is narrowing now so that Jack is probably only 2 inches shorter at the most than Poppy now and she's exactly 9 months older, so theory is now that this time next year Jack will be taller than her and actually look like the product of parents with a combined height of over 12 foot!! He still gets called short arse by his uncle Paul though, so it will be vindication when he finally shoots up!! Joel, who starts school in a few weeks, I can't believe it, is 4 1/2 and for 3 years has eaten, well, not a lot. He eats only nuggets, chips, garlic bread and yoghurt, yet, he is testimony and proof to all of you parents who worry that their child won't grow properly because they are fussy eaters, that they do!! He is so tall he comes up past the shoulders of his 8 1/2 year old cousin Alex. I couldn't believe how much he had shot up and he's such a wonderful little boy to boot, not interested in cars etc, but animal mad, he already has horse riding lessons, has a farm set up on the dining table which CANNOT be touched and can play with it for hours. He doesn't want to be a vet though, he wants to be a zoo keeper bless him. Here is a shot of him, we used to call him Chuckie (as in the Rugrats) but it seems unfair now, he's just mega gorgeous and my sister can't go anywhere with him without being stopped (that's his big brother Jake in the background with the football)

IT was a late night, I didn't fill my wine glass up once, someone else was doing it so I was lulled into a drunken stupor unbeknown to me!!

Sunday we went out for a meal in a place called Mottram, a wacky warehouse place where everyone ate too much. Then unfortunately it was time to make our way back down south. Half way down I realised I'd left the Quinny buggy up at my sisters, my M&P is falling to bits so I was a bit peeved and had to order another one when I got home (not another quinny I'm not that rich!!).

We did have a look at houses while we were up there, and the one we had seen which we really liked which I mentioned on an earlier entry turned out to be on a the busy main road which goes through droylsden and ashton so that was crossed of the list - I am NOT living on a main road again NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!

Have been ultra miserable and moody since we got back, I hate living down here now, going to see family makes it even worse because it brings it home how far away I am from all of them. My sister's mother in law brought it home by observing that my sister and I, both our first and last children are the same age so if we're going to do it, why do it so far apart when the children can't reap the benefits of being so close in age, and she's right. Jack and Poppy will go to school together, same first day, possibly same class. My older two probably won't get into Jake's school as it's Roman Catholic, but they will sit GCSEs at the same time etc. Gonna have to whip Stephen's ass into gear and get this house sellable and sold!!