Fun, Flights, Family, Farewells, Funerals and Father's Day.

Well it's a long blog this week so settle in......! We'll start with Adrian's trip to Grandad's funeral and then back to what we've been up to while he was away finishing with this weekend now he's home.

Adrian left for Ireland 2 weeks ago and although it was sad for us to see him go it was all for the right reasons. He had a long direct flight to London before heading off with his family on a 5 1/2 hour drive to North Wales to get the ferry to Ireland which takes 3 1/2 hours before the final 4 hours to Kiltyclogher where Adrian's Dad's family are from and where Adrian's Uncle Richard still lives. The pics above are of Adrian's family's beautiful land that sits on the river and is so picturesque, Kilty is a tiny village which is really just a crossroad and exactly as you would image a lovely little village in Ireland to be. The next day after the standard two fried breakfasts they then headed to the town of Dungloe for the funeral itself which was Grandad's hometown. They had a wonderful time catching up with the family before and after the funeral. It was by all accounts a wonderful service which Grandad would have loved. Adrian carried Grandad to the grave where he was laid to rest next to his wife Adrian's Nanny with a piper playing Amazing Grace which would bring tears to anyone's eyes.

The next day they headed home to London stopping in Dublin for the night then the long drive back to London. He had a great (but short) time catching up with friends and family over the next few days and really enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up over a few beers. Next time it will definately be all of us!!

Meanwhile back in Aoteroa life carried on as normal, the boys and I had a great time at Staglands on the weekend which is now full of baby animals with the spring finally on it's way and the peacocks were also in full display which the boys were facinated with. Saturday movie night last week was the "Sword and the Stone" which the boys liked more than I did but we gave it ******/10. Sunday we had a great day at the park and lunch with Uncle Chris and Aunty Sue. Unfortunately the boys also managed to get ill again with terrible colds that came with awful coughs that sounded so dreadful all night so we spent a few days at home tucked up trying to get better. The boys did manage to have a swimming lesson this week though and really enjoyed this weeks lesson of blowing bubbles and floating on their backs.

During Adrian's absense I have definately learnt a few things, I can tell that it takes exactly the amount of time in Mary Poppins from jumping into the picture to the end of "supercalifrag-ilisticexpialidocious" for me to have a shower and brush my teeth, that humans can actually survive with not 1 minute more sleep than two 3 year olds will allow and that I have wonderful friends who really looked after me and made sure we were alive and not going too crazy!

The boys missed Adrian terribly and were so excited on Friday going to collect Daddy and were jumping up and down with excitment before running to cuddle him as he came out of the gate at the airport. It was so nice to have him home for the weekend and Saturday we had a wonderful morning at the Beatrix Potter Show which the boys really enjoyed as they know the stories but it was a tad too long for us!! Saturday movie night this week was Happy Feet ********/10.

Sunday morning was father's day so Adrian had a little sleep in and a fried breakfast in bed before the boys jumped on him with presents, cards and cuddles. He spent the morning with the boys at TePapa and they all had a great time. When we tucked the boys in and asked what their favourite thing today was Jack said "having daddy home" ditto!!

Cute story for the week: after a night eating too much garlic bread at a friends for Dinner, Tom snuggled up for a kiss in the morning as said to me "what to you call air?", "what air" I asked, "the air that comes out your nose" he replied. "Breath" I said, "mummy your breath stinks" he said....well I'm told!!

Tom's conversation with himself yesterday"

"mummy can I talk to myself" - (Yes, I replied)

"Hi Tom"

"Hi Tom"

"How are you?"

"Good, what are you talking to me for?"

"Nothing, bye"

"Bye" followed by hysterical laughter!PS message from Adrian to Paul - send John our address by internal e-mail so he can send us the Dr Who?!