two years and only just unpacked!

We have just celebrated our two year anniversary in this house in some respects it feels like we have been here forever and in other like we are still newcomers. It was only at the end of the summer that we finally unpacked all the boxes in the playroom-talk about procrastination!! This weekend we spent lots of time in the garden and ripped out the front lawn and replaced it with blue slate. Not only does it look a lot better but it also means one less place to mow! Not that there is much to mow in the back thanks to the dogs and the boys.

The last few weeks have passed in a bit of a blurr-there is so much going on at the moment, not all of it bloggable. We have kept occupied with all of our usual pursuits-home ed group, normals, field trips, dog walks and mystery shopping. Sam and I have spent a lot of time mystery shopping the last two weeks-I had nine jobs that involved sitting in pretty shiny bmws and lexus but sadly did not get to buy one. Sam and I both agreed that we prefered the lexus-lots more comfy inside and lots more gadgets.

We have also been glued to bbc iplayer watching Dr. Who. Come saturday at about 7:20 we are all snuggled on the sofa eagerly awaiting it to be uploaded. The new season is good but the last episode left us all wondering where captain jack and torchwood were and why didn't they ride in to the rescue. We are all warming to Donna, she is bossy and motherly but still not Rose. Just hope this season is not the last for David Tennant-he will forever be known as the Dr. no matter what he does so he might as well carry on and make gobs of money.

Sam and I are very excited as we have just booked tickets to see Eoin Colfer in Nottingham in August. He is the author of the Artemis Fowl series that we both love. We have listened and relistened to each book and are interested to see if Eoin is as entertaining in person as he is in print. Matt enjoys the books as well but hasn't had the chance to listen as much as we have. ( Racked up lots of miles doing the bmw and lexus jobs) It is nice to see sam so excited about an author and reading.

Just because..

thank you to dad for sending me this-it made me smile.

Why is it..

that when you are spring cleaning the house always looks worse half way through and you wish that you hadn't started the job. M was working this weekend so decided to start a spring clean, including carpets. Borrowed a Vax from my neighbor and sam and I set to work. I think the toughest bit was clearing his bedroom floor-everything is now piled up on his bed in a mountain so high that there is snow at the summit. I am so not looking forward to putting everything back. Spring cleaning his room will take about a month! In the spirit of the clean I did my drawers and wait for it...my car!! I am ashamed to say to say that I can't remember the last time I washed my car let alone vaccumed it. Sam was in charge of cleaning the trim and he did such a good job that I treated him to lunch at McDonalds. He has been a big help this weekend and really enjoyed using the carpet cleaner. Have decided that we will invest in one, just not sure which one. The Bissell seems to get good reviews-has anyone out there got one? If so would you recommend it?

Last night's Doctor Who was a big hit here for two reasons. One, the monster looked a bit like a bionicle, inspiring sam to go off and recreate it and two-whoever wrote the episode clearly had the same latin books I had as all the characters' names were identical! Fancy Caecilious ( I know that isn't the correct spelling but you get the gist) and his family meeting up with the doctor-that certainly didn't happen in my text book! I wonder how many other people of my age sat there last night and shouted "hey, I know that guy-he was in my latin book"?

My sonlight order should be here on monday and I am looking forward to seeing all of the books we will be reading come septemberish. The selection this year is fantastic and we are both enjoying the readers and read alouds. Several of them have been books that I enjoyed as a child and it is nice to see sam enjoying them too. The Littles, in particular was a big hit, I even ordered a few more books in the series as he wanted to know more. If only he was as keen on math! We have been doing mental math everyday and he is getting better and he is remembering more and more sums without having to count. We need to revisit telling time though as he seems to have forgotten! I am sure that if I could somehow relate it to warhammer he would have no trouble remembering.

Out for a drive

Out for a drive
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Watch out Captain Slow, hamster and clarkson, these two are after your jobs!!! They road tested this tractor and subjected it to top gear challenges.

Building a den

Building a den
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Today we met up with S and the girls at a farm centre half way between leicester and peterborough. It was smaller than we expected but the children had fun, especially in the den building area. Sam teamed up with C to create a den built of massive pine branches and old xmas trees!! It was lovely to catch up with them all, G, my goddaughter is so grown up now and a very chatty little lady of 2.5. Sam had great fun with the girls, especially C. He was delighted to learn that A loves top gear too so they spent ages discussing various episodes. It is such a treasure to have good friends like these, friends that sam known since he was born and who hopefully he will have in his life for a very long time.

A trio of sam creations

A trio of sam creations
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Sam loves lego bionicles and love nothing better than to make his own versions. Here are three of his latest.

Finally finished Grandpa!!

Finally finished Grandpa!!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

After an unprecedented three months Sam has finally finished the jedi star fighter with hyperbooster ring that grandpa and grandma gave him for xmas. It was the ring that held him up as it was very complicated but with a little daddy help it all came together.

Back in the saddle again..

and it is good to be back. I had to take a short blogging break due to the lack of a computer. My laptop came to a sad end after a glass of wine merged with the keyboard. Thankfully it was covered under the household insurance and I am now the proud owner of a fujitus siemens amilo. I have only had if half a day but apart from the fact that it is running vista it seems okay. All food and drink are banned from the immediate area as are drooling dogs! When rogue sees food he drools more than niagra falls in full flow.

The last couple weeks have been full of the usual kind of stuff-school work ,seeing friends, home ed group, drooling dogs and dsing. Both Sam and I went through a my sims phase, it is so addictive! Now we have both made it to level 4 we have cooled off it a bit, he is currently in warhammer mode and I am embarking on spring cleaning. M is working this weekend and I plan to blitz all of our clothes closets and if I am feeling really brave sam and I may tackle his room. He has run out of space to display his lego creations so an overhaul is in order.