So, the week is ALMOST over – we have been swimming this morning at grandma’s, we have played at home with the birthday toys – today we played with the “sandcastle” – this is Elliot speak for the castle and knights that came with it.

We went out for a Chinese meal with David, Julie and Abbie last night – Simon keeps wittering on about it being the best Chinese meal he has ever had – I guess that means we may well be going back there at some point downstream 🙂

We (following the trip to Edinburgh) ordered some replacement headrests for the estate car last week (they contain 9″ LCD screens and DVD players 🙂 ) and fitted them finally yesterday.  We also ordered a DVB-T digital TV tuner at a similar time, and this is also installed.  The headrests are an amazing colour match and the setup works really very well indeed.  And the great news – all in for £275 !!!!

Vicky has ripped into the conservatory over the last couple of days – it kind of points out just how many toys etc that the boys (read Elliot) have.  We need to really cut down, since there are a lot of things that we are now putting in the4 loft / skipping completely.  There is literally NO way Elly would even notice that they have gone.

Elly has really begun to get the hang of Mario Kart on the Wii now – only problem, he likes driving off cliffs and into water…. Not quite the right approach…..

Wishing you the very best day you could possibly have young man – all our love always and forever, mummy and daddy xxxxx

Last night, Elliot learned to play WALL-E on the Wii (thanks Auntie Jenny for loaning it to us) but also Mario Kart on the Wii.  He wouldn’t sleep because of his NEED to play on the damned Wii – mistake letting him play on it just before bed time daddy? hmmmm let’s think…. The poor little guy did have a little accident while racing though – couldn’t pull himself away from beating Wario.

We went shopping this morning and ended up buying a new Wii Wheel (steering wheel for Mario Kart) – it seems that we have already (at 2 days before his 3rd birthday) got to the stage of racing against each other in computer games 🙂

We played Wii again this afternoon, but no accidents this time 🙂

Elliot even managed to stop play to take on a #2, before continuing again… 🙂

We picked up Oliver’s new car seat yesterday (we have bought him on just like Elliot’s.  At the rate that he is growing he may well be using the damned thing really soon.

Elliot and mummy baked Elly’s birthday cake today – well, Elly got bored pretty soon, so mummy made the cake solo 🙁

Mummy and Daddy are sat, watching “Marley and Me” – very funny film so far – Pepsi and Max – so pleased they are a little older – they were definitely a lot like young Marley….

We had a great weekend – drove to Newcastle (we had to stop 4 times for Elliot to wee – pretty sure he was just testing out his new found ability to make the car stop whenever he wanted, by just statng the need for a wee wee :-)), played for a couple of hours in the giants den playcentre which was ace.  We then spent two hours in the Metro centre shopping centre.

We stayed in the Marriot right next to the Metro Centre, which  was really nice.  Had a pretty disastrous meal at TGI Friday’s – we walked down (2/3 mile so not a major drama), got most of the way through the main course, Oliver started to let us know of his state of displeasure, and then Elliot stated a need to visit the facilities for a number 2.  Unfortunately it arrived a little sooner than perhaps he thought and Vicky had wished for 🙁  Then, because of the lateness, Elliot was cranky as he was tired so he sat in Olly’s pushchair, and Simon carried Olly back the Hotel.  By the time we got back to the hotel, Simon had lost the feeling in his arm from carrying Olly – pussy !

We got all the way up to Edinburgh with needing just ONE wee wee stop and then made our way to the show.  It was not the TV presenters but was very well put together – Elliot was frightened of the dark in the theatre though unfortunately.  He got over it in the end, but we did have a few moments where he wanted to go home (as if it were just around the corner 🙂

Oliver LOVED the show – the darkness around hi with the contrasted bright lights and strange looking people in massive teddy bear type outfits had his attention pretty much the entire time.

We stayed in the APEX International hotel which was OK – wouldn’t recommend staying there but was OK – certainly no match for the cheaper hotel from the previous night.

We set off for home on Monday morning at 9:30am and the plan was to stop at the same play centre in Newcastle on the way home – BUT both boys were asleep, so we took the opportunity to keep heading south.

 McDonalds on the way home and we ended up at home just around 3pm 🙂

Today, Elliot has found the Nintendo Wii and has had a GREAT time playing WALL-E and Mario Kart. We suspect that we will be playing more games tomorrow 🙂

It is 08:50, the car is almost packed, and we are shortly heading out to go to Newcastle upon Tyne ready for the first leg of the trip to Milkshake! live show in Edinburgh tomorrow afternoon.

Elliot has had two totally dry days now in a row – he is really picking up on the underpants now – this morning, he came downstairs and while daddy was getting his breakfast ready, he removed his own nappy, had a big wee on the potty and asked for some Thomas underpants !!!

On our way out now – see you soon….