Chickens in a box

So....we got married, bought a house, had 2 children, started a business, got a dog. Now what? We always talk about moving house to something bigger, but I wrestle with worrying about whether it's worth the money? Yes it would be nice to have a bigger garden, but we have all the space around us for the boys to play in, and would it actually be better for them to be exploring outside the home, than constantly kept within the boundary of home? The next big question is around education and whether we want them to go private or not. The cost is astronomical..... These are the questions going round my head and I guess these are the options: Stay put. Go state all the way. Have quite a lot of spending money. Move. Go state all the way. Not so much spending money but enough, and lots of space to play in Stay put. Pay for private. Take on more clients, have less time (but the children will be older and at school), not so much spending money but get a better education for the child...

Back home after a wonderful fortnight in the US; a couple of nights in Boston and then we drove down to Cape Cod for 7 nights exploring the beaches and towns there. Such a beautiful place, we loved it. But the highlight was definitely our final weekend in Nantucket, cycling around with the children and stopping at some fabulous beaches. We didn't want to come home and I have to say that with torrential rain every day here, I'm not feeling any happier about being back.

A very trucker evening spent on Saturday evening at a 'school disco' organised by St Martins. We met for drinks first and then it was off to dance the evening away. Every song a winner, all the words known, all the moves made. Great fun. Now on the count down to our trip to the States and hoping the the volcanic ash from Iceland doesn't impact on anything. It's so typical; you plan the trip of a lifetime months in advance and then 3 days before you're due to go a volcano decides to erupt. I'm sure we'll get there - the first long haul flight I've done since William was born way back in the Vodafone days and also the first 'new' place that we've been to as a family so it's very exciting.

This week I've been working with a new client and it is so nice to have a change and the chance to learn some new things about my own work and how other businesses do things. Then on the personal front it doesn't require any travel and is a project I can manage while the children are at school. It is so less stressful not being constantly worried about fitting work around the rest of my life or missing an important email. Having said that I messed up the timings for tomorrow so could well find myself on a call outside Little Sunflowers! The boys are either horrible or lovely, fortunately today has been pretty good (perhaps because they've both been at school all day....). We went swimming and they're both doing really well and more importantly trying to improve. If they continue to refuse to have lessons that's fine, but the trade-off is that they have to listen to me and make an effort to learn the basic strokes. Doggy paddle is banned! With Eddie in the US th...

A fantastic do - watching the wedding in the morning followed by an afternoon and evening of eating, drinking, dancing and laughing with good friends. It doesn't get any better than that.

I am a broken record, saying the same things to the boys every day. Do they listen? So far the dog is better trained. Today is Monday, so we went along to the school for Monday Funday as per usual, and as per usual James spent the hour either glued to my lap whinging for a story, or trying to break the photocopier. The Cherries came in 10 minutes before the end, full of beans and singing their favourite songs while the younger siblings joined in. All except William who sat at the back glowering and James who was still surgically attached to my knee and refused to participate. Lurching on through the afternoon and after getting everyone's hair cut we had a play date with Jasper during which William managed to puke over the table in the middle of pudding before following-through on the den carpet just before bath time. Is there something here I'm doing wrong?

She's here! Only 8 weeks old and already out for the count after running after the boys. I suspect the tables will be turned very shortly once she's a bit bigger...

We were woken up this morning by William crying, 'I'm going to be si-," just before projectile vomiting water across the bedroom. He went on to bring up nothing but clear fluid for most of the morning, unable to keep anything down. I have no idea what it was, maybe a bug from yesterday's party? Fortunately by 11.00 when Auntie Sue and Uncle Jim dropped in to say Happy Birthday, he had rallied and was back on form. Funny how children can go from fast asleep in bed, sick as parrots and then suddenly 'ping' they're back. So while Eddie looked after William, James and I went back to see a litter of puppies we'd originally looked at before Christmas. At 7 weeks old now it was time to choose and after so much arguing and soul-searching, I had decided to bite the bullet and go for it. Not a difficult decision as there was only one black bitch left in the litter. And so Bella is ours and coming home next Sunday!!!

Our baby is now 5. I cannot believe it. I really hope he's had a wonderful day, it's certainly been busy. A party at Eddie Catz with his friends from school as well as Jasper from Sunflowers and Joel from nursery days in Hungerford. They all played beautifully together, albeit separately - the boys playing football and girls swinging from various artificial swings, giggling. Never the twain met, until lunch; chicken nuggets and chips (what else?). Party bag pressure on, everyone peered inside theirs and seemed happy with a parachuting soldier, stretchy man, marble, box of mini-smarties and slice of cake. Phew. Tick. Back home for a break in front of 'How to Train your Dragon' (which we now watch on a daily basis) and then the Greens came round for tea, Scalextrics, Lego and Star Wars. William was thrilled, he loves to see Mattie in particular, and ended the day crashed out with James, absolutely exhausted. I am about to do the same....