A Week Can Go By So Fast

Laura, Elle and I (and kids) arrived back in Taunton on Sunday 29th November. We spent the week chilling out at home (well as much as you can with 3 little kids in a small house with no backyard!), playing the Wii and shopping in Taunton! We also went on a day trip to Bath to see the Christmas markets, went out for dinner, froze at the park, went to Exeter and had a big day trip to Bristol's Cribbs Causeway Shopping Mall! - which included lunch at Nandos!!!!

Turns out I was very very bad at taking photos during this whole week - but luckily I have stolen some more from Elle, so this blog post won't be so boring... thanks for sharing Elle!! (As if you had a choice really!)

Lani and Kobe playing at the O'bridge after tea one night. Lani is such a little mother and loves to take care of other little children. She was really good with Kobe - and quite patient with him most of the time. She did however say that 'he is a lot of work!'

I miss this little guy. He has such a friendly personality and loves to explore new things and places. He can be very independent and will entertain himself really well. He seemed to love following the girls around - trying to annoy them(!) and Lani even nick-named him KOBE-WOBE... and would call this out to him when he was getting up to 1 year old mischief!!! Laura actually got told off when she tried to call him this - 'That's what I call him Laura' Lani said! Kobe loved playing in the play gym.

Bath time became a lot more fun this week... for me and the girls! Me because I didn't have to do it very much - Laura or Elle bathed them most of the time - and for Leilani and Emily because they either had Kobe in the bath entertaining them - or Kobe out of the bath entertaining them!

Our trip to the park was much needed - but it was SO cold that we didn't last very long. Lani slipped over as soon as we got there - but it didn't bother her too much - she was mostly worried about her new jeans being dirty! Kobe missed out on the swings because he fell asleep! (Always the way isn't it!)

It was a little difficult to go anywhere really because we didn't all fit in the car, which is why we stayed around Taunton for most of the week. We didn't really care though, because after our 3 nights in London we just wanted to rest and spend time together. When the kids went to the Children's Centre on Thursday afternoon though, we thought it would be a good chance to take a drive to Exeter. A drive to Exeter is pretty much all it ended up being too!!! As we arrived in the city center, there was a massive hail storm - it came out of nowhere and was quite unreal to watch! After a quick trip to the Disney store we decided we couldn't really be bothered walking around in the cold and rain - so we got back in the car and drove to Toys R Us (which was good for me - because I needed to get some Christmas shopping done without 4 little eyes watching!) and then we headed back home!!!! lol! So we didn't do much but it was still a fun day!

{Me standing in the hail - this all appeared in probably 5 minutes - cool huh!!)

To go to Bath or not to go to Bath? This was a big decision for us! In the end we decided to go! We caught the train - which was heaps quicker and easier than driving anyway and we had a good day at the Markets. Elle took some photos of little Kobe in his new vest while we waited for our train...

It was a full train again (but no way near like it was for Laura and I on our way to London) so we all ended up sitting/standing out in the corridor bit - which proved to be quite entertaining! Elle taught the girls how to play the 'train game' (which Lani asked to play again on our way to Austria El!) where you have to stand still and not lift your feet, but trying to balance with the train! AND we had an unforgettable scare when a lady went to the toilet (which was right in front of us) and didn't lock the door!!! Elle and I were totally freaked out that someone was going to press the very large 'door open' button while she was in there - which would mean the electronic door would open rather slowly and not be able to be closed again - until she got up off the loo and pressed the button on the inside! The loo was a disabled one - so it was quite big and if that door opened she would have just been sitting there for all to see!!!!!!!! It DIDN'T happen thank goodness, but far out it was a tense few minutes!!!!

{Bath Christmas Markets - these were excellent, and we saw some great bits and pieces!}

Cribbs Causeway in Bristol have a really nice new big shopping centre, which I had heard about but never been too. Mick very kindly looked after the girls for us on the Tuesday morning and then walked them to the Children's centre in the afternoon (he had the day off because he worked all weekend) so that we could spend the day in Bristol shopping. It was fantastic there and so much fun to be shopping undercover and without the girls. (I do love their company.... but boy can you get so much more done when you are on your own!) It was a great day and a lovely shopping centre with an outdoor ice-skating rink and lots of Christmas decorations everywhere, including fake snow. (They really don't have many shopping centres here - all the shops are mostly spread out along 'the high street'!!

The week went by so fast and it sucked when we had to start thinking about saying goodbye, but I feel really blessed that both Laura and Elle were able to come and visit - it was heaps of fun being together again.