We hosted this years family egg roll and had a big family BBQ on Sunday. I rolled ‘Ninja’ egg and despite getting a couple of points didn’t come home with the egg rolling trophy.  My Stepmum won so we can keep the egg rolling cup in West Yorkshire where it belongs. Yay!

Our friends left on Monday, leaving the house a little too quiet and the children started arguing again. Sigh.

Still, I have some pics of the weekend to remind me. Here is a small selection …

My egg this year was easy to design, my egg was the 4 year old complete with head cut.  My Sister’s design was a love egg.

We found a fantastic egg rolling hill and commenced our rolling.  The 4 year old seems to have been practicing because he did really well, coming second.

Our host’s Danish mother seems to have hidden egg rolling talents and she came first.

So, not breaking with tradition I didn’t win for the 31st year running. Phew.  I do think though with a bit of tweaking to his technique I may live the ‘egg rolling cup winner’ through my son next year.

Unfortunately on Thursday night I had about 4 hours sleep. The 4 year old kept waking up with night terrors.  I didn’t mind too much because I knew that I would be able to share the driving to Scotland with The Husband and sleep some of the way.

The husband had said he wanted to be away for 11am.  What time did we leave?  1pm.  Why?  Because when The Husband was picked up and taken to the car hire office (our car is still dead  as a dodo) he realised when he got there that he didn’t have his driving license. 

After a lot of frantic searching of the house we realised that we couldn’t find it and it was my turn to go to the car hire office.  I was the sole driver, The Husband merely my passenger during our 5 hour trip to Scotland.  No sharing the driving round our way. No sirree.

Still, I was excited to be driving a nice new estate car.  When I viewed the boot space I was a tad excited as I made my mental calculation of all the things I’d packed.  When I returned home to pack the car I realised that it wouldn’t matter how much space we had in the boot, we would still have to cram things round the children’s legs.

So after a looong drive we arrived at our first destination in Scotland, East Kilbride.  The Husband complained about my erratic motorway driving style which careered between 50 and 90 miles an hour.  I told him to be grateful I didn’t fal asleep.

We stayed with friends we met whilst camping last year.  One of their sons wore an England football kit in our honour.  We had a great night, but I had to slope of early due to exhaustion. 

The Husband and I were sharing a room with the 4 and 5 year old. We were in a double bed and they were on a double sofa bed.  In the middle of the night the 4 year old woke up and whilst trying to cry VERY loudly demanded that he sleep in the double bed.  Desperate not to wake our hosts up I agreed. 

… and so it came to pass that I lay awake for three hours in a children’s football themed sleeping bag which came up to my belly button with a Celtic blanket wrapped round my upper body, next to the 5 year old who was grinding her teeth.

Still to come… egg rolling Swedish style, stepping into a make-up salon run by two 5 year old’s, my Sister’s love egg and a trip to A&E

Thank you to J, D, S and C who were fantastic hosts and made us feel at home.  Thank you also to D’s Mum who, the following morning, took the children and myself back to her house during a muddy and cold football tournament to have a snack, drink hot chocolate, play and to get warm.

On Wednesday night I declared that I was going to make a lasagne for tea on Thursday so that I could get on and get organised for our trip.  This news was met with titters from The Husband who said that it wouldn’t take long to pack.  Hello?  In his world we will open the boot of the car shove a few bits and bobs in and away we go.

Cue to my world …

We may only be going away for three nights but I still had;

• Washing and ironing to do on Thursday night
• Clothes to pack for myself and two children
• The 5 year old’s blanket and the 4 year old’s Lulu
• The dog’s stuff; Lead, bowls, food, poo bags
• A packed lunch for the car journey
• A separate bag for everyone’s swimming stuff on Saturday
• Easter eggs for Sunday including small eggs for garden egg hunt
• Snacks and drinks for the weekend
• Alcohol … lots
• Baby wipes for any possible type of messy emergency
• Wellies, walking boots and shoes
• Coats, hoodies and several variations of outerwear for possible snow
• A bag of books and toys for the kids
• Roald Dahl collection on CD for the car
• A Diet Coke drip to get me to Scotland
• Pillows and sleeping bags

Have I forgotten anything?

His world;

• Some clothes
• A coat
• A toothbrush
• Midget Gems for the journey
• Some CDs
• Shoes
• Wine clinking in the boot of the car

I do believe it will take The Husband 10 minutes to pack his own stuff.

I am not allowed to pack for him anymore after our holiday to France three years ago where I packed everything but his shoes.

He has to spend two drizzly weeks wearing sandals.

The Husband is so bloody busy that he doesn’t know his arse from his elbow. He’s stacked out with design work for at least the next six months.  He may be bloody busy but he’s got a twinkle in his eye again.

Someone else who is twinkling at the moment is The 5 Year Old.  Firstly, she got a glowing report at parent’s evening last week and, secondly, managed to swim a length of the pool without armbands … thanks to Gramps and his swimming lessons! We go to Italy during Spring Break so it will be nice to see her swimming unaided.

Our Landlord wants to sell the house, so in 4 months we will be moving AGAIN, this time to a house where we will be staying for a looooong time. I am planning a huge clutter cull which means I’ll be spending hours uploading things onto ebay.

First thing that might go on ebay is The Car which is still very poorly … we are having to charge the battery before any trips and then wait for the engine to cut out long after the keys have been taken out of the ignition.    

I’m quite enjoying walking to school and work … when it’s not raining.  The children, however, are losing their enthusiasm for walking to school …

… particularly The 4 year old who has fully recovered from the chicken pox but is deaf again.  He had grommets fitted last year and they fell out into his ear canal just after Christmas.  Now it seems they have somehow made their way back to where they were but he can’t hear anything.  I find myself talking to him both loud and slowly.  The next step is a hearing test to confirm what we already know and then I imagine some sort of operation to either replace or correct his grommets.  In the meantime he has to struggle on in his own little hard of hearing bubble. 

The Dog hasn’t been sick recently and seems to have stopped moulting, which is a vast improvement on recent months.

Me?  I’m looking forward to Easter.  We’re going up to Scotland for Easter where we will be doing our family egg roll.  I have been practicing and think that I stand a chance of bringing the Egg Rolling Championship Cup home.  Who am I kidding? 

I am feeling the need for a wee blogoliday to do some reading in the bath.  I’m currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun. It’s the sort of book that I can’t put down and I don’t want it to end. 

I also need to catch up on lots of little jobs; I have some writing commitments that have fallen by the wayside but I need to catch up on self preservation mainly … if you could see my unruly eyebrows you’d be worried. 

Let’s not speak of any other ‘hairy’ areas.

So I shall see you all next week.  Have a good weekend people!

My sister, my niece, my nephew, myself, The Husband, The Teenager, the 4 year old and the 5 year old will descend on their house to paint our eggs.

In over 20 years of rolling I have never won … not that I’m bitter.  This is my year.  I will win.

I say that every year.

So without further ado, here is my entry for Tara’s Gallery.

This weeks theme is colour and these are the 2009 entries for the West Yorkshire Egg Rolling Championship hosted by My Sister.  Mine is the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory inspired Golden Egg and My Sister’s is the one that looks like a boob.

We went to the park for our egg rolling and found a fantastic hill, complete with kamikazee rocks and tree roots for a bit of added excitement.

I didn’t win … my niece did, she was overcome with emotion as she has never won before.

My egg is the golden one in the green box, next to the black sheep.

The 3 year old came third. Perhaps with a weekly training session the 3 year old will win next year.

… then I can live the winning of the egg rolling cup through his eyes (and pretend the trophy is mine giving oscar style acceptance speeches in the mirror when I’m alone).