Happy Birthday to Sam!

Thankfully the torrential rain eased off just long enough to enjoy Sam's birthday party in our garden. And surprisingly, the party karma gods did not reward me with small muddy shoe prints all over the white carpets. Phew!

It has been a busy social week for us Howards, but especially for Dylan. On Wednesday he had his first swimming lesson of the term - he has been moved up a class thanks to his Aussie head start and it is certainly more challenging for him. On Thursday the entire school had an excursion to the theatre in Stoke on Trent to see Beauty and the Beast. The highlight was of course the coach trip there and back, but by all accounts he also loved the show. On Friday he had his first afternoon at the after school club (again, the mini bus pick-up being the highlight) and then the event of the year - the Hilltop School disco.

It was supposed to be a Family Fun Picnic, but the flood waters put an end to that. You could sail a boat across the playground. However, in true stiff upper lip Brit style, dozens of families laid out their picnic rugs in the school hall and classrooms, and enjoyed their picnic dinner, a magician show, and the crazy 80's retro music disco. Dylan's classroom turned into an impromptu bar, and all the kids ran riot with faces painted and new (fake) tattoos.

On Saturday the sun magically came out and dried out our overgrown lawn - just enough for the 15 kids and their parents to enjoy the garden during Sam's birthday party. The horses stole the show from Dizzy the Wizard - every time she performed a magic trick, Eric, the huge white horse, would come right up to the conservatory window and all the kids would race over to him. Dylan was an exceptionally talented magician's assistant during the show, and Sam just obsessed over the chocolate bars he had noticed stashed in her magic treasure box. He loved blowing out his birthday candles (and can now say "birthday", which to him seems to mean "more cake, please").

And then this morning, Sam finally turned two. Dylan managed to patiently wait until both Sam and Daddy had enough of a sleep in (it being Fathers Day here also) - 7.15am by my watch. Then he helped Sam unwrap his presents, which they both loved - and we now have enough fire engines, bendy buses and other emergency vehicles to keep them busy for, oh... at least 10 minutes. Jason's fathers day present was to put together the rather complicated Playmobil farmhouse, which puts an Ikea flatpack to shame. Then the boys and I went to Carsington Water for an ice-cream, paddle by the lake and playground fun. Dylan impressed us all with his improved pebble skimming abilities, which he declared to be the result of the extra strength gained from his dinosaur tattoo.

A wonderful birthday week, and now it's all over again until next year. Thank goodness Dylan has decided he wants his birthday party at the indoor play centre - a huge reduction on my events planning workload!

Growing up...

Little Sam is almost two. Dylan is beside himself with excitement about this, as

a) Sam will get presents, and Dylan will benefit directly from this

b) He gets to help me organise Sam's birthday party (last night we packed the party bags together)

We seem to have reached that turning point when they have finally become brothers; playing together, fighting together, making up crazy dance routines together, and squabbling over whether it's Sam's turn to watch Fireman Sam or Dylan's turn to watch Pokemon. Luckily they can watch both simultaneously, thanks to the portable DVD player.

It's a cliche, but Sam has suddenly grown up so quickly and I wanted to record his developing personality for posterity:

Favourite people: mummy, dada and dee-dee (Dylan)

Favourite thing: Bunny (he goes everywhere and could do with a wash quite frankly)

Favourite TV show: Fireman Sam (we suspect Sam thinks he IS Fireman Sam and loves being "the hero next door")

Favourite Song: In These Shoes - Kirsty Macoll - my iPod is still avoiding the wiggles, but Sam loves a number he can dance to and I love watching him sing "in dese soos?" (points to his own sandals) "i don't sink so"

Favourite word: tractor

Best friend (in England): Lola, who is nearly 3 and tackle-cuddles him whenever she can get close enough. All the little girls in Dylan's class are madly in love with him too.

Best talent: Napping (I can type this as he is having a 3 hour day nap - I'd better wake him, really)

Worst talent: Falling over and bumping his head (ouchie!)

Favourite Day: Tuesday, as it is Tots playgroup at Dylan's school

Favourite singalong: loves doing the "sleeping bunny" dance and jumping around with Dylan to the Lazytown theme tune

Happiest when: Dylan takes any notice of him

Saddest when: Dylan eats the last jelly pot

Fingers crossed for a sunny day on Saturday... We have 15 small children, their parents and Dizzy the Wizard coming to Yew Tree Cottage - all to celebrate two years of Sam Howard. Hard to imagine life without him, really!

Trams, bikes and boats...

It is a fair bet that Sam would not have picked up the word "boat" so quickly without our recent trip to Amsterdam. There are precious few of them around landlocked Derbyshire - Holland on the other hand delighted both the boys with it's range of transportation possibilities.

"Bike" was also a word I heard frequently from my almost-two-year-old's mouth, and there did seem to be more of those than people. In fact, Jason and I wondered whether anyone would notice if we took two of the more abandoned looking ones home. We have been rather unsuccessful with our attempt to buy bikes on eBay, so miserly is our bidding.

Our last day there was perfect and just as I imagined it would be - strolling along cobbled lanes in the dappled early summer sunshine, enjoying the markets, parks and playgrounds, drinking great coffee and even the quick dash into the quirky Amsterdam boutiques I adore.

Unfortunate, then, that the rest of our stay was cold, windy and wet. Not ideal sightseeing weather with kids, but they probably would have been happy to ride around on trams and canal boats all day long. Which is pretty much what we did, apart from one diversion to the whacky NEMO (science museum), which was filled with over-excited Dutch kids...

Despite my friends' suggestion that "a couple of stoned kids would make for a relaxing holiday" we could not, even if we had wanted to, go with that option. To escape yet another downpour, I rushed into what looked like a groovy little cafe in the Jordaan neighbourhood with Dylan, only to be greeted with the stern face of the owner "no, no under-18s allowed". As if the whiff I had caught opening the door hadn't already given that away. So we had to make do with the rather more downmarket cafe further up the road, breathing in toxic tobacco smoke and wrestling a small dog away from Sam's battered bunny.

We did have a great time, and the boys were both so excited by all the things to see around them - being in a vibrant city again was refreshing after the isolation of Yew Tree Cottage. Just being able to eat out at an Italian restaurant around the block was a novelty.

One lesson learned though, was our accommodation. We booked an apartment online, which I had understood from the text and photos to be a one-bedroom, but turned out to be a studio with the worlds smallest toilet and two single beds - so Jason and I (separately) enjoyed three nights of Sam's disturbed travel-cot snoring, as well as a dawn-wakening thanks to the lack of blinds on a south facing window. The heating didn't work - which ordinarily would not be a problem in late May in Amsterdam, but it was unseasonably cold and one of the windows didn't shut properly. We finally, on our last night, got one of the rental agency people to drop over an electric heater. They cheerfully informed us by text as we boarded our flight that all problems had been fixed. Well, that was a relief for us then!

We clearly have a few more travelling-with-kids lessons to learn before our next adventure in Tuscany. I'll just got check on that villa description again...