Oh dear! This is getting far less frequent - sorry everyone!! Still it's nice to know so many of you are keeping up with our news............ please do let me know if you read the blog, it's nice to know who is dropping by (as it were). Some of you have asked about Maddy and she is fine now, thank you - I think I was overdosing her on apple juice due to the lack of squash here but now we have found a source of reasonably priced ribena she seems to be back to normal. In fact, quite excitingly, she is potty training at the moment. I am taking the brainwashing approach and borrowed a DVD entitled Elmo's potty (as in Sesame Street) and so she is watching that and making mental notes. It's a bit gross to be honest - songs about potties and its contents, etc. In fact now I think of it, it reminds me of that Come Outside episode (if you've seen it you'll know the one I mean!) Also bribing her with Skittles seems to help - it's the American way......

We have been hanging out at the beach. It was so nice to spend Sunday morning there, watching all the rich people out on their sailing boats and jet skis! We have to walk down several flights of steps to reach the beach and it reminds D of his childhood summers on Lusty Glaze beach in Cornwall (though the weather's just slightly more clement here!). On Saturday we ventured slightly further afield and went to an arboretum west of Chicago. They had so many children's activities that we barely scratched the surface of the place so we will definitely return, hopefully with slightly less eventful journeys. On the way there we failed to turn off to pay the highway toll and just sailed through recorded by the cameras which catch those who don't pay, then on the way home I took the wrong turning and we ended up in a massive traffic jam on the Chicago loop (M25 equivalent). Oops!!

I think we need to pace the kids better on Sundays as they were really hard work in Sunday school last night - all the worse for me as I got drafted in at the last minute as someone was ill. I think the beach in the morning followed by swimming in the afternoon and then a really late night (we didn't get home until 9pm) was just too much. Once again, they are grumpy as anything today and didn't much enjoy being dragged round 2 supermarkets this morning to stock up on groceries (and I still need to go to a third at some point for Coco Pops and ribena, absolute essentials as I'm sure you appreciate!!). My latest bribe technique is to give a dollar to whoever behaves well then we go to the local Target (kind of Woolworths only massive scale) and they spend them there (once I have paid the additional sales tax)! Is this bad parenting? (Rhetorical question, btw - please don't reply!!!)

The weather is so bizarre here - when we arrived at church there was a tremendous hail storm with stones as big as cherries. Now how can you get hail when it's 85 degrees? So strange. It's amazing how you can have a couple of inches of rain then the sun comes out and it's hot and dry again. The grass grows so fast it has to be mown weekly (tho fortunately we aren't responsible) but it's a point of consternation for D that everyone leaves it so long even when it's freshly cut...... Our next door neighbour was out at 7.30am on Sat mowing his.

I think we'll head to storytime in the park later on so the kids get a bit of exercise and then early to bed all round. Hope to have something more interesting to report soon! Ciao.........