And its Sun-der-land, Sun-der-land FC!

Well we had a great ‘long weekend’ in Sunderland visiting family. The highlight, of course, being the way in which Sunderland humiliated Newcastle in a 1-1 draw at the SOL. OK, so we only got a draw but we absolutely humiliated them in the process!

We went for dinner and shopping for a new TV with Grampsy on the Friday. Dad was gutted that Grampsy’s new TV is better than his but hasn’t lost any sleep over it. When we went for lunch the Lilster played in the Whacky Warehouse with some boys. She went up to the top level (4 levels up) and got stuck and dad had to come and rescue her – he reminded mum of Jack Bauer from 24!

Saturday was the big day though. Grandma did cooked breakfast in the morning and then Dad and Ash left for the match. We bumped into the convoy of Newcastle coaches coming along Wessington Way – all 50 coaches and 6 mini buses with a compliment of about twenty-odd Police vehicles (horrible Geordies!). Half way into Sunderland mum called dad to tell him that Mark had arrived at Grandmas expecting a lift with them – Doh! We all got there on time though.

Anyhows we absolutely skinned them for about 70 minutes and its still a mystery how we didn’t win the game. We had great seats about 5 seats away from the mags and the atmosphere was great! It was good to be there with Ash and Mark even though they are part timers ;-)

After the match we all went out to Franky and Bennies with Grampsy (Mum, Dad, Lil, Ash, Kim, Grace). It was really nice for us all to be together, and Grampsy loved the Cheesey Garlic Bread starter!

Sunday we went to Church in Sunderland which was cool coz a few of the old Sunderland lads were back in the North East for the match. Although Ash did come in for some stick over his Pavarotti belly and pigeon neck.

Then everyone came back to Grandmas for dinner – Mum, Dad, Lil, Ash, Kim, Grace, Mark, Tina, Ben and then Helen and Ron. Grandma was quite stressed doing the cooking – must be old age ;-)

Lily just loves Grace and is always touching her, stroking her head and wanting to hold her. She’s always telling Grace to go in her chair and ordering her around. When she speaks to Grace she puts her face right against Grace’s nose. Grace on the other hand has inherited her dads nervous disposition and looks anything but comfortable with the Lilster around. Ben is growing up as well and is the spit of his dad just with more hair.

On Monday we went to put new flowers on Josh’s grave. Lily loves being at the grave and is her usual self always wanting to help with everything. So she helped put the flowers in the vases. She also sang all of “Twinkle twinkle little star” and “I am a Child of God” while were at the grave – she can now sing both songs all the way through. And with it being November there were loads of leaves on the grass and Lily just loved running around and kicking in the leaves.

-picture coming .......

Recently Lil has developed the habit of saying “Yes please” instead of just “Yes”. The funny thing being that every time she says “yes” she actually says “Yes please”. So if you ask her a question like “Do you like your dinner?” or “Is it sunny outside?” she will say “Yes please” – very cute!

It was a lovely weekend and now we just have to look forward to Christmas!