Choo, choo, choo, Aaaachooooo.

Why do colds always hit me when we have visitors? Typically I was bunged up with the cold this weekend when Neil came to visit. Feeling thoroughly snotty and puffy eyed, I still managed to have a good weekend, albeit with less energy than usual (not that I usually have much energy these days).

Neil arrived on Thursday night, late, as his flight was delayed. We all stayed up chatting till 5.30am, which meant that we were more than shattered for our trip to the transport museum on Friday. Dan decided he'd rather stay at home and enjoy the tranquility of an empty house, so Neil and I collected Barney from school at 12 on Friday and took him to his favourite place in the whole world. (Anyone who meets Barney will invariably be asked within 10 minutes of conversation whether they've been to the train museum or not).

We used to visit the transport museum every Saturday while Jimmie was at drama school. But because of our travels and my pregnancy we haven't been there for over a year now. So Jimmie had been looking forward to this day out for weeks. He thoroughly enjoyed showing Neil around his favourite steam engines. While Neil and I trudged tiredly round the place, Barney ran from engine to engine, full of beans and excitement. It was good to see him enjoying himself and the new adult company. Barney can be tiring, as he talks constantly and really likes adult company, and many grown-ups cant handle more than an hour of him. Although he is totally adorable in my opinion. But Neil got on with him like a house on fire and chatted away to him like they were good mates, so Barney was just in his element.

Friday evening was spent playing Monopoly. Well, I watched as I can't stand Monopoly. But Neil, Jimmie and Annabelle managed two games together. Dan took this really cheesy photo of them posing for a family monopoly board game box. Lol.

On Saturday we were all so totally shattered after two extremely late nights, so we didn't go anywhere or do anything really apart from lounging around. Well, its nice to lounge around sometimes, in my opinion. And since I was loaded with the cold, it suited me just fine. Barney treated both Neil and I to a makeover (the photos of which can be seen here) and we both looked totally gorgeous covered in glitter and lip gloss, as you can imagine.

Barney helped me make some pizza dough and we did a 'make-your-own-pizza' dinner which always goes down a treat. The kids particularly like to chose their own toppings and make their own pizzas. Dan's pizza had so much cheese on it that it weighed twice as much as it should have. All in all it was a good and totally exhausting weekend. I really wished I'd been feeling better as I'm generally a miserable person when I have the cold.

Next weekend Dan and the kids are going to England to visit Dan's relatives. I'm looking forward to a nice peaceful weekend on my own. When they return it will be Barney's fifth birthday.