DOINNNG!

Trigirl took the Junior Trigirls to one of their favourite summer holiday activities today: a trampolining lesson.

Teaching Swimmingman a healthy eating lesson

The Junior Trigirl's returned home today. In a bid to make Swimmingman eat more healthily, they hid all his unhealthy stuff - about 5 packets of butter, loads of chocolate, and Junior Trigirl 2's Quavers (which he likes to steal). The Trigirls have been hiding sweets from Swimmingman for a long time.

Swimmingman is always starving when he gets home from work. He found Junior Trigirl 2's Quavers and was about to take some, but instead the kids got him an apple and then some yogurt with muesli.

Up with the lark, swimming like a fish

M and Trigirl went down to the leisure centre at 6:30am (!) this morning. Spinning then swimming!

Trigirl took her wetsuit and M gave her some extra tips on putting it on and taking it off (not easy).

Indian delicacies

Trigirl is just about to go and meet Swimmingman. They are taking advantage of the fact that the Junior Trigirl's are at Grandma and Grandad's by going to their favourite Indian restaurant. It is a real trek - it will take Trigirl nearly two hours to get there - but it is really worth it.

embarrassingly filthy

Trigirl cleaned her bike today. It was filthy. She was quite embarrassed by it when she went riding with Cycle Chick G this morning.

"Girls are gooder"

Having seen some nasty little boys, and having thought about it for half an hour, seven-year-old Junior Trigirl 1 uttered the immortal words: "Girls are gooder."

She is so right.

Although she did think there were one or two exceptions.

Here she today, being 'gooder', guarding Trigirl's shopping.

wetsuited up

Trigirl has put on a few pounds since she last wore her wetsuit in August 2008, so she decided to try it on today. It fits! Yayyy!

She needs it for the London Triathlon in about ten days.

Fastest 20K bike

Trigirl did her fastest ever 20K bike ride yesterday: 47 minutes.

First ever visit to the circus

The circus was at the Junior Trigirls' school today. The whole family went. This was Trigirl's first ever visit to the circus. She liked the bed of nails man best.

longest swim... in her whole life...ever

Trigirl did a 10x200m swim, plus a 200m warmup, which makes a grand total of 2200m. She has never, ever swam this far ever before. She is very proud of herself for swimming such a long distance and it didn't even seem hard, but she was not that fast - the 10x200m took exactly one hour.

Trigirl is celebrating...

... seven years of being a Mum. It is her special day too. Here is Swimmingman (looking very slim) on 13th July 2002 holding Junior Trigirl 1.

Happy 7th Birthday, Junior Trigirl 1!

Junior Trigirl 1 decided to celebrate her birthday by going swimming and having a pizza (followed by Trigirl's homemade birthday cake) at a local restaurant. She also had to go to school, where she had a good day because she did "no boring maths."

On the back seat of the bus to the pool - (l to r): Junior Trigirl 1, her friend S, and Junior Trigirl 2.

The cake was iced just before school!

PARTY!

Trigirl has worked like a dog to get everything ready for the Junior Trigirls' birthday party (who both have their birthday in July). The sun shone and a great time was had by all.

Trigirl's very wonderful Mum made the fabulous castle cake shown above

75 chocolate rice krispie cakes

Trigirl has made 75 mini chocolate Rice Krispie cakes for the Junior Trigirls' birthday party, which is tomorrow. They are deee-licious!

She is working like a dog, tidying, cleaning, cooking, filling party bags etc

Recipe: Chocolate Rice Krispie (or Cornflake) Cakes

Ingredients
50g Butter
100g dark (preferably 85%) chocolate, broken into small pieces
5 tbsp golden syrup
80g Rice Krispies or cornflakes

Method
1. Place the butter and the chocolate pieces in a saucepan with the golden syrup. Slowly melt over low heat, stirring. When the mixture is well blended, stir in the cornflakes.

2. Place some small paper cake cases on a tray. Fill each one with a heaped tablespoon of the mixture. Put in the fridge to set.

Junior Trigirl 2 is officially 'sweet'

It must be true because Mrs G, the headmistress, says this in her school report.

Letter from Monaco

Trigirl was very suprised (and excited) to receive a letter from Monaco today. It turned out to be from M and Ironman and it contained this postcard of the Tour de France, which started in Monaco.

They were there and hobnobbed with various cycling greats and local royalty.

9x200m swim

Trigirl did a timed 9x200m swim in the pool today. This is the longest swim she can ever remember doing.

For the record, it took her 52 minutes and 2 seconds (including 30 second breaks after every interval).

Sam, we will always remember you

Every year on this day Trigirl tries and fails to avoid the news. This is a sad day for her because it is the anniversary of the death of her friend, Sam Badham, who died in the London bombings on 7th July 2005. On this day each year, the tv and radio are filled with stories about the bombings and it just makes Trigirl feel upset.

Sam was probably the most bubbly and full-of-life person that Trigirl has ever met. She was also extremely kind and generous. The world is most definitely a poorer place without Sam.

c'est delicieux!

M has just given Trigirl a heart-shaped tin of chocolate covered nougat pieces from Maxim's. Deeelicious! And the tin is really cute too.

M thought that she should give Trigirl a special thank you for helping her out while she was in France, but Trigirl hardly had to go out of her way to help M, so she didn't mind in the least.

What lucky children!

(Click on the collage above to see it large.)

The Junior Trigirls have had a day filled with fun, fun and yet more FUN. In the morning, they were at dancing lessons, at lunchtime at the funfair and in the afternoon they were playing in the garden.

Trigirl managed to squeeze in her bit of fun - she went cycling at 6am (!) with Cycle Chick G.

Trigirl waited and waited

Trigirl spent nearly an hour at the leisure centre today booking next term's swimming lessons for the Junior Trigirls. Much of the time was just spent queuing, waiting for the receptionist to process the two people in front of Trigirl.

Trigirl pities the people who were waiting behind her. By the time she had finished, the queue was going right out of the door.

Trigirl is treated to another school sports day

And here is Junior Trigirl 1 (yellow top, in foreground) on her way to helping the yellow house win the year 2 and 3 sports day.

Happy 5th Birthday, Junior Trigirl 2!

Junior Trigirl 2 invited her identical twin friends, C and E, for a birthday tea (see middle picture).

The last picture shows Junior Trigirl 2 playing with one of her birthday presents - a dalmation dog dressing up suit. Just right for one of the hottest days of 2009!