Our new house

Well after just 10 days in hotels we moved into our new pad - Abby uttered a phrase I thought I'd never hear 'I can't wait to get out of 5 star hotels and into a proper house' - I'm seeing that as a green light to camping holidays for the next 3 years.

The move was slick and easy for the Mexican delivery team, not so for Stu who had all the pictures to put up (and of course all the underlay underlay, get it?).

The first week in the house saw us swelter in glorious Maryland sunshine - the first morning view from our breakfast table made us feel instantly at home.

Olivia was an absolute star, day 2 in the house and she had all the emotions of starting a new school and a new school transport system. She loves the school and her teacher (although she is not sure if she is as nice as Miss Spencer) and thinks the bus is 'really cool'. Day 3-5 saw Abby sprinting to the bus stop at the end of the street as the relief bus driver decided to see how fast people from the colonies could run by turning up 10 mins early - apparently bus drivers that turn up early are deemed to commit a worse crime than OJ did in American Mom's Law.

FOD: Every day 475000 school buses transport 25million American (and 1 British) children to school, equivalent to 10 billion journeys a year.