Happy Sunday all! Just incase anyone was wondering, yes it is indeed 5 weeks until Christmas Eve… You’re welcome. Since our last update, we have been navigating new school years, teenage strops and turbulent times. Thankfully however, T’s health remains stable. Hurrah! Littlest Riley, Squidge (not his real name before the Karens* get all excited, tis merely a nickname) has started school. ACTUAL SCHOOL. I remember announcing his impending arrival in a blog post many moons ago; it doesn’t feel real that four years have passed by so quickly. But here we are, and despite being an anxious little s ..read more

Happy Summer from The Riley’s! (I use the term ‘Summer’ in the loosest sense given the fact that I’ve had on summer dresses, winter cardigans and raincoats in the past week) Apologies for the delay in this post, as you may have seen from our social media pages, the past few months have been a bit of a crazy time. We spent the latter part of May and beginning of June in Sheffield Children’s Hospital, as T had his spinal fusion surgery. I promised I would go into more detail about everything once we had had time to reset and recover so, strap yourselves in – it’s gonna be a long one today! First ..read more

Hi! I hope everyone is well. My plea for 2023 to sort it’s shit out hasn’t really gone to plan so far, albeit things are beginning to look a bit brighter as we leave February behind (or F***y February as I have affectionately coined it this year). Just after our last update we received the devastating news that my wonderful Mother-In-Law had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. To say it hit us all like a ton of bricks is the understatement of the century. However, our amazing NHS swooped in (as they frequently have to do in our family) to save the day, and within a fortnight she was out for th ..read more

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE RILEYS!!! We hope you had the most magical of times. We did. We had one of the loveliest Christmas’s I think we’ve ever had. It was full to the brim with smiles, laughter, family, some questionable knock off Amaretto and lot’s and lot’s of love. Before you all start being sick in your mouths from my Clinton-Card worthy gushing, it was also full of pox. Of course it was. It’s us. Of course there was a dramatic twist thrown in for good measure. Pox of the ‘chicken’ variety to be specific. Little germ-spreader Squidge decided to bring that delightful gift home from Nursery ..read more

Well, in the immortal words of Ozzy and Kelly Osborne – we’re going through changes. Mainly the new giant chuff-off hole in the middle of our hallway: Giant chuff-off hole. So, you know, that’s fun. Especially when you have a toddler who thinks he’s in the SAS. Ant Middleton could learn a thing or two from Squidge. As you can see, the garage reno is in full swing. We were hoping it would be boxed off by the end of summer, but I think that may have been a bit ambitious. However, it is getting there. The summer holidays have been ‘interesting’ as Squidge is terrified of every noise the builders ..read more

Holy moly I’ve been slacking on the updates recently! I was convinced that my last post was in May… turns out it was in February and that is not the same as May… So, strap yourselves in for a catch up of epic proportions! Firstly, WE GOT ON A PLANE AND WENT ON HOLIDAY. For one whole week I hid my pale ass skin in whatever patch of shade I could find, lathered on 4 layers of factor 50, and RELAXED. I’ll be honest, I don’t think we’ve ever needed a holiday so badly. We jetted off to ‘Fancy Botty’ (Lanzarote, but Squidge’s name for it was much better… he also calls Squirrels ‘Sussells’, which is ..read more

Hello, and ‘Happy New Year’! (I’m aware that I’m about 37 days late with that one, but the sentiment is there) Since our last update, a fair bit has happened. Mainly, to our house… and to the retinas of our neighbours as they have had 3 months worth of pyjama clad cooking in the garage burned onto them… It has to be said that cooking ‘alfresco’ sounds incredibly glamorous. However, both J and I can concur that the simple act of making a brew in minus 2 degrees has been enough to confirm that we are not the outdoors type. At all. Due to the renovations on the back of the house, our kitchen sinc ..read more

It’s been a very VERY long time since our last update, and for that I (as head writer of this here site) must humbly apologise. The reason for this has been two fold: Life has been absolutely CHUFFING MENTAL of late In all honesty, I’ve really been struggling recently It all started towards the end of, what can only be described as, a truly HIDEOUS summer holiday. Now, as a teacher, I look towards the 6 week holiday the way that Paul Hollywood looks towards a plaited loaf – with hunger and an all consuming longing. We had our annual summer tradition ahead – a week away with my lovely parents ..read more

If you follow our social media, you will have seen that T absolutely SMASHED his ’28 Miles in 28 Days’ challenge. He wobbled, walked and wheeled a mile every single day in February. He was out in every possible type of weather imaginable – wind (practically a hurricane one day), rain (biblical), sunshine (that one was nice), even snow and ice!! (that one was not easy to navigate I can assure you!) 28 Miles in 28 Days! On the final day, he even managed to walk more than a mile – and didn’t use his wheelchair once! We are literally bursting with pride. To date, he has raised over £7600 f ..read more

Happy New Year!! … and also, Merry Christmas? I hope yours was as lovely as ours. I managed to get one picture of the boys together… …and Baby Riley legitimately looks like he wants to punch someone in the face. Look at that mush! I think maybe he is sick of me being his personal paparazzi… but he’s just so god damn cute! Makes up for the fact that he’s an absolute menace on two legs… Oh, and Danny Devito joined us for Christmas too. My brother thought this to be the perfect gift for me… he* now lives in the Garden Bar (I mean, it’s a shed… but J turned it into a bar!) frightening away any p ..read more