Everyone was tired this morning – it was about 1030pm last night when Davies and Scarlett went to bed and I had a bit of a hangover this morning too. Scarlett and I iced and decorated the cakes we made yesterday to take along to the party this afternoon.
The party was Archie’s birthday party but we were also celebrating Bid’s birthday on Friday and of course saying goodbye as in 48 hours they will be in the sky flying off to their new life in New Zealand. With that in mind birthday cards and gifts were not really appropriate given they are trying to cram everything they own into suitcases to take halfway round the world with them, so Caz asked for food for the party instead. I made some cheese scones, a plate of sandwiches and some chocolate and orange cupcakes. I can do party food :).
The party was at our local pool where Davies and Scarlett have swimming lessons and I do my lengths. I’d decided not to go in as recreational swimming isn’t really my thing at all but I was surprised to find it was only me and Caz’s mum who didn’t swim, everyone else had a ball. We had exclusive use of the whole place for an hour which included a massive inflatable, the big slide and the diving boards.
Watching both adults and children trying to negotiate the inflatable was hilarious – like watching It’s a Knockout. It was actually harder for the adults to get past bits like the giant palm trees as their weight unbalanced them. They had that up for about half an hour with loads of floats in the pool too and then they opened the slide. Davies and Scarlett went straight for the diving boards and Davies showed Ady how he jumps off the top one while Scarlett went off the smaller one a couple of times. She then bit the bullet and went to the top one and looked down before deciding it was too scary. She almost straight away went up again and once more decided it was too high but this time she met Archie, Davies and Elliot coming back down again and they persuaded her it was too much fun to miss out on, went up again with her and let her go first. She wavered but did it.
Caz’s mum and I burst into spontaneous applause although of course she didn’t hear us. I was so proud I almost cried! 🙂 She then did it loads more times and was just so pleased with herself. Really glad Ady was there to see them both too :).
The hour was soon up and all the swimmers went off to get changed, so Caz’s parents and I went into the food room to lay out the party food before they started streaming in and the pool reopened to the general public. Much scoffing of food happened, the kids then found renewed energy and played tag while adults chatted and then we all sang Happy Birthday and started to say our goodbyes. We have gotten so much from our friendship with Caz, Bid, Archie and Elliot and will miss them loads. I am so pleased they are off on this amazing adventure chasing their dreams, so proud of them for having the courage to actually get out there and do what so many people spend their lives just talking about doing and so happy that we met them and have people like them in our lives, albeit on a more distant basis for the next few years. Hurrah for the internet allowing us to remain in each others lives.
Julie, Jack and Maisie also came along so Julie and I had a good catch up too and it was just a very nice few hours. On leaving all the kids were given party bags. Made of recycled newspapers and containing friendship bracelets made by Caz, Bid or the boys, a conker collected by them and strung onto string, an origami box made by them, some sweets and some birthday cake I thought they were some of the nicest party bags ever :).
We headed for home and the kids did some connecting on DSs, I did some patching up and adding to my blanket (which is all but finished I think. I want to add one more strip along the shorter side and have just about enough odd bits of wool to do so) and rethreaded Chloe’s pig ragrug which seems to have come out smaller but a lot thicker despite simply reusing the same rags.
The kids had tea and watched Total Wipeout while I had a bath and then they headed off to bed while I watched X Factor – I have a very good friend who I ‘watch’ it with thanks to the power of text messages despite her being Oop north and me being darn sarf.
Ady and I had an interesting conversation about where life should lead us next and then had curry while watching a mad programme about people who set up restuarants in their living rooms.