We’re going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day, we’re not scared.
Etc.
Davies had a bunny hunt to attend today run by his Beaver group at a local scout campsite. There were loads of local Beaver groups there, so about 50-60 little boys in all. Loved the fact that another small mammal was introduced into the day’s agenda. 😆
This morning we went out to a newly opened local farm shop, on the hunt for good prices and quality for our free range / organic meat other than at the supermarket. This month I’m aiming to do our food shopping even cheaper and by doing some shopping around – hopefully meat from the butcher / farm shop, fruit and veg from the greengrocers etc. just making use of the supermarkets for the cheaper bulk value lines. We’ll have to see how that goes, but we didn’t get anywhere with the local farm shop anyway. 🙄
Then we went to the big shoe shack type out of town shoe emporium as both children have been complaining of rubbing shoes this week and at the beginning of March when I took them to be measured they told me to come back in a month. We walked in and managed to attract the attention of one of the assistants who came and confirmed that yes, both children needed new shoes and then put them on the spangly measuring machine which by the power of the footrprint comes up with their shoes size on a magical screen after they’ve trodden on it for a few seconds. Unfortunately being mid season all that was on the shelves was half price fur lined boots or sandals. Or trainers. Tarly really dislikes trainers – I’ve previously bought at least three pairs over the years that she’s reluctantly agreed to in the shoeshop but once home has refused to wear, fur lined boots while a bargain at half price are not the thing to be buying in April when the weather is looking promising and the sandals were a little too premature when we were still having hail storms last week.
So we came home and had a grand shoe trying on session. Tarly had one pair of My Little Pony flip flops which came free on a magazine which fitted and that was about it. Davies had a pair of purple DMs with silver stars which he has finally grown into, his trainers which still fit and his black Badger shoes which he will still be fine in for the sake of one hour a week. Davies’s feet haven’t actually grown in shoe size, just in width so currently his sandals from last year also still fit. So I’m hoping he’s on the verge of a growth spurt and will hold off buying him anything else until he hits a size 12! 🙂
We had lunch, Ady got the roast dinner on for later and we headed off to drop Davies off for his bunny hunt. He was really confident about it despite Ady and I both remembering (not within his earshot) about how nervous we’d have been as children about group things like that. When we got there he quite happily went off with a leader (not one he’s actually ever met before either) before spotting his pack of Beavers and dashing off to join them. Apparently they did some hunting in the woodlands for chocolate eggs to bring home (he had quite a haul in his little plastic bag, which he shared with Tarly with only a little parental encouragement 😉 ) and plastic ones to win points for their team. We arrived back early and watched him dashing around with the others looking like he was having a whale of a time. 🙂
Meanwhile we took Tarly off on a shoe hunt (we’re going on a shoe hunt, we’re going to catch some size tens, what a beautiful day, we’re not scared’ etc.). We tried Tescos, we tried M&S where they had lovely shoes but too narrow for her feet and we drove to the nearby big Woolworths which also only had trainers, dressing up shoes or fur lined boots. Finally with a mere half an hour to go before a) the shops shut and b) we needed to go and collect Davies we stopped at a Peacocks (cheapo store selling high fashion items at bargain prices 🙂 ) and got her a pair of bright pink sequin covered baseball boots in the style of Lelli Kelly shoes but for a tenner reduced to £2! And a pair of pink flowery toe post flip flops too. 🙂 And a new swimsuit each for her and Davies – all for under a tenner 🙂 Result!
We collected Davies and came home for dinner. No idea now what happened to the rest of the day, it all seemed to blur away somewhat.
Today we had to go into town first thing to move money about and amazingly for us were out of the house dead on time. We parked and walked to the Halifax where we joined the many other mothers with young children getting asked lots of questions about everything. The difference of course being that everywhere around us I heard tsking and people exchanging dismay at it being the Easter holidays. You know I hate this trend for openly telling strangers infront of your children that it is a nightmare to be spending time with them and you can’t wait for them to be back in school. I can’t think of anyone I know that I would make a comment like that about infront of them without seriously hurting their feelings. Why the hell would you want to do that infront of your children? Why the hell would you feel like that anyway? 🙄 And I’d far rather be standing in a queue in the building society with them, talking about the ‘cashier number X please’ sign and guessing which it will be next, talking about how a cashpoint machine works, explaining why there were lower down counters with pens for people the same height as them (no, they aren’t for children, they’re for disabled people) etc. than standing there alone. We went to the other bank and popped into a couple of shops for various things before getting back to the car with moments to spare before our parking ticket ran out.
We went round to Lucy’s where her SIL and nephews were already and the children played out in the garden. After lunch we debated what to do next and decided to head over to the beach. I did ask D&S *not*to go too near the sea and they did listen for a while but the lure of the ocean proved too much and eventually they walked out on the row of sea defences laughing as the sea came flooding in below them. They got braver and started to swing on the poles until Davies slipped in and drenched one leg / foot. They both got splashed until eventually they were wet up the knees and it became no worse to just paddle in the sea. I let it go as they were having a great time and it does seem pretty cruel to take small children to the beach and tell them not to go in the sea which is sort of the main attraction. But I did lecture them on the way back to Lucy’s about listening to what I’d said and that their shoes probably wouldn’t be dry tomorrow, so they were both remorseful at least. And they did have a really good time 🙂 We had no spare clothes (really must sort my car out ready for summer pursuits with spare clothes and towels and suncream) and they were far too soggy and sandy to stay dressed so we headed for home where they spent ages playing X box monkey ball together and then did loads of drawing.
Ady got home late and I went out to do the food shopping which made for a very late dinner.
Hatchwatch is now at day 22 which is somewhat concerning for eggs which are supposed to have a 21 day incubation. I candled them again tonight and I reckon there are at least a couple which still look promising along with several more which look very unpromising. We’re going to keep candling them each day and see how they go this week.