But when the weekend comes…

There I am. Gone!

Had a very nice, people filled weekend. Saturday morning I was out early to get some food in for the weekend then when I got back Dad and Ady went out for logs. I did a spot of baking 😉 and got some washing hung out – which clearly cursed the weather as it has literally not stopped raining since about half an hour after I did so and is still raining now.

Then Alison, Chris and children arrived for the day. Reading went up, the children all disappeared but I know they watched W&G, Care Bears and Drop Dead Fred and that they made mothers day cards and dressed up, played with Floam and painted lots of nails. Ady did cooking, me and Alison roamed the house to find child-free spaces (spending about an hour in Davies’ room before we were flushed out!), there was a rather hilarious weigh-in and it was all very nice. 🙂 Thanks for coming guys!

They left and we changed all the clocks and decided to adpot BST slightly early so went to bed!

Yesterday morning I was woken with a cup of tea, a pile of celeb gossip magazines (the only thing I am really missing from my old extravagent lifetime), some chocolates and a couple of home made cards from the children. Then they all trooped back downstairs and I laid in bed for about half an hour reading. I used to love doing that for hours pre-children, being awake but just staying in bed. Now I don’t get to stay in bed enough asleep, let alone awake! 😉

I lazed around for most of the morning and then got myself and the kids dressed up to go out for lunch. We went to one of our favourite restuarants in Brighton Marina, which on a lovely sunny day is a great place to be. The traffic getting into Brighton was dreadful and it took an hour for a 12 mile journey 🙄 We took the top road which is high and was dense with fog which amused the children, it crosses Brighton racecourse at one point and there must have been racing as the turf had been laid across the road which was odd to drive across – by the time we drove back it had been removed. Mum and Dad had driven in along the seafront where the traffic was even worse so we were all late getting there.

We had a lovely meal, the children behaved well, the food was nice, we got free wine and although the tables are very close together so you can’t avoid getting slightly involved with the people on the neighbouring tables the atmosphere in there is good enough that it feel more like a big party anyway so the loss of intimacy is fine.

We’d planned to all go back to my parents’ for the afternoon but their heating has packed up and their house is freezing even when it is working (big rooms, high ceilings) so they ended up coming back to us. They had my granny with them too, so Ady continued his host role making teas and coffees all afternoon. I made some air drying clay characters with Davies and did some drawing with both the children Dad dozed on the sofa and Mum and Granny spent ages playing with google earth on Ady’s laptop 🙄

I’d been rather looking forward to a quiet evening and we’d planned tea of a roasted chicken to make into hot sandwiches having planned to leave my parents around 7pm to get the children home to bed. I did get some peace by sitting first on Tarly’s bedroom floor while she went to sleep and then going upstairs and doing the same in Davies’ bedroom, by which time it was 9pm and clear they had settled in for the evening. Mum had brought some cakes over with her so we opened a bottle of champagne, ate tea and all watched Planet Earth. Then we put on one of the earlier episodes we’d recorded and then we watched Globe Trekker and finally after lots of theatrical yawning from me and Ady they all left at around 11.30pm.

Today I have a couple of CVs to do which if the children do as promised and leave me in peace to do (they are currently watched W&G for the second time already today and playing with geomags) then I’ve promised to take them to the Wizard store and buy them some plasticine to make characters with. I need to get dinner on (bolognaise planned to cook in the slow cooker) and rustle up a ‘plate of food’ for Badgers end of term party toda. I have a half formed plan of fairy cakes with some sort of stripey icing to look badger-esque, will photo them if they turn out well – or indeed eat them all myself if they don’t 😉

Should probably get on with it really…