covertly blogged while manning the enquiry desk at work! 😉
I do have a draft post about the whole school thing to complete too but it’s draft on my laptop so I can’t do that right now.
Yesterday was lovely, we were off to meet Julie, Jack and Maisie for some pony riding. We’d not managed to get together with them for ages and I think the last time we saw them it was when Julie looked after Davies and Scarlett for me to be at work so I didn’t actually get to see them then either. Julie is Very Pregnant now – just 10 weeks to go and at that tired and ready for it to be here stage now. It’s a whole different experience for her being pregnant with just one baby, by the time she was this far into pregnancy with Jack and Maisie she was almost at bed rest stage and enormous (they were both over 5lb each, Goddard’s don’t seem to do small babies! :lol:) so it’s a real novelty for her to be feeling a baby inside her kicking and rolling all around – I guess by this far in to Jack and Maisie’s development there was no room in there for aerobics! 😆
The skies looked a bit threatening and indeed we did have about 10 minutes of hail but it was while we were in woodland so fairly sheltered. Davies rode second and really enjoyed it, his progress is of the slow and steady variety, like most new things for him but he isn’t scared, enjoys both the being up high and the movement of Honey the pony and is happy to take things at a measured pace.
Scarlett rode next and was on for the longest time. She is just utterly loving it and desperate to learn more and advance faster every time. She spent the whole time asking Julie questions about how to do things, more about horses and ponies and expressing desire to jump, gallop and ride bareback! She also wants to master standing up at some point – circus child that she is! 🙄 Julie said she could have a try at a sitting trot where she sits up as straight as she can while Honey trots – the next stage is a riding trot where she will move with the pony. A bit of youtube footage of that can be found here.
Back at the yard Julie told me that she thinks Scarlett will make a very good rider, she already has very good balance and mostly rides one handed or at times with both arms out straight. She is keen to take her feet out of the stirrups and has no fear at all. Julie and Scarlett have always gotten on very well so she is the perfect person to be teaching Scarlett as she is patient, passionate about horses and riding and just so pleased to have a child who really wants to learn too. She was already making plans for teaching her to jump, canter and so on :).
As we arrived back at the stables we were called over by the farmer to see a lamb who had just been born. As we quietly went over there was a second one actually being born so we watched it’s first breath as the farmer cleared it’s mouth and heard it’s first ‘baa’ :). We’ve seen lambs born up at Coombes but it was a rather different experience all huddled round quietly in awe than the rather chaotic atmosphere at Coombes.
Scarlett helped to groom and feed honey while Davies, Jack and Maisie played on the muck heap and in big tractor wheel formed puddles in the mud :).
We headed for home to have lunch and make the most of the sun with several loads of washing – you just wouldn’t believe my laundry piles with all the trips away we’ve had ;). Maureen (opposite neighbour) popped over to say we’d gone out and left our front door wide open so after watching for a while she’d nipped across and closed it for me 😳 We had Primeval series 2 on dvd so several episodes of that were watched and some watching and playing at the same time went on with their characters too.
We’d got an opticians appointment at 4pm and Ady rang to say he wouldn’t make it home to collect us so we should meet him there at about 330pm so I gathered everyone up and we headed out of the door. Without taking any keys! So from leaving the door wide open in the morning we were now stood in the garden with no keys to either get into the car or back in the house 🙄 😳 I rang Ady (with a meek tone as I’d just been stroppy to him about him not getting home :oops:) and he rang the opticians to make a later appointment and came home to collect us.
Scarlett and I went in together – her eyes are fine, one is slightly dominant but not sufficiently so that she needs glasses. I was having a contact lens check as I buy them online and it’d been about 3 years since I’d had my eyes tested to ensure my prescription was right and my eyes were healthy – all fine too. Ady hasn’t had his eyes tested since school and I was concerned about the amount of driving he does but the optician said he has excellent eye sight for his age (oh how I chortled!) and he was also recognised from telly (oh how I chortled further – TV’s Adrian Goddard gets his eyes tested! :lol:). Davies was also fine and doesn’t need to use his glasses at all any more.
Home for tea and bath for the children and then an internet food shop delivery from Sainsburys. It was way less efficient than before, possibly as a result of having TV’s Adrian Goddard there ‘helping’ and 9 six pint milks were missed off the order meaning I had a lengthy phonecall trying to sort that out 🙄 so dinner was a rather late affair.