Where were we?

Friday seems a long time ago now. In the morning there must have been DSing and lego-ing just because that is what happens round here! I know when the food shopping arrived from Asda at about 1145am they had just put Star Wars on to watch. I also recall they had second breakfasts around 11am which they went and sorted out for themselves.

The food delivery was a big one – 14 crates so the delivery driver told me. He was really impressed that it was such a huge order and there was not one substitution, every single thing I’d ordered was there :). I was quite impressed too actually. Scarlett helped me put it away and then I spent some time clearing out the fridge a bit and re-organising a cupboard so I could fit stuff like sugar, pasta and flour in it. It meant I had two carrier bags full of toddler cups and beakers and things like ice lolly moulds which I’ve stuck on freecycle.

We had lunch and then headed over to the stables to meet Julie, Jack and Maisie. Oh and Lorna :). We’d loosely arranged a time of 130-2pm and as Julie is almost always late I’d made sure we were not there until after 2pm as it was too cold to be hanging around waiting. As it happened Julie had been there a little while but as she was sorting out Honey (feeding her and collecting droppings from the field) they weren’t actually waiting for us as such as we were going for a walk rather than a ride. Davies and Scarlett joined Jack and Maisie leaping about on the muck heap and I walked down to Julie and Lorna in the field. It was the first outing for my new wellies and not only were they very much needed (both the field and the walk were very, very muddy) they were also very comfortable :). I’m SOOOOO pleased with them :).

We had a walk in the woods which Davies, Scarlett and Jack were thoroughly enjoying. They ran ahead, played with sticks, did lots of hiding and clambering and generally enjoyed themselves. Lorna wasn’t happy being strapped to Julie’s back and cried, increasingly louder to the point of drowning out conversation 🙁 Julie did try and feed her which didn’t work and eventually strapped her to her front instead which did calm her and she fell asleep just before we got back to the stables. Maisie was also on bad form and did lots of stropping, moaning, demanding and generally being difficult. It was a shame as we’d not seen them for a few weeks, Julie and I were keen to catch up with chatting and D&S and Jack were enjoying themselves but it wasn’t to be so we cut it short and parted company. We had about an hour but we had been hoping for a longer walk really. Davies and Scarlett are lacking outside time, we don’t seem to have had nearly enough Winter Walks ;).

We came home and the kids stripped off (very muddy) and got in the bath to clean themselves up. I made a pizza for Davies’ tea and another batch of pizza dough. Scarlett had some toast and got changed ready for Rainbows. Her and I headed round there leaving Davies and Ady getting the house ready for our weekend guests.

Rainbows was good – we missed last weeks. I recognised one of the mothers from Storytime at the libarary with her older daughter who started school in September so doesn’t come anymore although she still brings her younger daughter who is only 2. She was sitting in as it was H (her daughter’s) second time and she’d said she’d stay for the first two. I sat and chatted to her. She said she’d known she knew me when I walked in but had struggled to place me – obviously I look different in my grown up clothes singing nursery rhymes to my ripped jeans and DMs with a small blonde person by my side at Rainbows ;). We talked, predictably, about Home Education.

The Rainbows coloured in cardboard angel fish and then threaded them onto string on a cane to make a fish on a rod. Scarlett gave hers to Davies as a present :).

Back home the children got ready for bed and headed upstairs with their DSs while I knitted, having done my share of guest preparation by getting the playroom cleared of drying washing and pulling the sofa bed out. I also made dinner :).

Chris, Helen, Elinor and Alys arrived around 10ish I guess. Elinor went straight up to Davies’ room and the 3 of them mostly stayed upstairs in bed but remained loud and rowdy until after we’d all gone to bed at 2am :rolls:

We had pizza and wine and chats. I was ribbed for my knitting and table ownership 😉 It was all very pleasant. The kids eventually did shut up around 230am I guess.

Saturday I was up again at 8am to get ready for work. Ady got up with me and surprisingly Davies was downstairs with me too before I left although we sat at opposite ends of the sofa just groaning at each other like a hungover couple :lol:.

Work was fine, I was very tired and would rather have been at home in bed and then sitting drinking tea but the four hours went quickly enough. I talked to the children’s librarian as they want me to run a special storytime for 4-8 year olds as part of the Adur Festival so she wanted to discus themes, activities etc. I’m not at all sure I managed to drum up my usual amounts of enthusiasm for it ;).

I got home just after 1pm in time for cheese toasties and cups of tea 🙂 The children were watching a film and it was all quite peaceful. They spent some time playing in the garden and we didn’t really see a great deal of them. They had pizza for tea, followed by a film upstairs with the idea they might fall asleep. They didn’t of course and had yet another late night. But then again so did we ;).

Sunday Ady went off this time as he had arranged to go to Tom’s to chop trees down for firewood. I heard his alarm go off at stupid o clock but ignored it and went back to sleep. Eventually noise from the children was sufficiently loud to rouse me so I got up. It was long since 10am by then though 😳

I organised croissants and once we were all fed and dressed we headed off to park at the allotment for a quick drop off of the kitchen waste to the compost heap and a showing the allotment to Chris and Helen before heading up the hill to the woody bit. Davies, Scarlett and Elinor were raring to go and would probably have been up for a long walk actually but poor Alys was less keen and able and it really was incredibly cold. Helen and I stood and observed from a more sheltered area as the 3 older ones explored a huge field, with Scarlett and Elinor stopping and only Davies carrying on the top of the hill before they all came back.

My lovely wellies got another outing though – still heart them 🙂

We came home again and Ady had just arrived before us. The kids had hot chocolate and then Ady made more toasties for lunch. It began to snow quite heavily so Scarlett and Davies togged up and headed out there for quite a while. Elinor joined them and then Scarlett came in. Eventually the other two came back in too.

I think a combination of tiredness and coldness had overtaken them all by then so the last hour or so was a bit fraught with slightly less than sociable children but they had all had a great time for the majority of the weekend and managed to all end on a high 🙂

Davies and Scarlett stuck Star Wars on, Ady cooked them some tea and then we snuggled up and read the end of Humphrey. Neither of them went to sleep much before about 10ish just the same :rolls: We watched Lost, which we are indeed lost with and I cooked ham in coke for our dinner.

It was a really nice weekend 🙂 Lovely to see Chris and Helen, lovely to see the children getting on so well and having such a nice time in each others company. A shame we didn’t manage a longer walk but it really was very cold. Just before they left Ady and the kids were looking at photos from the first Melrose, back when Davies and Elinor were Aly’s age :).