Thanks to a bad night we were up later than planned and thanks to intermitant showers we were slower packing up than planned too. Ady went off to empty the loo while I dismantled the inside of the tent and packed everything up. We did take down the flysheet slightly damp (and rather sandy) but everything else was dry.
We finally got away about 1pm and had a long, slow, boring journey home. We had to stop 3 times – once for food and once each for Davies and Scarlett to go to the loo.
Davies and Scarlett had been invited to Freya’s birthday party and sleepover. It was quickly obvious they wouldn’t be making the party but the sleepover was still a posibility. At that point only Davies was intending going though as Scarlett was too worried her burnt hand might keep her awake and missing us.
Due to traffic and stops the arrival time on the satnav got later and later and we eventually decided when pulling off the A23 onto the A27 that as we were about equidistant between our house and Ali’s instead of my planned going home to collect pjs and clean underwear for the morning for D before taking him to Ali’s in my car while Ady emptied his car and Scarlett had a bath we’d call into Asda for cheap pjs and pants and go straight to Ali’s. At this point Scarlett decided her hand hadn’t really hurt all day and she would really like to go to the sleepover too.
So I nipped into Asda, got pjs and pants for both, some cheap pizzas for Ady and I and we went to Ali’s where our arrival imediately doubled the sleepover children and enhanced the craziness! We had a cup of tea and a bit of a holiday debrief which was nice and allowed the children to settle in before we left.
Davies has always said he would like his first sleepover at Freya’s,as much I suspect to do with his affection for Ali as his friendship with Freya. When the birthday sleepover came up he was really pleased at the idea of having a sleepover before Badger camp too. The circumstances around it all were probably the best possible ones as it really was just a sleepover, rather than a whole day with dinnertime and stuff aswell. We were only gone for 12 hours and they did eventually spend about 7 of them sleeping! I think the amount of times they have slept in friends rooms albeit with us somewhere else in the house have prepared them well so this didn’t seem such a massive step and they are both really comfortable in Ali and J’s house and company, knowing we are only 20 minutes or so away probably helped too.
We left them at about 930pm for the sleepover fun detailed here and headed home. Predictably things were not all in order at home 🙁 Our bedroom door which we both swear we checked was closed was now open and Candle had used our ensuite bathroom as her own so there was a lot of mess to clear up in there :(. The chickens didn’t seem to have much food (they had already put themselves to bed but I was worried enough to go out with a torch to shine in their house and do a headcount). I had a bath while Ady disinfected, hoovered and cleaned up and then ran it away and ran him a new one (camping grime warrants a bath each ;)) while I cooked the pizzas, which we horrible!
We were finally sitting down at about 1130 I guess and left the TV off in favour of checking emails and looking at the weeeks photos. Scarlett rang to say goodnight at which point Ady went off to bed deciding Davies probably wouldn’t ring. He was right – Ali rang later to say he didn’t want to and I sat up for another hour or so before going to bed too. It didn’t feel that odd not having the children, probably because by the time we actually got home they would have been in bed, if not asleep anyway. I slept *really* well in my own lovely bed.
In the morning we failed to unload the car which had been our original plan so we could collect the kids and go to the Brighton Kite Festival which is not far from Ali’s. Instead we decided we were probably all too tired for a day out and instead would collect the kids, come home and empty the car and have a quiet day at home with a roast dinner.
All seemed well at Ali and J’s, with sleepy looking children and shell shocked looking adults ;). They sure know how to lay on a sleepover with all sorts of treats like trampolining by fairy lights and dancing round the room at midnight. Not at all sure we’d manage to replicate such delights when we return the invitation but I’d quite like to go to one of Ali’s sleepovers myself :lol:. It was great to have been able to leave the kids with someone we trust, know will look after our children and care about them and give them such a fab first experience of being away from home overnight. Thanks guys 🙂 xxx
Sunday was indeed a quiet at home day. We slowly unpacked the car and put stuff away. I made quite a bit of headway through the laundry mountain (kendal mint cake at half way point definitely) and we had a lovely roast chicken.The kids had baths, hair washes and hair brushing aswell as nail trimming and general de-griming. The cat was much stroked and I downloaded all the episodes of Torchwood from the previous week so we could start watching the first one that evening when the kids had gone to bed.
In the evening I went to collect the chicks from Tasha, who have grown loads in a week. As pet-sitting goes I suspect they are amoung the more cute variety :).
In theory we should have had an early night to catch up – the other three did but I still mangaed to be up at 2am uploading photos to flickr.