Many a box ticked today I can tell you. First thing I had a filling at the dentist. Now I don’t actually mind the dentist, but I am not keen on feeling unprepared or late, so leaving the house with one child screaming hysterically about me going while the other looked scared at the noise level and uproar and my Dad simply looking scared, sitting at the top of my own road for over 15 of my alloted 20 minutes to get to the dentist (should have been half an hour but smaller child running off with my shoes then attaching herself limpet style to me and wiping snot down my top took ten of my minutes too) and arriving 15 minutes late, dishevelled, concerned at how my father and children were faring back at the house and with now dried crusty snot smeared all over my top I felt less than prepared!
Luckily when you go to a dentist where you handed over in excess of a hundred quid last week and are about to hand over a further £75 for ten minutes in the chair for a filling you are treated like royalty no matter how late or scruffily dressed you are! The filling went fine and I returned home to find peace and tranquility with two happy children and a Grandad who had even managed to have a coffee!
Dad then stayed for most of the morning until he left at about 11.30 and we went off to the Wizard store (factory outlet /£ shop type unit on local industrial estate) as I was bringing playdough to group but realised I only have enough cutters and tools for my own two children. We picked up three packs of tools for £1 each (and as they came with playdough that saved me making any too!) and a few other bits and pieces, then home to collect some lunch for the kids to eat in the car on the way to group.
We arrived half an hour early but as Tarly had fallen asleep in the car and me and Davies were happily singing along to the cd we stayed in the car until 1pm. Jenny arrived shortly after we got out of the car and so did the lady to let us in. After a brief panic about whether anyone was actually going to come this week people started to arrive, including two new families and four of our regulars so we had 8 families with a total of 18 children with a good age mix. Jenny had brought a science kit and connect 4, I’d brought the playdough and some books, Ellen brought and did a session on origami (which I never got to sit in on but looked fab!), Nikki brought stacks of stuff including tissue paper flower making and tins of yummy homemade cakes and doughnuts and we ended up with six different tables set up with activities which was all fab. We have also decided to hire the hall fortnightly instead of weekly with an alternate optional activity arranged for every other week – either soft play, nature walk, (hopefully) discounted trip to local places of interest such as zoos, roman villas etc which I think will take the pressure off everyone to do something every week and me and Jenny fretting about ending up footing the cost of hall hire too! So feeling very positive about all that 🙂
We did however have one small incident at group involving a sink, a tap, a plug and lots and lots and lots of water on the bathroom floor, the hallway floor and spreading! Cue half the parents and several carefully selected children on mopping duty for about an hour! Despite some of us panicking (myself included!) about calling the fire brigade to pump it out, whether the floor would be damaged, contacting the hall lady to see what their insurance was like and so on it was a finite volume of water once we’d turned the tap off and taken the plug out of the sink and luckily they seemed well equipt with towels and mops 🙂 Scarlett refused to be parted from me so she came and paddled for a bit shoes and socks off to prevent them spoiling, Davies was actually pretty handy with a mop, as were some of the older boys and by the time we left it looked like we had simply been very diligent with our cleaning up and left the floor slightly damp after washing it 🙂
There was talk about us having to change our name from WAG to get any other local places to rent space to us and us needing to perhaps enter some sort of Home Ed group relocation programme where identities were changed to protect the innocent but I think the kids involved thought it was all quite good fun and as a bonding experience I think it was quite a good (if unorthodox) ice breaking activity 😉
Kids managed a long overdue (as in they have not had one since about Friday!) bath tonight to wash snot and eye gunk out of Tarly’s hair and church hall water from her feet and playdough from under Davies’ nails and smeared snot from his hair, so they at least look less like refugees from a flooded HE group now 🙂 They have both been better in themselves today – although Scarlett appears to be a day behind Davies in her recovery but at least I feel confident that we will all be better by the weekend. Karen has emailed me to say snow is expected which as long as it does not effect our travelling is fine by us 🙂
Tomorrow we are seeing Julie and the twins at the soft play place and for lunch, then I think Ady is working from home tomorrow afternoon. Friday is Tumble Tots and then Saturday we are off 🙂 I’d like to do a bit of baking to bring with me if we get a chance on Friday morning so I might look at the kids’ cookery books with them tomorrow to see what we can make. I have not been joining in much but I have been avidly reading the camps yahoo list and am really starting to get excited about next week now, I can’t wait to meet the friends I have met over the last year and get to know the few I have already met properly, it will be nice to have some time off as a family as well so aside from the Dynamic Earth trip we will probably not go to much else and either spend time with others at the hostel chatting or perhaps go out just the four of us a bit too.
Anyway, a poor start to what ended up as a good day 🙂
Off now for a quick bath before Desperate Housewives – and I might have to watch next weeks episode on E4 afterwards too so I don’t miss out if I don’t watch it next week while we’re away.
Glad the kids are getting better. I think another day should see Hannah back on her feet as well, though she was a bit tearful at the thought of me going to work tomorrow. Whereas me – I’m gleeful. It might be a snakepit, but it’s snot free, and while I *may* be required to kiss ass, I am unlikely to have to wipe one, for anyone who claims their arms are too sore to reach their bottom. And if I *am* asked, I’ll claim harrassment and construcitive dismissal, so problem solved anyway 😉 Chorlte though – Bob serious DOES believe he’ll be able to “work from home”.
Comment by Joyce — 02 February 2005 @ 10:35 pm
Bless him 😉 Ady is always saying ‘well I’ll swap’ if I ever moan about being with the kids all day. Yeah, right, like he could keep up my high blog per day average on my behalf 😉
Comment by Nic — 02 February 2005 @ 11:02 pm
I’m watching it on E4 ….
Comment by Alison — 02 February 2005 @ 11:25 pm
… and is it only me, or is that Mike rather cute?
Comment by Alison — 03 February 2005 @ 12:04 am
yeah, I would 😉
Comment by Nic — 03 February 2005 @ 3:58 pm
ROFLOL Nic (comment 2) – I don’t think anyone can do that – you are Queen of the bloggers (and don’t stop)
Comment by Karen b — 03 February 2005 @ 10:33 pm