Catching up

Thursday
We were waiting on hearing from Ali as to whether they were coming over and happily got a phonecall to say they were. I had to go to the post office to collect a letter that hadn’t had sufficient postage on it so suggested to Davies and Scarlett we walk into Lancing to do so. Davies was up for it but Scarlett wasn’t and as I didn’t fancy dragging a reluctant child for a walk we drove in. We parked at the library and bumped into Sian who was on her lunchbreak and suggested we go in and join the Quest Seekers reading challenge which I’d semi forgotten about in terms of my own children actually joining 😆

We did the post office which is always interesting as the collection point is round the back in the sorting office so you get a bit of a peep at how they do all the behind the scenes stuff which is all quite bustling and busy. Then we went into the library and the kids joined up and did the ‘hunt the characters’ task around the library and then we came home.

I spent some time making phonecalls to try and arrange a trip to London and did some emailing on the same topic. I then started to complete the forms for Davies’ Badger camp which made me cry so I had to stop 🙁 I really am incredibly wobbly about it.

Ali and Freya arrrived and as Ali has already blogged we had a lovely afternoon. Ali and I spent some time in the kitchen getting food and both systematically dropping coconut and pineapple pieces while I spilled out all my angst about Badger camp. Ady rang and he got an earful about it too while the children were playing in the garden.

The kids all had a mostly harmonious afternoon and Ali and I had a great time with lots of laughs, some of my tears and a bottle and a half of wine. Thanks mate, I love you lots xxx

Ady came home and took Ali and Freya home. While he was gone there was the most spectacular thunderstorm which me and the children enjoyed very much and the Badger Camp leader rang back. Ady had left a message on her answerphone to ask if it would be okay to drop the balance payment over this morning (it was supposed to be in yesterday) and she’d rung back to say it would be fine, they have a 2 week buffer period. While I had her on the phone we had quite a chat about my worries, Davies being Home Educated and she went quite a long way towards reassuring me and allaying some of my worries. I still reserve the right to have several more big wobbles about it and be a complete mess for the entire week he is away but I do feel slightly less hysterical now than I did yesterday.

I read some stories to Davies and Scarlett, they went to bed and Ady came home and cooked a lovely curry.

Friday An all day at work day for me. Scarlett cried and cried this morning about me going to work and I was actually 10 minutes late. Not at all sure why and I was leaving her with Ady but she was genuinely upset and I’m crap at leaving either of them upset. I think she is equally as wobbly about Davies and Badger camp actually and is possibly slightly rejected by how upset I am on some level.

It felt like a really long day at work. I did Rhyme time which was nice, we had some good singing and lots of audience participation, particularly from the little girl who had brought in a duck sound maker. We also sang Jingle Bells at the request of one little girl which had some odd looks thrown into the junior library from the other borrowers 😆

One of my colleagues, Jan, invited me to her house this evening for a get together /jewellry party she was having. There is a hard core of 4 women who are very pally at work and I have never before been invited to any of their get togethers although they often share funny stories about what happened when they went out together afterwards. It’s never really bothered me as they are all older than me and I’m not really desperate to be going out in the evenings anyway but it was nice to be asked and so I thought I should make the effort to go.

It was Scarlett’s end of term Rainbows barbecue which we’d all been invited to so we went to that. It was rather a shambles with them running out of food and being very odd about giving it to the parents and siblings but being really strict with the Rainbows about sitting down effectively watching the rest of us eat before being given any themselves. Odd to see Scarlett and Lucy’s Rebecca being the very tallest there though.

We left there and they dropped me at Jan’s which had Scarlett all upset again :(. Ady let them stay up watching Moonwalker and designing their own dvd covers. I had a very nice couple of hours drinking pimms and bonding with workmates, particularly F who I like lots but haven’t always been able to find a hook to get a conversation going before. I’d intended being home by 9pm but finally left after 10 and walked home.

I had a bath, the children finally went to bed and Ady cooked a lovely steak.