One word? When seven would do…

Today has been my least favourite sort of day, too much driving and not enough tea.

Davies had the second of his Green Woodworking session so it was up with the alarm. The kids had breakfast and then did a birthday card each for Jack and Maisie (well they did one each and J&M got one each, Scarlett did Maisie’s and Davies did Jack’s) while I wrapped their presents. At their request we’d got them a fire steel each. Maisie had wanted a little one like Scarlett’s but in red and Jack just wanted a fire steel so I got him a bigger one (in my opinion the tinyness of the little ones compromises how well they work rather) in army green. I’ve never bought them the same present before as Julie really plays down their twin-ness and they are less siblingy and alike than Davies and Scarlett are so never before have same presents been remotely appropriate so I wanted to choose a fire steel specifically for each of them this time too.

The kids put the telly on while they were eating and it was Chuckle Brothers which I just loathe. They must be about 80 now as they were around when I was a kid and I didn’t like them then. I had to do far too much reminding them to eat and get dressed and get on with card making and as I loathe and detest nagging this put me in a grumpy frame of mind really.

We set off, Scarlett with a bag containing Maisie’s card as she wanted to do some more to it, her DS and some coloured pencils and me with a pile of books and magazines. We got to the Youth Club where Woodworking is held dead on time and went in with Davies. He is by far the smallest (although not necessarily the youngest) and just sort of hung around on the periphery. There are too many tools etc around for Scarlett to be there without being in the way and I think doing these things without us around is good for Davies so we dropped him off and went to stay in the car. It’s just slightly too far to be worth coming home and there is nowhere else nearby I’d want to go for an hour anyway. Plus is was looking very grey and I was dubious about my car in the wet so didn’t want to risk being away from there.

Scarlett and I spent the first hour very harmoniously in the car listening to PopMaster (both contestants got full 39 points, I’ve never known the like!) with me looking through some green magazines and getting ideas of places it might be worth contacting to see if they’d like us to try their products next year in exchange for a blog review 😉 and then reading my book while Scarlett finished the card for Maisie with a spot the difference quiz, a little maze and more all pony themed :). Then Scarlett got bored so came and sat in the front with me and rummaged through the glove box for a while before having a licking contest with me and generally distracting me from my book. She did spend a while drawing glasses and beards on all the people in one of my magazines though which she found most entertaining :).

We went in to collect Davies who was making a stool. One of the other mothers was heloing him and it all felt slightly odd. It is the building we used to go to Magical Mondays in and the group is made up of some kids I sort of vaguely know but not really well enough to talk to. Davies clearly isn’t talking to anyone but is really enjoying the woodworking and it just felt like quite a strange atmosphere in there. Eventually the other mother asked if I could take over holding the thing Davies was doing which I gladly did. He has enjoyed it lots but I think we are at that akward stage of him needing a bit of help at these things but not necessarily from me and certainly not when I have a smaller sibling tagging alongside me. Anyway, next week is the last one and I will be at work so it will be Ady taking him.

The stool looks good though. Davies had done some sawing the seat part off a larger piece of wood, smoothed down the edges with a knife and was using a sort of giant corkscrew to drill three holes through for the legs to go in. He needs to bring it back next time to finish. I personally feel he needs a bit more one to one tuition as he was looking very cack handed with the knife and tools again and I think that is where he needs some help as once he has got his head round the construction of wooden pieces and how to use tools properly I think he’ll be great at it as he certainly has the imagination and creativity to make some cool stuff.

We left and headed in the increasingly heavy rain over to Ford to the Flying Fortress Soft Play – over an hours drive with both children feeling hungry and me feeling in need of tea (should have brought a flask and sandwiches, oh how one lives and learns). The party was booked from 1-3pm and I assumed like all kids parties there would be a spread of junk food. I didn’t factor in the Julie element though!

The kids got lost straight into playing with mates although there was a potential disaster when Scarlett brought out the socks I’d managed to think about her needing to grab. They turned out to be lacey, white knee high socks which probably fitted her fine when she was about 3 which would have been the last time I bought her socks what with her not ever wearing them. So they took some shoehorning on. I suspect in the style of binding babies feet two hours in those mean she is now at least 2 shoe sizes smaller!

I sat and chatted to Caz, Katy (of quail owning fame) and Elaine, only realising too late that Julie was not with us and that maybe I should have been helping her with whatever she was doing. I did enjoy the chatting though, even though it was punctuated with both children appearing at least once each to whisper that they were hungry and a distinct lack of tea.

We were then called in to the party area where Julie had chopped up great platters of raw veg and fruit with hummus. I could hardly blame Davies for not eating much when I didn’t either ;). I did then help Julie with decorating the birthday cakes – Maisie had a sponge which I put white chocolate mice and raspberries while Julie did Jacks chocolate sponge with crumbled chocolate flake. We sang Happy birthday to them and they blew out the candles before all the kids escaped for another 10 minutes or so playing before we were called out. I am filled with admiration for Julie really as she managed to go down the soft play birthday party route but brought her own fruit, veg and organic squash food, took all her rubbish home with her to either recycle or compost at home, flatly refused the party bags for all the kids full of sweets and plastic tat despite them probably being included in the price and remained true to all her principles and ethics while still giving Jack and Maisie the birthday party they’d asked for. Davies commented on how you get more gifts if you have a party to which I commented you don’t in our house as a party is part of your gift from us so less presents from Mummy and Daddy in exchange for a party which probably nets less good gifts from other people ;). Scarlett wants ‘some sort of animal experience and a pen knife with more gadgets’ for her birthday so that will be tidily sorted without any additional stuff coming into the house :).
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We said goodbye to everyone and drove home. Both the kids were very hungry by now as was I and Davies had a bit of a whinge which earned him a lecture from me about how I had had even less food as I’d not eaten breakfast or had a slice of birthday cake, was about 3 cups of tea down and so far all I’d done was drive for 2 hours and sit in the car for 2 hours and sit in a soft play centre for 2 hours so really I thought he’d got the better deal. He agreed and at bedtime gave me an extra cuddle and thanked me for the day. I rarely pull the martyr card, mostly because I am not one so can’t justifyably do so but I really didn’t feel up to sympathising with a bit of hunger in the face of being chaffeured round to things he wanted to do today.

We called in on my Dad to collect the money for the van tomorrow and I stopped at a cash point to withdraw the funds already available. I have no real idea what daily limit I have on my bank card but it had occured to me I could well be scuppered in my intention to take out nearly £1000 through the hole in the wall tomorrow so we have 3/4 of the cash here now ready for me to draw out the rest tomorrow lunchtime before going to hand it over tomorrow evening.

Back at home I had several rounds of toast and jam and tea and got the kids tea on quick. We watched some Deadly 60 and I read them Dancing Bear and finally Ady came home in time to say goodnight before they went to bed. Ady is working lots of hours at the moment which is tough as it is usually the quieter time. I am trying – and quite possibly failing – to strike a balance between supportive and not letting them take the piss out of him particularly given he’ll be handing his notice in in a couple of months anyway.

I’m guessing it was a lack of caffeine and just too much time sat in the car or a horrid, oppressive soft play centre that made me just feel irritated by everyone and longing for bedtime tonight – I have a suspicion we’ve not had enough time outside this week, must remedy that for next week.