Running with the pack…

Had a lovely, lovely day today. 🙂

We watched Croc Files first thing (still moping about Steve!) which was all about Tasmanian Devils so we talked about them while watching and I explained that’s what Taz from Loony Tunes is – the children are familar with him by way of having a cuddly Taz and Ady doing a rather fine impression upon request! 😆 I managed to get a load of washing out too.

We were meeting Julie, Lucy and Em at the local soft play place at 11am but we got there about an hour early as there is a charity shop nearby where about 3 months ago I spotted a pair of cherry red DM boots in my size. At the time I didn’t have the cash and being uncharacteristically sensible decided I didn’t really *need* another pair of boots so despite trying them on and cooing over them lots I left them there. And have been regretting it ever since! 😆 I had a couple of pairs of DMs during sixth form days and don’t actually know what became of them. When we were in Manchester Ady bought a couple of pairs for himself from the DM shop in the city centre and we couldn’t wait until the children were big enough to have kid DMs too.

So I’ve been hankering after a pair now and kicking myself for not buying the pair in that charity shop. I’d even told Ady about them and he’d promised to keep an eye out on his charity shop trawling for a pair too. And I’ve been checking them out on ebay. So I thought I’d just pop into the charity shop on the offchance – and of course they had long since gone. 🙁

We went back to soft play. Julie, Jack and Maisie were already there and Lucy, Richard and Rebecca, Em, Eve and Rei arrived soon afterwards. The children all imediately disappeared and had a whale of a time. We had lunch there and then went back in again for another play. All of the children were dripping with sweat and really exhausted, it was excellent! 🙂 And we all got to have some great chats too – really nice. Julie and Em had met previously at Davies’ party and as they both have a set of twins only a few months apart in age they had found an initial common ground to chat about already so knew who each other was. We talked about all sorts including my continuing thoughts on challenging four or nearly four year old girls, with Julie going through something similar with Maisie at the moment. I think we’re planning a communal copy of Alison’s recommended reading book! 😉 There is a father who we have seen there before with his small daughter who just seems to adore children and always really joins in with the play, initiating games and getting teams of kids doing stuff – and one of the more enthusiastic members of staff joined in with him leading some game about zombies which Davies particularly joined in with and adored – really should tip him next time 😆 although I imagine that is exactly what Ady would do if he was to go to a soft play too.

Julie headed off as Maisie had a ballet session this afternoon, Em and Lucy came back to ours. Lucy dropped a sleeping Rebecca off at home with Colin, Davies and Rei headed off to play some game involving his toy castle which later translated into dressing up as a dragon (Davies) to guard and protect the princess (Rei). Tarly and Eve played more alongside each other I think also involving dressing up and Em, Lucy and I managed to continue our chats.

I’d left my mobile at home while at soft play and had a couple of missed calls – one was CV lady with more work (hurrah) and one was Ady to say, hugely coincidentally he’d seen a pair of green DMs in a charity shop but couldn’t remember my shoe size. I confirmed they were indeed the right size but he was by now miles away and not likely to get back there before they shut. 🙁 He rang back ten minutes later to say he’d googled on his phone for the phone number, rang them to put them by and agreed that as long as he was there within half an hour of their closing time he could knock on the door as they’d still be cashing up / locking up and buy them. 🙂 Am now the very proud owner of a lovely green pair of DMs – and the wife of a very lovely man. 🙂