Too much sun!

After our ususal Wonderpets fest first thing we packed up a picnic and left the house, amazingly slightly ahead of schedule to collect Lucy and Co. As we were about to turn into their road I got a text from Lucy to say they were running late so we double backed and went to get petrol first instead of after we’d collected them. This involved driving a little way along the seafront which caught us up in a census going on. The window on the drivers side of my car doesn’ open – it hasnt for 2 summer and I can’t afford to get it looked at so we just sweat 😉 so we had to roll down Davies’ window behind me and I leant back to talk to the census woman about our last couple of car journeys – wonder exactly what the information is used for, I should have asked. Then petrol, then back to Lucy’s. We’re listening to Catatonia at the moment in the car, which is actually way too high for me to sing along to, but I like to try anyway 😆

We collected Lucy and co and drove to Highdown Gardens with the chidlren demonstrating how much I must talk to them without realising it when there is only us in the car by expecting the same level of interaction from me while I was trying to tak to Lucy and then being gits to each other when they didn’t get it and me demonstrating that being around any people at all is a bad idea on certain days of the month! We were late but Julie was later, pulling into the car park moments after us, so that was good. 🙂

We piled out and the children all disappeared off together running round the gardens and then we stopped for lunch. We actually stopped for about two hours and had a lovely time sitting chatting while the children played hide and seek and running about games. They made a new friend, adopting a small girl (she was 4 and a half and called Hannah!) who joined in with their games and generally enjoyed themselves. I was ranty at Davies particularly for a while, but he stopped being annoying and I stopped being a cow and we were fine by the end of the day. There was a brief interlude where I was really cross with them when they’d been walking on the plant beds, something I had just told both of mine to stop doing when one of the volunteers who works in the gardens came over to tell them to stop. Jack and Maisie ran and hid behind a bench so Davies and Scarlett followed and also hid while this woman was talking to them, as a result of their reaction she probably was slightly more ranty than she needed to be, but FFS they shouldn’t run and bloody *hide* when someone is talking to them. So I have D&S a lecture about that and hoped that J&M got some of it. At least D&S both were able to tell me why I was cross (rude to the person talking to them and just not a great demonstration of how they do know how to behave, they should have listened to what she said and apologised and agreed they wouldn’t do it again – and they both KNEW that! :roll:). Julie and I skirted round some chat about the Steiner school stuff she is involved in, admitting that we both knew it was the total opposite of lots of my beliefs but that it was also probably great for J&M.

Eventually the children became restless and the slight headache I’d had when we arrived started to get worse so we walked back to the cars via the fish. Earlier we’d thought about half the fish in the pond were dead as they were all lying, very still, at the surface of the ponds and didn’t even move when some of the more adventurous children poked them. But we realised they were just sunning themselves and Scarlett wanted to go and see if they’d eat some of her leftover bread. We tore off some really tiny bits and once it had soaked in the water some of them did indeed come and eat it. There was one particular one which was HUGE and kept coming up and grabbing a bit then swishing off with a great splash to eat it lower in the water before coming back for another bit. Maisie did the missing child trick for this visit (we always lose one of them there for at least a brief time) so I stayed with Davies, Scarlett and Jack while Lucy and Julie went off to find her and then it was time to head home.

We had something of a repeat performance of whinging on the way home in the car which magically stopped the instant Lucy, R & R got out and I talked to the children, again, about how they should behave in the car, how lucky we are to have a car to use whenever we want, how I need to focus on driving rather than dealing with them being horrid and so on, so they were contrite. They played for a while when we got home but having been up, again, since before 7am this morning and then running around for a couple of hours they were not at their best. I made them tea and they put on a Peter and the Wolf film I’d got from work for them. They are really familiar with P&TW, it being a piece of music we’ve listened to a lot and we have a Disney cartoon version they like to watch, but this is a really nice adaptation so that seemed to calm them down a bit. Which was just as well as my head was really pounding and I was all shivery by then. Ady got home and I retired to the bedroom with a book, really hoping that I’d not developed the flu bug that my Mum has been knocked out for the last fortnight with, having escaped it a while back when Ady and the kids were ill. I read for a while, then dozed off. I woke to hear the children in the bath so I got up and put my pjs on with the intention of coming downstairs to help with bedtime, but looked at the bed again and it’s lure was too much so I climbed in, pulled the covers over my head and slept for two hours! Ady woke me about 845pm to ask if I wanted a bath and any dinner and I got back up again, feeling loads better, if a little woolly headed.

And that is where I am headed back again now. Some pics on Flickr of today, which finally did seem to knock the children out, S was asleep by 730 and D by 800 (apparently, obviously I was also asleep at that time :oops:) and tomorrow is a work all day day.