I’ve been missing a while. Apologies all. We have had a bit of a hard time at home and for now, Matt has moved out. It’s fine, the kids are fine, I’m ok and coping but its not a great situation and has taken me a while to get my head back to posting here.
Anyway…moving swiftly on to the other more cheerful things in life…
Tuesday 12th Feb – Pancake day. We love Pancake Day and think really there should be one a month!
Wednesday 13th Feb – Matt found these trousers in the car from Sunday’s rugby. Gx must have taken them off before coming home. Matt’s suggestion was to “put them straight in the machine”. It took 4 rinses in the sink before I could even see what colour the trousers were and before I was brave enough to inflict them on the washing machine.
Thursday 14th Feb – Sx has been off since Tuesday when he had a horrendous cough. So bad was the cough that for the past two days he has been off because his stomach muscles were so sore from coughing he could barely move.
He got a text from the boy who had been his best friend until recently threatening to “involve the police” if Sx didn’t do something he wanted. I knew they had fallen out but was quite shocked it had got so bad. Luckily the Mum is someone I know well enough to be able to contact about the text. At Sx’s age they are all still finding their feet with mobile phones but i wouldn’t want them to start threatening each other in texts.
My sweet boys realised it was Valentine’s Day and sneaked some paper up to their rooms to draw me Valentine’s cards.
Friday 15th Feb – Lx got “Star of the week” at school!
Saturday 16th Feb – I went holiday shopping with Lx. We bought shoes, t shirts and bits and pieces for her hair. normally we grab a croissant and “people watch” on a bench in the middle of the main shopping street but today we were a little more civilised and had a sit down lunch (of croissant!) in the bakers.
We had such a lovely girly day – the first one we have really had as she is now of an age to be excited about clothes and accessories!
Sunday 17th Feb – rehearsal for the boys’ musical from lunchtime onwards so no rugby (bliss!) . Instead in the morning Sx showed Lx how to make chocolate crispie cakes. He’s an expert now!
Monday 18th Feb – Lara had two appointments, we began to look at booking a swim with manatees for our forthcoming Disney Florida trip, I popped to Jac’s for a coffee with the little two and then on to swimming. Hang on – isn’t half term supposed to be relaxing?!
Tuesday 19th Feb – Morning at the Look Out with Claire F and family.
And then an interesting visit to the supermarket with £40 cash and no credit card or cashpoint card in th house and Matt in Manchester! I thought I did well keeping the shopping to £38.33…till I got home and realised I had forgotten bread and had no money to go and buy any! If this is how the other half live – you can keep it!!
Wednesday 20th Feb – While the two eldest were at a rehearsal the two littlest were watching Peter Pan. Every time they watch it they love it and are just mesmerised.
Thursday 21st Feb – Spent an hour or so buying ridiculously cheap swim shoes for the water parks in Florida…
then treated the kids to lunch in McDs for being “kind of” good in the shops…
Then off to Wendy’s for the afternoon.
Friday 22nd Feb – dress rehearsal for the show and I was privileged to be taking photos. Also found time to create a countdown to our holiday (I made sure I included some numbers we could cross off already!!) The photos are from our Disneyland Paris trip in 2011
Saturday 23rd Feb – Seussical the Musical. The boys were quite simply AMAZING in this. I was so proud of them and especially Gx who was so confident and loud and animated throughout. Sx is very definitely bitten by the drama bug and desperate to do classes now!
Sunday 24th Feb – no rugby as the boys were too tired after yesterday. I don’t blame them – I was shattered after hours of taking photos! Instead we had a pyjama day and this time it was Dx’s turn to be taught by Chef Sx how to make cornflake cakes!
Monday 25th Feb – Carla and Tom over for lunch after Carla bravely took Sx out to Dinton with them for a brisk walk round the lake. We had pizza for lunch and after about 6 sessions with the psychologist Lx ate half a slice of cheese pizza. A big step for her!
Tue 26th Feb – Back to school and Lara’s annual statement review (she gets additional help at school). She had impressed the teachers so much with her determination and enthusiasm she got a head teacher’s award AND a house point!
Wed 27th Feb – Sx’s first cooking club session at school. He made some amazingly light and impressive fairy cakes.
Thur 28th Feb – church shoot for college. All about photographing stained glass windows and using flash to balance the light on the stained glass with the darker walls around it. All a bit trial and error but good to know such things work (eventually!)
Fri 1st March – Kitchen shoot for a college project. Again – all about balancing light. I had enough trouble setting the lights up – working out how to fit the softbox on , how to use the light meter and how to stop the soft box reflecting in the window in every shot! This was the end result
Sat 2nd March – Off to early football with Sx. Had to leave home at 8am. Ouch.
Sun 3rd March – Over to see Dan and Louise and out for a walk with their two dogs Heidi and Scarlet. Sx was really ill in the evening so I was up with hm being sick (12am and 2am) then Dx got me up at 4am because his “chin hurt”??? And then at 5am because “Its spread from my chin to both arms, both legs and my tummy!”
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