Big School

I got back late from work on Josie's first day at school. So when I woke up the next day, I asked her to tell me all about it. She did so in her own inimitable way, I'm glad I had the presence of mind to record it!

You join the story a little way in, because that presence of mind kicked in only after she'd begun.

Little English Scholars.

The English language by all accounts is a complex thing for a grown up to fully master let alone for four and five year olds. But they try...

Josie had been invited to a birthday party at 'Jolly Roger's', one of the big foam slide/tunnel/ball pit establishments here in Swindon. A brief, but heated discussion was had when Josie failed to see that clambering about on giant foam blocks was not easily accomplished whilst wearing a long flowing party dress, even for her. The scales were tipped when I informed her that everyone might see her knickers when she was climbing about. But The-Queen-of-all-that-is-pink-and-girly was only willing to compromise to a degree. Hence we ended up with her least best dress that is slightly too small and therefore not so long - with a pair of coordinating leggings on underneath... The party appeared to be a success (food, cake,and giant wobbly slides - how could it not?) and as I collected a rather tired and dishevelled Josie from the party I enquired how it had gone. With a slight hint of wishfulness she told me that Denan (the birthday girl) had been wearing a very pretty dress and had "proper clip clop shoes" and sparkles on her. Not entirely sure what that meant, I asked where she had had sparkles.
"On her arms, her cheeks and on her eye-pods"...

It was rather hot when we got back to the car after church, and since they had been fairly good the whole three hour block AND then sat through choir practice with me, I figured that we would just roll all the windows down instead of just switching on the air-con. As we pulled out they all started giggling as their hair started whipping about and I glanced back at Buzz who was grinning like a Cheshire Cat whilst trying to breathe. Now, there are two routes home - the quick way down the duel carriageway, or the slightly longer route round the houses. I realised as I pulled out that my I'm-hungry-let's-get-home-quickly auto pilot had turned right - the quick route home. As we approached the slip road, Will realising that I was about to wind the windows up before we hit 70mph yelled from the back of the car, "Mum, leave the windows down on the George Carriageway!" And you know what? I did!

Will's Show and Tell Friday 26th June 2009.

When I am a grown up, I want to be a baker.
I am going to give bread to everyone. I am going to bake some bread in my Baker’s shop. I will bake bread every Thursday and cakes every Wednesday.
I have made some bread to show you. To make bread you need special flour called Bread Flour, and you need salt, and sugar, and yeast. Yeast is really special because it makes the bread go bigger and bigger when it gets warm.
I measured the ingredients. You have to let the mixture rise and get bigger and then knead it. When you knead it you push and pull and squash the bread dough. I baked the bread at my Grandma’s house.

Twenty Five Days To Go...

Can you hear that? No? Me neither. It's as quiet as it comes at home this afternoon as everyone is either at school or sleeping!
I've taken this rare opportunity of solitude not to take a pleasant siesta, but to finally get around to packing a hospital bag, as there are indeed only, 25 days until Hurley Baby no.4 (a.k.a "Nono") arrives. In all previous pregnancies I have been packed and ready to go at least a month before my due date, and all that seems to have done is tempt fate and they arrive late. So I'm naively trying to trick fate into giving me an earlier baby by being laid back (to the point of slight panic creeping in)!

We have all been getting excited this week though, as I brought out all of the littlest tiny clothes for Nono from the loft, and Buzz kept attempting to try it all on! It's hard to believe that they were all once that small...

This is the life

I'm sat outside, all I can hear is birdsong and my children playing. Although I'm sat in the shade, it's warm.

I'm sat waiting for the coals to heat up, before cooking a whole chicken on the Weber. I'm also going to be trying to do jacket potatos seeing as this chicken is going to take some time. Later we'll pop on some corn on the cobs too!

Today we went to Bideford, the Barnstaple branch meet at Bideford College. Seeing as we weren't up particularly early, we just went for the Sacrament meeting. It was interesting mostly due to the branch not having a piano or organ, so we all sang acapella. The branch president was very kind, he came up to speak to us after the meeting and offered to have us round for dinner.

I got changed into my shorts and t-shirt in the car park, much to Hannah's amusement/bemusement. We drove off towards Bude looking for a nice cliff to enjoy our picnic on. We ended up at a place called Hartland Point, which had a lighthouse. It was very plesant, Hannah had made up some ham and cheese brioche (something I'd discovered in France a week back).

We packed our things away in the car, we went wandering to see what we could find. We walked along the cliff edge, which provided a nice cooling sea breeze to what had turned out to be a stifling day, without a cloud in the sky.

I took Will and Josie on a slightly more daring path, to see how far we could make it. The drop down was a bum clencher of a cliff, providing magnificent views - I wished I had brought my camera.

We stopped off at the shops on the way home to buy some potatos and boursin for our meal tonight.

The house we're staying in is really nice, it's a converted barn, which sleeps up to 10. We're in the deepest countryside, which is peaceful without being smelly.

If this weather keeps up, this will end up being a very nice holiday!

Best see how that chicken is doing...