There goes another weekend

Why is that weekends are a blink and you miss it kind of affair whereas weekdays with their seemingly endless parade of appointments and chores seem to stretch endlessly into the future?

Anyway enough rambling, yesterday we had Heather's pre-birthday party for her school friends, luckily we went in with two other families who had planned badly and had children with August birthdays! We had the entertainer, the food, balloons and the cake and all the kids turned up. The entertainer was a blast and he mentioned how quiet he was in August, apparently us parent's all have the same idea and party before the holidays begin proper. One of the drawbacks of lovely fee paying schools is that people go away for a month at a time in the summer, well except us, we have a long weekend in Somerset and a uniform fitting to look forward to. I may even push the boat out and venutre to Legoland or the New Forest! Having a 3 month old does not make it so easy.

Having partied the kids were tired and ratty and despite Murray being on centre court I was tied up cooking tea and running baths. I love Wimbledon, with the tradition and the green being less offensive to the orange of the clay but alas I am watching less and less, next year, I promoise myself the kids will be bigger and I will watch it. I think back to the halcyon days, when still pregnant with H I settled into maternity leave with plenty of strawberries and tennis, starting at the reasonable time of 12pm meant I didn't even have to struggle out of bed early. But I digress.

Mr T venured to Bluewater today with Matthew, I had the job of being home with the girls, a useful day as we have noe made the thank you cards for the various teachers and finished the years homework. We now have Ls hands and feet forever immortalised in clay so they can now join the others on the wall. Good job we are stopping at three as it is looking rather crowded up there now!

As Sunday hurtles towards Monday I have to wrap the teachers' pressies, 8 weeks of little distraction begin on Friday, any ideas what to do with a four year old, two year old and 15 weeks gratefully received as I am sure the I'm Bored chorus will begin by 10am on Tuesday!

Earth please swallow me now!

That is what I was thinking at about 3pm yesterday as Matthew raced across the field in my daughter's school sports day. I had in a fit of bad judgement allowed him to escape the confines of his pushchair due to the screams getting louder and shriller. There was only a presentation to go, what harm could it do?

Very bad idea. He decided to race behind the headteacher and then realising perhaps he was out of reach and a bit lonely he came back. Pacified for all of ten seconds with what must have been the twentieth gingerbread man of the day he then wandered off to find his sister. Luckily he had a partner in crime but that did not lessen the cringe factor when I noticed that having located his sister he had run off again, she was chasing him, and she was being chased by her teacher. Having offloading Lucy, whom I was feeding to another mum I mustered as much height as I could manage to go and collect my wayward son, trying my hardest not to yank his arm off as I had to parade him back past all the immaculate yummy mummies, whose toddlers were in situ sitting angelically and not screaming, oh the shame. Despite the fees if he gets in to the school next year it will be a small miracle!

Arragghh

Today has not started on a good note! Kids were all up by 630am not anything new there. Anyway as Lucy managed to gum her hands until she went back into the land of nod at 730 I decided to be all efficient and prepare the bolognaise for tonights dinner. The big two were safely ensconced giggling at Numberjacks so I thought I was safe.

The first problem was that despite defrosting for the recommended time the mince was in the main still frozen, still whacked it in the pan and off we go, got the le cruset and whacked in the other ingredients turning the mince and so on.

Matthew appears 'Mummy pooed' he shouts at the top of his voice, realising that this is not an in a minute moment I turn the heat down and attend to the nappy. Off I whizz to the outside bin to find Mr T has been interfering and the black bin for the nappies has disappeared, back in the house to find a new one, quick wash of the hand and disaster has struck. Mince is stuck to the bottom of the pan, still I manage to salvage enough to get by. I go to the fridge to get the last thing I need and find that once more Mr T has struck, the tomato puree has left the building, so tonight we shall be having tomato less bolognaise. I have managed 26 minutes on the wii fit, giving up to the constant chatter and barrage of requests for drinks and whatever else the big two can think of to interrupt my hula hooping, thank goodness for the boxing!

Now all that remains is to gear myself up for the parents evening later, try to fit in some cleaning and who knows I might even manage to fit in a few minutes of tennis watching later!

Well what a lovely afternoon, despite the stifling heat and standing room only I was able to view and video my lovely little girl in her mexican dance. It only lasted two minutes but it was a lovely two minutes despite the fact that the costume was nigh on impossible to gather and I spent more than two minutes worrying about it. She did look good though and the beam she gave G and Matthew when she spotted them in the audience was worth every second.

I was also most grateful for Grandma being there, she was given a preferential front row seat on account of being over 60 and wrestling with my two year old son. L was good, sitting gurgling away in the car seat giving her feet a good old examination! The ill effects of the injections from last week has finally worn off thanks to an explosion of the nappy kind, so after a weekend filled with screams of varying shrillness thanks to kids falling out with each other, kids falling over and kids having tantrums today has been a relatively tranquil one. I am still battling a bit with Post natal depression but tipping towards the positive, just parents evening and sports day left to tackle this week.

I am relieved to say that we have also now actually booked our holiday for next year so Mickey Mouse beware!!

On Saturday we packed into the car for a day with Thomas at Colne Valley Steam Railway. It was with some trepidation, truth be told. The weather forecast wasn't particularly good. it was L's first proper trip in the papoose and we knew that if at all possible prams were a no no as you had to cross over via a footbridge. In the end the sun was shining, it wasn't too hot just nice and L loved the papoose. She could see what was going on, allowing her to indulge in her favourite past time of being nosy whilst also being able to sleep as she was well supported.

Matthew loved it, as soon as we were parked we spotted Thomas steaming away up the track, luckily he was holding Daddy's hand as he spent the entire time walking to the main entrance imitating a crab and waving madly at Thomas. The day was very well organised and all the children were having a lovely time. We managed to ride on Daisy, wave at Mavis, Diesel and some various other characters and have lunch watching Thomas going up and down the track.

Heather loved it as well, I was weirdly reminded of the film Jurassic Park at one point, we were sat in Thomas waiting for him to steam past us so he could pull us back up the track, it was quiet and everyone was looking out of the window waiting for him to appear, trees all around and quiet, luckily it was Thomas who came past and not a hungry T-Rex as happens in the film at the same point.

The children were well behaved and not a blot on the landscape, we even managed to do a little shopping on the way home without too much trouble, probably dropping into the Cadbury Factory Outlet ensured a bit of co-operation.

Father's Day was the next special day and the kids co-operated not going upstairs until nearly 9am with their cards and gifts. sadly H had managed to tell Daddy she had made him a mug so it was less of a surprise but he didn't know about the chocolate football or little desk clock. A day pottering in and out of the garden finished it all off and now here we are at Monday again.

I am mega excited about one thing as well- we are going to Florida next year, I know nearer the time I will be panicking about the flights and what to take and so on but in the end it will be worth it to see the kids faces, roll on next July!