Friends

It's back to school time and that means in equal measure tears, tantrums and triumphs. Most parents find it difficult to consign their children to full time school, it is when you begin to lose a little bit of control, now they must fend for themselves. Their teacher becomes the fountain of all knowledge and you get used to hearing Mr or Mrs so and so says...

Then there is the difficult issue of friends, for many children they make these as they progress through the infant and junior school and add to this as they continue. How do we make friends though and how do we make them in the first place, this is the conundrum I have been presented with by Heather. She is an adult relater and given the choice would much rather spend her time talking to adults than children of her own age, she is perfectly capable of getting on with children her own age but hasn't to date had what you would call a best friend - she is more of a butterfly flitting from group to group or playing by herself.

It got me thinking about my own friends and I guess you could group them, there are the people that you know well enough to say hello to, usually mums at the school gate, then there are those that are a little closer that your children spend time with so you get to know them a bit better, then there are your best friends. These are the people that you are comfortable with, share your secrets with and spend more time with. I am lucky enough to have friends like this who I have met both a long time ago from college and university and more recent ones who I have met at the school. These are the people that even when you haven't seen them for awhile you can pick up the phone and you know each other well enough to carry on as before. When Heather asked me how you make best friends I was at a loss to explain it though.

In the end I told her that the best thing you can do is be nice, listen to what they have to say and help them out wherever possible and make sure that you have some similar interests. I still don't know how she'll get on Matthew and Lucy seem to make friends naturally and easily but I did remind her that friendship is a two way street, you have to show them respect and talk to one another, share and work at it. I also told her that sometimes you'll fall out and disagree but the best friends are the ones that stay with you through the ups and downs, that forgive you when you make a mistake and give you a shoulder when you need to cry.

The Final Countdown

I have just now finished the labelling of the school uniforms, putting PE kits into bags and making sure that the new book bags have names on. The only slight bugbear is that the new name labels haven't arrived yet as they are great for sticking onto cups and bags and inside shoes. The last few days of holiday have begun and they are jam packed as usual, the only thing that has let us down is the weather.

This week we had to cancel a picnic we were looking forward to, thanks to two solid days of rain and showers we decided that soggy sandwiches were not the order of the day. We had what has become our habitual bug throw a spanner in the works as well, at least it was a mild one and didn't last more than 24 hours but even so it meant Heather missing her riding lesson and a pony day that she had been looking forward to.

We have managed to watch Marmaduke, Owen Wilson voices the Great Dane through his adventures to be part of the cool gang after a move to California and yesterday I took Heather to see Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue, a nice message about helping friends and spending time with one another. We completed the library reading quest and the children were delighted to receive their shiny golden medals and are looking forward to receiving their certificates in assembly.

We collected the pottery as well and I was amazed at how well they had come out, Heather is very proud of her Ariel and Matthew couldn't believe how shiny his Mickey Mouse was now and they have pride of place on the mantlepiece, and we are hoping to go back soon and do some more.

Still with summer nearly over, that is if it ever got here I can't help thinking of the school year ahead, Heather's last in the infant and Matthews first full time and how life will be different, as it once more become a dash from home to school, to after school activity to home again with a little bit of homework and dinner along the way. I am hoping in the two whole days that I will have free when Lucy is at nursery to pick up the time spent writing again, expand my repertoire on the piano before Heather takes me over and with luck move house before the end of the year, but with chaperoning violin and swimming and helping out at the library the first few 'free' days already seem to be filling up. Oh well, maybe when Lucy goes next year...

Sweet Niblets!

Those of you who have children of a certain age will almost certainly identify with he above title. For those of you who have outgrown the phase or not yet entered it this is the catchphrase of the character Miley Stewart in the Hannah Montana series. It seems appropriate as I seem to have spent much of my recent days watching this or equivalent shows on the Disney channel. We have been out and about as much as possible but the lack of summer is making that difficult! There are only so many times you can visit the indoor playgrounds or go and paint clay, I am running out of shelf space!

The Hannah Montana take over has now reached new heights! Heather was lucky enough to receive money for her birthday and after discussion she decided she would like something to go in her bedroom which she could dock her ipod with and play cd's. Coupled with that we made the mistake of buying her the Disney Summer Rocks CD which since the arrival of the CD player has been going at a high volume fairly non-stop! I suppose I should be pleased that she now knows all the words to her favourite theme tunes but I have to admit that on the twentieth rendition of 'you get the limo out front...' I was horrified to hear myself mutter 'sweet niblets.' Takeover complete. Roll on school before I start saying dang this and that and calling the children Lily, Oliver and Hannah!

Holidays

Well I can't believe it has been a whole month since I posted on here, I can feel the tumbleweeds blowing through. I do have a good excuse though, two weeks in Florida, a week of day trips with the children on holidays and Heather's 6th birthday.

Florida with three young children was hard work but rewarding at the same time. We were able to book meals with many of the character which meant that we didn't have to chase them around the parks and stand in a long queue for hours on end. We did however have to queue for those with whom we couldn't eat, this was mainly the newer toy story 3 characters, although in the main we were lucky, catching them before the queues were too bad.

Whilst we were soaking up the sun, Heather had her 6th birthday, she loved wearing a badge that meant everyone said Happy Birthday to her as they passed. As a special surprise we booked her into the bibbidi bobbidi boutique. It is a girly girls dream come true. We had booked the top package so Heather had the works her face was priceless when she realised what she was going to be doing. First of all she chose the dress she wanted and after a few minutes she was shown into a dressing room. Laid out for her were the dress, shoes, tiara, wand with glowing blue bits and gloves and handbag. She dressed with only a minimum of moaning about how itchy the dress was. The next job was having her hair done, she chose a style she liked and even had her nails pained and make-up. A stick on flower was placed on her cheek and finally before her new look was revealed she had to close her eyes, make a wish and whilst this was going on green pixie dust was liberally applied to her head, this got everywhere over the course of the day.



All of this was followed by a photo shoot where Heather who now had a badge declaring she was a princess and a beauty bag with all the bits and bobs in was able to try out a variety of poses. Lunch was hosted by the princesses in Cinderella's castle and she was given a cupcake as a present and a card signed by the princesses. She did miss having her birthday at home, and on our return was delighted to be able to open all the bits we hadn't taken with us but she did enjoy being a princess.

In the evening she was taken back to Magic Kingdom by Mr T so that she could watch the fireworks and electrical parade. We did have a magical time, our most successful days were those that we pre-planned what we were going to do, the kids would happily have disappeared in different directions and as there are so many shows, parades and rides to fit in we found it helpful to only attempt a few rides each day.

The holidays seem to have flown by but with only two full weeks left before school resumes we are starting to wind down a little. The children have joined the library summer reading scheme and have been doing the homework they were given, we still have a few trips planned but not such a hectic schedule as before. I am looking forward to finally getting some writing done again as they have other things to occupy them.

The house seems to be finally getting somewhere as we had an offer on ours, this in itself makes you think more about the tasks ahead but until everything is signed I am trying not to think about what lies ahead! Still I guess it'll all be worth it in the end.

Holiday Shopping

This weekend I decided I needed to finish off the holiday shopping, I hate leaving things to the last minute, with the kids things tend to crop up out of thin air if I do. So with a fortnight to go I was starting to get jittery, especially as the remaining days are filling up with appointments, yes I am actually braving a visit to the dentist tomorrow with the kids!

So on Sunday after taking the kids swimming and running home, no I wasn't left behind I am madly running every week at the moment, Heather and I jumped into the car to the Lakeside. We had to brave the M25 for just one junction, and sure enough as we got within two miles of the junction traffic ground to a halt. Unfortunately the car behind me didn't stop so promptly. Apart from a loud bang there was no damage but it did shake Heather up, it is the first time she has experienced anything like that and she was very worried we would get into trouble despite the fact that the other car had bumped into us!

We arrived without any further incident and we both had fun trying things on and messing about. Heather had another first, an eye test, she was a little unsure about it but did complete the test and luckily not anything to worry about, despite the fact that she regularly reads at all hours in low light! We did manage to get most of the things we went for and I then hit the internet to get the things we hadn't been able to get.

So now I am itching to get the suitcases out and deprive the kids of most of their wardrobes so that I can pack up but I am going to wait, until next week at least!