Coffee, happy day, and new faces.

From Tuesday:

1) My Dad arrived a bit early, and we had time for a quick coffee just the two of us 🙂 .

2) The kids arrived home full of news and excitement about their first day back at school.

3) We had some new committee members join us last night, and a new secretary was elected. It feels as if a huge weight has rolled off my shoulders.

 

Catching up.

1) School restarts after the half-term break tomorrow. It’s been a lovely holiday though, and we were all glad of the break.

2) The holiday was a nice mix of time away and time at home. We caught up with family and friends, celebrated birthdays, had a couple of daytrips, and enjoyed an evening at the wonderful Enchanted Forest, and a night in a camping pod!

3) Today was spent catching up on things around the house. I’ve organised paperwork, laundry, planned meals and sorted all sorts of school stuff. Now for an early night 🙂 .

Megan’s 8th Birthday

Yesterday my little girl turned 8, and she’s brought eight years of joy and delight to our lives.  She celebrated her birthday by having five of her friends round for a birthday party after school.

First, they decorated cupcakes:

Cupcake funCupcake decorating

Next they went on a treasure hunt around the house and garden:

Treasure Hunt Treasure huntTreasure Hunt

Then they each decorated their own T-shirt by creating their own transfers (fear not, I did the actual ironing!)…

Megan's t-shirtMegan’s t-shirt

And, after party tea, there was cake… Megan's 8th Birthday Cake Megan's princess cake Cake from behind Happy 8th Birthday Megan!!

Lots of love, Mummy xxx

Coffee morning, non-walk, and surprise meeting.

1) A huge dining room table, laden with plates of cupcakes, layer cakes, muffins, shortbread, chunky chocolate chip cookies, and pots of tea and coffee. The room was full of laughter and chatter.

2) It started to rain, and we were both tired, so we abandoned our walk and went back to the warmth of the house, a comfy sofa, and a cup of hot tea.

3) K has been in Bangkok all week.  Before he left we were surprised and delighted to learn that our brother-in-law (resident in New Zealand) was going to be there at exactly the same time. They had dinner together on the day K arrived.  A couple of days ago, we learned that a friend of ours (resident in Zambia) was just leaving home for a few days in Bangkok!  Imagine our surprise!  They met up for dinner this evening 🙂 .

Time, stretching, and missing Daddy.

1) This morning was the first “normal” morning that I’ve had in the last three weeks. It was good – I was able to get on top of the housework, and even found a little time to knit 🙂 .

2) I went to Pilates this afternoon, having missed last week because A was off school. It was hard work, but it felt so good to stretch and work the kinks out!

3) The kids have been super-good all week, but they are really missing their daddy, and there were tears from both before bedtime. So, cuddles and prayers, and reminders that it’s only two more sleeps…

Walk, chat, and bed.

1) My friend and I went for a good long walk this morning. It was dreich and drizzly, but we went anyway, and I was glad we did.

2) A stolen moment to chat, when K called from Bangkok.

3) To finally realise that I’ve finally done everything I needed to do, and can now go to bed 🙂 . Night night x

Which plane? Lunch out, and relaxing.

1) The kids have each drawn a picture of an aeroplane on the white board we use as a weekly diary. They argue over which plane K will be flying home on. I point out that M’s plane is bigger than A’s, and that A’s is clearly landing at Edinburgh airport (with it’s distinctive air traffic control tower), and go on to suggest that M’s plane is the long-haul from Bangkok to Amsterdam, and A’s is the short-haul back home. This appeals to them both, and the arguments stop 🙂 .

2) After dropping the kids at school this morning, I head west to visit a friend in her new apartment. They’ve only been in for a few months, but already the whole place is looking beautiful – such a restful place to be. We had a lovely lunch, and had great fun discussing paint colours and wallpapers and floor coverings.

3) This evening a friend came round. We chatted, knitted, and drank tea. It was a relaxing way to end the day.

Loved, geography, and plum chutney.

1) I’m feeling tired and a bit drained after a busy morning, including a trip to the airport to drop K off, and I’ve developed a headache.  The kids take care of me though, sending me off to lie down and bringing me a cool pack to put over my eyes. I feel very loved.

2) Teaching the kids geography as we track K’s flight across the world. We spend time pouring over maps, figuring out which countries are where, and K’s possible flight path.

3) With gifts of plums from my Dad and from a friend, I spend the afternoon transforming 3.5kg of plums into plum chutney.  I use the recipe from the Edmonds Cookbook – an NZ cookbook that “every kiwi bride needs”, or so I was told when I was given it on my marriage to K!

Meetings, notice, and not a taxi.

1) My week this week has been filled with meetings. Meetings: some busy, some stressful, but this morning’s was the most fun 🙂 .

2) Tomorrow K leaves us for a week.  M wrote a note on the white board saying “Daddy going to Bangkok” with a sad face, and crying eyes 🙁 .

3) As I head out the door for the {insert large number here, because I’ve lost count!}th time today, I mutter something to myself about feeling that all I was was a taxi service.  A actually overhead my mutterings and told me in no uncertain tones that I was not a taxi service, but that I was just a very kind mummy 🙂 .

Half-skating, sunset, and warmth.

1) I hear shouts of laughter and look round to notice two lads, with one pair of roller boots between the two of them, arm-in-arm, half-running, half-skating down the road.  They were clearly having lots of fun!

2) This evening’s sunset was beautiful. I especially love the dusk sky – a clear blue, with highlights of purple and pink and gold.

3) We put the winter-weight duvet on the bed yesterday. I am so looking forward to snuggling down into it again this evening 🙂 .