A quiet weekend

After some beautiful and unseasonably warm weather we woke on Friday to rain and mist. Friday did not start well. After much negotiation the children insisted that we drive to school rather than walk. Tom took the car keys to open the car and he and Tess got in. Given we were just driving up to school I didn't take anything with me and once we were all buckled in I looked for the keys. Tom had no idea where they were although they were last seen in his grubby little paws. Tess and I turned the car upside down but couldn't find them. Once we realised that they were probably locked inside the house we ran up to school as fast as possible to catch Lisa who I was convinced had a spare pair. By the time we got to school it was pretty much pouring with rain and Lisa, Fletcher and Floyd had also walked to school so the 5 of us walked back to Lisa's house and were soaked by the time we got there. After a couple of fruitless searches Lisa eventually found our spare keys and drove us home - I gave the spare straight back to her!

We then had the most perfect LA-LA (Leanne, Alayne, Lenka, Angie) morning with me pottering around in the kitchen trying a few new recipes from my No. 1 favourite cook book "Apples for Jam" that the girls gave me for my birthday, Leanne creating a rag bag, Alayne making cookies and Angie filling us in on her recent trip to South Africa. The children played beautifully and we only saw when we called them for lunch.

On Saturday it was still raining and Tom had a soccer match so I invited Tess' friends Eleanor and Olivia for a play as their brothers were playing soccer too. Tom came back very proud of himself because he had been given the player of the match trophy. I'm not sure he actually played all that well but everyone was so impressed to actually see him on the pitch that they decided to award him the trophy!

Olivia ended up staying the night and James came too much to Tom's delight. The difference between boys and girls - I put the kids in bed at 7.30, Tom and James were asleep by 7.35. I moved Tess into our bedroom at 7.50, I moved both Tess and Olivia to the downstairs spare room at 8.15. I read them the riot act at 8.25, 8.40 and 8.55. I think they fell asleep at 9.05!

Jules went sailing on St Jude on Sunday - the weather was beautiful but not very much wind so it was a very slow sail. The kids and I went to Maggie's 3rd birthday party where we had delicious home-made pizza and a lot of cake (well the kids did!). Sorry I haven't managed any pictures - I tried to take one of Tom with his trophy but he lost it. We turned the house upside down before finding it by the front door step - my sense of humour failed me as Friday's memory was still too vivid........!