I had Monday and Tuesday off this week because of the school holidays and it was brilliant hanging out with the kids. On Tuesday we went down to Little Manly beach and met up with Zoe, Sam, Bronte, Bella and her 4 and a friend of Bella's with another 2 kids. The beach was practically deserted because there had been a bit of a chill in the air that morning (the first real chill of autumn) and so we had it pretty much to ourselves. Kids are always at their best when they are in a big group because they sort out their spats by playing with someone else for a while. They all went swimming, which I thought was pretty brave, and we fed them fish and chips for lunch which was a treat for everyone. In the evening Tess once again made us all pizza and it's interesting to see how her confidence is increasing now in pulling the dough together.
On Wednesday the kids stayed at home with Jasmyn who definitely won herself Nanny of the Year award by making chocolate easter eggs and decorating them with the kids. They lasted until I got home and then after I had made suitably admiring noises got gobbled up!
Thanks to the school holidays we were able to have a traditional La-La Friday although sadly without Alayne as she's now living in Bellingen. We went to Angie's house and had a fantastic day with the kids running around the garden and us all taking turns to cuddle Hugo. Angie and Leanne put on a special birthday tea for me with the most beautiful cake and brilliant presents (one of them was a mexican oil cloth which I'd been admiring at Angie's house for at least the past 6 months!). In the evening Leanne, John and the kids had a sleepover at our house. It's been a while since the 2 families have been together and we all loved hanging out. On Saturday morning, as it was raining, both Jules and John decided they needed to go to the mall, Leanne had a hair appointment and I needed to paint the skirting on the stairwell so it was agreed that I'd stay at home with the kids, Leanne would have some time to herself and the 2 big boys would go shopping together. It was a very successful solution with Jules coming back home with some very cool t-shirts (thank you John, although Jules claims they were of his choosing!) and everyone back at ours for a chilled Saturday afternoon drinking tea.
I mentioned in a previous blog that I have recently been initiated in the ease and convenience of having pedicures. It's been a while since my last one so I was in desperate need and the night before we'd had a huge battle with Tess trying to cut her toenails so I asked her if she'd like to come with me. We had a fantastic girls morning with her toes nicely shaped and painted a racy blue whilst mine were done a more conservative pale pink. In the afternoon both kids had friends round for a play date which worked very well with all 4 children playing beautifully in the garden until Tom discovered a mud pit and everyone got covered in mud (I was so worried they'd cover the inside of the house in mud I didn't manage to get a picture!). I hosed them all down and made cupcakes for them to decorate - a much cleaner pastime. Whilst they were playing Jules cleaned his car - there are 2 interesting points to make about this, firstly, I had no idea he knew where to find the vacuum or how to operate it and secondly, although the car seemed clean to me he still felt the need to take it to the car wash!
Right now, the kids and Jules are downstairs watching Bambi for the first time - I'm waiting for the tears!!
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