Anyway, Anna managed to find something that means far more to me than a CD – she decided to get baptised. Actually she’d wanted to get baptised for quite some time but I think I put her off when she was really little, wanting her to be a bit older and wiser … and she put herself off at some point too, I think! Her trip to Romania over the summer was formative in the decision making process coming round again, and she has decided for sure this time. By chance it was planned to happen on a weekend close to my birthday, so we had a lovely family celebration day with my parents and Steve’s parents.

Baptisms are one of those things that invariably make me cry (along with nativity plays and the opening music to Fly Away Home), and over the past few weeks I haven’t even been able to think about Anna’s baptism without getting emotional, so I’m writing here what I couldn’t quite say today, for fear of embarrassing her (and myself!).

I can’t actually think of many things that I would value more, or be more proud of, than one of my children choosing to make a commitment of their own to the faith that means so much to me. I often worry that we’re doing a rubbish job with parenting, muddling through and making the best decisions we can, but not necessarily being sure about very much. But this has reassured me that despite my failures as a parent, God has a plan for my children, He wants to know them individually and personally, and that is something I am incredibly grateful for. The emotional occasion was probably made all the more moving for me by the fact that she asked my Dad to baptise her, along with Andy our own church leader, and that was very special.

We followed the baptism with lunch at ASK; we picked it because it’s cunningly situated on the Cathedral Green so that Josiah could down his dinner and then run back across in time for Evensong. We went to the service as well, after a slightly more leisurely dessert. After that followed some furniture removal (come on, what celebratory day is complete without it?!) then a cup of tea and some cake

Her present from us was a set of tickets to see One Direction in Plymouth two days later – so she already knew about that too, obviously. At this point I need to back track and tell the whole story of the One Direction tickets …

Back in October we found out about the concert and she said she’d like to go as a birthday present, but I realised that I wasn’t going to be near a computer or phone when the tickets went on sale. So, I enlisted two kind people to both try and get a set of 4 for us – and they both managed it (I had no problem selling on the 4 I didn’t need!).

Then, to cut a long story short – I have two girls in my class who are also One Direction fans and had got tickets, so I cooked up an idea whereby we could all go to the concert together. Anna was up for sharing her birthday party, so I carried on planning.

Just after half term (in the second week of their half term), Anna and her friends came into my class to meet the other two girls, and they spent an afternoon decorating a banner together for the concert and generally getting to know one another. Then on Thursday we all bundled into one of the school minibuses, along with an extra mum and an enabler, to go down to the concert.

When we arrived they did the whole screaming fan thing together outside the back of the Pavilions, then came back in dribs and drabs to hurriedly eat a packed tea on the bus before heading off again. At this point the groups split up with Anna and her friends going off together and the other two with their carers – they were gutted when their banner was deemed ‘too big’ and not allowed in!

While I was dropping them all off I was given a flier for a free coffee in a cafe opposite, so I sat there with my book for the evening, and was joined by the girls from my class when they came out of the gig a bit early – I was very impressed they made it through as far as they did given how exceedingly loud it was! We waited for the other gang of girls to extract themselves and then drove on home, getting back around 11.30 – not too bad really.

We then had 6 teenagers upstairs while Abbie slept on the sofa They were all asleep by 1am which wasn’t too bad really. The next day was a bit of a blur all round though!

This weekend has been our last ‘holiday’ weekend, with no orchestra or choir commitments, and it has been quite lovely … Steve and I worked a bit in the morning, Anna had a piano masterclass at SWMS, Abbie did homework, Josiah had a Suzuki group lesson, then Steve and I went out to the cinema at teatime to celebrate our anniversary (more chance of me staying awake but I still didn’t quite manage it!). Got the ironing done for the weekend during the evening, so today was quite relaxed too – church for Anna and I, then I went out caching while she finished off her homework; Abbie had a friend round, and Josiah went on a choristers’ panto trip. Not entirely sure what Steve has been up to all day other than trying to plan a summer holiday and getting depressed about how expensive it will be …

Anyway, it was a good concert, then we stayed in a cheap but perfectly nice hotel for the night, ate sandwiches and drank wine bought from the shop on the corner, oh yes, we know how to live it up! We had had lunch out in Exmouth with my parents during the day beforehand though so weren’t hungry enough to eat out again!

Today we were meant to be going to see the car in the recovery depot, but we missed it by 10 minutes. Steve was very disappointed (I wasn’t!). Picked up all our CDs which they’d extracted, bar the one which was in the CD player – Spilt Milk by Jellyfish, luckily looks like it won’t be too expensive to replace!

After that we had some time to spare before going back to Bryanston, so we found a little geocache circle to follow. It was a brilliant set of caches; each container individually made into a different animal/bug, and one of them was really tricky to find – really enjoyed them, they’ll get some favourite points from me. My favourite was the one in the first photo, which was made from a tape measure. Very creative. And then we had lunch

Everyone else had had photographs taken in formal concert clothes on Monday morning; Anna was standing on a grass verge taking photos of our wrecked car in hers – the police did wonder what she was doing in a long black dress at 9am on a Monday morning! So, since we didn’t have a posh photo we persuaded her to get her friends together for a photo instead

Anna managed to make a good impression on the Dorset Music Service people despite the dodgy start to the week (which was my fault not hers, of course!), so hopefully she’ll get invited back again another time, she had a whale of a time after that first wobbly evening which was totally understandable after the accident.

We asked her how she felt about cello vs bassoon having just done a week there with on the bassoon and she really struggles to decide … best news of all on the way home though – the bassoon that was in the accident will be mended by tomorrow – for less than the excess on our insurance. Really impressed with Griff who took the job on and sorted it so quickly. Other good news during the week were Anna’s music exam results – two distinctions and a merit – excellent!

Abbie and Joe have done an excellent job of being home alone all day, with the occasional phonecall of support. I’d totally forgotten to book Abbie in for a week at Haven Banks that I’d said she could do (bad mummy), but luckily she phoned up today and there are still places and we can hand forms and payment in on Monday morning! Suzie has kept them busy – she’s currently asleep in a drawer, which is very cute

One of these days I’m going to make a digital copy of her first ever attempts at singing …

First of all Grandma & Grandpa gave Anna the amp, which was wrapped up so looked big and impressive. She unwrapped it and said ‘thanks, I’ve always wanted an amp’. Even though she’d known a while back about the possibility of an electric cello, we’d told some fibs since the offer to buy it had come up, and she’d obviously completely forgotten about it, as when we asked what she could play through it she suggested a CD or her ipod … or perhaps she could learn to play the guitar?

Josiah loves the overdrive setting on the amp, and will probably be the most annoying brother on the planet fiddling with that for a while. Headphones are going to be our most important accessory at home though, I think! We were a bit shocked that Anna claimed she couldn’t just play a tune without any music to read … a skill that needs some attention, and practice … the Youtube video may be a while as you don’t want to hear her offerings just yet! All the boys had a go – Josiah was definitely the best at picking out a tune on it – better than Anna, in fact. He has to wait until he’s playing a full size before he’s allowed an electric violin though! I must admit I’m a bit gutted that I can’t play it better as I’d like to have a proper play too …

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Josiah hasn’t taken any music exams this term, but he is still pleased to hold the family record for points