just another morning here

… so I need to write a post. Had a real day off today because Steve was home from work too. We contemplated going out for the day but it was too cold and wet. Instead we decided to carve pumpkins, but then Sainsbury’s had sold out. So we opted to go to the cinema and see High School Musical 3.

I loved it from start to finish, I must admit Completely cheesy and over the top in places, acting pretty awful, but that was to be expected after watching the first two! They’d obviously chucked a whole load of money at it, and you could tell - production was much better on this one. I’m a sucker for a cheesy musical anyway … thought it was much better than the second one and probably better than the first, but not really comparable because of the difference in budget. And most of the appeal came from knowing the characters from the first two, it was just so predictable it was amusing! Anyway. It made me laugh, made me cry, and I was completely entertained (as were we all) for a couple of hours

Came home and have not done much; Anna and Abbie went out to friends’ houses and Josiah played DS (another review game I’m going to have to prise out of his hands). Had dinner, now Steve and I are going out to do a night cache which has been set by my caching friend, it’s meant to be spooky as it’s in the woods surrounding a supposedly haunted castle, but I don’t believe in ghosts

We watched ‘Zwartboek‘ (aka ‘The Black Book) last night, and I enjoyed it. I am, as a result, rather enamoured with Sebastian Koch, and may have to rent some more films with him in them …

My sister, meanwhile, was thrashing me at Tetris again (groan) so I have my work cut out there yet again! I have spent the last hour winning one of the games back but still have one to go … and now it’s time to get up and get going anyway. Orchestra and then Anna & Joe both have friends to visit, which means Abbie and I are going to do something together, don’t quite know what yet!

Got up and played Guitar Hero

Eventually we were all ready and went out to another little park in Abingdon where there were a couple of caches nearby, so those who wanted to went off to find them, while whoever was left played in the park.

After that we drove over to Carterton to see Mark, Heidi, Caleb and Elodie. Got there in time for lunch, and spent a hot afternoon with them, mainly out in the garden playing in the paddling pool etc., and then inside with playdoh and other things. Adults even managed to sit around reading too, so a very relaxing time all round - especially for Heidi and I, who didn’t get wet!

Went back to Adam & Mim’s in time for tea, then we all went to the cinema in the evening. They went first, taking Anna with them, and met Mark, Esther and Ben to watch the Dark Knight. Abbie, Josiah and I cleared up the dinner things and then went out a bit later to watch Wall-E. Our film still finished before theirs!

Yesterday after school we had parents’ evenings - well organised to be in a 40 minute window which I was quite impressed with … another chance for us to hear about some fantastic, intelligent, helpful children and for us to wonder if they are the same kids we have at home! Seriously, proud of all of them for doing so well at school - they obviously all enjoy it and get a lot out of it. Heard that Joe has made it onto the gifted and talented register for Maths which sounds impressive but not sure what it means in practice just yet. Anna and Abbie were both complimented on lots of things too … and we used the time to thank their teachers for all the hard work they’ve put in over the academic year.

Today the girls had piano exams in the morning; Steve’s turn to take them so I’m in the dark until the results come out. Both of them said they messed up on a piece, so we’ll see how things go.
And I had Sports Day at my school, which was fun, and nice to have some of the children’s parents around for it, too.

After school Anna had cello lessons then we all ended up in the park. I got slightly annoyed that the tree I’d planned to find a geocache in had fallen down and been fenced off, and that it was too bright to play DS - it was also really cold! Not sure how the kids can manage not to feel the cold and play happily in the paddling pool for an hour, but Josiah did … mainly on his own!

Anyway I amused myself by taking photos - especially this one which is an updated version of another one I have from about five years ago - Josiah is now older than Anna was in the first one, scary!

And this evening the kids stayed in with Steve and watched Ratatouille, while I’ve been out assembling wedding invitations and socialising with some friends from church, which was a pleasant way to spend an evening - we had wine and nibbles alongside

The last orchestra rehearsal of the year was on Saturday; we have concerts next weekend and then that’s it until September. After orchestra all the kids went to the cinema to see Prince Caspian, in various combinations. Abbie and Joe went first, with a friend from orchestra who also lives round the corner so we share transport occasionally, then after the chamber rehearsal Anna went to join some school friends who were at the cinema for a birthday party. It did feel something of a milestone to leave my youngest two children at the cinema on their own - I then had a couple of hours all to myself, which was very nice

Home then to clean out guinea pigs, get some washing done, and generally relax for the evening.

On Sunday we didn’t have a morning church meeting so got a welcome lie in. Steve went off to work to catch up on some paperwork, dropping the rest of us in town. Bagged a new geocache at the station, then shopped a bit before meeting Steve and coming home for lunch. Then in the afternoon we had our piano teacher’s end of term concert to go to, followed by a late afternoon outdoor joint church meeting including a BBQ tea. Both those events happened at the kids’ school, which was good as I didn’t have to drive anywhere!

Only a few weeks left until the end of term now - and counting, I need a proper holiday, a weekend just isn’t long enough!

A day late for Musical Monday, but it was a Bank Holiday …

Having a birthday on a Saturday somehow seems to lead to the whole weekend being in one’s honour, although I’m not complaining as that makes it a nice couple of days for everyone else as well

We’ve done some lovely things including a freebie breakfast (just Steve and me, thanks to vouchers on Bonne Maman jam!) at Cafe Rouge, while the kids were at orchestra (Josiah hanging in there, he’s finding it hard work but still enjoying it). Chose some new CDs, always a nice way to spend birthday money. Home for lunch, the qualifying, cleaning out the guinea pigs and some manic cake-baking, then back out to the cinema to watch Indiana Jones - which we all really enjoyed

In the evening family and friends had turned up to watch Eurovision with us - plenty of drinks and food, but I must say I got bored by the end of the programme. A fun night anyway.

Today we had a lazy start, brunch (days that start with croissants are always good in my opinion!), and a geocache hunt.

After that some of us watched the Grand Prix while the rest played on the Wii, we popped to Steve’s parents’ for a cup of tea, then had dinner out at the Jack in the Green (putting Steve’s rubbish photos up just for the record!).

Got home in time to bid on an extremely important ebay auction (Y6 prom dress for Anna ) and finished off the day with another film.

All my scrabulous games are going terribly, but apart from that life is sweet and I’m looking forward to mooching around with the kids over the next few days and having a chilled out half term