just another morning here

Or: I found some photos on the camera so thought I’d better add a blog post about them!

Last week Abbie went on a kayaking course down at Haven Banks, along with her friend Riona. They really enjoyed themselves, and finished up by achieving the vast majority of level 5 of the Paddle Power Passport. I imagine they may well go on and do the higher levels another year.

Joe and I went down for a walk along the river on their last day and watched them paddling back then finishing off a few bits of their award.

I didn’t take any photos of our day at Transform last week but that was lovely too … no decent photos of the cat this week either so the weekly update is a rubbish iPhone photo but it is quite funny. She is currently trying to sabotage my efforts at working, too!

On Thursday night we went to the Open Rehearsal of EMG Symphony Orchestra – they do this fabulous thing where they open up their rehearsal for anyone to go and watch. Last time I took children from my school – but this time we went as a family. It’s called ‘Call for the Superheroes’ as they were playing lots of film music etc. so sounded like fun. We’re trying to build some links between their orchestra and the Children’s Orchestra, so this time round anyone over Grade 6 level at ECO was invited to go and play along.

Anna and one other ECO member joined in – Anna loved having the opportunity to play some more challenging music. In fact I did have to laugh at one point as she was grinning at us and sliding her hand up and down the cello – clearly not actually playing the notes!! Anyway it’s given her a taste of the big wide world which I suppose she hasn’t really had before; she is still only really involved in school things rather than anything bigger. It sounded great, too – they played Holst’s Mars, and themes from Gladiator and Pirates of the Caribbean – if Josiah didn’t have a concert on the same night I would be very tempted to go to the concert as well!

On Friday night we had a lovely meal down at the Chinese. I’d lost track of time and not managed to cook tea in time, plus it was the start of half term, plus we hadn’t really done anything for Steve’s birthday, so all of that meant we felt justified enough!

We’ve had a fairly quiet weekend. Steve was working on Saturday and after doing a bit of work at home, the rest of us went to join in with Robyn’s 6th birthday party, which was pleasant – a bouncy castle and a few small girls, an Easter egg hunt and hide & seek in the garden.

Today – more work this morning, Riona came over to spend the day with Abbie, we had a rather delicious spaghetti bolognaise for lunch, then drove down to somewhere near Ivybridge to visit our friends Nic & Ady who are staying there at the moment. They’re WWOOFing their way around the country this year, in a camper van called Willow. I’m incredibly envious, I must admit, as the idea of leaving the ratrace does seem very appealing at times. Josiah was shown around the farm by D & S, and we sat around drinking tea and chatting, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, looking out at a fabulous view across the moors. Simply idyllic. Fitted in a quick cache on the way home

We were due to set up for this year’s church holiday club this evening but the caretaker didn’t turn up, so it’s going to be a very efficient job done in very little time in the morning.

Actually, I have way too much school work to do, I’m not going to get that much of a break – but the weekends are definitely days off. Steve was out last night, but the children and I had a pleasant evening playing games and drinking wine (well, it was just me drinking wine – they had fizzy of some sort!), then we had an early night. Somehow I managed to wake up when Steve got home at 2am but luckily had a lie in while he went off to work this morning!

It was a lovely day today so when Steve had finished work we decided to go out. I’d unearthed a free family ticket (which I won in a raffle over 3 years ago!) to the River Dart Country Park, so we drove down there for the afternoon. It’s the first time we’ve ever been, and it was fairly quiet, so we had a lovely afternoon mooching around in the sun. The children were treated to a turn on the High Wires which was a highlight for them – Joe just had one moment of uncertainty but otherwise made it round as confidently as the girls.

Home for dinner and relaxation all round