just another morning here

Today was Josiah’s 10th birthday party; a little in advance of his actual birthday but practically the only time near to his birthday that we could fit in a party!

He really wanted to go out to the woods, build a den, and sleep in it – but this was a little outside of Steve and my comfort zone! Instead we found this National Trust Wild Tribe event going on which was about as close as we could get, so we booked places for two carfuls of boys!

They had a wonderful time in the woods, once they stopped being over-excited and actually managed to get on with building a den. Their shelter turned out rather well, complete with bracken waterproofing on roof and walls. They managed to get all seven of them plus an extra friend that they made on the day into the den for lunch

After our picnic we went down to the main campfire where a couple of the boys did some firelighting, and the group cooked sausages and then roasted marshmallows. Our gang of boys climbed down to the stream to build dams and bridges … then they came back up to the dens and just played in the woods.

I’m sure they could have played for much longer if we’d let them – but the National Trust rangers were probably tired of us by then! Plus it had started to rain a tiny bit. This is the National Trust blog with a post about last month’s Wild Tribe event … perhaps this one will get written up by them at some point (I dread to think what they’ll write about our gang of exuberant boys!)

Anyway, after that fantastic day, we headed back towards home to Pizza Hut for tea, meeting the girls there so that they could join us for something to eat. The boys were very excitable all the way through the meal which made it marginally stressful but the waiter was very good with them and didn’t seem to mind too much.

We had a little bit of time at home for Joe to open presents/cards, then we stuck Home Alone on the big screen for a chill out before parents arrived to collect the boys. They all said they had a lovely day, and Josiah certainly enjoyed himself, and that’s what counts

Two hours of extreme noise; one in the swimming pool and one in the activity room

Josiah didn’t make it, he was up and well enough to go over to Grandma’s, which was definitely a better option for him, he wasn’t alive enough for swimming and partying. His invited friend still came though, and Anna had a friend there too.

We’ve come home with an extra two of Abbie’s friends who are sleeping over … after sorting their room out and opening party presents (Abbie did really well! some lovely craft sets, music related things, and some money too) they’ve dipped in and out of the X Factor and the Girls Aloud party on the big screen, but they’re being fairly quiet so far! Anna’s out at Soul Exeter and Joe headed back to bed after Merlin. Steve’s popped down to the pub at the bottom of the road with some garage related mates. I have eaten party leftovers and found a bottle of wine to drink

I wondered if I might have used that heading for a post once before, and actually I have, and I probably will again, as I am that unimaginative

Anyway, for once a post about Abbie, who hits 10 years old on Monday. She sometimes doesn’t figure as much here as the other two, middle child syndrome in some ways – Anna does a lot of things first, so they get a mention. Josiah is the only boy, the youngest, and frequently the most annoying, so he gets talked about.

Abbie, meanwhile, absolutely should figure here just as much! She is generally the one who can be relied on to get up on time, and works hard at her homework and music. She is the one in our family who loves animals the most – and she’s almost always the one who has time to and therefore does care for our pets. All of this blesses me no end. She’s an angel at school too, by all accounts. She’s pretty sharp and doesn’t miss a trick, especially if there’s a money making opportunity to be had.

In other more normal moments she can have an excellent strop, she fights with Joe far too much, can shout pretty loudly, and has a tendency to use her fingernails as lethal weapons … but we won’t mention that

Finally, I think she’s beautiful I am still completely irrationally gratified to have one out of my three children who is left handed as well as having brown eyes, a perfect combination in my totally biased opinion. And she’s the only one of my children who bothers to order the coloured pencils into a rainbow

This year she really really wanted a party of her own. With birthdays only a couple of weeks apart, the girls have often had shared parties, but this year her one request was to have her own party. More later after the event. Really hoping Josiah will be better (he went to bed at 4pm after Calpol, with a headache/sore throat etc.), as not only would he be disappointed to have to miss it, I would not relish the prospect of 25 rowdy ten year olds to manage on my own, it’ll be bad enough with Steve there too!!

Feeling a teensy bit old here, when I had my first baby I didn’t ever imagine being the parent of a 10 year old! Think she’s had a lovely day, it started early to do a few pressies before the first day back at school – both girls were desperate to get back, we had to stop them leaving the house too early!

They came home from school with Caitlin & Riona in tow and spent the rest of the afternoon painting/playing pirates.

Joe and I were pleased to get back to a little bit of routine today too, and spent most of the day doing useful stuff, and playing with his MGears set that we gave him for Christmas.

We built a helicopter first, and then he realised that he really wanted to build something with a motor (although without four wheels as we seem to have lost a tyre already , thankfully LR are sending us a new one) so I then had to take the wretched helicopter apart and help him build a bulldozer instead.