We ended up with very convoluted arrangements whereby Steve and Abbie stayed at home, with a bit of help from Grandma during after school times. Josiah came with us as far as the Portico where he stayed with Ernest and Buttercup for a few days. Meanwhile I took Anna, Violet and Gwenny on to Kessingland for the longest sleepover ever!

We had a free static for the week, I think they chose the worst one to give us, but it was ok for a few days. Well it was once I swapped the tv for one with an av channel for the Wii!

Tuesday was taken over with preparations for the evening, between a long rehearsal and then a quick swim before three hours of makeup and hair doing. It was an enjoyable night actually (mainly thanks to Twitter friends!), and while I sort of wanted Anna to win because I thought she was genuinely the best of the bunch, she didn’t, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief at not having to go to Grand Finals in Clacton! There are a few snippets of video here, here, and here – the latter being the hilarious finale to the Disney Show which the Teamstars did – which really was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long while.

Wednesday was a fairly boring, grey day, and we lazed around watching tv, reading, and playing wii. The girls took the living room over in the evening and pulled the sofabed out so that they could have a proper sleepover together (ie all sleep in the same room!) but Anna ended up back in bed with me by the end of the night!

Typically, Thursday was a beautiful day weather-wise and in some ways it would have been nice to spend longer on the beach, but we had to get back, so waved goodbye to Kessingland, hopefully forever!!

We spent the rest of Thursday chez Portico which was nice, and drove home late that night. Then spent Friday pretending we hadn’t got home yet and generally procrastinating over everything. Must add that Joe had a great week, as did Steve and Abbie – Steve was amazed at how quiet and peaceful it was!

Saturday was more normal; it included an orchestra practice and AGM where I somehow managed to get on the committee for ECO – well I figured it was a worthwhile thing to get involved with and all three of our children will benefit from the orchestra over the next few years.

Then we popped up to share cake with my sister in her new flat at university, of course my phone chose that moment to play up so I couldn’t ring her – I vaguely knew where I was going thank goodness but we did still drag a random towel-clad fresher out of her flat in order to let us through the building so we could find the right place!

And the afternoon was spent cleaning and tidying the first floor of the house. Which was great until I went downstairs and saw the comparative mess down there! Ironed while watching X Factor and then had an early night before an early morning Grand Prix which is a must-watch this morning!

And then spent the vast majority of the afternoon doing this:

The idea is that the braids can stay in all week while we’re away camping at 28:18, hope it will work. Must say I was rather impressed at myself, I’ve never done plaits that tiny before. Or that many. My hands ache! The girls were really pleased with the results too.

So, we’re off tomorrow for a week, twitter is turned off as we don’t have hookup so no phone charger easily available – really should get a car charger! Direct messages are still on though (or should be – wouldn’t mind if someone could test that for me tonight please?!).

Right, must dash. Having spent all day braiding I have rather a fair bit of packing and getting ready left to do this evening! Hope Castle Day goes well tomorrow, all those friends involved, we’ll look forward to seeing pictures when we get home. Have a good week

The rest of the day has been fairly much taken over with Anna’s dance school’s show. She did one performance last night, today they had two – one at lunchtime and one in the evening. We all went along and watched the lunchtime one. It was a very impressive show and we all enjoyed it, even though it was looooong! The dancers performed beautifully, costumes were fantastic, attention to details in the production was good, etc. Spotted a couple of other children who we knew so had fun watching them as well. The only disappointment for me was that Anna didn’t get to see it.

Oh, and I just remembered. My blog is now 4 years old. Which is almost as scary as dancers who look grown up yet are only a couple of years older than Anna.

Playing some bizarre pull-along-a-skateboard game

2. Taking Anna into town to play her cello, she took part in the Devon Performing Arts Festival where she was awarded a distinction and won her class (and therefore a rather lovely shield to show off). She was very pleased with herself and we’re proud of her too Steve seemed rather shocked when we stopped off to show it to him! Now if she had only remembered to brush her teeth in the morning before going to do it I would have been impressed

3. Letting Anna have the rest of the day off school and enjoying having her around. She really encouraged Joe I’m sure it’s a fluke and wouldn’t be like this all the time but she helped him do his DWN that he chose today, then he helped her fold the washing (she did beg for maths work rather than washing to fold, lol, but the washing was more important to me!).

4. Sunshine. What’s this, 5 days of it in a row now?! It is just gorgeous

5. More bike riding in the close. When we moved here I thought I would hate living in a close, especially as it is quite a narrow close, but actually I really like it

6. Playing in the park with Abbie and Joe while Anna had a cello lesson. Even if they had just painted all the equipment so Josiah now has red paint on his fleece and trousers

I was especially asked to put this one on the blog, Anna was very proud of it. When asked about it apparently she did it ‘in reading time’ and it took her ‘about two terms’. You really have got to worry

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.