We came to the conclusion that when one’s birthday is so close to Christmas that there’s hardly any time to do any treat-type thing at the time, it doesn’t really matter if you have your birthday present a bit early. Abbie’s just done 3 days on a riding/stable management course (ie riding and about the same amount of mucking out!) as her birthday present this year. She’s had a wonderful time

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

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.

Before all of that we had a delicious breakfast for Abbie’s birthday, and she looked pretty excited to see everything in her Chemistry set – she’s dashing off out to Panto rehearsals in a minute so we won’t see much of her this evening but she’s had a good day Happy Birthday!

After breakfast Josiah went off to perform chorister duties while we sorted laundry (the girls paired socks while I did the ironing!) and caught up on the Over the Rainbow final (these things are important, you know ). Then Steve and I went in for Mattins … somehow ended up sitting on Cathedral Green with smoothies instead though – it was just too nice outside!

We collected the boys and dropped Will off, then picked up the girls and drove out to the Jack in the Green where we met Steve’s parents and Grandad for a celebratory dinner. I really like the Jack in the Green – I had some really delicious roast butternut squash ravioli

We’d arranged to meet my caching friend down at Parke Estate near Bovey Tracey for a geocaching walk afterwards. This turned out to be a really lovely place to be – and we didn’t even know that Parke existed before this, unbelievably, despite having had NT membership for ages! A couple of the caches were ‘splash & cache’, so getting wet was obligatory, at least for those people who found the caches (Anna and Josiah both times, I think! I got my feet wet too but they had shoes on so they were much quicker than me!). All good fun, until the children got tired, Josiah rolled a rock down the path and it hit the back of Abbie’s foot, then they all lost it! Luckily that was at the end of the walk Anyway, I’m up to 425 finds now but my friend has hit 500 – I’ve long given up all hope of keeping pace!

Easter Saturday was spent mainly preparing for Steve’s dad’s 60th birthday party which was an open house affair from 4pm onwards. In order to help Marg keep it a surprise I did lots of shopping and preparing food earlier in the day. Of course Steve ended up with a customer on test drive as we were due to pick him up at 4pm but we weren’t too late. I think the party was a success, and certainly Russ looked pleased and surprised with his gift of a trip to Paris; Steve took them to the airport yesterday.

On Easter Sunday the girls and I left Steve watching the Grand Prix and we went to church. The rest of the day was spent doing normal jobs etc., no family roast dinner as it seemed a bit mean to do that without Joe! We might get one in later in the holidays, if I can be bothered to cook one!

Later in the day our friends Stuart & Liz arrived to stay for a few days. They fancied doing a night cache so we all went out in the evening armed with wellies and torches to re-visit one that belongs to my friend; only Steve & I had done it about 18 months ago now, so enough time had elapsed for us to have forgotten the way!

Monday saw most people having a lazy start; I got up and made cottage pie for tonight while they were all still in bed! Breakfast happened; there was some gameplaying and I think some people had showers, then after lunch we went out for a long walk along the Estuary from Exton to Exmouth, with some caches completed en route.

Fab to have Josiah home afterwards, though I did have to wrestle him to the floor to get a hug out of him! He’d clearly had a ball boarding at school over the past few days. After dinner we caught up with Dr Who, then the children went to bed and we watched a film (well, I blogged and faffed around with photos while the rest of them watched a film. Having fallen asleep during Dr Who at 8pm I thought I’d better keep myself awake somehow!).

I went out with work friends on Friday night to start the weekend off – was very restrained though, as we all had to be up early the next morning. Steve and the kids did a bit of tidying up while I was out, which was very nice

On Saturday I had a few things to open in the morning, then we all got up for orchestra as usual. Only it wasn’t quite orchestra as usual, because we had the pleasure of the company of six players from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, tutoring some of our sections, then playing with our children during the main rehearsal. I was on hostess duty, then photographer duty – all very enjoyable. And the orchestra played happy birthday to me (ok, they usually play happy birthday to people, but I got a special rendition). Brilliant to have the BSO tutors there, very inspiring for our players to meet people who do it professionally.

It is totally disgusting stuff, but they did have a whale of a time for a good half an hour, all 3 squashed into our bath. They are much too big for that kind of activity these days really!

Anyway, after that we got a quick bit of homework done, then it was time to head over to Steve’s parents’ house – they’d laid on a lovely birthday tea and then they looked after the kids while we walked down to the theatre. They also gave me some much needed birthday socks!

Home late, but no matter, as this morning we had a long lie-in. The kids got up and made pancake batter, then when I’d put the BSO photos up in various places and kicked a bit of website into shape, I finally joined them.

Delicious pancake brunch (marshmallows included ) then we went out in hunt of a few caches and a self-timer photo. Unfortunately it was a bit windy and we couldn’t find many safe places to prop the camera, so this is all we managed, but it’s better than nothing!

After that we came home to finish off homework and music practice. Made some burnt popcorn and did some arguing which I am obliged to include. Happily we now have some un-burnt popcorn and have settled down with Coraline on Blu-ray.

Anna’s currently picking her way through a new music book that we gave her, which she’d wanted for ages. I may regret buying it for her as she tends to sing along – then again she can sound quite nice these days really!

She took a few friends out for a meal last night, then had films and a sleepover here, and a day in town shopping today. There are benefits to having your birthday fairly soon after Christmas, it seems, as she had loads of giftcards and money to spend, so has had a very lovely day!

Today we were celebrating Marg’s birthday and also Great-Grandad’s birthday which was yesterday – a combined age of 144 As ever very pleasant to spend a day with family, in a beautiful garden, with far too much lovely food!

Meanwhile Steve was racing again, still can’t beat that Cosworth! He got his own time down to 27.17 and came second, while the Cosworth brought the class record down to 26.96. Ah well. Next year, I am informed, he will sort this out. Sounds expensive to me.

The girls have gone for a sleepover with Caitlin & Riona making it fairly quiet in the house tonight, especially in our bedroom, so we made the most of that

Abbie really enjoyed looking after Richard (the DM/conductor)’s dog, and had the lead attached to her chair all the way through! Unfortunately she ended up with really itchy eyes afterwards, not sure if it was hayfever, dog allergy, or something else random, but there we go. I ended up being official photographer as the usual people who take photos had forgotten their cameras, hence the overload of photographs on flickr!

Anyway, as well as it being a lovely day for a concert (and they played really well as usual), we also had secret plans to celebrate the director of music’s 60th birthday with party poppers and a huge cake – that all went off really well, and Richard didn’t even look *too* embarrassed!

Steve and Josiah had joined us by this time, better late than never We stayed in town for a while after that, had coffee with my sister, then shopped for a bit – geocache loot – we may yet get around to hiding one tomorrow.

Home for a bit of relaxation and preparation for Josiah’s birthday ‘do’. He’s just got one friend over for a sleepover – his first ever! When his friend arrived, Steve whisked them off to Sainsbury’s to choose their pizza (Pizza Hut dinner here again, think that might turn into a tradition!), while Abbie, her friend and I set out to put clues around the area, for a treasure hunt that Abbie had designed.

The boys loved the treasure hunt and literally ran around the route after all the clues The prize was a box of food for a midnight feast – not sure it will last until midnight but we’ll see.

They’ve played on a car racing game on the playstation, watched Inkheart again, and shock horror, Josiah even got his violin out to play the James Bond theme to his friend – a jaw drop moment!!

Anyway, they are sleeping in the tent, so that’s a treat as far as they’re concerned, and they’re being relatively quiet at the moment! Planning pancakes for breakfast tomorrow

When I’ve had a moment to myself, I’m reading a lot around the reaction to the Home Education Badman report, and despite not being an active home educator at the moment I still believe in choice in education, and am therefore also outraged at some of the recommendations in the report. There are a lot of better blogs than mine with more eloquent authors than me writing about the subject – so many that I don’t really know which one to link to first! In particular today: Renegade Parent and Dare to Know. I’m guessing that the average Joe Public may not even realise that the review exists, or the implications of it – but it *does* matter to everyone, not just home educators. It’s a question of choice in education being removed, privacy and individuality being eroded, and it’s unacceptable.

Other celebrations have included:
A trip to see the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Anna, which was excellent, we both really enjoyed it and will have to go again soon!
Being made a fuss of in my class at school – they bought me flowers, a card, and a huge cake – enough for all in the class to have some and then for me to bring home the leftovers! Someone commented on my Facebook wall that it was a shame I had to work on my birthday but I disagree – I had people wishing me happy birthday left, right and centre, and it was lovely
Taking the kids to a Pancake Party at their kids’ club, where we had pancake themed games and quizzes, and pancakes to eat as well. Good fun all round!
Another concert tonight, with friends this time, to see Rebecca Worthley who is a folky singer songwriter as well as being a longstanding acquaintance (her husband plays poker with Steve and I occasionally!)
Friends at both concerts bought me glasses of wine, and I’ve had some lovely thoughtful presents too

So it’s been busy, and I’ve kind of missed doing anything with Steve, but hoping to get some time together over the weekend – we’ll see – he’s off on some track day jolly tomorrow! Meanwhile the girls have BSO members coming to tutor their sections at orchestra, and I have a ton of housework to catch up on. There, I’ve blogged the weekend before it’s even happened!