And it went mental! Thought it was about to blow up! But no, just a barrage of one word texts and an mms from the mad bunch at Melrose – thanks guys, you made me feel all warm and fuzzy 
Hope you’re all having a lovely time
We have had an excellent week – utterly utterly exhausted now though, and not sure I can actually remember anything anyone said, wore, ate, or thought!
A few highlights for me:
Evening and late night gatherings of friends, with music and frivolity of all sorts – the Oompa Loompa dancing will be particularly fondly remembered 
Food and kitchen stuff all being so stress free (or so it seemed to me), thank heaven for that dishwasher. Nic’s mince pies were a culinary highlight as she made the pastry from scratch without even using any scales!
The introduction to Geocaching was much appreciated – I really enjoyed it and we really must get into it ourselves.
Pennywell outing was fabulous – well, I thought so, anyway. I made a great shepherd 
As usual the children had a ball, too, and loved spending time with their friends. They are also completely and utterly exhausted – both Anna and Joe ended up having music lessons this afternoon as well!
A few more photos are in the usual place … look forward to seeing everyone else’s later as well. Thanks to all who were there for a great week Going to sort dinner and then take everyone off to bed! Very excited as AC:WW arrived this week so I’m off to play it
Busy day here for me at least (no-one else has been helping 
), shopping and doing a bit of cooking for the week ahead. Ages ago I booked the Okehampton Youth Hostel on the rentahostel scheme, and invited a few friends to come for a week long ‘camp’ there. We’re off tomorrow, and the children and I are really looking forward to it (although I’ve been in the doghouse tonight as a couple of Anna’s friends aren’t coming and she’s cross with me about it). Steve’s going to be between here and there at various points.
Anyway – we don’t have much planned for the week; I’ve promised my lot that we’ll go swimming one day, and on Thursday we are going to the Nativity at Pennywell Farm, which should be great (again – if anyone reading this wants to and can join us, please do!).
So, yes, where was I? Shopping and cooking – got it all finished in time to go to Anna’s Stagecoach end of term production this afternoon. We were all fairly relieved that it was the last session, the production was okay but not much better, as expected. Her report was glowing though
Whiling away the evening sorting laundry (why does that never end?), writing lists for tomorrow, and watching tv. Very impressed by Ellen MacArthur’s ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ lap on Top Gear just now! It was supposed to be film night but no-one has turned up so we get to enjoy Clarkson & Co – I do quite like Top Gear
Right. Off to do something slightly more productive.
Got confused when K2 14 appeared on the milometer on the way home, then the penny dropped that we’d gone over the thousand mile marker on the round trip. Still, it was fun, we had a great week. I didn’t take any photographs other than this one, which will have limited appeal, but I’m hoping that someone might be able to identify its location!?! Incidentally, it was one thing that the children had remembered from last year and wanted to take a photo of!! If anyone does have any photos of my lot please email them to me!
It was lovely to be with friends and get to know some new ones too – the children really enjoyed themselves, so much that I hardly saw them – I even had to round them up at mealtimes, most days! Most of our time was spent kicking around the hostel, with the odd trip to the park thrown in. Oh, and we went swimming too – driving round Galashiels in search of the pool was probably the most amusing moment of the week for me! We spent a nice day with friends on Wednesday too, and enjoyed taking their dogs out for a walk across the fields where they live. I thought everything at the hostel went smoothly, the food was fantastic this year, no-one was sick (always a good thing ), I got to cuddle the babies, and just generally enjoyed being in the company of friends, and seeing my children enjoying the company of their friends too.
I warmed to the Volvo, as it did go rather well – all the driving was relatively peaceful, and on the way home we popped in to see Stuart and Liz, then Joe’s little friend Isaac and family, who’ve recently moved away too. Eventually got home around 7.30 last night, to fish & chips with Steve
Didn’t set an alarm for this morning, but as I woke up in time we decided to go swimming, then home for brunch, now we’re watching Labyrinth before going to a talk by Brian and Wendy Froud this afternoon at the museum – part of the Animated Exeter stuff. I love Labyrinth, it’s a fab film – I think the kids will really enjoy the talk today, I’m looking forward to it as well. Of course Toby (the baby in the Labyrinth film) is their son, too. We did want to get The Dark Crystal as well, but despite it having been first on my LOVEfilm list for at least 6 weeks now it hasn’t arrived, and we asked at the video shop too but they didn’t have it. We might go to the showing at the university on Wednesday instead. Then we’re off to Ruth‘s for tea, so that will be nice. Laundry and sorting out from the week away will happen eventually