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.

Now, doing a bun is hard enough normally, never mind keeping strands of hair out of it, to twist them up, to add them in later, and still have it all slick and neat. It took at least 4 attempts and I still thought it was messy (although I did see some other girls’ buns later and didn’t feel so bad after all).

Next came the ribbons on the shoes. Now, how is a person supposed to know where to put them or what angle to sew them on at?! Thankfully, as I had left it far too late to let Anna ask someone/take photos of someone else’s shoes to see what they were like, the internet came to my rescue and I found some guides and then muddled my way through. With minutes to spare!

And all this was just for the rehearsal. Two rehearsals, to be precise, as we had to go in and out to the theatre twice for rehearsing the first bit and then the finale. [as an aside, Merry, does your niece do dancing too, spotted their car when we were driving round town twice today and wondered if it was more than a coincidence?]

So while Anna’s activities took over the day, the rest of us pottered around – Steve fixed a broken arm rest in the van; Joe practiced riding his bike in the close – particularly starting and stopping, as I think if he can get those skills sorted he will be confident enough (finally) to go it alone. He was doing very well with it today

Abbie painted, played in the close a bit, then went down to Riona’s house and played there too. I sorted laundry, and did some more of Abbie’s jigsaw (she’s long since given up!).

This evening we had friends round for another viewing of Little Miss Sunshine, which was just as good (if not better) the second time around.

Abbie is taking life at a much more sane pace, just pootling along with school, swimming & music lessons and the appropriate practice inbetween. Likewise Josiah is really happy at home – I think he ought to be getting bored but he doesn’t seem to be! We’re doing some MEP maths and some reading/writing each day, and then just taking things as they come. Oh, and the music theory stuff is ongoing as well, he’s been doing about time signatures recently – just 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 so far, but he’s got the hang of those pretty well I think. Lots of gaming going on as well, as usual.

Think I’ve almost done the Christmas shopping pretty much online (damn but I love the internet), just the tricky people to finish off now Hmm, actually looking at the list there are a few too many tricky people on there!

Cards – I really object to Christmas cards. In particular I object to sending them to people that I keep in regular contact with, as it just seems pointless – pointless to buy them in the first place, supporting the card economy which is hardly environmentally friendly, even if they do get recycled afterwards, which isn’t a given. Pointless to spend huge amounts of time making or writing them when they only get chucked out afterwards! [Please don't tell me there is anyone out there who *keeps* them for anything other than making next year's tags with?] And pointless to send news to people who know it anyway!

So if you’re reading this, don’t expect a Christmas card from us! There are a few people with whom a card/letter at Christmas is the main way of keeping in touch, so rather than writing hundreds of pointless ‘just-saying-happy-christmas-and-here’s-a-blanket-round-robin-newsletter’ cards I’ve decided I’d rather write 20 meaningful cards with a more personal letter in them. I suppose, if you’re reading this and you desperately want a card to clutter up your house with, then you can ask, but you still might not get one Likewise, please don’t send me one!! I’m just as happy with Merry Christmas wishes in my comments box at some point over the festive period

We went to see The Wizard of Oz this evening – really really impressed with Stage by Stage’s production in all respects, it was an excellent show.

Anna is absolutely shattered already … it’s going to be a very long week!

Have had a fabulous if a little exhausting weekend, lots of travelling of various sorts, but also lots of fun spending time with some of our best friends, which makes it all worthwhile. (was that too soppy?! )

Saturday saw us have a very lazy morning with a delicious brunch, and then we headed into London to visit the slides at the Tate Modern. Simultaneous delight and anxiety is about the right description for my feelings as we walked into the turbine hall – the queues were soooo long, never mind the sliding itself! So we queued for tickets, then walked along the river for an early dinner at the Gourmet Pizza Co., then back to the Tate to queue more to use the tickets! Still it was a good day which we all enjoyed. More photos here

Today was E’s 6th birthday, the real reason for our visit – lovely to see him opening and enjoying presents, and then stick around for his party which was one of the most peaceful kids’ parties I’ve been to for a long time (usually I avoid them like the plague, even for my own children!). 13 children sat around the table painting pottery for a good hour and a half, courtesy of a lovely mobile pottery company (which I’ve forgotten the name of, otherwise I’d link to it).

Today that was a big mistake, as I forgot that Joe had some birthday money left over. He was absolutely desperate to buy something but about the only thing he had enough money for was a goldfish! So we came home with a bowl to set up, and one of us will be taking him back tomorrow to pick up a fish (which he thinks he is going to call Goldie, how imaginative) I guess I could have said no, but it seemed a bit mean! My track record with fish is Not Good though so I hope the poor thing will survive longer than a week!

Got home, set up the wretched bowl, then made some more banana cakes, with the added improvement of chocolate chips

A while later the Beans arrived for lunch, on the way home from a week’s camping nearby. It was lovely to see them, SB went off and played with Abbie and Josiah, while BB pottered around … just nice to have ‘real’ time together, internet friends are great but even better in person as well!

They left (hope the journey home was okay!) and minutes later so did we; we went to see Anna’s end of summer school week presentation, which was an hour long performance of ‘Fame!’ I thought it was pretty good considering it was a wide age range of kids there and they’d only had a week to prepare it in. Anna had a tiny moment of glory as the maths teacher – so the other children in the photo are actually *meant* to be looking bored, as it’s a maths lesson!

Then after that we had to wait around for her to do a second performance, so we headed over to the Picture House Cinema just over the road, where there is a rather nice bar, had a drink, and taught Abbie & Joe to play Othello. Which ended up as Steve and I playing Othello

Finally came home and I turned round and went out again for a meal with friends, which was a nice ending to the day for me, while Steve and the kids ended theirs with dinner and then back to back Simpsons

Had lunch in the van and then came back, as Anna had dance rehearsals all afternoon. A friend popped by for a chat, and we’ve been tidying up here as we have other friends coming to stay tomorrow. And that’s about it

He’s stropped about going to school, going to swimming, going to violin, doing his violin practice, going to bed, which *way* to walk to school, being allowed to walk down the road with a coat over his face (he wasn’t, and he thought he ought to be!), which pants to wear, which shoes to wear … you name it, he’s stropped over it. Which at least makes you think it’s a general phase-type-thing rather than a specific problem he has in any one area! Anyway, the less said about that the better, as otherwise it’s been a good week.

On Wednesday I ended up working on some website admin in the morning; teaching people how to use WordPress, so that amused me In the afternoon I had the pleasure of looking after my niece Robyn … this is something that may become more of a regular occurence, and I’m quite pleased about it. Apart from racking my brains as to what exactly I used to do with just one 15mo (it’s a long time ago, okay?! ) it was great … I got all nostalgic over a couple of Abbie’s old board books and generally had fun pottering around with a toddler in tow. And then I got to hand her back! Perfect!!

The children had piano/recorder/violin/Stage by Stage after school, manic as usual. Steve was on the violin run though, and I had my friend Becca over for tea and chatting afterwards which was really lovely.

Anna has been offered a place at the Stage studios dance school for ballet so she came home pleased about that. She’s going to have to stop swimming lessons in order for us to manage it both time and moneywise, but she seems to be okay about that. She can swim well enough now to stand a good chance of getting herself out of trouble should some terrible water-related accident happen; she can certainly swim well enough to enjoy all sorts of water sports etc., so we feel as though it’s not a bad time to stop the formal lessons as she would rather put the time and effort into the dancing stuff. It will be interesting to see how she gets on, after rather a long break from ballet lessons.

Yesterday I was mainly at home, did a few housework jobs and then spent most of the rest of the day chatting to various friends online. As you do And it was a fantastic day in Animal Crossing yesterday, as one of my wifi friends had fabulous turnip prices in her town, so I made over 3 million bells on the stalk market. Woo hoo! Oh, and we tried out the new Wagamama in town at lunchtime, which was great, liked it a lot Although I must practice with chopsticks – I stupidly ordered one of the soup/noodle dishes and then had trouble eating it! Tasted great but I felt very clumsy and messy while I was eating! Swimming run was long and tedious as usual, so I must admit I’ll be glad to make some changes there for next term.

And today is mainly a day at work, although I’m popping into town first thing … and then at some point I must find time to pack a bag as I’m taking Abbie & Joe with me to visit Merry et al for the weekend – it’s a non-pupil day on Monday so we have an extra day this weekend. We’re really looking forward to that Meanwhile Steve & Anna are staying here as Anna has a concert and an audition to go to.

So that’s us up to date I think … not much more to add. Oh, apart from that my brain is now old, tired, and 32! I had a bad day, okay?!

Anyway, here it is: Water Lane Garage. There is still one tiny detail that I’m working on but otherwise I’m pretty happy with it. In due course we’ll add more articles and probably some photos too (still haven’t got our signs up at the actual site so we’re waiting for those). And I ought to put a Code Placidly hosting button on there somewhere too

In other news: Steve and I went to see Anna’s teacher today for another glowing report which again, I feel we actually can’t take that much credit for, as whatever Anna is/does is all herself and her own work. Still proud of her anyway.

Had a lovely conversation with the children yesterday which sprung from talking about school holidays and the differences in them across different areas of the country, to the ages at which people take exams. It seems as though Anna & Abbie at least are both thinking that they’ll stay at primary school but then be home educated again after that – I know it’s a long way off and plenty of things could change by then, but as a mid-long-term goal educationally it’s a plan I’d be really really happy with.

Nice to have Russ back at work, we missed him, as we had to do some work for once. We’ll be back to slacking now

As I write, Steve is out with Anna & Joe at Stage by Stage and violin respectively. Abbie and I are sitting here writing together which is nice – I’m blogging and she’s finishing a story based on Mrs Armitage on Wheels, her own take on it. Just nice to be doing stuff alongside one another.

Looking forward to the end of term, the children have a non-uniform day tomorrow and then the end of term on Friday so hurrah for the holidays

The girl who played Miss Hannigan was the star of the show for us, she was really really good. The whole thing was very well done though, they’d made good use of props/small performance space, and got the best out of the kids. Thankfully a far far cry from the Stagecoach shows that we’ve been to before, we were very impressed and very pleased that we changed Anna’s lessons to these!

The other two had various music lessons yesterday but have mainly been chilling out. They’ve played with Mollie; they all made the most of the sunshine on Saturday and did loads of roller skating in the close. Steve worked (with quite a bad hangover, but the less said about that the better!) while I was around at home with the kids – strangely I don’t seem to have done anything tangible other than driving people around, facilitating their lives generally, and a bit of laundry (oh, perhaps some Wild World ), but there we go. Then in the evening we had a family film, watched some rubbishy Disney film which was cheesy and predictable but watchable – it amused us all and it was nice just to snuggle on the sofa and be together.

Today we had Sunday lunch with Steve’s parents which was lovely as usual. It was a lovely day so there was plenty of playing in the garden, hide-and-seek, and then some elaborate creation with pinecones – well, the end result wasn’t that elaborate but the collaboration (read: Anna bossing the other two about!) that went into building it seemed fairly elaborate to me!

A few more pictures – one that we found on the camera from ages ago of my friend Maria (the one who made cakes last year!), one of Abbie that’s out of focus but I liked it anyway, she’s such a Thomas – she reminds me of one of my cousins in that photo … and a couple more from today.

Steve’s done a tiny bit more to the lounge (slooow progress there!). Then followed an afternoon of Annie … then home to do that Sunday night ‘get ready for Monday morning’ thing, aargh! Anna’s just got home on a huge adrenaline high so she needs some toast