just another morning here

The first weekend of the school holidays is almost over, only five more to go! We’ve been busy as usual though with different things going on …

On Friday night we went to Exmouth, along with some other families, for an end of term BBQ. Well, we didn’t BBQ as that would have meant being organised; we had chips on the seafront instead. Everyone else was far more civilised than us, of course. Miss White even joined us for some of the time, which was lovely- possibly the last time we see her! The kids had a ball, and it was very chilled for us grownups as well

Yesterday Steve took all his employees on a jolly down to Haynes Race Track, so muggins here covered at the garage. It was very quiet although I did see one genuine customer – but a quiet day suited me as I had some time to think about planning for next year – not that I actually managed to get any work done, but still. The children spent a pleasant day with Grandma We were meant to go to Exmouth again with different friends but I made an executive decision that I was too tired so called an early night all round.

Today the girls went off to panto for the day, while Steve, Josiah and I went into town, then out to Wiscombe as spectators for a couple of hours – a novelty for Steve! Since he blew his gearbox up yesterday he had little choice

Anyway, back to the girls – over the past few weeks they’ve been involved with a mini-production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by the ‘Juniors’ of the Pinhoe Panto Society. Well, we thought it was a mini-production but actually it was pretty major! Considering how little time they’d had to rehearse it was an amazing show, with all the kids involved, some great singing and dancing too – and they all had such fun doing it, which was obvious in their enjoyment of the performance.

Afterwards all the panto families went and sat in the park and chatted while the kids played, lovely

Or: so much for less junk food this year! This week we’ve had a few muddly mealtimes as the girls have been rushing about to panto, and timings haven’t exactly been family-meal-friendly!

They had a technical rehearsal on Monday night, full dress rehearsal on Tuesday evening, then performances every night after that. I’ve been helping with the front of house for the past couple of evenings, but tonight we’re going to watch properly, along with Grandma, Grandpa and Robyn. There are some pictures on flickr but only for friends and family as they’re not my photos!

Panto has been great – loads of hard work but the girls have loved it. They’ve made friends and had fun, and I think it will be much like pregnancy – I’ll have forgotten about the niggles by the time the next one comes around and they want to do it again!

In the middle of it all, on Wednesday both Anna and Abbie sat entrance exams for St. Margaret’s – and we heard towards the end of the week that they’ve been offered a music scholarship and an academic award respectively – which is great news. We had toyed with the idea of applying for a specialist music school place for Anna but they’re all miles away which would have meant full time boarding, and we quite like her really, so actually we’re all very happy to abandon that plan and keep her at home, but in a school where she will have a peer group doing music at the same level that she is. So, not exactly sure yet when Anna will move but it might be soon, and Abbie will go in September.

So, back to panto – looking forward to a great night out watching it tonight. Tomorrow Orchestra starts again so no chance of a lie-in, but after the main orchestra rehearsal the girls have to miss Chamber to get back in time for the matinee. Then one more performance in the evening and it will all be over. Until next year … maybe!

Josiah is working on this Seitz Concerto at the moment, and I confess now that I am totally sick of it. It’s quite an interesting piece, I like the set of three Seitz pieces in Suzuki book 4, and I used to especially like this one, but now I just want to leave it behind! The double stopping in it is really hard and we’ve had at least the last four violin lessons totally devoted to it – about 6 weeks practicing it, and I can’t stand it any longer!

So, desperate measures have been called in: at each practice I will pay 1p per repetition if he does 1, 2p per repetition if he does 2, 3p per repetition if he does 3, etc. So therefore for 10 repetitions of the section he’s working on that day, I am paying a whole £1. I guarantee that if Joe does at least 10 repetitions a day at every practice for a week (usually 5 days when he actually practices) he will have the piece pretty much licked, so for £5 it’s totally worth it. And I’ll have a son who’s practicing happily, which is also worth paying for He’s meant to do that many a day anyway but usually we struggle to get to three. Today he did eleven

In other news here: very glad to get to Friday, although slightly disappointed that as usual the weekend looks jam-packed with not much time to catch up on washing and housework. Still, tonight I am vegging out with trashy magazines, flapjack and cups of tea. The excuse for the magazines, of course, is that Anna has art homework which is to make faces by making a collage of faces, so I needed something better than the AA magazine, Autotrader or the Caravan Club magazine for her to use!

The girls are out at a Panto rehearsal, and Abbie’s got a friend coming for a sleepover – think they will probably sleep as they’ll be tired after rehearsals. And this friend comes to orchestra too so nice and easy, no special arrangements to be made.

Tomorrow’s pretty busy too but I’ll write about it after the event …

Anna hit the grand old age of 11 yesterday, and we all enjoyed celebrating her birthday with her. She had a few presents in the morning, which she was very happy with. Then we went into town so that I could sort out her presents from us – a Build A Bear which she has been hankering after for ages (are you ever too old to secretly want one? I’m not!) but can never quite bring herself to spend her own money on, and a new bank account in her own name – complete with bank card which can be personalised so that’s an extra gift which will follow eventually. She was thrilled with all of that too!

Spent hours in Claire’s Accessories as a special concession (I usually operate a strict ’3 minutes and no more!’ policy in there!), and a few more shops along the way. Then we went to MacDonalds for lunch and managed to meet one of her best friends from school, so that was an added bonus! Meandered home via a few more shops where the girls both bought slippers that they needed.

At home we played beauty salons; the girls showered and I blow dried their hair (even made an effort with my own!) then they faffed around with nails and makeup ready to go out in the evening for our Christmas present pantomime.

It was a fantastic evening, the panto was great and Steve’s mum had sneaked to tell them it was Anna’s birthday so she got sung to in the middle of the show as well which was exceedingly embarrassing for her but funny for us! Afterwards we had fish & chips with Steve’s parents, then home to bed.

As an aside, and only because I quite like the photo of myself for once: Abigail wanted a locket, so we hunted around and found a nice one in H Samuel that she bought with some Christmas money. She then decided she wanted photos of me and Steve in it so we had to pose for her last night. Now to print them out small enough and try to fit them in!