The whole show was very well done as usual, but the stars of the show for me were two of Abbie’s friends who played Cinderella’s mice, Bubble and Squeak. They were simply brilliant throughout and sang their song (Anything you can do I can do better) stunningly! It was fab that the producer/musical director wrote in the cello song; another of Anna’s friends in the chorus did some proper pointe ballet as part of that piece too – so everyone’s talents were involved even if they didn’t have a main part. Oh and the little ones were just gorgeous – there were a lot of them and they looked so, so sweet on a number of occasions!

Josiah, as usual, was serious throughout and said at the end ‘well, all pantomimes are just the same, aren’t they?’!!

Can’t say I’m sorry it’s over, though, as the girls can do with their time back. We’ve said that Anna has to have a year off next year for exams but I can see me dithering about that when the time comes because they do enjoy it so much and get so much out of it. Anyway. Tomorrow is a catch-up-with-homework day as a result of a very very busy week.

We got home to find upheaval at home as Steve had decided to make some, erm, home improvements. The less said the better, as I was unprepared for this and I find the upheaval of his changes rather unsettling, to say the least.

Photos to follow …

Saturday was workish – garage for Steve, choir/orchestra/Suzuki group/schoolwork/housework as appropriate for the children and me – but the sun came out so it’s all felt lovely. We ended the day with friends over for Abbie and Joe; Anna baked cakes, and we played Amy Grant loudly In the evening we went out for the last night of And The Beat Goes On. Great entertainment, nice to see Anna playing all night long. She’s talking about ‘next time’, I’m thinking that when it comes around again (they’re every other year) she’ll be in her GCSE year so perhaps not – but we’ll see …

Sunday has been another happy day – Steve went out hillclimbing. His goal was to take back the class record but he only came second in his class today. Apparently if he hadn’t run out of fuel on one of his timed runs he would have done it Joe had a day at the Cathedral, and I went to the morning service, which was a Jazz Mass – they’ve had jazz/gospel events on all weekend. It sounded amazing, the choristers really enjoyed themselves, and I did too. The girls have pottered, tidying their room and got homework and music practices done. Oh, and I went geocaching – found 25 today I think. A beautiful day for it, and we had dinner out as well which was an unexpected bonus

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

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!

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 …

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.

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!