just another morning here

Some artistic licence is required with today’s post, as despite an absolutely terrible morning with Joe we did actually manage some nice stuff too.

Started off with some pattern block play, and followed that with violin practice (surprisingly enough, this is where we skip a few details. How a 10 minute practice can sometimes last an hour and include so much stropping and rolling around the floor I never will know. And yet when he actually manages to play something he’s really good ). We talked about doing a bit more science; I produced some books for ideas and Josiah pronounced them ‘stupid’ without even looking at them. At which point I decided to call it a day and give up on him to do my own stuff instead.

Went to Sainsbury’s then into town for lunch with Steve at the garage. When we got home Josiah got his bike out again while I was hanging up washing (oops, forgot to bring it in) and fiddling around with old bikes that we’re giving away via freecycle. He did even better than yesterday – now confidently starting, stopping, and even turning corners! Then he came in and drew a bird from one of the Draw Write Now books, and managed to write one of the sentences from the page without too much trouble. The nice afternoon just about compensated for the awful morning!

The girls appeared home and we played Wii Sonic together for a bit before going to try and sort out the hamster – he’s made his nest under the wheel which is a bit daft really and I’m paranoid that he’s going to get too cold there. Still not sure he’s been persuaded to nest in the little house in the cage but there we go. The kids watched a dvd together and then we had a late tea.

Started with a pretty lazy weekend; on Saturday I did loads of laundry, Joe went to a party, and the rest of us ended up at the museum for an Animated Exeter workshop. Cunningly arranged to meet some friends there, so the girls went to the workshop while we sneaked off and had a drink in the cafe – there are definite advantages to having bigger children!

On Sunday we went into town again for the Games afternoon at the Phoenix. Along with a friend, we did the competition there which was to try and name the games/consoles from 20 screenshots taken from computer games since the 70s … don’t know how well we did on that, we still had gaps at the end … I obviously don’t have *that* much of a mis-spent youth as I could hardly name any of them.

Predictably, they had big screen Wii, which was sort of fun to watch. I have challenged Steve to make a wireless remote sensor bar for ours, so that we could play it on the projector here as well! Steve got to play Wii Tennis against another pro and completely thrashed him – shame they hadn’t organised a knockout tournament! If there is anyone out there who wants to take Steve on, you’re welcome – he is lamenting the fact that none of us can give him a proper game!

We all took a bit of time to look at the Peter & the Wolf exhibition – must see that animation, it looks good. Oh, and Anna & Joe got an autographed photo of Greedo, from actor Paul Blake at the Comic Expo. We are still slightly mystified that someone who, over 30 years ago, played a character who made him (the actor) unrecognisable, can be around signing autographs and selling photographs – but that’s Star Wars for you I suppose!

Our friend came back for the afternoon, we watched X Men III, then had dinner, and later on Steve and I dragged ourselves out for a pub quiz night with more friends which was great fun – although I am looking forward to the day when pubs aren’t smoky.

Monday was a washout; Anna had a friend around, we went to the supermarket, but that really was about it. Actually I think it had been raining solidly for three days, I’m pretty pleased to have had a dry day today, not that anyone’s been out much!

This morning we had pancakes for brunch, then have had the pleasure of Caitlin & Riona’s company for most of the day, which has generally been lovely and had the added advantage of getting homework done!

Did a bit of jewelry making until we ran out of elastic; Abbie finished off a bracelet from a set she started a couple of weeks ago now – it looks really good on.

That’s me up to date, I think. For the first time in almost a week I feel human again, so that’s reassuring! We have friends coming for dinner which I’m looking forward to, both friends we’ve known for ages separately, whose names are now happily rolling off my tongue together We’re planning to play a couple of board games together which should make for a nice evening.