I kicked B off her puter to play with the smalls while I had my shower, and when I got out they were happily engaged in building a cubby in the back garden. I figured that a picnic might entice them to stay out there longer, so I cooked them mini quiches in bread cases, and mini muffin pizzas, and gave them those and a selection of cold stuff. It would have been nicer had there been less argufying over who ate what food that didn’t belong to them *sigh*

A friend’s FB update gave me the idea to use up the sad neglected plaster of Paris in the craft cupboard by entombing some of their dinosaurs for a  surprise fossil dig tomorrow. But can I be arsed, is the eternal question? Maybe we should make handprint moulds of all the kids instead… I found some tips on using PofP here.

K and B were still glumping at each other, so I caught K’s imagination with the idea of making noisemakers to hang in the trees so she could whack them when she felt grumpy. I got the idea here after a random desperate google for inspiration. We made two of them, then I suggested making punched-tin candle lanterns instead. But that was too painful to make more than one. And we can’t find the tealights anyway. B was on her computer, having declined to play outside any longer. H put Flurf in the mei tai and pottered around outside. B and I had a HUGE bust-up and yelled at each other then had a good cry and worked things out. I finally managed to convince all the kids to come out with me and tidy up their detritus, which refusal had been the trigger for the huge melt-down, so in that sense things improved afterwards, except that now I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck…