*slaps self*
Tuesday 4th
We had been planning to go to a farm open day but weren’t too sure if our car would be up to it, so I had a sleep in then stayed at home with H while E took the munchkins for a picnic to Commonwealth Park. There was feeding of ducks and playing in castles and suchlike.
Wednesday 5th
JB meet in the morning, to which we were late because I was waiting to find out the result of my bid for a bulk lot of nine Arthur Ransome novels. We won! B is very excited, having fallen in love with the movie. I talked to Maple about the AP playgroup she is now involved in, and I think I will make an effort to take K and H there on Wednesdays, at least on off-playgroup weeks. We might keep going to story time on the other weeks.
In the evening we got excited about the US coming to its senses. Hurrah!
Friday 7th
B and K were both inspired by me having the sewing machine out, so B made a cloth rattle for H, and K asked me to show her how to sew and made a bag, which she sent to Nannie Frog. B and I both wrote letters to her, and we posted everything off in the afternoon when we went to the mall to go to the supermarket. B and I had a horrible bust up over K sitting on the loaf of bread in the trolley when B was supposed to be supervising and yelled at each other all the way home. Grah. There were apologies and cuddles but it was Not Nice.
They watched The Railway Children, which was the other movie on the disk with Swallows and Amazons, and I told B about how much I had loved E Nesbit’s writing when I were young.
Saturday 8th
We went out to the farm for H’s birthday celebration, dropping into Carpet Choice on the way to look at laminate floorboards. We ate yummy food then eventually B went out to groom Smoko, and ended up in tears because he was playing silly buggers and refusing to be caught. Apparently he went on playing silly buggers when she went for a ride on him after we’d left, but fortunately it did not involve her falling off. B found some of my old E Nesbit books and poked about in them, but I don’t think she is reading any. She came home with Little Town on the Prairie, having forgotten it at the farm a while ago, but I’m not sure what she’s reading at the moment. I’m pretty sure she has finished Born to Run.
Sunday 9th
PC Rally Day.
Monday 10th
B was dropped off at around 9am, then E took her to pottery and I picked her up after German. We went op shopping, and I bought her a skirt, a couple of Sooper Seekrit things for Christmas, and a book about puberty, most of which she has already read. She used most of her pocket money to buy a Barbie, despite not having played with the ones out in the shed for probably a year. Then we came home and B pottered about, pootered, declined my reminder to do any workbooks, and went to the park with E and the other munchkins. K fell off her bicycle after zooming down the hill onto the bridge, and scraped her elbow. B ended up taking the dog for a walk because she escaped and had to be recaught, so B decided that she needed more exercise. We had roast chook and the works for H’s birthday and B came home just as I was dishing up. Afterwards there was a quick bath for grubby munchkins, followed rapidly by bedtime, and I sewed some more of K’s crown and B and I snuggled on the couch a bit before she went to bed.
Tuesday 11th
I spent the whole morning obsessively researching my Tasmania holiday and being short with the kids *blush* B did loads of workbooks, played on the computer, pottered around in the garden with K, went swimming with Nannie, then out to the farm. They are now trialling dropping her off at Scouts (so that next term their close neighbour, who used to be in B’s cub troop but whose parents can’t get him there any more, can go back to Scouts again) and we’ll pick her up afterwards. They’re going sailing this week, apparently.
E took K and H to the park again, and they tied a rope to the back of K’s bike so she couldn’t go too fast and fall off again, which she considered to be an adequate solution to her fears.