Monday, October 25, 2004

Catching Up - again!!

School trips and birthdays - it's all been happening here!!

Not sure really where I'm up to, put save to say - all the best laid plans have been laid to waste!! I'm feeling too ill in the mornings (well until about 2pm really) to do much and Ellie has been up in the night, stuffed up with cold, for a few nights too. So despite planning to work last week we really didn't do much and all my fabulous library books lay unopened on the bookshelves :( Still the children didn't seem to mind too much having a few extra days off!!

Tuesday afternoon we went to play at my Swedish friend's house (she must be crazy!) and it was good to see how well her little girl (5) is doing with learning English. they have only been here a couple of months and she was managing to communicate really well with my children. They had a great time playing 'Peter-Pan' together and dressing up (well the girls did!). Very educational - 'Cross-Cultural studies' !

On Wednesday I spent the morning sorting through the remainder of the girls wardrobe - filtering out the summer clothes and the things that have been out-grown - while the boys hung around asking "are we doing any school today Mummy?" - I think they were struggling to think of anything to do, but I was struggling enough to get my job finished, let alone have to occupy/school them too. I handed them a pile of games from the cupboard that they could play with the girls too (Tumbling Monkeys, Pair-Bears &, Funny Faces) and that kept them occupied until lunch time and had a little education value (well PSE - "getting along together" - if nothing else!!) .

Thursday I helped out at our church 'Clothes Sale' - where we sell off loads of clothes (another reason for my finishing my sort out on Wednesday) and other 'odds & ends' at 20p a piece in aid of a charity called 'Lifelink' that supports Elim Missionaries (and in turn developing world projects). We managed to raise £71 this time - which is the most we have raised for a long time. Anything we don't sell goes on to the Women's refuge as emergancy clothing, so it gets put to good use whatever.

Friday - no school day anyway and end of half-term!! :)

Saturday - no tennis - ballet as usual - no swimming this week. Then in the eveing we took 7 children (together with 6 adults) bowling & to MD's for Joel's birthday party. We all had a "ball" !! Ellie and Phoeb's went to Helen's so that kept them happy too.

'spare'


'spare' 2


Spare celebrations!


team work!


Nice!


Bro's chatting


The Pro Bro's


Two wise Monkey!! (Joel & Dom)


The rest of the gang



Sunday was Joel's birthday - 6 already!! So the day began at 7am with cards and presents and a very excitedly happy little boy :) Then off to church wearing his new England Kit (this is exceptional as I usually like them to dress smart, but I couldn't be that mean today!) Home to his favourite lunch of Jacket Potatos with fried chicken in (nice and easy that one) and a 'Formula One' birthday cake. Normally I try to make their cakes, but I confess I wasn't up to it this time ;)

Today - lots of playing with new toys and getting cross at anyone else who wanted to join in - especially when it came to shariing his new Magnetix set - oooh - major stroppiness there - even when I wanted to play!! In fact the children spent most of the day bickering (usual holidays style), while I hid at the PC and installed Windows SP2 (which took a while!!) and Office SP2 (another while!!) and Mum cleaned my bathrooms for me (which took her all day - they weren't that bad - she just is not a very efficient person and always takes an age to do everything!! But I couldn't face the job, so better her take all day at it than me not do it at all :) ).

Then swimming; Jacob has gone up to Level 7 already - WOW!! Joel is staying put at Level 3 for now, but has made a good improvement according to his teacher.



7 comments:

Sarah said...

Think we'll let you off the birthday cake - sounds like you've been doing loads despite feeling ill. Happy Birthday to Jacob!

Sarah said...

aargh! I mean Happy Birthday to Joel!! (don't go naming #6 anything beginning with J now, will you?? ;) )

Caroline said...

I wasn't planning to...it gets confusing around here at times too! We did think at the time we named him that it might, but decided we like 'Joel Isaac' too much to let it pass for that reason. :)

I may have been busy, but not really done much with the kids I feel - but I don't think it hurts them once in a while to have to amuse each other - after all - there are plenty of them!! They can pick & choose who they play with even at home ;)

Sarah said...

hmm, that's exactly how we ended up with two 'A' names as well. Having chosen 'Anna' over 'Hannah' only because my french relations could say it better we then ummed and aahed for ages over Abigail, but it had to be that way - she's Abigail Ruth and it just didn't work the other way round!

We would have ended up with countless 'J' names for boys if we hadn't decided to stop at 3, too - we had a baby that we lost called Joel, now we have Josiah, and the only other name ever in the offing was Jonathan!

So anyway, I'm not really one to point the finger ;) Don't suppose you've got names sorted out yet in any case - or have you?!?!

Caroline said...

You and I must share similar taste in names! My Abigail is Abigail Ruth too! Phoebe was nearly Phoebe Anna, but when I discovered Anna meant 'Grace' , I decided Phoebe Grace worked better! Josiah is a name I love and I have often envied your having a son with that name, but Paul is not so keen, but he may concede it as a second name!! Lily is the one name I adore - but have never been allowed so far :( Aaron is a possibility for a boy. Hannah has always been a name we like, but doesn't fit with 'Hampton' too well (h,h,h...) Rachel is an option now we no longer live in the south (Essex) and stand the risk of it being shortened to "Raaaaych" - but we've a while to underline just yet!! But I live in fear she might marry a Kevin. A crowd of friends and I (in my teen years) once named some worms "RachKev" "ShazDaz" & "DebsDave" for a giggle!!

Sarah said...

Hah! Very funny. Steve actually chose Josiah's name while we were at Bible College, and because we both liked Joe as well I was really happy with it - plus it has an excellent meaning 'the Lord Supports' which is just what I needed through the whole pregnancy having lost Joel beforehand. Anyway, I'm wittering now - but if the scans had been wrong and Josiah had been a girl he would have been Rachel!

Caroline said...

very interesting, but why Jon??