Easter weekend

Jim and the girls arrived Saturday evening this weekend. I hadn't seen Jim for a couple of weeks due to his trip to Tenerife but G still delivered him late. It was, apparently, important that they had a roast dinner in the evening despite his having spent the last 10 days or so with them. Anyway, he was so incited to get to ours that he didn't go to sleep until ten o'clock - an almost unprecedented occurrence. Nice that he seems so happy to be here though. He also seemed to have a very nice time in Tenerife and there was a picture of him with some dolphins at the water park. He's been on about dolphins ever since.

Sunday morning we headed off to Bournemouth in the exmax and were there in 3 fairly untroublesome hours, including a car picnic. Grandma Jane and Grandpa John's house strangely familiar but although Jim is now in a frame with the girls I am still not graced with a picture to replace or complement the one of James. I am slightly offended by this, but not for any really good reason. The day was good enough (i.e. not raining) for an easter egg hunt in the garden and a trip to the beach, where the kids made sandcastles and seemed impervious to the cold. I paddled and it was ok once I lost all feeling in my feet. Back to the house to the huge box of geomag, a warming bath (we used too much water) and roast beef for dinner. All the children did well, but Minnie definitely has a different mode there - she knows what the expectations are. We had to request the central heating was turned on so we didn't all die of hypothermia, and I turned the bedroom radiators on. Probably a capital offence, and I forgot to turn them off when we left... 

 Monday was horrible - rainy and windy. Children happy and bouncy in the morning though. Caroline and I left them for a bit and went out for a short walk. We ended up buying wine from Marks & Spencer and various oddments from Lakeland. Later, Caroline's step sister Ann and her kids Matthew (11 and trouble - apparently mostly interested in breaking things) and Lucy (a precocious 13 but good with Jim) came round for lunch. In the afternoon it had cleared up sufficiently to go to a local woodland park, which was excellent. Kids loved it and Jim really didn't want to go home. Calm and happy bedtime. C coping well with being at the olds' house.

Tuesday was a much better day, but we had promised the kids a swim at the local pool. It was awful bedlam but I was happy to wallow in the training pool while Minnie and Jim messed about and Amy and Caroline went in the big pool. Then lunch and home via vile Starbucks coffee at South Mimms and an unpopular stop-off at the Bury Lane garden centre, tempered by a go at the pick and mix. This despite them having eaten their weight in chocolate over the last few days. The pigz were still alive, hurrah, and all was well despite some slight stroppiness from Jim in the afternoon. I'm reading Harry Potter to him at the moment and were at an exciting bit, so I read for too long and didn't put his light off until just before 9. I've been wondering if relatively late nights in the holidays would make him wake up later, but apparently not. They were up and about at 6.45 as per usual this morning.

Weds: I am writing this on the coach on the way back from a work trip to the GE Energy HQ at Bracknell. Jim still at home, hopefully behaving himself, and in a change from the usual routine the girls are going back tonight and Jim is staying until tomorrow morning. It has been great to see him for a few solid days - our little family is working really well now and everyone seems content. C and I talking about moving to gain more space, but we're both a little conflicted about it. The market seems to be moving a bit, and nice houses are coming up, but the question is about what sort of place we want to live in, and how much we want to (comparatively) impoverish ourselves...