Town & country & tents

This was a two child weekend, as Amy was off in Aylmerton on some kind of school trip typothing. Amy is by no means the noisiest of them - quite the opposite in fact - but it somehow seemed quieter without her. Jim and Min played relatively amiably with the Lego all Saturday morning, and after cheese on toast we all trooped off down Mill Road to the town and country fair on Parker's Piece. Reflected that a year ago we'd have had all sorts of hassle with making them walk that far, especially from Minnie, but now not the slightest murmur of dissent. I was also struck by how much Jim remembers - he recalled getting inflatable balls last year for ringing the bell with the hammer and going down the helter-skelter which was just there. I suppose these are significant events in his little life, but how much will he remember long-term? Today Celia's Hannah was practicing her French at the table before her dad picked her up and Jim remembered he had had French lessons at nursery, and could say "vert" and "bonjour". That must have been well over a year ago. Strange how it works.

It was windy, and the kids loved the big hamster balls and the inflatable boats. Ice cream and, in my case, half a cider, was had.

Jim had turned up on Friday with a father's day card saying "Dad I love you because you have lots of Playstation games" and a key fob which he had chosen himself, but this morning there was lots of furtive goings-on upstairs and requests for sellotape etc. He eventually emerged with a tiny wrapped present, which turned out to be a carefully-crafted cube of blu-tack, the tube from the centre of the wrapping paper, upon which he had written "daddaddaddaddaddad" and an envelope containing a big piece of paper saying, in his own fair hand "dad I [heart] you. You are the besd dad in the werld". Aww, bless. I should say at this point that earlier in the week I had got a present from Amy and Minnie for father's day, which was a t-shirt saying "keep calm and get the beers in". It was Amy's idea and I was incredibly touched that they had thought of me.

On Sunday we had a fairly lazy morning, but then Min went off to have lunch with her dad. In the meantime Jim and I put up my/our new tent, in which he and I are going to suffer in Fakenham in two weeks' time. He really likes it. When C had returned we went to the Pear Tree in Hildersham for my fathers day treat. Nice lunch, and Jim was spectacularly good without third-party distractions. He liked his fish and chips, and ate his own weight in ice cream.

Quick sojourn in Scotsdales to look at the fish then to pick up Min from Eddie's party. Jim had a bit of a temper tantrum about something to do with water pistols. Ok afterwards though.

Amy returned on Monday tired but happy, and having "not missed anyone at all". She brought rock for Jim and Min.

 

St Ives walk

Free weekend so we decided, amongst other trivia, to go for a walk around St. Ives. It was lovely, and we were very lucky with the weather. It also included a couple of good pubs and a Thorntons ice cream shop, so we thought it would be a good one to take the grandparents and/or children on.

 

Jubilee weekend

A four day weekend, thanks to our hereditary overlords yay! In brief, kids arrived Friday, Saturday was Min's party at the Funky Fun House, Sunday we drove to CC to Mum and Dad's, Monday was mostly taken up by a visit to Warwick Castle and then back to Cambridge on Tuesday. Jim was troublesome on Saturday, and on Sunday a bit too. He was having a great deal of trouble with it being Minnie's birthday and her being the centre of attention, and was disruptive at her party, was grumpy when her cake was brought out etc. There was a certain amount of indulgence going on, which doesn't make it any easier for him, but still, it was difficult for C in particular. Minnie doesn't notice, as far as I can tell. Jim needs correcting on this, but it has to be done with sensitivity, given his situation. He was fine by Monday though.

 

Warwick Castle was packed on Jubilee Monday, but we all enjoyed it. Jim loved the jousting, and we saw the trebuchet being fired. Some trauma because of not being able to get into either the Merlin Tower or the dungeon due to them being booked out. The latter caused Amy to go off in a strop and we had to put out an APB for her. Momentarily worrying, but she's old enough to look after herself now so not as worrying as it might have been. 

 

It was good to see the folks as always, and the kids seem quite at home there now. We watched the rainy Thames procession on Sunday and the concert the next day. Min woken up by next door's fireworks, but Jim slept straight through. I've always said he'd sleep through a war.

 

Home again on tues, and the girls went back to James at 5. Unusually, Jim stayed an extra night, and I sadly took him back Wednesday morning. Quite nice to have him on his own for a change. He is different - obviously less distracted and generally more amenable. I suppose that would be the same for any of them.

 Min's sheep hat

Jim v impressed with Warwick peacocks.

 The Black Knight!

Cycle slipper

Jim  was hopping around with both his feet stuffed into one of C's fluffy slippers. I told him it was a unislipper, and explained what that meant with reference to unicycles. He came back a little while later and told me he was still wearing his "cycle slipper"...

Canoe bickering

Nice day and no kidz, so we hit the river with Iano after a picnic on Mill green. We got a canoe for a change, and Caroline and I bickered all the way to Grantchester about who was making the thing go in the wrong direction. We'd got it sorted out by the time we came back though...

 

 

 

Lillie's party

Writing this a little late so can't really remember what we did. Jim had Lillie's party in Exning from 11 until 1 so we did that while the girls went to Kung Fu. Jim had a nice time at the party. He's a little shy to start with - there was an (annoying) entertainer who bade them all sit in front of him but Jim didn't want to. He wanted to sit with me at the side and watch from there. One other girl did the same, but he's not an instant joiner-inner like some of the kids. I don't think many of his close friends were there so maybe that's a factor. He warmed up after a while but occasionally complained that he goes to too many parties, so I shall bear that in mind next time one comes up... 

 

Can't remember what else we did. The house is full of hay and Lego though. Oh yes! We went to look at a house on Topcliffe Way [editor's note: we put an offer in and lost later in the week] Minnie liked it, Jim pronounced it "disgusting" before crossing the threshold and Amy said it reminded her of grandma-by-the-sea's house. Not in a good way I suspect.

 

Spendy Saturday

Put the kids to bed last night after a mixed sort of evening. Amy and Jim strangely grumpy - Amy because of tiredness and sats we think, and Jim because of the usual adjustment issues. This morning though everything was fine. A minor fracas over the Playstation was escalated somewhat by Amy but she calmed down, the little ones made cookies and all was well. A bit later we went in to town to get a present for Lillie's party tomorrow and ended up in Clarks buying shoes for all the children. Jim only has one pair of shoes and they are horribly worn. I wanted a pair of "home" shoes for non-school use so had his feet measured by the space-age QinetiQ machine and got him a pair of trainers. On reflection I was rather shocked by the state of his school ones so I got a pair of those as well. G will be pleased of course. Minnie got some trainers as well which were a bit big so she had insoles. Jim wanted "insults" in his shoes too. Got a Harry Potter DVD and came home via the car wash. Lazy rest of the afternoon for the kids while I assembled Amy's new desk and C did the tea, but I managed to catch most of the film. Jim very bouncy, but this could be to do with a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate buttons on top... C out for Giulz's part tonight, me watching Bayern vs Chelsea Champion's League final like a slob.