Project 366, Week Twenty-One

Week 21 started well: The Girls and I headed up to town to watch A Monster in Paris with Granny and we had a fabulous time, but boy were we exhausted when we got home. They are currently redesigning Bromley South Station to include lifts and I tell you they cannot come soon enough: I’ve spent the past four years schlepping pushchairs up and down the stairs to the train and I will be so grateful not to have to do it any more. No doubt by the time the lifts are up and running, I will no longer have need of a pushchair.

On Monday, none of us were particularly keen to get going with the day. In fact, when I awoke at a remarkable 8.15am, I was sharing the bed with both girls, each of whom were pinning one of my arms to the mattress. DH was nowhere to be seen. So we had a slow start to our week. Even Granny came to us, although that’s more to do with the works going on at her house than our laziness!

The school week began again on Tuesday, and I left my sad little girl to tell her friends of the weekend’s Head Trauma whilst I shipped Dimples off to cooking. I suspect that she is giving up her naps, as she didn’t fall asleep en route home as she usually does. In fact it wasn’t until after we had eaten lunch, played in the garden and picked up her sister, that she eventually crashed on the sofa.

Despite her late nap she still thankfully slept all night and went off to school on Wednesday morning as well-rested as she could be. She insisted on wearing a dress. I caught up with a friend and her growing baby, in between running errands and answering emails. By late afternoon it was jolly warm and LBG, DH and I all enjoyed an ice-cream after the school run. The weather was still lovely enough for DH to break out the barbecue whilst I put The Girls to bed. We both ate in the garden, enjoying the summery evening, marvelling at how the garden has changed since we moved in four years ago.

The heat continued overnight- made more bearable as DH helpfully got the fans down from the attic- so that I had to dispatch both Girls to their respective schools smothered in sunscreen. I whisked off to the Mum’s coffee morning bearing some yummy treats and ended up talking about Burlesque shows. Even though I ran errands and helped a friend with her tricky Facebook account, I still had  a chance to sit and enjoy the sun, because LBG was off on a playdate. They were both exhausted by the time they came home- a combination of their busy school weeks and the heat. I spent the evening in front of the fan, unable to bring myself to test out the iron I had been sent to review!

More lovely weather greeted us on Friday, though we ironically spent a good chunk of the morning in a photographic studio hidden from the World. Lunch at a cafe followed by naps restored my wilting children enough for them to enjoy their weekly ballet class. And then we came home to get ready for our Beach House trip. The heat seemed to have an adverse effect at this point- The Girls seemed to go mad, behaving badly, hurting each other and winding me up. In the end Dimples was sent to bed for her behaviour and LBG certainly sat quietly as we waited for Daddy to get home, hampered as he was by train delays. Eventually we set off, both girls very excited to be testing our ‘borrowed’ in-car-DVD system in advance of our trip to France for half-term.

Saturday morning started at 5.51am with the sun streaming in, despite the thick curtains. I managed to persuade LBG, who was in my bed and Dimples who, bizarrely, was sleeping on the floor at the foot of my bed, that it wasn’t time to get up yet and the next thing I knew it was 9am. Fortunately DH had sorted The Girls out because only a few minutes later The Cousins arrived for the weekend and we threw them all in the Beach Buggy and headed to the sand. A glorious day of sun, sand and ice-cream was had by all, and we were all ready for bed when it came.