Project 366 Week 27

This week’s roundup is a little late: we’ve been camping. It transpires they don’t have internet in Coppices. I am still reeling.

 

Sunday: a super day starting with time on the Beach with Lord, Lady and the Hon. S, then lunch and a doze on the sofa. I love a doze on the sofa. An easy journey back to Bromley where The Girls stayed up late- they shouldn’t have had a doze on the sofa- until I had finished blogging.

Monday was the usual mix of fun and noise. The Au Pair took my babies to dancing whilst I ran a few errands without them: shoes for the Godlings, nighties for LBG and Care Bear t-shirts all round. Shopping is so much easier without small children but the bags are surprisingly heavy if you are carrying them yourself! Granny was duly collected and came bearing new cardies. I never cease to be amazed by my daughters’ love of cardies, especially if they fall within the Holy Spectrum of Pink. Granny knows best!!

On Tuesday I took LBG to school, along with her teddy, to attend a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. It really wasn’t picnicking weather though. And then it was on with Dimples to cooking, working quite hard to control her from being rude about the Au Pair. The poor girl is really tying to be friendly but Dimples is a stubborn as her mother. After school I abandoned them both to her ministrations whilst I went out and that seemed to work better: the trick is to not be in the house. That I can manage!

The added bonuses to the Au Pair were evident when, randomly, LBG counted to ten in French on Wednesday morning whilst I was getting her cereal: An, Deux, Quoi……It seems her pronunciation may need work, but even so, it was enough to bring a tear to my eye. After getting up close and personal with a bunch of bloggers in London,  I went out for dinner with DH, French Hannah and a handful of other ‘young people’, wondering if they would be singing the Marsellais on my return. As it was, I found them asleep. I was exhausted. Young people just make you feel old: one of the guys tonight didn’t know that Soda Streams weren’t a ‘new’ thing but had been around since before his birth in *pauses for effect* 1989. I know!!!

Suffice to say that once I had dispatched The Girls to school, I was desperate for a nap. Sadly it was an injection of caffeine at the Lavender House before going back to school to attend Thursday’s Kindergarten Sports Day. The skies had cleared by then so that you could see everything clearly: the children sat quietly in the shade of an awning awaiting their turn, the parents rotated so that they all got a chance to be at the front to witness their child’s performance. And I saw nothing. LBG was a reluctant competitor, and sat out her races, whilst my heart was breaking on the far side of the field, watching the tears roll down her cheeks. I did what any mother would do and volunteered for public humiliation in the Mother’s Race: expecting uber-competitive mums, I was surprised to find that there were none and that, even if there had been, the race required balancing bean bags on heads and jumping through hoops, which definitely took the edge off speed being the only skill needed. Back home I had a restorative nap, then collected LBG, now proudly sporting a medal, and friend, and brought them home to play in the afternoon sunshine. All too soon I had to take Little Friend home, this time in heels, as I headed off to DH Work’s Summer Drinks party where I *may* have consumed one too many Peach Bellinis.

Unsurprising then that I should have a sore head on Friday. And whilst I gathered things for our camping trip, the rain poured outside. And yet, after lunch, it brightened up wonderfully so that, by the time we had battled the Battle traffic and made it to our campsite, I was worried that I hadn’t packed enough summer clothes! The tent (a Vango Icarus 600, since you asked) was up in a jiffy and we all had a yummy supper of chicken, potatoes and sweetcorn, followed by barbecued banana, chocolate and marshmallow parcels. Yum.

It rained overnight so the grass was wet on Saturday morning, but The Girls were delighted to find that friends had arrived overnight: two boys their ages, which made the play area in the centre of the Coppice an even better proposition. We took a trip to Bodiam Castle, enjoying lunch at the tearoom surrounded by scavenging ducks and getting driven back to our car on the Buggy Service, driven by someone referred to as Stig- complete with white helmet. Back to the tent for naps, reading and playing, then supper, bouncing on the beds with the boys and running each other ragged until all the children fell into bed exhausted. DH and I weren’t very far behind.