Down to two!

It's not uncommon for there to be just the three of us home, as A travels sporadically but at the moment quite frequently with work, and indeed on Wednesday morning left to go to Amsterdam and didn't get home until gone midnight on Friday night.  Most of Friday was about getting K sorted, ready and packed and at about 6pm on Friday, M and I dropped K off at Scout camp. 

M helping K with her stuff.

So Friday evening it was just the two of us.  I asked M what she'd like to do, suggesting a dvd, a game, a book or an evening walk and she chose the walk.  We headed off to a playground for a while, before going for a wander to another playground, where among other things we played hopscotch.  After that, I pointed in the general direction of home and suggested that M try to get us there.  We ended up going past N's house, the friend K chose to take with us to the theatre in London for her birthday treat.  She happened to be in the garden and saw us and came to say hello and then immediately said 'Thank you for taking me to see Matilda the Musical!' (it was back in October!).  Her mum saw us through the window and came out too to say hello and also ask for my phone number, as she'd lost her contacts a while back.  She a
sked if we'd like to come in for a cuppa, but it was getting a bit late by then, so we headed home - M managed very well, with only one nudge in the right direction before we came to somewhere she recognised.

On Saturday, M went shopping with A in the morning and as we'd already agreed that we could go to Funky Pots I suggested that she give them a ring to make sure they weren't all booked up.  She was a bit reluctant, but did and managed to do so, she booked us in and gave them my mobile number as a contact.  After lunch, A went off to play in the first cricket match of the season, and M and I got bikes out and went to paint some pots!  I had told M that I would give her £5 towards something (which is enough for a small thing), but she would need to top up if she wanted to do more than one small thing or anything bigger. 

Bowl and cow with a chipped ear by M and bowl by me.

While paying we had a bit of a rant with the lady who worked there about these specifically and the genderisation of toys in general.

After we'd finished painting, M & I went to watch A play cricket for a while.  It was an away match, but unlike most of them still local enough to get to without the car.  It was tea when we arrived and then A's team went into bat.  He's one of the openers but unfortunately or fortunately, depending which way you look at it, he didn't last long, so he and M went and had a bowl in the nets together, after M & I had done a bit of throwing and catching.  We headed home after for takeaway curry for tea and M & I watched a David Attenborough dvd while we had it on our laps.

Today we had arranged to meet up with friends, R & A.  We took the girls' bikes and went to Rushcliffe Country Park for them to go on the BMX track.  M had had a go once before but it was A's first time.  After a slightly nervous start and a fall (she didn't hurt herself fortunately) on her first go, they both had a whale of a time.

M on the track.

We had a break for an ice-cream and a wander and headed off to Gibby's Wood, where M & A disappeared into the trees, while R & I sat on a bench and chatted for a while, before we returned for a few more goes on the BMX track and to watch some of the older ones on the ramps doing mind-boggling things such as somersaults for a little while by which time it was time to head home.  It was incredibly busy at the country park, which on the one hand is really good to see so many people out making use of the fantastic outdoor space and facitilies, but on the other, there were loads of people there!


I asked M this evening if she'd had a good weekend and she said she had, but that it would have been better if K had been here too.  I went upstairs to give her a bedtime hug and found her reading aloud the poem Macavity: The Mystery Cat from T S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.