New friends and old ones.

Having been rather disappointed at getting a boring beige splint rather than a colourful cast or one you could draw on, M took matters into her own hands, using ribbon and some flat beads.

M's jazzed up splint.

On Friday our new neighbours moved into the house opposite and on Saturday the girls and I got chatting with the mum H and daughter L, who is M's age (just turned 9).  The conversation turned to schools, as it inevitable seems to when you talk about the ages of children, and H mentioned that they have not managed to get a school place sorted for L yet, at which K was practically jumping up and down with excitement and suggesting home ed!  H took it in very good part, although it's not something that they're considering for their family.

On Sunday afternoon K & M went to see if L would like to play, which she clearly did as they still hadn't come home a couple of hours later.  I went over the road partly to say please do send them home when you've had enough of them and also to say hello again and if I'm honest have a nose!  I ended up stopping and joining them in a new house glass of champagne.  They seem lovely and the children had clearly hit it off really well and were already asking about a sleepover by the time I dragged them home for tea.

Today we went to Nottingham University's Summer Scientist week for the third or fourth time (and sadly in K's case the penultimate time) and met up with old friend J & A, who were there for the first time.  We used to see them fairly regularly, but since A decided to give school a try, which is clearly working for her, we haven't seen them for a quite a while.  The girls didn't see much of each other during the session, as they kept disappearing upstairs to take part in the various experiments, but J & I had a good catch up.  J also came up with a good suggestion for M since she can't do the two days of gymnastics that she was supposed to be doing next week.  So now, while K is doing gymnastics, M is going to do some more drama, this time at Nottingham Playhouse with A.  I hadn't managed to come up with any ideas of what she and I could do and had anticipated a couple of days of a very glum M brooding on what she can't do at the moment, so I'm rather relieved to have this sorted!

Cat-tastic!

Today was the final day of preparation and the performance of the Show in a Week that K & M have been working towards all week.  From when I dropped them off on Monday and spoke to one of the coaches to say that K & M didn't think that they would want to perform but would just want to do back stage things, to the performance today when they took part on stage fully with everyone else, including a verse of Macavity the Mystery Cat just the two of them.  We got two free tickets to the show for each of them, so we had a couple of spare ones.  K & M had really wanted MC to come, as she but unfortunately that wasn't possible as she had to head home to Leeds on Wednesday.  After that they had a think and decided that they wanted to ask three friends, C and R & A (mum & daughter).  C already had plans, but R & A were returning home from their holiday in the afternoon and said they'd would like to come, which K & M were very pleased about.

The CAT-Tastic programme

A mix of song, movement & dance and poems.

K

M

They both professed to be a bit nervous, but you really couldn't tell.  They did their bit of the poem really well, clearly and without any hesitation.  And most importantly they really enjoyed themselves.  They have both already decided that they do want to do another of these next year.

Mostly me!

After a really rather stressful day yesterday, today was a lovely contrast.  After dropping the girls off at the theatre I walked on to check out Knit Nottingham, but when I found that it opened at 10.30 rather than 10 o'clock as I thought, I carried on walking and happened to come across a spa-y sort of place with a board outside saying £9 for half an hour pampering.  When K & M decided that they wanted to do the Show in a Week, which would give me a whole five days without them from 10am - 4pm and I had commented that I 'wouldn't know what to do with myself' and they had said that I could go for a massage, which I thought was a very good idea, so I went in booked a back massage.  The earliest they could do was midday, so I headed back down the road and loitered at a busstop for a while until the yarn shop opened.  I spent over an hour in there chatting with the very helpful owner, and bought some yarn and a pattern for my first attempt at crocheting an item of clothing, before going for a very good and exceedingly good value massage.

Pattern and yarn.

I then pootled through town, bought a top for half price in the sale in Fat Face, treated myself to something from Hotel Chocolat and caught the bus home.  On the way home from the bus, I got caught in a pretty hard downpour, but I was feeling so relaxed and it was the sort of summer rain that smells really good, that it was rather lovely.  I had time for a leisurely lunch and cuppa before I had to head back into town to pick up the girls.  We had to go and buy them a pair of black leggings for the show, which fortunately was a quick and easy job as they are both shattered. 

This evening K & M both learned more lines (which they continue to be given, even though the show is tomorrow evening!) and also had a look at this link, which has xrays of joints as they move and we talked briefly about how we'd talked about the different types of joints e.g. ball & socket and hinge joints when we looked at bones as part of our human body project.

A dramatic time (in all sorts of ways)

Despite a newly broken wrist, there was never any question in M's mind that she would still be going to the drama workshop every day this week.  She was and still is at times really down about not being able to do any sports for the next month or so, particularly the two days of gymnastics in a couple of weeks time.  So on Monday with a bit of trepidation, after a night of very disturbed sleep, I dropped my girls off at Nottingham Arts Theatre for the first day of the Show in a Week Theatre Skills workshop with their pack lunches, which included a paracetamol in M's case! 

After returning home, I later headed back out to collect my lovely friend from uni, MC, who came for a visit, from the station.  We had the leisure to have a lovely catch up chat (it had been far too long!) over a cuppa and plum cake before going to pick up the girls.  We discovered that the show that they are putting on is a variety show on the theme of cats, mostly T S Eliot/Cats the Musical and the girls had some things to learn and that they knew one other person there through home ed, Ma.

MC & the girls had their turn for a catch up and a game of Destination Hogwarts while I made tea and we also introduced her to The Flumps, we feel it necessary to introduce MC to important things that she missed out on as a child as she's American.  She also helped the girls with their lines, which was very helpful.

On Tuesday, MC & I dropped the girls off again and spent the day in town pootling around the shops (mostly charity shops and bookshops - I have recently learned that there is an admitted relatively new bookshop that I didn't know existed in Nottingham!).  After we'd picked up K & M, on arriving home and finding a parcel, which contained a dvd which a friend had promised to lend the girls (thank you Z!), we introduced MC to The Wombles!

We had such a wonderful time with MC, she's a brilliant guest and such an uplifting person to have around generally and she says such lovely things about my girls and indeed me.  K & M adore her, as evidenced by the fact that she was welcome to stay and listen to a chapter of the bedtime story that K is reading to M (they've moved on to Pippi Longstocking), something I would never be allowed to do!

Today, sadly we had to say goodbye to MC, but we have both promised that we won't leave it as long before we meet up again.  It was rather a stressful day after that though unfortunately.  M had her appointment at the fracture clinic, so I needed to go and pick her up from the theatre.  Just as I was arriving I had a phone call to tell me that both K & M had got rather upset about parts at the drama workshop and K, who had clearly calmed down, burst into tears when she saw me, it was obviously a good idea to have done so.  If I hadn't been picking M up, it would probably have been worked through by the end of the day.  I think it's partly disappointment at only getting a line each to speak in the poem that they'd been working on, when a few of the teenagers had much bigger chunks.  K hasn't wanted to talk about it, but I did get M's version on the way to the hospital.  They have both (with MC's help) worked very hard on learning lines and certainly were given the impression that this would have a bearing on the allocation of parts although it doesn't seem to have been the case.  I think possibly expectations could have been managed a bit better, the fact that it's a variety show rather than a play means that parts are much less clear cut, but since certainly M and I think K are talking about doing another of the Shows in a Week next year, I think things are okay, although they have both said they'd rather do a play next time.  

I got rather stressed twice over parking this afternoon, first trying to find somewhere to park at the hospital for M's appointment at the fracture clinic but we found one and made it in time in the end.  We had a bit of a wait before M saw the doctor, then had the temporary cast taken off and replaced by a splint.  This was something of a disappointment, as it is neither colourful nor can it be drawn on and I think it'll take a bit of getting used to as well.  She is also still really quite down about not being able to do sport for the next month.  She has to keep the splint on for 3 weeks, after which time she can swim but not do any other sport for another 2 weeks, which means missing out on the two days of gymnastics at the end of the month that she had really been looking forward to, as well as the start of the new term of korfball and the end of the cricket season.

The boring splint.

One area of stress was alleviated greatly thanks to B and her delightful daughter, Ma, who was my back up in case of not making it back in time to pick up K from drama, she and K were going to go to a cafe to wait until M and I got back.  We made it in plenty of time though, so I took all three girls for a treat instead, but then I got a bit stressed about getting back to the car in time to the point that I shepherded the girls out and forgot to pay! They were very nice about it fortunately when they called down the street to ask if I'd paid.  It was supposed to be swimming tonight, but both girls are absolutely shattered from the long days and especially in M's case early starts.  Apart from Sunday night she hasn't needed pain relief during the night, but her wrist is apparently 'like an alarm clock' and has been waking her up between 6 and half past.  M is allowed to take her splint off to bath and wash, but it hurt too much when we tried that so we left it on and took it off later very briefly to wash just her (admittedly rather grubby) hand, but even that was very painful, so I'm hoping she'll manage a decent night's sleep.

Oh dear!

Friday and Saturday were both lovely days.  On Friday K & M had a friend over for the afternoon while her mum took her little sister to a birthday party.  The three girls played beautifully, building dens with sofa cushions and being pirates among other things, while I pottered about doing various little jobs and making plum muffins.

On Saturday, while A went off to play cricket, the girls and I first popped round to see our friend C.  I had made a chocolate orange cake specially with her in mind (wheat and dairy free) earlier in the week, but not quite soon enough to take along to her party.  We had eaten most of it, but wanted to make sure she had some too!  We didn't know if she'd be there, but she was and we ended up going for a walk with her, to see where she will be moving to as soon as paperwork is done, in a small eco-build community just the other side of the river, which looks perfect for her.  As a result we were a bit later than planned setting off for a house-warming cum anniversary party of friends over Derby way.  I've known L for years online and subsequently through La Leche League and we've met on various occasions over the years but not for quite a while.  It was lovely to see her and her family (which has increased since we last saw each other!) and see some old friends and meet others.  The children varying in age from baby to 10 (I think K was the oldest) played beautifully together and even managed to fight (they were wrestling as part of a game of 'monster school', I believe) nicely!

Sunday started off well, which some lovely post-breakfast, but pre-getting dressed snuggles back in bed with my girls and we finished off The Wandering Wombles.  Unfortunately just before lunchtime things when downhill or more accurately downstairs very fast, when M fell down them.  A subsequent trip to A&E with a little girl who was clearly in an awful lot of pain showed that she's fractured her left wrist.  It's a buckle fracture, which means that it should only take 2-4 weeks to heal, but even so that means that she's almost certainly not going to be doing gymnastics in just over 2 weeks, which she is really disappointed about.  She has been bemoaning all the things she can't do; crochet, knit, cross-stitch, play the French horn, swim and gymnastics.  Fortunately this week is the drama workshop, so she shouldn't be restricted too much and hopefully that will keep her from dwelling on what can't do.

The injured M.

This afternoon is right up there for horrible parenting experience with handing my five and a half week old baby over to the anaesthetist to take into theatre for an operation.  She was in so much pain and crying and asking me why I wouldn't make it stop and I was just so helpless.

Plum tuckered out!

After a quiet day on Monday, we've had three very busy ones since and we're all rather tired now.  Fortunately tomorrow is another quiet one, or rather we are at home at least, a friend is coming for the afternoon, so depending what the girls get up to it may be rather loud!

Tuesday started with a meet up at Highfields Park by the university, with Fun Club folks, as it doesn't happen in August.  The children played happily in the playground, while the parents sat at the picnic tables and chatted.  M went on the boating lake with S, a 16 year old boy and her friend R, who is 7.  J (S's mum) & I wandered back down to the lake when they were due to be coming back in and got rather nervous of the extent to which R was leaning over the side, but they got back without incident and very impressively S was still smiling at the end of it!

S, M & R out on the boating lake.

After our picnic lunch K & M wanted to go back out on the boating lake, but it was raining by this point, so I wasn't quite so keen, having initially said I would go (we'd forgotten to take coats).  L, another friend was going to come with us, while her mum and little sister where going out in another boat.  I was really rather impressed at the common sense approach to allowing children out on the lake, which is pretty shallow, and K, M & L were allowed out on their own (with life jackets).  When I asked if they wanted me to come, I had two 'don't mind's from K & L and one 'No!' from M.  So I sat under a tree and did some crochet.

After that we headed back home briefly before going almost immediately back out to our friend C's annual Pimms party (Pimms not compulsory), which also happened to be her birthday, and spent a very lovely rest of the afternoon there. 

On Wednesday after M's French horn lesson, we went to Sudbury Hall & the Museum of Childhood to meet up with my best friend from uni, S, and her four children (who range from a year younger than M down to 2).  We used to meet up quite frequently despite her living in Lancashire and my living in Nottingham as, having both gone into teaching, we could meet up in the school holidays.  With half a dozen children between us it's rather trickier these days though.

Nature spot - cocoon hanging from the sign for the toilets!

It was at times a little like herding cats, but we all enjoyed the Museum of Childhood, all of the children (except G, who at 2 was too little) particularly climbing up the chimney there.  K remembered from last time we were there, which must be at least 3 years or so, that there were mice to look for in lots of the rooms and enjoyed doing that.  After a picnic lunch, and a quick return to the museum for the children to have another go at climbing the chimney, we went round to go into the Hall and the older children did one of the worksheets of particular things to spot.  We lay down on the floor to have a look at this painting (except S who had G on her back in a sling by this point!).

The four seasons.

We finished off with a play in the woodland playground, with the sailing boat a particular favourite, with the perfect number of children for Swallows & Amazons, even if Roger was a bit too young to join in the game!

The Swallows & Amazons.

Today we had to get up early again, as it was the girls' second day of gymnastics.  We dropped A off near the railway station on the way and still made it in plenty of time.  I left them to it and after a couple of little jobs and bits of shopping, got started on the remaining plums that M and I had picked on Sunday.  Before returning to pick up K & M, I managed to make more jam and stew another batch for the freezer and take a breastfeeding support phone call.  K & M had really enjoyed themselves again, although M in particular had a bit of a moan about some of the children there queue jumping.  Once back home we settled down together to watch the first of the new series of The Great British Bake Off, which I had recorded last night.  Then it was time to get back into the kitchen, where I made tea including plum crumble for pudding and finally managed to get a plum and oatmeal madeira cake into the oven just before we sat down to eat, as A came home in time to give me a hand.  That used up all but a couple of the plums from the park, but some more arrived in this week's fruit box, so we still have some more which we can eat as they are.

Cake!

A glimpse into the future.

On Thursday we had to get up early to be across the other side of town for 9 o'clock.  This was a very big challenge for us, but not only were we there on time, we had time to spare!  A had won a prize in his cricket club's raffle of a day of gymnastics for two.  I'd noticed some flyers on the tables when we went to the club's junior day with information about gymnastics during the summer holidays and had asked the girls if they were interested, but neither of them was.  They used to do a weekly home ed gymnastics group which they enjoyed, but sadly it folded (there was the suggestion that it was going to continue after a break, but we've not heard anything despite a few emails to try to find out).  When A won the raffle prize though, they agreed that they might as well go along since it was free, they were a bit put out when they found out that it was a whole day rather than just a couple of hours and even more so when they found out that it started at 9 o'clock!

It's about a 20 minute drive across town, so, since it finished at 3 o'clock, I had over 5 hours on my own at home!  I'm used to having the occasional hour or so to myself, but it's incredibly rare to have longer than that and it occurred to me that over the next few years this is going to become more and more frequent as my girls start to spread their wings a bit further and for longer at a time.

I was had anticipated that they would enjoy themselves, but I was quite surprised that they wanted to go back.  Since there is a considerable discount that means that a third day only costs £5 more than two, they decided to go for three, which means that, with the drama workshop that they are doing the week after next, I will be having nine 'days off' over the course of the summer. 

In other news K & M have been continuing with the library summer reading challenge.  Although they do read quite a lot anyway, they have both taken on board my suggestion to try to make sure that they chose a variety of different books for their six challenge books.  K is currently reading Bedknobs & Broomsticks by Mary Norton and has Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories out to read next.  Both girls have tried one of Helen Moss's Adventure Island books and M has already finished four books, but is currently reading How to Train Your Dragon, which she was given for her birthday.  We have finished Journey to the River Sea, which we all really enjoyed and have returned to the Wombles.