Hubby is on call & stuck at work 😦
I’m not drinking wine 😦
I’m not eating chocolate 😦
I have to be up early to take elder child to swimming 😦
So it’s curling up on the sofa with the dog & Eddie the Eagle for me!
Yes I’m still trying to spend the remainder of the class fund. So, today I purchased 45 milk chocolate smiley face lollipops from Purdy’s, & ordered 40 Cosmopolitan cupcakes from the Cupcake store for the end of year party. I’d arranged with the grade 4 homeroom teachers to pop in at lunchtime & deliver the goodies, however there was a gym class going on in the courtyard when I arrived – how was I going to make it to the junior school building with a gigantic purple Purdy’s bag without being mugged?
Actually, guess who the gym teacher was for that class? When I noticed this I was secretly hoping to be mugged! We exchanged no more than a ‘morning’, which was quite enough thank you, I still went a little pink (honestly it’s pathetic you would think I’d have grown out if this ridiculous crush by now!). Anyway, onward & upward to the 3rd floor where the corridor was teaming with students doing some serious end of year clean up. They took one look at me & my large bag & their eyes lit up.
Well aren’t I a popular girl now! It took all of about 30 seconds for every single smiley face to find a friend. In elder son’s class we had 2 left because of sickness so I left them with his lovely teacher for her two little ones at home. The other teacher, who is also very lovely, stood batting her eyelashes & smiling sweetly at me when she noticed I had an extra one, & declared she was ‘having a thin day’. Well, how could I refuse her?
I was only there for about 10 minutes & received as many hugs. If the kids ever get a say in whom should be their class parent, guess who would win with a landslide majority… because I bring chocolate!
As part of their schooling my boys will go to camp every year from grade 2. The camp is age appropriate, starting with just 2 nights away until grade 6, & not always in the summer. This school year grades 4/5 went last October when thankfully we were having a bit of an Indian summer – my child was the only one to fall in the lake! To prepare them in grade 1, & so they don’t miss out on the fun, my younger son is camping out in the junior school gym tonight. It all started this afternoon after lunch…
Myself & a few other parents set up the tents, sorted out the kids sleeping mats, sleeping bags & overnight bags. With 3-4 in each tent (girls & boys separate of course) it’s going to be cosy but looked like a lot of fun. Various teams of parents have signed up for camp duties including snack, dinner, breakfast & clean up so that the teachers who are running the camp can concentrate on entertaining the kids. First on the agenda was bowling, & then I’m not sure what else is planned. We had to send them with a plain white t-shirt so I suspect some sort of craft/painting will happen. I’ve also heard a movie mentioned. I managed to catch them just before the bus left (hot teacher in the driving seat – YAY!) with my newly mohawked 7 year old sat at the front with one of his camping mates. He was very excited & didn’t seem to miss me one little bit.
So, only elder child to bring home, which was weird. A mum friend of mine really lucked out with her little guy going on her birthday – I hope she makes the most of it! Sadly hubby is on call with a difficult evening ahead that my BFF will also be involved in, I don’t know how they do what they do sometimes, hands up to them. So that just leaves the two of us. I had my purple locks restored this morning & went a little shorter, so now I look even more like a Disney character. Then I picked him up from school for our hot date. We went for an early dinner at our favourite sushi bar, where we/he managed to devour nearly $100 of raw fish! I have promised him he can stay up late & I’ve planned a movie that I think he’s ready to watch, but not his little brother yet… Mama Mia – he loves ABBA! There’ll be chocolate involved, & lots of it to make up for the lack of liquid happiness (Day 5 & counting…), then hopefully hubby will home & I can give him a hug.
It’s great to spend some one on one quality time with my elder child, not something that really happens very often. However there is a price… I have to be at school at 7am on a SATURDAY to de-camp & pick up younger child – JOY!!
Oh I do love sunny Saturday mornings. You wake up at some ridiculous hour (when hubby disappears in head to toe lycra for a ride), the sun streaming in through the curtains, & you discover it’s only 6am! I can turn over & snooze for another couple of hours.
08.30 – Just me & the kids for breakfast. Elder child has a hockey game so we fed Boris (the imaginary tapeworm for anyone new reading) waffles, berries & maple syrup.
09.15 – I was just about to shower when a rather sweaty hubby returned. We quickly discussed a plan of action for the day & I left him to feed his own tapeworm.
11.00 – We decided that I’m not going to watch the hockey game. Today he was playing in goal & it was all the way over on the north shore. I had a mountain of laundry to do (& tomorrow is Mother’s day so there will be a strike), the dog needed a walk, & my body was craving a stretch out.
12.30 – I get a text from hubby, younger child took all his gear just in case they were short of a player & they were. I knew he would be absolutely made up by this even though he’d be playing with & against some kids 3-4 years older than him.
14.30 – By the time they all returned I’d done 3 loads of laundry, a pilates routine, walked the dog, watered the garden, made chocolate strawberries for dessert, hung the hammocks up outside & chilled out in the garden for half an hour reading my book! Younger child had thoroughly enjoyed playing a proper game & apparently did really well. Elder child let in 3 goals & declared he was a useless goalie & it was also boring!
15.30 – Hubby took him out on his road bike so he could let off some steam. Meanwhile, younger child had me (now Wonder Woman) up in their playhouse hammering nails into the wood so they could hang all their (plastic) Black & Decker tools up & make it into a workshop.
16.15 – I now need a glass of something pink & a lie down. The bikers return & of course are starving (yes I know this is hard to believe but true), so I fire up the barbi & open a bottle of rosé.
17.00 – Yells of distress from the garden, the hammock elder child was sat in has dumped him on the concrete. I know he’s a drama queen but I genuinely think he’s hurt himself this time. Tylenol & Advil for his dessert then.
17.15 – Everyone is full of ribs & chocolate strawberries, & we are basking on our sunny patio – I love, love, LOVE this weather!
18.00 – I help elder child finish his Mother’s day card – odd I know but I don’t trust him to use all my stuff on his own, & at least this way I get to have some say what I get.
20.00 – Tired boys are in bed, the dog is patrolling the fence & warning off falling leaves, hubby is reading in a hammock (interestingly not the one he just re-hung after the earlier drama), & we each have a glass of something pink.
CHEERS!!
08.30 – YAY! A sleep in!
10.00 – Hubby & elder child have disappeared off on their shiny bikes wearing smart new lycra. Younger child & I are going to build BB8, R2D2 & C3PO – a book he bought with his pocket money at the school book fair. He had done quite a lot himself but they are just made of strong cardstock with flaps & slots to hold them in place – quite tricky for a 7 year old to do. We set up in my craft room & begin.
11.00 – We have built BB8 & put a joint of beef in the oven to roast.
12.00 – We have almost completed R2, attended to the beef & prepared the potatoes.
12.40 – R2 is finished, the potatoes are roasting & the beef is almost done.
13.00 – Hungry smelly bikers return after 33kms & elder child didn’t fall off once. They also saw some friends from school & caught the tail end of the emergency services clearing up after a hit & run. Slightly more eventful than our morning in the craft room!
13.30 – We are sitting down to a proper Sunday lunch for the first time ever – I think (we normally have this at about 5pm). Elder child declares war on the chef because she forgot to buy Yorkshire puddings!
14.30 – I abandon hubby with all the dishes to head to the hospital to have a CT scan of both my knees this time.
15.00 – I arrive bang on time. No need to get changed because my cropped pants will roll up – even better. However, in the process of doing this in front of the radiographer (a guy, of course it was a guy) I discover that I must have dropped chocolate into my lap when eating my dessert. I large blob of melted chocolate was sitting between my legs in an embarrassing spot! I scoop a bit off & lick my finger announcing that it’s definitely chocolate. He did not find this amusing. The scan takes all of 2 minutes & I’m on my way home.
16.15 – We all sit down to play Cluedo, a game the boys only just learnt yesterday at our friend’s house. Considering they are not quite tuned into listening what is being said beyond their own turn, they didn’t do too badly. There was also gin involved.
17.30 – I make 2 Spiderman cards for a birthday party younger child is attending next weekend, while the boys get bathed & pj’s on early so daddy can finish reading the Narnia book to them.
19.00 – I organise everyone’s life for school, work & the morning boot camp routine.
19.30 – I thought getting ready for bed early meant that they should be in bed by now, but hubby is still reading.
19.45 – I gently remind him of the time, & he promises he’s nearly finished. They are going to be disgusting tomorrow mark my words.
20.00 – Finally! So much for their early night before school, after having two late nights over the weekend.
20.15 – All is calm & right in the world again. It must be time for wine?
06.30 – As predicted the little guy is quite sick, so now that’s two down.
07.20 – Off to school because elder child has choir. I take the dog with me so she can have a good run in the park.
08.45 – I return to the sanatorium to find the 2 of them lying at each end of the sofa sharing a blanket. I play nurse, although the cat seems to have it all under control (she thinks that lying very close to your head when your sick will help in some way).
09.20 – I do some laundry, some pilates, & finish the wedding card I’m making, in between playing nurse. I answer a call from the hospital reminding me that I have an appointment tomorrow for a joint injection in my knee – not sure why they thought I would forget about this as they only booked it yesterday! Twenty minutes later I get another call from the hospital wanting to arrange an appointment for my joint injection – I swear it was the same woman – she was very put out when I informed her that I have one for tomorrow. She then put me on hold while she checked this, presumably in case I was completely imagining this & the phone call she had made to me earlier. Yes, I was right, she was happy I was telling the truth!
12.00 – I get ready to go back to school & receive an email from the head honcho informing me that she had taken delivery of large donation from a parent who supplies toy stores & she had sorted everything into categories. I am then desperate to get to school asap, beside myself that she will have completely &#%$ed up my system!
12.35 – I arrive at school to find her organizing some prize baskets for a separate stall & she informs me that she didn’t add the donated prizes to my system because she didn’t want to &#%$ it up – PHEW! All is right in the world again.
13.00 – I am knee deep in stuffies when the mum who looked after my table yesterday arrives to help me sort. We get to work counting the prizes & stuffies, then box them up & label them.
Various people are in & out chatting because the room we are using is where the photocopier is – it was all very sociable.
15.10 – The other mum has to leave & I pop up to the lower school to hand over a drink & snack to older child because he’s involved in an iPad workshop until 4.30pm. I happen upon him the minute I walked into the lobby, he apparently was about to call me & declare imminent death by starvation because he had eaten all his food & would be going straight to field hockey after school – honestly, total drama queen!
15.30 – Off to the dollar store again for some supplies we have run out of – rubber bands, clear gift bags etc. I am wilting so I duck into a coffee shop & order a gigantic latte to go.
16.00 – Back at school I’m on a mission. I am determined that when I leave at 4.30pm I will be done, finished, complete! Then… I find a note from the head honcho – she’s rearranged some of the balloon prizes by taking some more out of my general prize boxes – NOOOOOOOO!!!!
16.30 – Mission accomplished. I pick up elder child to find that snacks were provided at the workshop so had been no need for the amateur dramatics – he still ate my snack too of course.
16.50 – Home to change into hockey gear & back out to drop him off.
17.35 – Back at the sanatorium it is clear that the little guy will have to be off school tomorrow. Hubby is already off so he can take me to the hospital, but we can’t take a sick child with us & I really don’t think it’s fair for him to see them sticking needles in mum’s knee. I see that my neighbor is in (they are like surrogate grandparents to our boys), so I pop over to ask if there is anyway they could help out. The answer is yes – great!
18.40 – I have to go back out to pick up from hockey.
19.30 – I am in my pj’s, under my blanket fort eating chocolate & colouring!
07.40 – Boot camp was brutal this morning, both kids had that Monday morning feeling which made us late leaving.
07.55 – I’m supposed to be at the donation table, all set up, at 8am. Thankfully my office boy had already beaten me to it. Today we introduced another one of our gigantic toxic critters – an ugly green toad!
08.30 – After a sociable start to the day we carry the toxic toad down the street (well I just followed a safe distance behind), I even managed to get the principal to carry a couple of bags – well he was going that way so I made use of him.
08.50 – I sorted out that mornings prize donations so as to keep on top of it.
09.15 – Quick walk around the block with the dog, my cleaner arrives as I’m leaving (love that because I don’t have to carry keys then).
09.35 – I jump in the car to make an overdue trip to Costco. Pull into a sweet spot right outside the entrance & get some very put out looks from a couple of people. I don’t like my disabled label but there are some situations in which I need it, & not pushing a very heavy shopping cart to the other side of the parking lot is the main one. I saw those people again in store, not so quick to judge when they saw me struggling to push the cart, wearing a leg brace.
Once I had finished my shopping I join the extra long line up, then realized I had forgotten something in the isle next to me. I scoot off down there & appear at the other end – tiny line ups ahead of me, & all those people were still queuing at the other side & hadn’t moved. Oh well, I have better things to do than stand around at a check out so I just went ahead.
11.00 – I HATE putting everything away.
13.30 – Finally finished putting everything away. I have an hour before I have to leave for school again, just enough time to grab something to eat & practice my guitar. I deserve a sticker, played The Eagles ‘Peaceful Easy feeling’ almost all the way through for the first time – it’s only taken about 2 months of practicing.
14.50 – Back at school for the first humiliation of my day… My office boy is busy so I have to carry the toxic toad up the street myself. Thankfully I managed to persuade another mum friend & her two sons to carry it back for me. Not a good donation yield, but sold about 30 tickets!
15.40 – Hubby texts me, he’s sick. Fever, chills, coughing etc. etc. Can I go to the drug store. So off I go to London Drugs where I also purchase 2 super size bars of Lindt chocolate (because they were on offer), a bottle of fabric bleach (to remove the brown paint that has still not come out of elder child’s polo shirt), a can of hairspray (again I’m running out & it was on offer), & 4 packets of tick tacks because they were by the till & you always need tick tacks!
15.50 – Back at school I check in with teacher mom about hockey tomorrow & inform the kindergarten teacher that her paint is not as washable as she’d advertised.
16.00 – Pick up younger child from his active games class & we go to the playground to wait for elder child to come out of drama. I chat to another mum who is waiting for her child who’s doing track & field (elder child is supposed to do this but can’t until after the school play!). I make a mental note that we need to leave before the athletes arrive back from the field, why? Well I tell her that it’s because it’s chaotic, but really it’s because I have a ridiculous high school girl crush on my elder sons gym teacher so I need to leave before he arrives.
16.30 – We finally leave the playground. Hot teacher has not returned with the T&F kids, so we make our exit, into the senior school to catch the elevator down to the parking lot & who do I walk into going around the corner? He’s about a foot & a half taller than me so my face meets the lower part of his chest – humiliation no.2!! I think my cheeks are still burning just because he smiled (I swear it was so hot he was a fire hazard) & placed his hand on my shoulder to make sure I was ok (of course I’m not, I’ve just buried my face in your pecs!)
17.00 – Home to sick hubby for dinner (his appetite isn’t poorly that’s for sure!), homework & one last practice for younger child’s talent show trial tomorrow before he packs up his guitar…
Watch this space to find out if he’s picked to perform!
It is a sign of a true friendship when you don’t really speak to friends for almost 12 years, you have 5000 miles between you & four kids, but they become comfortable around your dinner table & it was like we only saw each other 12 months ago. The kids, of which they have one of each, are of similar age to ours & they just gel, even the 12 year old girl who is at that awkward ‘I’m not a kid anymore, but some days I still want to be’ stage joins in with some of the games the boys play. They have more in common than we realize, despite the distance & the fact they have never met before, Harry Potter is common ground for conversation, & Lego is has bonded the boys. Then for us grown ups, it’s a good old fashioned G&T while we compare notes & put the world to rights.
When friends arrive on a holiday that involves some creativity & fun for the kids when you don’t know how jetlagged your guests will be is always going to be a challenge. I haven’t done anything at Easter for a couple of years because we’ve been on vacation in Arizona, so with extra kids to accommodate it was only right that I do something. So, at midnight last night there I was trying to find homes for about 70 chocolate eggs wrapped in bright tinfoil. We still have Java so every egg had to be out of sniffing reach – the last thing I needed on the day before she goes home was a trip to the vet to have her stomach pumped! I then left 4 Lululemon bags (of course what else would you collect Easter eggs in, in Vancouver?) at the bottom of the stairs for the hunt to begin…
It took them all of about 8 minutes to find, or so we thought, every egg. They were really fair about it despite having only just met they all agreed that the collection should be shared evenly, which they did. We then allowed the consumption of one of two until I made brunch. High on chocolate they all disappeared off to watch Minions. With eggs & bacon on board we headed off for a mini city tour & a walk in the forest with the dogs, then returning home for a G&T before our roast dinner. While chatting in the newly renovated dining room, we notice some green paper shimmering on the bottom of a wall sconce – a forgotten egg!!
The kids reappear at some point soon after that & we announce that they might just want to check around in case they missed anything this morning. Our friend’s daughter appears a couple of minutes later having found an egg in the lounge – nope not the egg you’re looking for – then their son appeared with ‘the forgotten egg’, very proud of himself. I asked where he found it, just to clarify it was the one we’d seen earlier, to which he replied in a very familiar, but soft, Scouse (Liverpool) accent ‘it was on that curly thing on the wall in there!’
Even if I hadn’t seen where the egg was lurking I would have known exactly where he’d found it from his excellent & amusing description. Then, bless them, they donated both eggs to the grown ups 🙂
A friend for dinner = wine & whiskey!!
Need I say more?
Normal service will resume Monday… Â (I’m not saying which Monday)
We regularly have fondue. Although the boys don’t do the cheese marinated in old socks, we still do broth & meat & old socks for us. It’s usually a weekend thing. There are rules…
Dessert…
Is always chocolate!
So now you know!
louiselindley 