This week we have been mostly…

Eating lentil stew.

Staring with studied nonchalance down a recalcitrant toilet.

Nitcombing one another in a manner that only women who understand hair can.

Listening to 3 9+ year olds doing the “giggly girls in the attic” thing.

Learning to jump off diving boards.

Discovering that some cash machines only give cash to Visa, not Mastercard.

Discovering a new the parallel universe that is daily conversation in Alison’s parents house. (Never fails to make me happy, visiting them 🙂 )

Meeting very cute kittens.

Discussing, ernestly, the variations of autonomy and the rights and wrongs of single sex schooling.

Watching Josie fall in love with Ernest. (Dum, dum, dum.. another one bites the dust.)

Watching Josie make a remarkably successful bid for Buttercups attention.

Jumping, repeatedly and relentlessly off the end of a climbing frame.

Explaining profit  and purchasing to Gwenny.

Refusing to continue standing next to Violet, who is now less than 2 inches shorter than me.

Looking in awe at the Melrose 2005 postcard and seeing how much everyone has grown.

Sliding crazily down the same bumpy slide for 4 hours, interspersed only with juice and chocolate cake breaks.

Playing Monkey Ball and endless other things and giggling at my children trying to get the hang of a Wii.

Feeding 8 children in an almost constant cycle of spreading bread and loading dishwashers while wondering how Henrietta +12 actually manages to survive!

Drinking a lot fo tea and a certain amount of wine. (And eating some chocolate.)

Having a rather fab, if rather damp, time at Legoland.

Coming home with 4 exhausted children on a smooth, but 2 Red Bull, journey with a Lego keyrack, some fantastic memories, a big smile on my face at the pleasure of spending time with 8 fabulous children who i adore in all sorts of expansive measures, 2 adults i’m rather fond of too.

Knowing it must have been successful because Josie asked at dinner if she could go and live with ” ‘Asilon’ and Ernest.”

Thank you to The Portico for having us 🙂