Just amo.. ment.

On Wednesday we joined up with old and new friends for latinetc which we’d asked to joined in with. The girls adored time spent with other kids they love and seemed to get a lot out of the activities on offer. Fran is very taken with the idea of Latin at the moment so was delighted to have someone who knew what they were doing, but slightly put out to have to convert her birthdate of 1998 into Roman Numerals when the other 2 had 2000! I played TA to littley science (ahem… may take some practise) and also managed to entertain 4 4-6 year olds with sewing. It was very enjoyable and heading onwards to the Beans for the pm was just perfect, gossip, cake and play all just fitted together as it should. We headed home afterwards to collect Max who had done a very long day chez Merrily and had worked on moving us into our new and bigger room. All in all it was a day that left us all very positive.

Was slightly annoyed that someone had walloped my wing mirror while outside the Beans and the mirror had come loose. Didn’t have one for the last part of the journey as my fix didn’t hold, but Max seems to have sorted it now.

Thursday started with music; all the girls had done enough practise over new year to do well and seemed refreshed too, so it was a good lesson and left us all feeling very positive. They did then get bawled out for deciding to eat my lunch as well as their own (i was upstairs) which dampened things but otherwise everything normal went on. Then we had to do some scooting about as Amelie had a trial for the gymnastic development class and the big girls needs to go to Brownies which started as that ended. A friend offered to take the big 2 to Brownies, so we dropped them off and then headed back to gym to see how Ams got on.

Development class is (according to website) “a Development class which is a preparatory group of girls working to develop skills to compete in the A Squad” – Amelie looked very at home there (and more like she had been there months) and worked so hard, didn’t mess around and was obviously very focused. i could see she was going to get in – and she did. For now it is only a couple of hours a week but i suspect that she’ll find herself under scrutiny as she gets stronger because she just looked the part totally. Fran would like to get into the B Squad, but she’s way off that yet; it would be good if at some point both of them made it into the same class though, because now i have 3 girls in 3 different classes and the Dev class/Brownies conundrum is going to require me having use of the TARDIS i think 🙄 Ams will have to quit Brownies though as, although she came with me to the second half of it this week, she was exhausted (and aching) on Friday. Maddy has been stoical about it but it must be tough for her to be the only one not picked out now.

Brownies was fun and i went off to a planning meeting with the other owls afterwards which was socially nice and also made me feel more part of it. I’ll start my Leader course (no idea what it is called but you get the drift) this term. Was pleased to come up with some decent ideas for the term and more or less plan a badge on my own.

Friday i worked in the morning while Max had the girls (and they did… something – oh yes, shopped for my birthday presents and nearly sold Josie to anyone offering) and i also popped to Restore (recycled resource centre) with Grey Owl – it is opposite our unit. Then we swapped, Max worked and i harangued the girls while they didn’t find their dancing stuff 🙄 Back to normal dancing in the pm and Josie and i hung out with Max at work to avoid driving about in the increasingly soupy fog.

Saturday/Sunday was my birthday, which seems to have been an age that hurt slightly. However, i did get lovely presents of Lush, clothes, books, diaries, glasses case and fluffy dressing gown and then we headed off to my parents, leaving Max behind with 20 lots of racking to put up. Lovely overnight stay there where i got hugely treated and feted with cake and candles, lovely presents and all sorts. Kids had a nice time and Josie did a great job of playing with Rowan and Ella and sharing her new Playmobil set. She really did well. Had very entertaining chats with my nieces, who amused me enormously and a nice evening chat with my sister. My Nana came over and brought a writing folder of mine from (we worked out) the school year where i was 8/9 with a letter to her and my grandad i had written. It was really very emotional to see it after all this time 🙂 and quite took me back. Had a hairy journey back and then discovered i had left two of my presents there. Damn!

Oooh, did also listen to a free copy of a Doctor Who story read by DT himself (The Resurrection Casket) which we all enjoyed very much. Must do more of that stuff again, we used to enjoy art sessions with a story going on in the background and driving ones will be easier now too as we finally have a cd player that doesn’t have to go back to the beginning everytime you start the engine again.