Kissing the cotton clouds.

I don’t know where i had got to.

Fran made it through a week of school – and so did all the rest of us. She was exhausted by the end of gym on Wednesday and almost beside herself by the end of Thursday. She gave me a piece of paper inviting me to a morning in school so they can tell me what they think she’s learned this year 😆 I’m tempted to actually go 😉 One day she watched 2 DVDs (admittedly cartoon versions of Shakespeare but saying that would spoil my derisive tone… oops) and another day the most awful pizza company in town brought in pizza bases and they put toppings on them *trys to decide which bit of my anatomy to roll* Not particularly educational. Friday they had PE and she tried cricket but was a bit upset that apparently the girls don’t join in and hide behind a wall and talk instead. She doesn’t want to do it again because she didn’t know whether to join in or sit with her friends. 🙁 So she is going to choose art next week. By the end of the week she had summed it all up as weird, a bit boring and not really what she expected. I was mildly relieved to hear her tell my parents this 😉

While she and Amelie were at gym, Maddy and i went off to Brownies where we started to plan an entertainment evening. Actually, that’s bollocks, Amelie comes too now. My girls managed to come up with several acts and i appear to have volunteered to write and direct a 10 minute play. (Friday i went into the Brownie shop to buy Pixie and Elf badges and got asked to prove my Owlness to be allowed to purchase. What on earth would i do that could ripple the fabric of reality with 12 illicit Brownie badges????)

Friday we dropped Fran off and then among other things we all went in to town to buy Fran some birthday presents and the 5 of us had a very nice lunch out together. Can’t think what else really; sure there was stuff. Normal mad dancing 4 hours after school, made even more complicated by the school car park (argh) and a tight time schedule.

Saturday was Fran’s birthday, her 11th. She seems so big now, not really at all the little girl i remember but someone completely different. Funnily enough this year all the girls kept asking “what was happening now” and we had several conversations about it. It does finally feel a long time ago now and very definitely the bad bits have all but faded away. I don’t shudder to think of her birth, i don’t really think of the shock of her cleft – it’s all just washed off into the edges of life, well and truly stitched into the tapestry that makes us. It never felt like it would be like that, i didn’t believe it would be so but it does give me hope for myself and for a couple of other people i know too.

Fran was very pleased with some Groovy Girls, books, a DS game, hoola hoop, skipping rope and a new bike (made to be part of birthday but really long overdue and essential for getting to school.) They all danced as normal and Fran was more pleased than anything to get a hug from her teacher, who can’t believe she has known her for 5 years now! All around that we made a start, all of us, on pulling the garden into some sort of shape again so we turned over beds, weeded, put in bed edging, manured, planted, cut back and planted pot full of vegetable seeds. Its’ taken three days but we’ve done a really good job and we’re all feeling very pleased with ourselves now. At one point we spotted a red kite flying over us; amazing looking thing 🙂

Sunday Fran had a gym competition and the middle 2 had dancing exams. I took Fran and Max took the others. Fran had tough competition; she was in the biggest group and the girls from the Olympic gym in the next town were much more polished than any of the ones Fran had been working with as they only got 5 weeks and it wasn’t enough. She did a pretty mediocre floor routine, mostly cos she found it boring and just wouldn’t believe me that she needed to sparkle. The coach who had had them is a boys coach and just didn’t know how to get that out of them and it showed. She did good vaults though and probably only missed a place by a point or 2. She looked good. When she came over to me afterwards though she just cried and cried. It isn’t like her to be like that so i assume it was a combination of tiredness and general frustration; she is a real perfectionist and knew she hadn’t done her best. I feel bad for her really; she is one of those girls who really wants it but it’s too late and she’ll never be good enough and she knows it. She probably won’t get further than she has in terms of levels and she would love to be being pushed more. Ah well.

M and A did fine although Maddy had dreadful earache and still has. Not sure what else. Today has been more of the same although Maddy and R from next door made cookies all on their own and sold them for charity around the houses of people we know. They raised £8.45 for Asthma UK, our Brownie charity. And we’ve barbequed. Josie has now been dry for 2 weeks with only 2 wet beds (yay! although wait for tales of 6 wettings tonight now!) Can’t think of anything else.