Previously, in the PoP residence….

There was much (MUCH!) Geomag play. Am seriously considering stocking these now they’ve relaunched.

Amelie made me a present after a rather lovely nature walk with Daddy. Fran and I had been down to Addenbrookes for the day, visiting an incarcerated friend family while we were there. Fran got signed off from one surgeon too, so we’re back to just the two now 😆 Was good to go; I’d been going to send Max with her as the thought of being back in a hospital, one Freddie day tripped to, was a bit overwhelming but the friends being there gave me a reason to brave it and turn it back in to Fran’s hospital – glad I did. (So many mountains to climb… sigh….)

She and I had some lovely time down by the river together waiting for Maddy at KYT one day. Taught her how to make daisychains, a learning outcome she was woefully under-skilled at until that. (Tick.)

They’ve all blogged about each other and me. They are variously touching and funny. Amelie particularly so, though mainly due to a significant lack of punctuation and overly pertinent candour 😉 Maddy did a great job and so did Fran. Fran seems to be enjoying blogging now, which I’m pleased about. It is certainly good for me, so I do hope she continues to enjoy it.

Last week the weather was so nice and the weekend due to be so busy that we had an impromptu half-term. They did loads of reading, drawing and lego construction and gardened with me, planting as many late veg as we could find pots for. There were music lessons (in real life and by Skype) and gym lessons and last minute dancing practises. We haven’t had a day with nothing in it for about 6 weeks, certainly not since holiday. We need some downtime days. I’m sure there were other things but I honestly can’t remember. Michelle and C visited and the girls played a long Victorian’s game in the garden and spent ages doing art with pastels, that was definitely one thing.

The weekend loomed and we set about our first hurdles. Fran and Amelie competed a day early in an Invitational Gym Grading and both passed comfortably, despite only training for the particular Grades they did for about 3 weeks; Amelie because she had to shift comps late due to changing the number of hours she now trains so did Grade 4 for a bit of practise competing and Fran because she moved up to Grade 6 from Grade 5, partly to stretch her and mostly to avoid a nasty beam mount in Grade 5! Apart from both having a slightly nightmarish beam moment, they did great. Fran did all her vaults well, which was consistency she’s been lacking – 4 good ones on the trot was fabulous.

We got home to find Max sitting in the dark as he’d had anaesthetic in his eyes and couldn’t see or change his pupil size. That didn’t wear off till Saturday, so I had to do all the shuffling people about – Amelie to gym for an extra, Maddy to TKD and Musical Theatre, Fran to Ballet etc and dash to the shop to get lunches for the next couple of days. I was glad when it was bed time!

Next day it was THE SHOW!!!!! Love Saldance shows, they are always great (and having had a short career in theatre, I’m hard to please!) First Fran joined in a gym display in a town just north of her, then we dashed back to drop them at the theatre. I had a LOT of hair to do that day.

Dropped them off in two waves, so for the first time ever, we had no children with us in the first half. As i said before, I knew this was going to be tricky as Freddie had been planned for, the last thing I think I had actively organised to expect to have him at. I was a bit washed out at it, not helped really by us walking in and Max suddenly saying “I feel like we’ve got someone missing… … … but it’s just that they are all in the dressing room.” I couldn’t stop myself saying “Well, we have, but it isn’t any of the girls.” I guess that just sums up how differently we handle this.

The show was great, really enjoyed watching them. Josie was gorgeous, did really well, Amelie danced beautifully but looked terrified, Maddy looked and danced as her normal scrumptious self and Fran is really beginning to look a decently accomplished dancers. She was in ridiculous numbers of dances; 4 Mary Poppins ones, 2 Beatles Jazz dances, 2 Ballet Highland dances and 2 Sailor tap ones. She must have been shattered after two shows!

Sunday. Another day, another hairstyle. Amelie got a very late place to be in The Roses gym competition as one child got injured so went along for the experience. No one expected her to get medals (she didn’t!) as she only had 2 days to practise and had to do different stuff to the Friday comp but she did really well.

In the 2 years she has been at the gym, competing in this leotard has been her dream – the A Squad leotard. It is due to change (the new ones didn’t arrive in time) so she got one time of competing in it and she was SO happy!

It was a good sized competition, running all day with this number of gymnasts 5 or 6 times over. She tried really hard and managed everything she could have, only disappointing herself by coming off bars in a move she normally does with no trouble at all.

I was most proud of the fact that she just took that on the chin and put up with it. I suspect the experience will have been very good for her – I don’t think she much liked being at a competition and not getting a medal 😉

While she, Fran and I were there, Max and the other two spent the day with Grandad – he took them Crayfish trapping, which they thought extremely marvellous.

He also had a day when he used Bitesize to do lots of work on forces with them, another day when they went to HInchingbrooke park with them and played rounders and at least one other day of excellent edu-tainment – he’s doing a good job of job-sharing.