All around the houses

of the Puddles and the Portico! And although I took my laptop with me, it only came out once I think, so this is all from memory.

Weds morning we went to Shirebrook, where the activity was basket weaving. Must take a photo of Big’s basket, it’s fab. Woven from cane, she did 90% of it, I just finished off the harder to bend bit at the top really. She likes weaving. Nice to catch up with a few locals I’ve not seen for a bit too.

Then home, chuck stuff in the car, and head off down the road. Slowly. It should be at most a 2 hour journey. It took over three. And the car crash minutes after I arrived (we’d got the kids inside, but not the bags) was a little too exciting. Think everyone was OK though, although one of the drivers had to be extracted from their car by the fire brigade (which I didn’t see, although apparently Small did!)

Think Merry blogged our visit well, so I’ll move swiftly on to Friday 🙂 (But what about the piccies of girls in skirts? 😉 )

Left the park just after 3 o’clock with ever such a tired little boy (he’d climbed onto my knee when I was sitting on the grass and fallen asleep!) and headed off for the Portico. Terrible journey – took 4 hours! Mainly just heavy traffic and dire weather. Small slept most of the way, so that was nice and quiet, and I think Big had a nap as well. Missed the FP meet, which wasn’t too surprising, but was pleased to find Layla there, and Simon turned up shortly after. Children were thrilled to see each other, and that was the last I saw of them for a bit, which meant we could sit down, drink tea and catch up, I mean, it’s been ooh, weeks! 😀

Basically spent a quiet weekend, chatting, scoubying, reading to children, being read to by children, having lessons on how to get thrashed on the XBox (must consider a games console, Small is fascinated) and some lovely food. Wish we did have room for a breadmaker in the kitchen (trust me, we don’t, I tried!) it’s lovely to come down on a morning to the smell of freshly baked bread.

Small, despite being full of cold, which we’ve no doubt distributed around, sorry, was lovely. He’s acquiring signs at the rate of a couple a day, and making up his own, which is interesting. Got home to a note from the health visitor with an appt for his two year review, so now to decide whether to go to the gp for a referral beforehand (appt is for two weeks away).

Big spent a lot of time with Ernest, including in the paddling pool (! rather them than me 😉 ), which was the first time I’ve seen them hook up together, and also discovered the Bob books. Red nose readers were great for getting her going, now it appears Bob books are giving her confidence to have a go. This is good 🙂 She read the first five, either to me or Alison at some point while we were there, and we’ve brought the rest of Set 1 home with us. She’s looking forward to reading them, then swapping for the next set at Kessingland. (Helps that they belong to Alison, she has a bit of a hero worship thing going there, can’t *think* why!)

Hey, it’s only three weeks to Kessingland!