It’s the 1st of July!

And summer is here! It’s so so hot. But the ever wonderful H, D and K assembled and filled two inflatable pools!!!

A big one (supposedly) for the three boys, and a little one for the two littler girls.


We are assisting simply by buying a new hose.

As H’s broke over the last summer and it’s replacement has mysteriously vanished – apparently there is no such thing as a cheap 100ft one left anywhere in Melrose! So we bought the premium luxury one from Job Lot. $37 well spent πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ˜ƒ


But, as you might expect, that did not happen. #1 Son got fed up of waiting, so once the hus-creature returned from the weekly shop, he retired upstairs with his daddy to play Minecraft together… no, daddy didn’t get much of a choice! πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

And the twins were significantly more interested in the new “baby” pool, than their “we had this one last summer” big pool god love them!

TT dived headfirst into the big pool (as it was the one that was filled first) but got scared by the “sharks” in it – the inside liner is decorated with fish, seaweed etc.

But she had so much fun playing in the little one:

Group play in the baby pool

Then because of the bigger boys playing in it a little roughly (just boys being boys, but they are, we think, a little bit too big for it) it needed reinflating…

Which is the background noise to this video

All in all, we stayed outside until over an hour past her bedtime. She didn’t eat any dinner – but she had had a big breakfast and lunch, plus her bedtime bottle so I’m not worried there.

All the kidlets (except #1 Son, but we will work on that) had an amazing time, and this is just the start of the summer…

Oh, this is the bath after I insisted my daughter bathe before bed:

Do not worry dear audience, I have cleaned it πŸ˜‚πŸ€£πŸ‘πŸ»

The previous week (and not just in pictures)

Bonjour dear audience.

It’s been a few days hasn’t it?

Actually this time it’s been more that I haven’t had time to sit down and write a full blog post, rather than nothing happening and same old same old.

The weather had been improving a little (it’s gone back to being shite 😞) so on Tuesday last week we all went outside to play for a bit. Actually, what happened is the lovely H rang me on my mobile and asked if we were all free at roughly 5:30 PM and we got invited to play outside; which was lovely. The kids had a whale of a time – all of them together 😊

You see, #1 Son and H’s twin grandsons are close in age (the twins are roughly a year older) but they haven’t really had a chance yet to spend much time together. The twins are sweet kids, and I love them to bits, however they are also autistic and on the more severe end of the spectrum.

And as my own son is, well let’s just say he takes after his mum in having the subtlety of a sledgehammer and the tact of a tank; and as such I was a little concerned about how he would react and be around them once he noticed that they were different to him.

Apparently I needn’t have worried. Honestly it was great. They bonded over ice pops – in that one of the twins decided to half inch my sons one because he had it and he didn’t. (You get points if you worked out who was who there!)

They drew with sidewalk chalks together, they blew bubbles together, they tormented TT together (actually she gave as good as she got πŸ˜‚πŸ€£) they hunted for insects together and played on the pre-existing outdoor play equipment together.

We really need to get our new swing-set wood stained and built ASAP, however it requires five days of good sunshine that also involves a weekend. And that has been tricky.

Drawing drawing drawing πŸ’•πŸ’•

TT also decided that she would help her Aunty H with her gardening and I… don’t really have words for what happened next… so I will let the following videos explain it.

Part the first

Part the second

So I didn’t manage to corral all my children back into the house until way past TT’s bedtime. And as you can see from the videos it wasn’t as if I could just put them straight to bed either as soon as we got in!!! Yep a full bath was required.

Which is fine if you have children that like the bath and, more importantly, hair washing which my children don’t. And the bath? It was black afterward. I mean really, it was black with pine needles and leaves and sycamore seeds and all sorts of other fun stuff πŸ˜‚πŸ€£. That was okay though – was a mark of fun – especially as I suspect that this is going to be my future from now until approximately November πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

The only downside to this little excursion is that TT is currently obsessing over “ants”. Both over their existence, and the catching of them.

Then there was the previously documented birthday joy 😁

We decided that given my birthday was midweek, that we would wait to celebrate until the weekend.

H and I went to get our nails done before said celebrations! I went back to chrome:

πŸ’•πŸ’•πŸ’•πŸ’•

And I managed to persuade H to try one silver chrome nail on each hand! (Much to the delight of her nail tech lady who had been doing her nails for over twenty years but had never been able to persuade her to do this)

I am clearly magical and a wonderful influence πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

So on Saturday we went out for belated birthday shenanigans which included a wonderful meal at Fuji restaurant I do love Japanese and I didn’t have loads of sushi. Which is quite surprising for me.

A flight of proper sake and Japanese Whisky (that is the correct spelling – the sommelier told us so!) was also enjoyed:

Utterly gorgeous. If you like whisky/whiskey try Japanese – utterly stunning.

After this, we went to the cinema to see Deadpool 2. I laughed. I cried. I gasped. I sniffled.

GO. SEE. THIS. FILM.

I am still planning on seeing the next Jurassic Park movie on the Big Screen though. And we will be hiring the same sitter again.

My goodness she bought #1 son and myself a birthday gift, read him stories, and did some (unasked for) light housework. The woman is a gem, my son adores her so we are definitely using her again – and yes she got a tip and a bloody good review.

Then came Sunday. There was a baby shower for H’s eldest daughter – she’s having a little boy πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™

And I turned my sewing skills to use and saved the day by sewing in not one, not two, but three buttons on the top H wished to wear:

That has to level up my domestic goddess-ery somehow right?

So TT got all dressed up for “the par-tee”

Why yes, yes that is a party dress with snow boots. My kid is the epitome of fashion and style πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

It was a lovely party with gorgeous food, presents and… a piano

Listen… if you dare πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

There were a number of other children there. TT played so well with other toddlers, and #1 Son was polite and well behaved – according to H several members of her extended family and friends were singing my children’s praises πŸ™€πŸ™€πŸ™€

I’m not taking credit for that beyond being grateful!

So that has been our week.

I’ve gotten #1 Son signed up to a five-week Monday-Thursday Summer Learning Academy, which is free and four hours long where they focus on core skills at an age appropriate level. H told me about it as her grandsons take part (they are a grade above him) and he was able to snag a waiting list place. She will take him and pick him up and next summer it will swap to being at the school just around the corner from us!

He has a Field Trip tomorrow and the school asked for one of us to chaperone him, so daddy gets that honour.

And, to finish off, My son you know the only just six-year-old? Well tonight, when he came home from school, he asked if his friend GG who is the youngest daughter of the lovely lady who drops him off on a weekday, could stay for a sleepover.

I would like to remind the audience that this girl is 11. Yep that would be five years older than him!!!

I’m so going to have trouble with this kid when he’s a teenager aren’t I?

One month to go

I’ve started saying goodbye to friends and am planning my leaving speech (whilst still praying for a miracle to get me out of it!)

Some of the wonderful and crazy people I will miss:


I’ve cancelled some subscriptions, working on the TV licence – the swines don’t make it easy!

I’ve also signed up for some home schooling resources for a year for both children to try and provide some stability for them.

11 days of gainful employment left to go…