Almost another week has gone by - no regular posts from me again - tut!

(also I cannot post photos at the moment - not sure why)

To re-cap:-

House sorting kind of happened - but not as I had planned. I have however started my trip planning for the summer as far as groups are concerned, but am still working on the Tuesday family days out (castles have been scrapped, having looked at the ones in our area they are not ideal for very inquisitive 3 year olds.

Becky had her last session of Drama for this term, also netball and they had a games night with fun and food, and both children also had their second and their last session of the youth club.  Basically my children and their two friends were bullied by 15 and 16 year old lads. Not at all acceptable, have emailed the group, they are very distressed, and want to sort it out, and speak to the lads in question.  I do not want this to happen, I want, in future,the 5 adults who were there supervising, to do just that - supervise. I am also going to suggest that they split the groups,as having done my research,most youth groups do not have 9 year olds  and 16 year olds in the same session.

They were OK though, they handled it better than I expected they would, they are a lot tougher now I think, since having to deal with James having epilepsy, some things they can cope with a lot better than they used to. BUT - they shouldn't have to deal with it,which is why I have spoken up.

Funny thing is, one of the supervisors is the wife of a teacher who was at the school my children went to for four days.  He was also the one who spent most of his day shouting at all the kids, and is the one I complained about when the children left. His wife is probably thinking "not her again"  !!!

Apart from that both children have been having great times with the neighbours children, have been in and out of each others houses and gardens, we really are  lucky to have such a lovely family living next door to us.

We went to the HE group on Wednesday - bit of a washout weather wise.

At the weekend Mike was working so we stayed home, and in the evening Becky and Danny went to my parents and stayed over.  Mike was working and my neighbour invited James and me over for a chat and a cup of tea,  She has a lovely tidy house, and I always think James is going to break something, but she is really kind, and her children both played with James while we had a chat.

James and I had a meal out at Witherspoons which was really nice. I wish that I could have this same one on one time with my other two, and even my husband every now and again, but right this minute I cannot and will not leave James.  I just cannot do it.  The best I can do is go to tesco metro which is a 3 minute walk from my house. while Mike is with him.  So in the meantime, I am desperately trying to sort out our house, routines, get organised, so that I can do some things with my eldest two, while Mike is with James.  Typical today Mike was playing tennis in the garden with James, in the rain, having loads of fun, and Becky and Danny were with their friends from next door, didn't really want to interrupt them to say "come on kids its one on one time with your mummy" they would have been embarrassed to start with, and they were looking forward to their friends coming round.  It is hard to schedule one on one time - because when James is asleep in the afternoon, the children tend to get things out that they cannot do when he is around, (today they Danny was making things with wood, using tools and Becky was making candles) Then in the evening when he is in bed (and I am too) they like to watch TV together and when he is home, with Mike.
Must make more of an effort though, and one thing we always loved to do of an evening was play cards. It is quiet enough to not wake James(as I cannot leave him when he is sleeping) so I could play cards with them and  have some treats, if I can stay awake that is, and they can give up the TV lol!


I digress a little - back to the past week - Becky, bless her, actually came home early from my parents as she missed me.  It may not be one on one time, as Danny sits with us as well,but she often sits with me before she goes to sleep, and we read, or sometimes very quietly chat or she will sit on one lap top playing farmville why I am on the other doing the same.

So she came home with Mike at the end of his shift, and I let her stay up late with me.
Danny came home with my parents the next morning, he had had a great time, think he needed to get away for a little break.

Today - glorious sunshine - but to my annoyance we got up quite late.  I thought it would be a good idea to do a kind of activity week this week, decided only when I got up this morning, as the two lads who live nearby are having this at school, and I thought we could too. So I rang up the local leisure centre, checked the courts were available, and headed off with our tennis rackets. James and I were planning on going to a park right next to the courts while Becky and Danny played tennis.
Setback number 1 - we were running late.
Setback number 2 - we didnt have any tennis balls - no problem - we have to pass the pound shop so will get some from there.
Setback number 3 - they only had tennis balls for dogs!  Now you would think, as we did, that these would be ok, but
Setback number 4 - after buying them, we discovered they didnt bounce!
So I thought I would have to buy a very expensive set of tennis balls at the leisure centre, but by the time we were half way there, and were walking past our local park which had a very lovely cooling paddling pool, we realised that it was just too hot to play tennis, which is setback number 5.

So good intentions for being active today gone out the window, but we did have a lovely time at the park.  Becky took James in the paddling pool which they really enjoyed, and then we had a picnic, lovely ploughman's sandwiches that Danny had made.
Then a quick visit to the library as it is next door to the park, then on home.

Still very hot, sat out in the garden, collected two eggs from the chickens, did a bit of gardening,played a bit of tennis with Danny, then took James up for his afternoon nap.

Mike was home by half two, and is off tomorrow :-}

Hope you all have a good week.
Lou x