What a fabulous weekend. Exhausting, but fabulous! The Kenilworth Newbies had been invited to a wedding. ‘No children allowed’ said the invitation…… ah…. hmmmm….. oh, well, alright then, you can bring the baby. Which, of course, meant that we had William and Thomas to stay. Oh, what bliss.
The whole family arrived on Friday evening so that the grown-ups could get togged up in their very best clothes on Saturday morning without sticky fingers all over them. Eeh, it were lovely.
We played and chatted – mostly William, who has such a lot to tell us, but Thomas did his utmost to compete. The only problem is that we don’t always understand what Thomas is trying to tell us yet. We read stories, watched TV (of course) and splish-splashed in the bath, before settling the pair of them into bed.
William couldn’t sleep. We read a couple of books. I sang some lullabies. “What are we going to do tomorrow?” William wondered. “Well, we’re going to make banana cake, aren’t we? And then we’re going to see Freddie in the afternoon at Uncle Paul and Auntie Harriet’s.” He ruminated a bit and then said “You won’t forget to take me, will you?” Fat chance of that! “No,” I said gently, “I won’t forget.”
“I think I need some warm milk to help me get to sleep,” he said. Oh? “Mummy gave me warm milk the other day and told me it would help me get to sleep.” Ah… right. I checked with Mummy. “I’ll go up,” she said. She wasn’t keen to make warm milk at bedtime a regular thing. Turns out William needed the loo. He went to sleep fairly promptly after that. Thomas, of course, had hit the pillow and was out like a light.
The next day, the grown-ups washed and brushed themselves up and looked rather lovely to go to their wedding.
After we’d waved bye-bye to Mummy and Daddy, we got down to the serious business of getting dressed and getting on with the day. First stop: the shops, to buy sugar and then make banana cake. Thomas fell asleep in the buggy, so William and I got on with the job.
The cake looked just right as I popped it into the oven. A rookie error, however, and it came out of the oven looking like this:
I had failed to put the loaf tin on a baking tray. The tin had lurched over in the oven, spilling half its contents onto the muffin tin below and had cooked at a 45° angle. Tasted good though!
Once Thomas was awake, we were off! Paul had sent us a photo of the luscious spread they had on offer at their house-warming party – and it was, naturally, too good to resist.
What a wonderful afternoon we had. The children were in their element, playing and running about with all the other children there. We were delighted to meet up with Paul’s old school friends again and other old acquaintances. It was a really good get-together. Regretfully, I was so busy playing and chatting I didn’t take photos…..
On Sunday, we all agreed it was going to be ‘chill’ time. Everyone was tired after the parties. Thomas, who had been as good as gold on Saturday, decided to treat us to the ‘terrible twos’ on Sunday and had one of the biggest meltdowns ever. Michael bore the brunt of it, with Thomas being very cross with him and following him out of the room just so that he could scream a bit more at him, in case Daddy hadn’t quite got the message that he was the bad guy. Hmmm….. I wonder if the trigger was all the pastries and sugar he’d eaten at the party on Saturday…..? Ooops.
This morning I was up with the lark to continue my 30-day Yoga challenge, and was just coming to the end of the Zoom class when the doorbell rang. It was the plasterer arrived to create magic in our dining room. Or, alternatively, create a helluva mess…… dust everywhere. Although, to be fair, he really did keep the mess down to a minimum.
We left him to get on with the job while we went about our day. I was busy in the kitchen when John’s phone rang – it was Paul. “Doing anything this afternoon?” Nope, we’re just chilling. “Can we come over? Freddie and me?” Well, of course!
So another lovely afternoon. And more cake made. This time it was ‘Devil’s food’. But once again, no photos – I really am rubbish at this lark!!! But suffice to say, they taste brilliant, and Freddie has taken a cake tin full of the muffins home with him.
An eventful few days which means that we haven’t fully caught up on the celebrations everyone was having to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Or all the shenanigans in the House of Commons today…..
Susie Dent’s Word of the Day today is ‘corrump’ (14th century): to destroy something morally, or bring it down to nothing. Can’t think what she’s talking about. Certainly not the Jubilee celebrations.
Take care everyone. God bless.