Meeting and Movies

Yesterday morning we spent mainly at home, the kids played Minecraft and Slugterra and watched ABC2 for a while, and I had a great phone conversation with my friend B, and made a very yummy loaf of raisin bread, which was half demolished by the time we went out.

I had a meeting at 11.30 at the hall in Yarra Glen, to discuss plans for a Children's Week activity day that will be run in October (I was there representing the YG Homeschool Group, YG Toy Library and ABA). While I was at the meeting LiAM watched YouTube videos and Millie played with toys from the toy library - a beading set and some Schleich animals. Caitlin played Minecraft, read some books, and joined in the meeting. Someone suggested that Caitlin busk at the activity, and we talked about other jobs she could help at and whether our homeschool group could put on a performance for the younger kids.

After the meeting we hung around in the library for a while, reading and watching videos, then walked up the street to order fish and chips for lunch. There was a cold wind which I hadn't expected, I'm glad I took my big jacket. We went to the post office and the op shop, and picked up some cool games (including Harry Potter Scene It), a princess carriage, a jewellery box,some earrings and a couple of DVDs. We took our hot food down to the park to eat, and had a quick play in the playground, then headed to Ringwood to the movies.

We bought our tickets to see How to Train Your Dragon 2, and ordered a popcorn/drink combo with a special How to Train Your Dragon cup. The guy said that lots of people had ordered the combo and not wanted the cup so he had spares - did I want one cup each for the kids? So they each had their own goblet cup full of lemonade which they very generously shared with me. The movie was great (a bit scary for Millie a couple of times), funny and emotional and uplifting and very well made. I'm so glad we went yesterday - I'd been thinking that maybe one day next week would be a 'better' day to go, but there's been plenty of times I've thought that and then we've missed out on going all together so I figured best to go when we all felt like it and did have the opportunity, and it was a great day out. We listened to Harry Potter 7 on the way home and came back happy and tired.

LiAM decided not to go to karate so we had a quiet evening at home, playing Slugterra, watching TV, having a bath, feeding the animals, hanging out all together (Tony was home too - nice to have an evening with all 5 of us here).

All quiet

Its very quiet here today. The kids are at Mum's - Tony and I both had commitments last night (he had Masters Baseball, transferred from Monday night as that was a Public Holiday) and I had a Regional Meeting for ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association). So Mum came and picked up the kids yesterday afternoon and Tony and I will go up after he finishes work this afternoon and have tea up there tonight and come home hopefully late enough for some of them to fall asleep on the way home.

I am appreciating the time here by myself to get a lot of cleaning/tidying/organising done before Tony's 40th Birthday Party in 2 1/2 weeks. I figure if I can get most of the background cleaning and tidying done today while there are few interruptions, then I can easily do a surface clean in the days before the party and it won't be too stressful. We've got lots on over both the next 2 weekends so there's little weekend time to get organised - great that I can get a good chunk done today.

I'm missing the kids though - the vineyard guys are putting nets on the vines to protect them from the birds now that the grapes are ripe, and I keep wanting to call the kids out to look at where they are up to. Lots of little things have happened this morning that I would normally have commented on and it reminded me of how much interaction we all have, even when they are playing on their own and I'm doing something else. I like sharing my thoughts and experiences with them and having them share theirs with me. 

I know they'll be having a great time at Grandma's, and I am grateful for some time to myself (and being able to listen to music of my own choice), and I'll also be very glad to see them again and have a noisy, busy house again tomorrow.