Jamie's Birthday Sleepover

Do I say NEVER AGAIN!! well almost, perhaps never in that quantity.

Never what - well never will I have 7 ten year old boys in this house for a sleepover!! Although as we all know sleep is the last thing that children do on a sleepover!!


Well it was maybe not quite that bad! It was all good natured fun and just lots of time on xbox, wii etc. We rearranged the sitting room slightly to give maximum playing facilities for as many of the boys to play the games at once as possible and it did largely work quite well. Not too much squabbling.

The food went down a storm and there really wasn't anything left from the hot food, the nibbles they were keeping for later, keeping in one instance to scatter from one end of Jamie's bedroom to the other (aargh!) We had been given specific instructions as to what they wanted for their midnight feast.

Happy Birthday to you .......

Later when Mike and I had been asleep for some time I woke up to realise they were all downstairs playing on the xbox/wii and what time was this - about 2.30!! How we had managed to sleep I really don't know!! I told the boys quite simply that whoever wasn't in bed in the next 10 seconds I would have to call their parents (I wouldn't but they didn't need to know that!!) - there was quite a stampede of feet up the stairs to bed.

Jamie's bedroom had been carefully laid out so each boy had his own space to sleep, by this point his bedroom was unrecognisable and they just flung themselves into any space they could find!!

At about 3.15 Mike told them all to be quiet, at 3.30am he did the same again and at 4.00 they were told by me to get to sleep. We had much pleasure waking them all up at 8.00 the following morning!!

Same again next year - NO WAY!!

Ciao

Sue

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Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Songbird by Josephine Cox

Saturday 13th June

Jamie and I headed out to the library this morning and stocked up more reading material and some books to help him out in his project about squirrels. After that we headed to Hobbycraft to see if they had a sew your own cuddly toy, in the form of a grey squirrel. They didn't have grey, but had a red squirrel, so we bought him and bought some grey fur fabric so we can copy the red onto grey - hopefully. We also bought a couple of make your own bracelets and hair accessories kits as a present for the party he was going to later in the afternoon.


After we got home and had lunch with Mike who was also home on his lunch-break we just chilled out and enjoyed ourselves. We had a game of backgammon and Jamie was beating me the whole way through the game, but I had the luck with the dice at the end of the game and managed to beat him almost with the last moves of the game!


Jamie was at his friend Lauren's birthday party this afternoon. We walked up to the community centre where the birthday party was, the weather was so lovely. We took Binnie and she was so good on the lead, I think it threw her that she had never walked that way before. When I got back I had a play on Facebook (a great time waster!) and caught up with some bits (about 40) that people had sent me. One of the other Mums, with a child at the party was on there too as I kept sending her stuff and she kept sending me stuff.


When Jamie got home he'd had a fantastic time, so we just chilled again and caught up with Robin Hood, and as I had predicted a couple of weeks ago Guy of Guisborne turned into a bit of a goodie, long may it continue. We are all having an early night in preparation for what we are hoping is going to be a bit of a special day tomorrow.


Ciao

Sue

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Reading challenge 1/16 - currently reading The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
SLYMI - 1/52

Sunday 17th May

This morning I had a lovely lovely lie in and only surfaced at around 10.00 am. Mike had gone to work and Jamie had been 'chillin out' watching TV and playing xbox, he loves doing that first thing on a morning and tries really hard not to wake me/us so that he can play undisturbed! Cheeky monkey!

I finished my book last night, 'The Village Green Affair' by Rebecca Shaw and thoroughly enjoyed it. This was the first of the Turnham Malpas Series I have read, but will be reading all the others in due course. I enjoy reading books that are written in series and have read quite a few over the years. Currently I am working my way through a Dr Who series, Torchwood, Len Deighton's Bernard Samson and most favourite Sue Grafton's Alphabet series.

This is the 13th novel in the series but I didn't have any trouble picking up what was going on in the village and who was who. It had been discovered that an ancient charter allows a market to be held on the village green, so Titus Bellamy, a local businessman who currently runs several markets has decided to run one in Turham Malpas. This decision does not go down too well with many of the residents and they begin a fight to get rid of the market. At the same time long standing residents Liz and Neville Neale are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary but all is not well in the marriage. When Liz and Titus meet, the attraction is instant and not just the quick passing lust, but a deep and sincere love which overwhelms both of them. The novel has a couple of very disturbing twists and a pretty shocking conclusion. The market brings many unsavoury characters to the village which allows for a humourous sub-plot of Grandma Katherine Charter-Plackett playing the Hetty Wainthrop role and assisting the police investigating the increase in petty crime due to the market.

I found the novel enjoyably readable and the characters so likable, it was a joy. This was a reflection of village life in all its glory and minutiae, sharing the joys and sadness's of normal everyday life. I can't wait for the next one and will enjoy catching up on the history of all of these characters.

Jamie was at the birthday party of one of his school friends today. Now I am normally running to catch up with myself most of the time, but for once had got ahead of myself and arrived at the venue, to find no-one had any idea of a party or even where children's birthday parties were held. When I did find someone I realised I was half and hour early, hooray finally early to something! We filled in the time getting some petrol and arrived back spot on time for the party. Jamie had a thoroughly brilliant time at the golf party and is back there in a couple of weeks so he is eagerly looking forward to that.

Whilst Jamie was at the party I headed off to Frosts at Woburn Sands to choose some flowers for an arrangement I needed to make on Monday. I manged to find what I was looking for. When I am looking for flowers I try not go out with a precise shopping list, as sometimes, you just cannot find what you particularly need. I was pleased as I found pretty much what I needed and knew I would be able to make the arrangement I had in mind. I had already found the perfect vase for the arrangement and knew it would suit the person the gift was for perfectly.

Other than leaving everything ready and waiting for the carpet fitters to arrive, bright and early on Monday morning, well here's hoping, we chilled for the rest of the day and did all of the Sunday evening jobs, such as shower, hair (including head-lice shampoo) and getting bags, uniforms and lunchboxes ready.

Head-lice are a constant battle for parents and schools these days, but (touch wood, big touch wood), Jamie has so far never had them and I swear it is down to the shampoo and conditioner he uses at least once a week. It contains tea-tree oil and seems to do the trick, if you are plagued with them, give that shampoo a go, it has worked for us!

Ciao

Sue

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