A good weekend

Once again, I have lapsed with the blog, but really don't have that much to report and I was busy with cakes - had three on the go, plus my sugarcraft lessons resumed this week, meaning I lost a night, AND we had a long weekend, so everything had to be done by Thursday. Anyway, I got there, was very proud of one cake, I will put up some pics, once Matt is able to process them.

Not much to report from the rest of the week - did the usual things, nothing remarkable happened. Tom is now able to twirl around whilst dancing which is quite cute. He had a difficult week eating - refused pretty much everything I gave him. I was strict this week, not giving in to him and letting him go hungry.

As I said, we had a long weekend this week. Lisa and Cameron invited us to a weekend away with some of their friends. Something they've been doing for a number of years. Some friends pulled out, so they asked if we could fill their places. There were 25 including lots of children. I'm not one for meeting lots of unfamiliar people in one go, but with Tom around, I am much better - he is such a great ice breaker. Everyone turned out to be nice, all easy to talk to - a real mix of ages and personalities, but it worked really well and it didn't take long until we felt comfortable around everyone. I did feel as if we didn't pull our weight enough helping with cooking, tidying, cleaning etc - it is quite hard to fit into a routine that others already know, hope they didn't feel as if we were lazy and took advantage of everyone else.

One couple made a huge curry for the Friday night and we had a bbq on the Saturday night. Lots of people brought desserts some of which were awesome, especially an orange cheesecake which Daniel (age 10) had made. All of us are now demanding recipes.

Tom charmed everyone and made himself at home. We were staying in a farm in the middle of nowhere in Mid Wales (near a hamlet called Pandy) - a beautiful location, we had sunshine the whole time which was fantastic. The house had a swimming pool, sauna and squash court, as well as a huge garden, stream and access to lots of good walks. We took advantage of everything. We all went swimming twice (water was almost as warm as at the HLC which was good.) Tom decided that he was now happy to do the 'Holiday Swim' when he clings on to my back, as I do breast stroke, which was fab, so we went up and down the pool many many times (very good exercise for me!)

We went for a short walk behind the house - looking for badger holes, frogs and other wildlife. Unfortunately, Tom got tired, so whilst the girls were making a den, we headed back to the house and Tom had his nap, whilst Matt and I played squash - we were remarkably good considering both of us are rusty. I almost took a game off Matt which made me very happy.

Anyway it was a good weekend, just the tonic I needed - I was a little down last weekend, I think through boredom. Unfortunately we didn't sleep that well (when I say we, I mean Matt and I, Tom was absolutely fine) so we are shattered, looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight.

Oh, for the first time ever, Tom ate substantial pieces of meat - he chomped his way through the best part of a chicken drumstick on Saturday. We will see if he will do it again - I have a feeling he ate well this weekend as he was surrounded by other children eating the same as him.