Leia comes to stay

Rosa and Tom

We have been very busy this week.  No sooner had our Japanese guests gone, we were welcoming Leia, Rosa and Karen.  (Always the way, nothing happens for ages and then it all happens at once).

Anyway, Tom went to nursery on Tuesday morning whilst I sorted the house out and did some cake preparations for the week (just one cake this week - mind you it is one that has been a pain as it is one for Seasons and they have been pretty rubbish with their communication about it - oh hum!).

Feeding the Ducks

The Komorovskis arrived after I collected Tom, they had lunch and then after a play we went out for a walk to the park.  The sun actually came out for a little while and Tom and Leia played really nicely with each other (very little interaction required from me).  Rosa is now 15 months old, so into everything -

you can't take your eyes off her for a minute as she has the death wish that all toddlers have - wanting to jump off walls etc.

Our 2p in the money tree

We walked home and had dinner, then bath and bed for the kids.  Tom and Leia slept really well together which is a miracle considering Rosa was very unhappy to be in bed and showed her anger by throwing up!  It went everywhere - the cot, the guest room carpet, the landing carpet, the bathroom, all over Karen's nightclothes.  Everywhere, although she managed to remain completely clean.  Typical!  Oh well, just as well we have a vax, so we managed to get it all up.  It certainly took us back to what it is like having a baby in the house.  Anyway after all the excitement Rosa went to sleep and we didn't hear any more from her.

Tom and Leia - just hanging

Wednesday I was hoping for a day on the beach / Happy Mount Park with everyone, but it dawned grey and cool.  It wasn't a day for the beach and certainly not one for the splash park.  We changed our plans and went instead to Clapham.  We did the nature trail up to the Ingleborough Cave entrance and back again and then went for a picnic and play in the very good park.

Flowers in their hair

Our time in the park turned out to be quite interesting.  A lady turned up with her children and got chatting to me and Karen.  She knew me!  It took me quite a few subtle questions to work out who she was.  Obviously there has been quite a bit of village chatter about me as she knew about my cake business, knew Tom was about to start school, knew that I go to Fiona's craft nights etc.  All this without me having met her since we moved to the village.  I managed in the end to remember one meeting with her once last year at the playgroup that I used to take Tom too.  Anyway she was lovely and chatty (obviously) - I managed to get some village gossip from her, so came away quite knowledgeable about what is going on in Ingleton.  She also informed us that we had just watched a pop star mow the lawn of the park.  She is Chair of the committee that runs the park in Clapham (as usual round here it is the community that sorts out the parks, not the council).  The person we watched mow the grass as we ate our picnic was the lead singer from EMF (Your Unbelievable).  This place is full of celebs - Alan Bennett lives here as well.

Having fun in the basket

Anyway, the kids had a good time.  Egged on by Leia, Tom seems to suddenly have a liking for playing in the baskets in playgrounds (he has always been too frightened before).  They spent ages in it and went pretty high.  He told Karen "sometimes I'm brave, sometimes I'm not"  That's certainly true, peer pressure can be a great thing.

Somehow it got to be 4.30 so we called it a day and came home.  After dinner, bath etc all children went to bed happily.  Not a sound was heard from any of them.  Well done Rosa, Leia and Tom.  

Thursday the Komorovskis went home early (Rosa was in need of a long daytime sleep and needed it in the car - she refused to sleep in the buggy for a long time yesterday and only managed an hour in the end which wasn't long enough).  It was a horrible day here, so Tom and I ran some errands and after lunch Tom went for a rest.  (He didn't go to bed until 8pm the last two nights).  He slept for 2 hours so obviously needed it.  That meant I could do some cake work which was very fortunate.