Catching Up

Right, where do I begin?

Monday was Joshua's birthday, and the gluten free Tardis chocolate cake went down well!


In the morning, he went to see Hoodwinked with his brothers and one of his friends from our HE group. It was the first time William had been allowed to go to the cinema and he was very pleased to be included.


They then came back here for some birthday food. I hadn't planned anything, and had a real "oh my goodness I'm such a bad mother" moment. I raided the larder/fridge and managed to come up with some gluten free goodies - pizza, garlic bread, sausages, chicken nuggets, cheese and pineapple, crudites, crisps and some salad! Plus of course, the cake.


After that, Roarke took the boys bowling.


That evening we let Joshua choose dinner, so it was off to the chinese for a take away. The sweet and sour chicken is without batter, and they have rice. However I'm aware that there is probably quite some cross contamination and it has been noticable in Samuel in particular.


On that subject, we realised after two manic days this week that the bread that my brother kindly gave us (glutafin's gluten free mix) was to blame: it has the CODEX standard allowed wheat starch, so it would appear that Samuel and Joshua need to be wheat free as well as gluten free :0(

Tuesday was the HE trip to the Mall. 58 people were booked, and just under 50 turned up so not bad all in all. There was no way I was up to all the walking and standing, so Roarke stepped into the breach and took Joshua and Samuel on his own as well as doing the organising bit when everyone turned up. By all accounts, it was a good day.





They got to see some horses being trained, as well as seeing the "internal mail" coach set off for Buckingham Palace!




Wednesday the money finally went into the bank from the house sale. Definately the best balance our bank has ever seen!

We have now started the long process of clearing each and every outstanding bill and debt from the past 3 years. In addition, we bought the few things we had promised the family - a climbing frame for the garden, a new tv (our one went ages ago and we have an old one on long term loan from a friend) and a new bed for us.

Encouragingly - and somewhat amusingly - our bank phone up the next day and asked if we'd had a card stolen as they had noticed "unusual spending activity" on the account! We pointed out that there was also an "unusual balance" on the account, hence the spending! But it was good to know that the Cooperative Bank were so on the ball.

Yesterday we went to meet some newly made HE friends and all had a whale of the time. The family were very welcoming, very relaxing and very much "our kinda people". All the 6 kids got on, and so did Roarke and I with the Mum. Great fun.

Today I went shopping with Mum, which I found hugely tiring. I think I need to seriously consider home shopping in future - the bags were heavy to lift, and I tired very easily walking around the shop. We bought in some bits ready for next weekend, when my sister-in-law's parents come over for a few weeks from Hungary.

Which reminds me - time to brush up on our conversational German that we had been learning..

In the afternoon we went to the Bromley Common gathering for several hours. To be honest I didn't want to go as I was so tired, but it was actually a very pleasant afternoon and I'm glad we did.

The only thing is, because that meant I kept the car, I need to stay up late tonight to pick Roarke up from work!

The boys are currently going loopy with some old glow sticks. They have been in the freezer for more than 3 months and I'm amazed they still work! So amazed that I decided to look up the science behind glow sticks. Here's a good video about them, and a worksheet to go with it!