Dedication and Catering Challenges

On Saturday Roarke worked in Birmingham for the day (a long round trip!). Quite a lot of work for not a lot of return, but we did get a very large box of "golden" chocolate coins left over, courtsey of Vonage ;0)

Sunday was the dedication for Jonathan and William. Jonathan rather stole the show by burping very loudly in a very quiet bit when it was his turn, and then clapping when everyone laughed!

Several of our friends, including one from "HE world" (waves to Grace!), stood at the relevant bit to pledge their commitment to coming alongside us in the raising of our children, and that meant a huge amount to us (especially as none of our family went...)

Afterwards Grace and her family came back here for a small buffet lunch and a very pleasant afternoon was had by all.

On Monday Roarke took Samuel and Joshua bowling in the morning, then off to Pizza Hut, with some of the other older kids from our group.

Meantime, William, Jonathan and I went over to Grace's so that Toni and William could have a "play date". It was very good to see them playing together without the influence of the older ones for a change.

On Tuesday we had the last Monkey Bizz before Christmas. The same three regular families, which is still good because the kids have really gelled together (and us three mums have rather a riot at times!). A few chocolate coins helped ;0)

After that, it was a rush back to here as Roarke and I were, together with another lady from the catering team, cooking Christmas dinner for 27 covers at church in the evening! My first time in a real catering kitchen and, other than burning the fingerprint off three fingers on my left hand, I enjoyed myself (with a burn like that I felt like a real chef!). The food seemed to be appreciated, very little was left over, and nothing was returned.

Today, in the morning, Roarke met up with the regular 2 other families they see once a fortnight for their walk at Keston. It was rather an icy walk today (this morning I smashed 2 inch deep ice from our birdbath, and filled it with hot water, only to find it was already freezing over again 50 minutes later!). He dropped me at the hospital so that I could get my blood test. We assumed I'd be at least an hour, so the plan was for them to pick me up on the way back.

Needless to say, for the first time ever (and probably the last!) I got to the blood test section to find not a single person waiting, and I got done straight away! So, I decided to walk home (about 2 miles) with Jonathan. Less than a quarter of the way home he decided to start screaming for all he was worth for an early feed, so I ended up feeding him sitting at a bus stop! Have you ever tried to SIT on one of the stupid bar things that they have in place of a bench or seats? Let alone try and balance a baby on your lap to feed them!

Fortunately, Roarke had by that time decided he didn't like the idea of me walking back and he came back in the car on his own to run me home before going back to the woods.

Afterwards, one of the kids came back here to work on a top secret english (book writing) project with Joshua, and then to play, whilst we finally managed to get the outside lights up.

Dinner was easy - left overs from last night!

Oh, did I say? Not only did Jonathan cut his first tooth, he cut two! The second one came through the following day!

(he is currently trying to get the chocolates of the tree behind me as I type...)

Tomorrow is our Lapland UK trip... watch this space!