Happy Father’s Day!!

The girls and I woke early to get things ready for Peter’s special day of indulgence!

On Friday, we made him a little matchbook (where the front flap folds over) full of Father’s Day Coupons from cleaning his car to head rubs from the girls.  He loved it and I got the chance to use my Lidl cutter perforator tool which just makes it brilliant as each coupon actually tears off really easily and neatly!  We served him a full English breakfast in bed complete with home-made message toast which he loved!  The girls presented him with his cards and present (a power ballad 6 CD compilation, which is slightly different from his usual hard dance ones but he loved it!!).

After breakfast, Peter went on his motorbike to Fewston Village Hall where Lauren’s school were raising funds serving tea, coffee and cakes, and we followed in the car.  We drove past the Sun Inn, where we saw Peter standing talking to a family friend so we stopped and chatted for a while too which was lovely.  When we got to the hall, it was lovely to see familiar faces all in jovial spirits.  We were really pleased when Julie, Andrew, Emma and Phoebe arrived with Julie’s mum and her dog.  We spent a bit longer sitting and talking whilst the girls all played happily – it was so relaxed (even with a barbed wire fence which the girls gravitated towards!).  Afterwards we all drove/rode to Martin’s house to wish him a Happy father’s day as Susan and the girls are currently in Canada for a family wedding.  The girls played nicely together although it felt odd not having Chloe and Macey around!

For dinner, I made roast pork with Peter’s favourite, Yorkshire Puddings and loads of yummy veg – the girls wolfed it all too which was lovely.

It was the best Father’s Day we’ve spent!

I have also treated the family to a Wii and Wii Fit, from eBay I can’t justify the new prices although the used are still pretty high!  We’re all looking forward to it arriving and I can’t wait to see if it helps me lose weight and increase fitness.

So much has been happening recently, mostly all positive which is wonderful!

The biggest event over the last couple of weeks is the end of our near 4 year battle following our run in (literally) with a very drunk driver in 2005.  I’m so relieved that I do not have to go to court as to be honest I think I would have struggled going over it for the umpteenth time and coupled with the fact that my mother in law was to be there as a witness for us – too stressful!  It means that I can now move on and leave the past in the past.

Lauren attended her first “come and play” session at school on Friday.  She was understandably clingy to start with as we (and all the other newbies) walked into the Reception/Yr 1 class to excited (and familiar, friendly) faces.  She relaxed completely when her “buddy” Steven arrived to look after her, so much so that she actually told me that I could go home as she was “ok now Steven’s here”!  It’s such a relief that she’s now looking forward to starting school.

The joiner has been around and we’ve discussed our next phase of house building which involves the long anticipated move upstairs!  I am so very excited and the first two weeks of July cannot come soon enough!  Each time I drive past the workshop where our stairs are being made I get excited – sad I know!

The not so good stuff is that for some reason the girls are going through a very destructive and rebellious stage.  They seem intent on undoing any work I do to try to get the house in a reasonable state and it feels like everywhere I walk, I have two Tasmanian Devils behind me chattering, giggling and destroying!!  It feels awful to say and think but I am looking forward to Lauren starting school and Martha being in playgroup more mornings a week from September.  I think that Peter and the girls seem to cope with living in chaos but it really does affect my mental well-being when things are not in order – no amount of reward charts or threats seem to turn them back into helpful girls.

Back to the positive end of my blog - we’ve had one of the best weekends we’ve had for a long, long time.  On Saturday afternoon, we attended our God-daughters’ 4th birthday party which everyone really enjoyed and the sun was shining!  Peter has got himself a motorbike so he went out on Saturday evening for a ride and he’s really enjoying being back in the saddle so to speak – his mood has lifted considerably!  On Sunday afternoon, we attended the leaving party for my very good friend Heidi, her husband Patrick and lovely daughters Hannah and Camille.   They are leaving to return back home to Texas at the end of the month having been here for around 4 years.  I will really miss Heidi’s friendship and hope that Skype will help us keep in touch although it certainly will not be the same.  Again, the sun shone the whole time and the children loved bouncing on a cake bouncy castle whilst everyone enjoyed the Ceilidh, Lauren and Martha very much so, although Peter didn’t join in!

We’ve a busy week ahead with work being done outside in preparation for some hardstanding for a shed to put our precious items in for storage whilst inside work gets underway.  We have a lunch date on Tuesday with a hopefully new friend for me and a new classmate of Lauren’s, there are preparations for Martha’s beach/bbq birthday party to finalise and buy for, and finally another “come and play” session for Lauren, after which I’ll be looking after my God-daughter for a while – it’s so nice that they will be in the same class as each other!