Lifesaving, art shows and mud pies.

It's been a busy week. Brian has been in Singapore and will be there until next Friday so the lads have been pushing the boundaries with me at times, but generally they've just been missing him, so keeping busy has been a must.

Last week at the local pool, where the boys do their swimming lessons, was "lifesaving week". Tuesday came and Alfie was very excited as he'd been told to wear some of his old pyjamas for his lesson. The agony of which ones would be the most cool to wear....(!)  Anyway, when we got there it was really very good. Each group was taught what they should and shouldn't try to do if they were in the situation where somebody needed help, or indeed if they need help themselves. They worked in pairs and took turns to be the victim or rescuer. The children all behaved really well for once because it was all so new and interesting. Alfie even used the experience as his "news" to tell the class at school.  Ru's lesson is on a Friday, and he hadn't been asked to wear PJs so we assumed they wouldn't try to teach such skills to 3 and 4 year olds. Remarkably he had almost exactly the same lesson as Alf. They were repeatedly told that they must never jump in to try to help, but from throwing out a toy, towing people back in and yelling for help, the lesson was the same. I was most impressed I must say. Ru took to it like a duck to water and when his teacher pretended to fall in just as the lesson was ending, I'm proud (and amazed!) to say he was the first to pick up a polystyrene "woggle" and lie at the side to try towing her back. 
Then came Alfie's school art show. Now I was obviously always going, as one does to show support for such events, but I can't say I was expecting much of a primary school art show. I was wrong. They do such amazing stuff. There was a photography exhibition by Year 4s (around10yrs old) which anybody would be proud to put their name to. There were sculptures made from recycled items, paintings, models, clothes designed and made by older students. Alfie's year had several projects on display, with Alfie himself having 4 paintings all showing outer space. Just lovely, and he was sooo delighted to show them off to us. Then to cap it all, the school takes part in a "seeds" program called Robotics. In the library the children involved in this were displaying their dancing robots, which move around to music. It was fascinating, and I had to keep reminding myself " This is a primary school, the oldest these kids can be is 11or 12" !!

As an extra special treat we had drive-through "Red Rooster" roast chicken and chips take-away on the way home. It's something we do so rarely that the boys love it and eat every bite every time.

When the weekend dawned with no Daddy, Grandma and I were keen to keep on the go. We went to the playpark for an hour or two, until Ru fell off his scooter and removed last weekend's large scab from his elbow. It was bad enough that he was actually leaving a trail of red drips as he ran back to me, so with a tissue clutched to him we went home to look for a Gruffalo plaster from the medicine box. Later in the afternoon we went visiting friends and sat drinking tea and eating some very delicious home made sausage rolls while the Children played some more. 

Sunday we went to Bunnings (-read B&Q) after mass to get some compost, pots and plants. We spent the afternoon creating a herb tub and planting out pea seedlings. I ran out of compost before we got to plant up the tomatoes, lettuce and courgettes so will have to make another trip, but the boys didn't let that bother them. They just carried on digging and watering in one of the border areas in the garden. When I asked Ru what he was doing with his bucket of mud and water, he proudly explained that he was making giant food - of course, why hadn't I realised?

Amongst all this, we got news that our old house has been re-let so we can finally give back the keys and stop paying rent on it a mere 3 weeks after moving out (all due to the situation of breaking our lease and moving on regardless, as we needed some positive action). This is great news, but required Mum and I to go and clean the windows and give the place a general once over before the keys went back. I suspect window cleaning isn't entirely among my list of recommended activities, but apart from feeling exhausted afterwards, I did ok, and I tell myself it was a good test of my physical recovery.

So today began another week. Alfie was back at school. A man came to try to sort out our green swimming pool, but ended up going away again and saying his colleague will be back tomorrow- the fourth visit to what I'm starting to believe might be a large duck pond if we're not careful. Ru made more giant food and spent much of the day being a baby lizard. And this evening, both boys have been dancing to Buena Vista Social Club, one of our CDs which emerged, as things always do, as a result of the move.

 Now to bed. Ru's there already, Alfie's just going, and I won't be too long behind them I suspect. Sweet dreams...