We have been mainly..........

outside this week, which makes a change.  It has not been particularly warm, just dry!

We started the week with our usual pilgrimage into the local town for shopping, visiting the library and running errands.  There was a group of school children in the library and my eldest watched them in fascination.

We had our regular play date at a friend's house the next day.  As it was a sunny day we were all outside.  The group, ranging in age from 2 to 11, played in a nearby field.  The game had rules that were totally mystifying to the watching adults, but fun was being had by all, and all the children were included in the game.  Once little legs started to tire we moved inside to make pancakes for all.  We stuffed them with fruit and many were consumed, a perfect end to a fun afternoon.

The day after dawned grey, cold and wet.  It rained all day!  We had wanted to go out, but in the end had a highly enjoyable day inside.  We read books together, watched March of Penguins DVD together, put on some groovy music and danced with musical instruments and played a co-operative game.  Whilst I was cooking tea the children commandeered the hall as a 'den' it entertained them for ages, there was lots of tidying up to do at some point!

We managed to get out every day for the rest of the week, Thursday dawned clear and bright, far better than forecast (not that the forecast is ever that accurate where we live).  We went for our monthly walk in a local woods it was a beautiful day.  We met a friend at the start of the walk who had been hoping to do a walk herself with friends who had not turned up, so we invited her to join us.  We saw many birds, badger activity including hair on plants and paw prints in the mud, talked about moss and leaves, threw stones in the river and made many stops for food.  We all arrived back at the car tired and happy.

We visited the garden centre the next day to buy seeds, onion sets, garlic and seed potatoes for the garden.  The following day we spent in the garden, weeding and sowing garlic the children dug trenches and planted the garlic, 80 cloves, hope they all come up!

Daddy came home on Sunday morning after two weeks away, the children were so pleased to see him.  My youngest spend the rest of the day at his side, it was strange not to be subject of her attention and affection.  We only have his company for 24 hours before he is off again, only for a few days this time, but it was a good ending to our week.