So despite misgivings from Amanda and Laurie (Ben was super cool about the whole thing) - the boys got on the train at Taunton and concentrated very hard on not missing their stop in Newbury. Thank goodness it all went to plan and they arrived safely on Wednesday lunchtime to much excitement from the girls. I had already decided that they could make camp in the playroom and all sleep in there, so without further ado they set to sorting out beds and bedding with no help from me - surplus to requirements! I was very clear - just remember Glenn has a short fuse and running around inside like idiots won't make for a happy stay - they took it to heart and all behaved brilliantly, very grown up!
We had organised a few things to do but essentially the plan was Glenn in charge on Thursday while I was in London for work, and me taking over on Friday. We went out for tea at the pub on Wednesday and then to my surprise on getting home I heard Ben saying "let's make sure we get to bed by 10pm so that we have lots of energy for the morning" followed by the others agreeing. They trotted upstairs to do teeth and have a wash and sure enough settled down really quickly. I have no idea what time they actually went to sleep but we didn't hear a thing from them and they were all flat out when I got up to walk the dogs in the morning.
Glenn's day out included a trip go-karting which they all loved. Laurie almost felt car sick until Glenn told him in no uncertain terms that being sick in the Range River was out of the question, and that was that. Whether he felt sick or not he did a fab job of making it look all OK! I got home to the 4 of them plugged into various devices playing games and chatting together, again very calm.
Friday dawned after another text book bedtime and without me needing to chase them up they started to emerge around 9:30am, very happy to hear that bacon sarnies were on the breakfast menu. Abi then mutinied and decided she would prefer to go to Mia's (who has a new puppy) rather than come with us. I was all for the path of least resistance and much to Glenn's disgust I said fine, we'll invite one of Izzy's friends instead to come out for the day. He thinks I'm weak but I can't see the point of dragging a reluctant child out for the day. Instead we dropped her off and picked up Amber and then went into town before heading to Reading to go to the Aqua Park. We had a very energetic hour on the inflatables (all knackered but laughing like mad by the end) before agreeing we were ravenous and needed food. We did the reverse - dropped Izzy and Amber and picked up Abi - got food and headed home.
After what seemed like minutes it was time to drop the boys back at the station for their journey home. It worked a treat doing it this way - definitely one to repeat in the future.
Saturday was a new experience (much to Ben's disappointment that he missed out on this one) when we got to go to our first (and probably only) football game at the invite of one of my clients. Glenn had dropped Abi off to Angie's for the week on Friday afternoon so this time it was Chloe's chance to come out for the day. She is football mad and so was the only one of us that knew what was happening and was super-excited to be heading to the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal vs West Ham in the Tesco box. We were blessed with lovely weather unlike yesterday's torrential downpours, and despite not really being interested in the game, had a great day out.
Yesterday was a proper bank holiday wash out - Izzy went to Mia's, I cleaned out cupboards and Glenn tried to watch the Moto GP. Fair play to the presenters, they managed to provide commentary on a rain drenched track for over 3 hours before the organisers cancelled it - glad we didn't have tickets for that!
So with Abi riding, Izzy at Mia's and Glenn out on his motorbike this morning I was left on my own. Luckily there's never a moment when the garden doesn't need something doing so I spent a happy few hours pottering around before Glenn and Izzy made their way home. We are at the stage where the kids are out more than they are in and that will only become more the norm. Thank goodness we have things we love to do, either together or with others, to keep us sane. One more week and back to school and routine again - we can't wait!
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