It’s been a really great week this week, other than work of course. Having Megan’s birthday party out of the way was such a relief and its been nice to just concentrate on life and of course her upcoming birthday too. It’s also been fun keeping up with our Disney Countdown, which right now has made me feel strangely Christmasy too.
Monday to Friday was work and school for all of us. Chris is still training in his new job at BT, my job is still a nightmare and the girls seem to be enjoying school – especially as it begins to wind down for Christmas. The girls had Singing Stars after school so I took the opportunity to pop into town, specifically Primark. Sadly they still don’t have any of the things I want and I’d also headed there for vests and the choice was pathetic. When I finished shopping, I headed to pick up the girls and we headed home. After grabbing some food, we settled down to watch Beauty and the Beast (our Disney task for the day) and by the time it ended, it was time for Lily to go to bed. After that I spent the evening on my computer, doing some blog posts and relaxing for what felt like the first time in ages. I also spent two hours playing on my iPad which was rather novel!
Tuesday after school we headed straight home, possibly via Aldi I think. I was very excited to receive two parcels from Minted when we got home – which I will be posting about later in the week. The evening was yet again chilled, this time with Nat calling around. We spent the evening chatting, while also making some jewellery – something I never thought we’d be doing together again. I also baked Megan’s cake, ready to decorate the next day.
Wednesday it was Lily’s school play and I was really excited to go and see it. However we had time to kill between school and the evening showing of the play, so Megan, Lily, Kristy (my friend from work) and I, headed into town and saw the Coca-Cola truck since it was in Lincoln for the day. Honestly it was a little disappointing but I’m still glad we could see it.
When we got to the truck, there was no music, no nothing really – well except a big queue. We decided not to queue though, as it was only for a picture with the truck which we took ourselves. They were handing out free mini-cokes and we each got one. Afterwards we headed into The Entertainer, just to keep warm. After a little shopping, we went to Burger King and the girls got some food. We then dropped Kristy off before heading back to school. Lily went to get changed and Megan and I went to get good seats. We saved one for Chris, who mum was picking up from work and dropping off for me. At 6pm the play started and it was finished by about 6.45pm.
We got Lily changed and headed home, wrapping Megan’s present from her and writing the card before quickly packing her off to bed as she was tired. Megan stayed up a little later than usual too, to help me make a start on her cake, but then she went to bed at 9pm. I worked on her cake, on and off all evening, in between sorting out her presents, writing her card etc. while Chris was kind enough to wrap the presents. It was about 11.30pm when we headed to bed and I was exhausted!
Thursday it was Megan’s actual birthday and though I’d given her permission to wake us whenever, it was 6.45am when she woke us, only 15 minutes earlier than we would normally be up. Her first present from us was an electric keyboard which we’d set up downstairs for her to find. We also got her some loom bands, a Where’s Wally book and a Hidden Mickey’s book. Later that day a case and headphones for her iPad also arrived (late) and I gave her those after school. She got a number of other presents, which I mentioned in the post all about her birthday celebrations. It was a bit of a mad rush that morning, making sure we had everything ready for school and then Megan’s birthday dinner after school – clothes, cake etc.
We headed out the door, hoping we had everything, going to work and school. Afterwards I picked up the girls and Megan’s friend Alex, heading to my mum’s house to get changed. I grabbed a shower, while the others got changed and ready. We headed into Lincoln for 5.15pm, for our table booked at Pizza Hut. There we met up with the girls dad, his girlfriend and their other grandparents. My Chris also joined us after work. We had a very pleasant evening together and then all headed our separate ways home. The girls went to bed as soon as possible, especially Lily who was on her second late night.
After the girls were both in bed, Chris and I struggled to actually stay awake. We were both ready for sleep at 9pm, but I forced him to stay up till 10pm, finally caving and heading to bed. It was much needed sleep though as we both slept right through.
Friday was a good day. It was the last day of work for the week and also Megan’s birthday had passed so the main stress and worry was out of the way. We arranged to have Megan’s friend Katai over after school, but unfortunately she wasn’t quite ready for us to pick her up and her mum offered to drop her off. Instead we headed to Tesco for some food and then to pick up a parcel too. When we got in from all the various tasks, Megan’s Millies cookie had arrived and we all tucked in. Sadly it was a bit later than I had hoped but it had been her one request – a cookie with a birthday message on, to eat for breakfast. Of course, we didn’t eat it all, so that Megan could have some for breakfast the next day.
Katai arrived around 6.30pm, just after I’d put Lily to bed. Megan and Katai spent the evening watching movies, eating popcorn, crisps etc. It was about 11pm when they went to bed but they were sleeping separately from Lily so I wasn’t too worried. In the morning we didn’t really hear them too much, so it was nice to grab a bit of a lie-in. I think Lily had woken first and gone downstairs, the girls staying upstairs when they woke. Eventually when I got up, I told Lily she could go up and join them and even at that point they weren’t too loud. Chris and I had a cup of tea and went downstairs, but as soon as the girls came down, Chris disappeared upstairs to hide.
At round 12pm I sent the girls up to get dressed, Megan having decided she wanted to go out for lunch and then go bowling. However they all messed around so much that even by 1.30pm they hadn’t come back down. In the end I went up to get them and see if they still wanted to go out and since they did, we headed out to Woodcocks in Lincoln to have some lunch. It was 2pm when we got there but it was really busy. It took a while to order and then even longer for our food to arrive. I had called my mum to see if she wanted to join us for a drink and so she headed over and sat with us for the whole of the meal. After lunch we decided to treat the girls to desserts but these took ages to arrive, meaning we were cutting it fine for bowling. To Megan’s disappointment, we decided not to go bowling and instead went back to Mum’s for a cup of coffee and allowing Megan to have a little more time with Katai. However at about 5pm we headed home, dropping Katai on the way home.
Megan wanted to distract herself I think, so she set to work on her first peg doll painting – Elsa. Lily wanted to participate too but since it was a delicate task, we persuaded her just to paint a picture. Afterwards it was Lily’s bed time and while Megan stayed up a little longer, I got her to bed early too so she could catch up on some sleep. I spent the rest of the evening watching TV and wrapping presents. Eventually Chris came to join me and we watched some TV together, before heading to bed.
Finally came Sunday and we really didn’t have an awful lot planned. We managed a little lie-in but luckily I wasn’t too tired. The morning was relaxed and chilled out, eventually getting dressed around 10.30am, ready to go and see Chris’ Nan. We took a mattress to the tip, headed up to his Nan’s and stayed for a cup of tea. We then went to Morrison’s for a few bits of food, dropping off some tomatoes with Chris’ Nan after. We then went to Next and picked up a kettle I ordered, finally heading back home. I spent the afternoon catching up on X Factor and even last week’s I’m a Celebrity which I hadn’t found time to watch. I also started to order a few last Christmas presents, making sure I was definitely organised. The rest of the day was spent relaxing really. I watched TV with the kids and just hung out, then blogged a bit and hung out with Chris.
All in all it was a good week, feeling busy but relaxed at the same time. We’re rushing towards Christmas and genuinely I can’t wait. The kids have 4 more days of school and I have 5 more days of work. I’m looking forward to two weeks off and some time as a family. Roll on one more week – let’s get it out of the way and onto the happy days!