The holidays begin!

I looked forward to a quiet week last week before the holidays, and loved the gorgeous weather. Had hoped to go to Cath Kidston & Ikea on Wednesday with Anna, but Tom was ill (for at least an hour!), so I ended up going with Lucy on Saturday instead. Susannah came over unexpectedly on Wednesday too, which was lovely. Scott had Thursday off work and we had a nice pottering around day, with lunch out. I got my hair cut/highlighted on Friday (this is one of the 'before' pictures I took in the bathroom, but it doesn't look a whole lot different now, so there is no 'after' picture!)Scott and the boys playing in the garden at the weekend.

On Sunday, Lucy and I went to Duston ward. More glorious weather - enjoyed the driving. Lucy is always good company.

Today Lucy has gone to her friend's in Lincoln for a couple of days. I've had a good start to the holidays with the boys. We made charts for Harry and Tom, with velcroed stars which they can move across when they have done certain things each day. (We did manage to jam up the laminator with stars, but I took it apart and got it unwedged again!) Harry was very keen on this, and got everything done almost straight away, including unloading the dishwasher. We then did junk modelling with all the bits I have been collecting up for the holidays. Photos of the completed master pieces to follow, once they have been painted... We spent a lot of the day in the garden getting our two vegetable beds weeded and prepared, with the boys doing a lot of suplus-to-requirement digging! Finally harvested some leeks and carrots which we planted about a year ago, and ignored ever since! Enough for our pasta bake tonight, and some soup later on.Scott come home really early. We've just watched Harry Potter 7 which he bought on DVD, and now he's doing press-ups. Aren't we exciting!

Other stuff on Scott: He is doing a course at the college he works at, every Friday afternoon - PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector). He has done very well with his homework marks so far, and has to do a micro-teach at some point soon. (He's planning on teaching something from Derren Brown's Tricks of the Mind book!) Just to make it clear though that he isn't planning on doing any actual proper teaching at any point! His job title has changed though - he is now the Deputy Principal (including being responsible for Health & Safety! Lucy nearly fell off her chair laughing when Scott said that... covered in his scabs and scrapes - looking most definately not healthy or in the least bit safety conscious!)