Packed lunches

For the past week or so, Rhiannon has been asking for packed lunches rather than hot meals at school. Usually the mornings are quite chaotic in our house, so Rhodri and I almost always refuse to make packed lunches for her.

Well, the Little Miss has taken matters into her own hands!
I came downstairs yesterday and found she had relocated the stepstool so she could reach into the upper shelves of the refridgerator, thereby accessing the goods to put in her lunch! She proudly showed a full lunchbox which had a sandwich that was already cut in half with butter and cucumber inside, fruit, string cheese and a little treat.

So she has been continuing to do this and finally I eeked out of her that a special someone also has packed lunches and so he ("OB") has been sitting at the same table when Rhiannon has a packed lunch. I guess the hot lunch diners have to collect their food first and so aren't able to sit down until a few minutes after the packed lunch diner have sat down. So that's the excitement in our house - oh, AND Rhiannon has another wobbly tooth.

Extended birthday for Rhods

Rhodri was away for his birthday, so we weren't able to celebrate until he got back home on Thursday. But then Sioned & Lorenzo were coming to stay on Friday night so we saved some celebrating for when they arrived - we cooked dinner over the fire in the back garden and then went through a few bottles of wine amongst all of us, later enjoying the additional company of Emma and Rob (S&O's parents). Then we used the excuse to gather people and go to the pub on Saturday afternoon, and then another friend delivered a birthday cake and champers on Sunday! So he really milked it this year even though it wasn't a "big" one.
Saturday was the most photogenic, although it was all good fun.
Sioned, Lorenzo, Rhodri and the kids went geocaching in the forest nearby - here they are when they found the treasure (I had stayed at home to work a little bit):
I met them at the Red Lion pub down the road and several other families joined us! It was a gorgeous afternoon as you can see...
All the kids ran wild in the grounds, playing games and climbing trees and all sorts. There was a herd of about 9 or 10 of them at one point, ranging 3-8 years old. Here is a typical scene:
But then one of them found a stash of old furniture or something in the field behind the pub, and they busily carried all the dresser drawers, tables, chairs and random bit to some secret hiding place in the trees where they were then building something new. Hmm. We left them to it because they were very happy being so industrious and creative! But then the pub landlady saw what they were up to and they had to put all the pieces back where they found them.
It was great to just hang out with Sioned and Lorenzo. We love Sions' new hair cut!
Back at home, Sunday morning watching Star Wars (episode 5 - the Empire Strikes Back)
Good times! We love people visiting, going to the pub, running wild and then being cozy on the couches!

Weald Woodfair

Today I took the 4 kids (ours + Sophie & Oscar) to the Weald Woodfair
http://www.bentley.org.uk/#/woodfair/4525168793
which was about 25 minutes drive away from us at the Bentley Motor Museum. It was an unsettled day with intense heavy rain showers followed by partial brightening of the skies - perfect to get all suited up in our rain gear and head to this event! The troops all took turns learning archery skills...
Rhiannon was really good at it - the pirate-looking guy who had about 25 earrings in his right ear was well impressed with her skill.
We walked around for a couple of hours and then I finally caved in and said that we could all get ice creams and ride the miniature railway.
Then they played on the adventure playground and were all trying to out do each other in their sliding stunts and what-have-you. That's when Rhiannon's stunt went horribly wrong somehow and she got a big fat lip. I didn't actually see this happen but I was near enough to hear the cries and go help. It wasn't too bad of an injury - just a lot of blood at the time. Good excuse for all of us to do a trip to the bathroom and wash our hands and faces!
It was about this time that S&O's Mom called to ask when she could have her kids back and so we made our way to the exit. I tried to take a photo of all 4 together looking extremely scruffy and worn out, but Oscar ran away so I only managed to get 3 of them in the photo above! I like how Tryfan is pulling up his leggings, Rhiannon is holding a cloth to her mouth to stop the blood, and Sophie is looking laid back and cool. Good times!

Barrowful of fun

This looks like a classic summertime photo - eating ice lollies in the wheelbarrow on a warm (and cloudy by the looks of it) afternoon.

Lost tooth and hair visitors

Well, Rhiannon lost her first tooth this week. It had been wobbly for a couple of weeks and then finally fell out when she was at school yesterday. Yes, the Tooth Fairy did visit and apparently she left 1 pound in the same envelope that the tooth was put in. What a sly Fairy she is!

I don't know why Rhiannon drew the lines on her face in this photo but she did. It took quite a bit of scrubbing to get these off but a little scrubbing once in awhile doesn't hurt!

Speaking of scrubbing, we've also had an invasion of "hair visitors" (aka, lice) this week. This all happened while I was back in Santa Barbara by myself so I didn't get to participate in the treatment and attempted removal of these little fellows, but I'm sure Rhodri did a thorough job!

He is going away next week so I'm sure I will get some payback for all these treats I missed.

Article about love

I read this article from OdeWire, a website that I love checking in with because of its supply of positive news from around the world.
http://odewire.com/117588/benefits-of-adding-love-to-your-schools-curriculum.html

I love the concept of the Compliment Guys! How much better would the world be if every town had some guys on the corner handing out free compliments to each individual that visited them!

First day of school

Today was the first day back at school. I thought it was a little bit harsh to start on a Monday and have everyone go straight into a full week, but whaddayagonnadoo? Rhiannon was really excited and was begging for us to go to school a full 40 minutes before we would normally otherwise go, so we compromised a bit and did go early. We were the first ones on the playground. Tryfan went to the nursery school part of the school today and he was pretty excited to see his old friends again.
Ready for "Year 1" (aka 1st Grade in American lingo). She is in the same class as last year, as it is a shared Reception (aka Kindergarten in American)/ Year 1. Sophie and Rhiannon are the only girls in their year and now are the oldest, so they have plenty of bossing around opportunities coming up for them!
We are so lucky to get hand-me-down school uniforms from our friend Sarah, so all we had to buy was new shoes for Rhiannon this year. She chose a particular model which all the cool girls from the year ahead of her have: there is a secret compartment below the heel which opens from inside the shoe and has a little figure of a girl and another one of a tiger! Funny.

Today was also a special day because it would have been my parent's 41st anniversary. I was teary everytime I thought about this today. So that combined with the emotions that welled up when we were confronted with people at school asking how the summer was and all that made for a very wet day for me. Fortunately we live in a small place and word gets around pretty quick, so most people knew about Grandpa Carl's passing. But I did have conversations with both T & R's teachers to let them know and to ask them to be supportive and/or shielding when it came to the inevitable sharing of summer experiences.

Tomorrow I am flying back home to Santa Barbara to spend a week with my brothers and sisters and Mom. I'm really glad that my boss said I could take compassionate leave at this time, since we were technically on vacation when we came over in August. It will be strange to travel alone!