Just back from 4 nights away in North Norfolk with David & Mandy and the extended family – daughters Laura & Charlotte, sons in law Ben & Chris and the 6 – I kid you not! – grandsons, Archie, Rafferty, Otis, Kasper, Theo & Seth. All ten and under… eek!!!!
Always lovely to spend time with Dav & Mands and I did my best to cope with the thunderous sound of not-so-little feet hammering up and down the wooden stairs (our room was ground floor, right underneath them) and the calls of 'Mummy' and 'Daddy' before 6am.. Huge hats off to the parents for handling 2 in one family and 4 in the other – the boys are pretty good but of course there's usually one having a meltdown as he has been pushed by one of the others, hasn't got the 'right' Monster truck or shape of bowl vs plate at meal times, is 'practising' wrestling a bit too vehemently or didn't get the Easter egg of choice! (The dinosaur and unicorn ones seemed to go down the best…)
Eggs were scrambled with the help of small hands and we were pretty lucky with the weather – 3 days of sun and one a bit drizzly, but enough to be sitting outside several times, with the rose wine coming out any time from 4pm… Had a wander round Wells, Downham Market and took one look at Hunstanton – and left! More mud and sludge on that beach than sand… But at least the boys found oysters, enabling them to recreate the swallowing moment from our very first weekend away as a 4, about 12-13 years ago..
H organised an Easter egg hunt in the secret garden, complete with a very scary troll under the bridge, and did lots of throwing small people around in the pool. Still giggling at this photo – one of the twins (3 years old) thought his dad was going to throw him off the bridge so burst into tears!
Maddie watched much of this with googly eyes from her crate – now 4 weeks into her post op recovering she could come out and mix but it seemed to entail much eating of precious football cards and balls, so toys had to be 'up' before she could emerge..
Of course, shocking traffic going back as it was Easter Fri, but v nice to be home for a few days with H before he foffs again to Croatia to register Ash's boat for the season, then is home for a whole 8 days before we head off to Spain…. eek, am getting a bit anxious about that already. 4 weeks away from my beloved Mojo – poo!
But here we are now, its Easter Sunday, the lawn is mowed and the terrace jet sprayed (3 hours!!), the lamb is on the BBQ and Mark & Charlie are of course running 30 mins late for lunch – giving me the chance to write this – and the sun is out. AT LAST!!!!!!!! x x