Post to cover all of our super busy week....

It all started last Monday...I was parent helper in Esther's playgroup but we couldn't find one of Eliza's shoes anywhere so I had to go into the loft to get one of Esther's old shoes out even though they were a bit big. Eliza loves to put her shoes on - it was hilarious to see her so excited about a new pair. Definitely a girl.

That evening my parents came and stayed till Wednesday evening. My mum hurt her arm doing some gardening with me but she did get alot done! That reminds me, I forgot to ask her if it is out of a sling yet....better call her in a minute.

Wednesday night was book club which was fun - our new book is Remains of the Day which I'm looking forward to reading.

Thursday night Ben was out at a church meeting in Northampton.

Friday night my parents-in-law arrived! They stayed until tonight. The kids love having all their grandparents over and we are lucky that they come and see us fairly regularly. Esther has already made plans to go to Grandma's house on Friday though I'm not exactly sure if she knows how to get there....

ON Saturday Esther had a birthday party to go to so I stayed with her then it was straight to the pre-school craft afternoon that I was helping out with as I am on the pre-school committee. Then a family dinner out and home to finish preparing my 2 sharing times for Primary at church on Sunday. I was zonked by 10pm for certain but just as I was going to bed Eliza woke up and was awake till midnight.

We decided to go to the Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival today as Stilton is only 20mins away from where we live. Being a Bank Holiday, the weather was miserable. To be expected I suppose. So I think that started off the Festival as being not very good in Esther's mind (since we forgot to take her a coat with a hood and it was raining, clever) but as we went into the Festival area she got more and more panicked until we got to the performance area where there was a drumming act playing. It was pretty loud and there were quite a few people there (including the man who was Willow in Willow!!) so Esther was just absolutely freaked out (not by Willow, she didn't see him, just by everything else) she was positively shaking with fear and begging us to take her home! She wouldn't even go on the bouncy castle or let me hook a duck and win her a prize. So we left. In the afternoon we had the bright idea to go to the cinema. Ben's dad has been desperate to see Wolverine so Ben, his dad and Bex went to see that whilst me, Ben's mum and the girls went to Monsters v Aliens. Bearing in mind Esther's first cinema trip when she cried all through Wall-e when it seemed that he had died, I wasn't sure how well this would go down for her second cinema trip. She was scared for the beginning, Eliza only stayed on my knee when I plied her with Cadbury's buttons, then wandered up and down for a bit before I took her out, then Esther wanted to come out too because I was outside, she eventually went back in with Grandma and I was left outside watching Eliza, stopping her from eating every bit of popcorn on the carpet thinking - what on earth went wrong in my brain to think that a cinema trip with a 1yr old would be a pleasant experience???

So it's been pretty busy round here and I for one and looking forward to a less hectic week and getting my house back to normal! My mum and mother-in-law alway do a lot when they come to stay so I'm grateful for that! We love having everyone come to stay. It's been fun but I'm ready for normality again!