Lazy days and birthdays.

Sam has been away since Tuesday. Thank goodness for modern communication measures! I sent him with my old mobile phone, and programmed in our home number and both mine and Steve's mobile numbers. He phoned me when he got on the ferry, then when he had breakfast on the ferry, when he had lunch on the ferry, when the ferry got to Liverpool, when he got to the house and when he went to bed in the house. That was the first day. But now that he has made it to the camp with his grandparents, he is only phoning at 11pm before he goes to bed each night. I felt much happier knowing that he could contact me at any time though. Only another seven days before he comes home!

Jude and Luke have been lost without him. Sam really is the entertainment in this house. But I think that Luke and Jude will bond a little closer while he is away. Usually Luke gets into bed with us in the mornings and goes back to sleep. But once he wakes up he gets into Sam's bed for up to an hour, and they chat and play, and read together. That always puts Luke in good form for the day. But sometimes I suggest he gets into Jude's bed in the mornings and he always refuses. Last night, at 10.20pm, I found him all snuggled up with Jude in her bed. He wanted to sleep with her for the night. They looked so cute together. I didn't let him because it was so late, but I will do tonight if he goes to bed on time.

Yesterday we went to another home educating family's house for a birthday party. This little girl is nick-named Lady on her Mum's blog, so that's what I'll call her on here. Jude was the only girl. Lady and Jude spent the whole day together, joined at the hip. They seem to get on really well. Lady had two guineapigs and the two girls were never far from these creatures. They nursed them, carried them round the garden... when Jude got home last night she decided to spend more time with her own guinea-pig, Hudge. Lady's guinea-pigs were called Daisy and Cruikshanks, but Luke told me they were called Diesel and Crackers. How cute. Lady's Dad is a whizz in the kitchen, just like Steve. He enjoys cooking, and he made a gorgeous tasty meal. Luke usually wants to leave after an hour or so at someone's house. He was a little nervous going into this strange place, but soon settled in. Once Lady's Mum (the big Mummy as Luke calls her - not because she is big, she isn't, but because she was obviously the head Mummy in that house) brought down a big box of Thomas the Tank engine trains, Luke spent hours playing with them. Various boys joined in a different times and he played along with them. I watched him to see how he would interact. At home he lines up all his toy cars, and if anyone dares take one or move one he gets very upset. I watched him lining up all these trains the way he would at home, and then another child would bound into the game and take a few trains. I expected tears and confusion, but actually he was just fine and pleasant to the other kids. He didn't seem to mind at all, and he talked away to whoever was playing at the time.

It took us far too long to leave. I packed up all our belongings and Luke kept saying "in a minute Mummy, I just want to play a bit longer." That's so unlike him. Eventually I persuaded him that it was in fact past his bedtime, so it was time to leave, and then we couldn't find the two dummies that he had brought in with him. I knew that he'd had them, because I'd been holding them at one point. I searched through my bag, through Lukes bag, round the garden, in every room in the house. I asked Luke what he'd done with them but he couldn't remember. I looked in the car, in the train box, in the bathroom, kitchen, eventually everyone was looking for them. I knew that he'd be unhappy on the way home without them. He was tired, and he likes to have one dummy for his mouth, and one for each hand. We only had one. Eventually we gave up looking and got into the car. In the car I said to Jude "you'll never guess where I found his dummies once, in the boot of a little blue toy car". Then a light bulb went 'ping' in my head. That little blue car was in the bag of toy cars that he had taken into the house. I found it, opened the boot, and there were too very squashed in dummies!

(Ooohhh, Steve has just brought me in a big bowl of fruit for breakfast - strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, banana, nectarine, grapes and mango. Nice one!)

Anyway, since I last blogged we've been a bit lazy around here. I've been trying to spend some quality time with Luke and Jude while Sam is away. On Thursday afternoon Luke announced that he was now old enough to watch grown ups DVD's. I had to laugh. So we got out Dr Doolittle 3. Steve brought it home from his shop for Jude to watch. I figured it was grown up, but that Luke might like the talking animals. He said the cutest thing. He was confused between Dr Doolittle and Dr Who. So he kept saying "we're going to watch Dr Hoolahoop now". So we forgot all about housework and gardening, and sat and watched the film with a big packet of biscuits.

On Friday we were supposed to have friends over. However, when they didn't turn up I texted them to see where they were and they were still in bed. They apologised and said they'd come another day. The kids were disappointed so we drove up to my Mum's house for the afternoon instead. Aunty Hannah and Uncle David were there, and cousin Bevin too. Jude and Bevin were much better company for each other when all the other cousins weren't around. Mum made lunch and we all sat and nattered. Uncle David told us about his recent trip around America. Hannah and David have set a date in November next year for their wedding. They have managed to persuade the manager of Castlewellan Castle to have their wedding there. They have a strict no wedding policy, but because our sister Jenny ws married there he has agreed for Hannah to use the place too. So that's exciting. I was looking at wedding dresses with Hannah. It's so exciting. The wedding dresses are so gorgeous.

On Friday evening Hannah and David offered to babysit. Now I have to whinge about how little there is to do in this country. The weather was too bad to do anything outside. The only other options for a night out in this country are going for a meal, going to the cinema, or going clubbing. Seen as we don't drink there isn't much desire to go clubbing, and there was nothing on at the cinema, so our only option was a meal. I just didn't fancy it. I was in the mood for action and adventure... paintballing, lazer questing, absailing, boating, anything with a bit of fun involved. Anyway, we drove to Lisburn and I remembered a lovely Indian Restaurant in Bridge Street called Spice. I went to it once with Heather. We found it and had a lovely meal there. The restaurant is really nice. The staff are all Indian, and are all so pleasant. They play Indian music (I feel it ruins the atmosphere somewhat when you go out for an Indian meal and they are playing British pop music). The only thing I would advise is that there food is quite mild (probably perfect for the typical NI palate.) We both ordered meals with 3 chillis next to them. The menu has a hotness scale of 1 to 5 chillies. Our 3 chilli meals tasted very mild, so we would definitely go for something hotter next time. It was nice to get out for the evening, with no kids. The meal was very un-rushed. And we sat for over an hour after finishing our meal, without feeling pressured to leave. We will definitely go back there again.

Today we are having a very lazy day. We decided that life is too rushed and we never get to relax, so today we are doing nothing but spending time together as a family. We are all still in our PJ's at midday. Steve has played scrabble with Jude and is now going to play 'doggies' on the trampoline with Luke. Happy days. It's nice to do nothing.