Swim picnic!

Apologies to anyone reading - I have blogged this in mind-numbing detail, for myself, to be able to remember it properly later. Doesn't make for good reading, but I needed to do it!

Friday
The picnic shop arrived and I managed to unpack it. F painted her Disney Princess plaster cast things very carefully - she has really got very good at concentrating and using a brush now and seems to enjoy that kind of activity. The Disney Princess plaster kit was one that I had in the cupboard having ordered it ages ago.
I'm slowly building up a little stock of things like that to come out when she fancies doing those kinds of things. She's now got to the age where she makes a lot less mess with paint, etc. so I don't feel that dread that many will be familiar with, where you get something out, watch materials being used 'properly' for about 5 minutes and then just being used to make a mess for a further 10 minutes and then spend about 30 minutes cleaning up. She actually accepted my suggestions to do the pale colours first and the darker colours afterwards and to use separate brushes for pale and dark colours.
I spent a bit of time chatting online - my main message board got hacked and we have all moved to a new home and I was heading to my first 500 posts and there was a certain amount of interest in what would happen in the new place. I got a blue star and status change from Newbie to Chatterbox. I know, I know, but it seemed very important at the time!
Next I made about 80 sausage rolls (sosmix, herbs, ketchup and Saxby's ready-rolled pastry), which went much more smoothly than anticipated. Then it was time to get showered and ready to go out for a bit more picnic-related shopping and to meet my mum.
In town I bought bottles of super-strong bubble mix and some very bouncy rubber balls to give to each child expected to come to the picnic (clear plastic with colour sphere inside, like the one we have which F observed doing something weird in water, which turned into refraction experiment). But then I saw some really nice light-up novelty twisty ball things in another shop and got those instead, deciding to give the bouncy balls to the under-3s. As we came out of the toy-shop F commented that she had seen an Ariel mermaid toy in there and it was beautiful. I asked her to show me next time we went in and we would think about whether it would be a toy to save up for, depending on price.
It was gone 5 and we were now late to meet my mum, but after toiling up the hill (rucksack full of about 40 novelty items and gallons of bubble mix!), we found that she had only just booked in at the hotel. We went and spent some time in her room - F was thrilled with the room and explored all its facilities, declaring part of it to be her office and spending some time taking imaginary 'office' type phone-calls. Then we all went for a snack and drink out on the roof terrace, with beautiful views of the Downs. The wind suddenly took our table umbrella up and over the edge of the terrace in a rather graceful slow-motion way as we looked on in amazement. F had a grated cheese (not cheezly) sandwich, which she ate most of, though she did flap it around a lot and I had to keep squishing it together. I ate bits of leaf off her plate and some of her crusts as I was anticipating a Chinese takeaway later.
At about half seven F and I set off back home, having checked mum's TV out. Back home, Jack had just arrived. We all hung out for a bit, with F pootling around, playing various games that involved covering the living-room floor with duvet, cushions, pillow, etc. We had our takeaway quite late and I was already starting to feel stressed so didn't really enjoy it. I made lots of sandwiches and put them in the cool box, along with a few other items.
I didn't sleep badly but F woke me at 3am having wet her bed. It was a struggle shifting all her bed items off to get the sheet off, and then putting them back on.

Saturday
The alarm woke me at half seven (aarrrggghhh!) and I dozed for a while, getting up just before 8. Downstairs, Jack was already making sandwiches and made me a cuppa (there's nothing like a guilty ex for helping you out in your hour of need!). We chatted a bit about various mutual friends and the state of our generation in general, then it was time to really get moving.
Boxed up chunks of fresh pineapple, strawberries and raspberries, apple turnovers, put onion bhajis in a big bag, all the rest of the sandwiches in the cool box, located various things to pile up in the hall ready for taxi: spacehoppers, giant bubble blower set, food, swimming stuff, etc. J and Jack were going to walk up with F a bit later.
Called taxi and it arrived, taxi-driver was amiable and cheeky ("shouldn't you be staying home and doing some gardening?") and helped us to load up, including spacehoppers on back seats (6-seater). When I got into the taxi, all the stress melted away, driving through our beautiful town with opera playing. We picked my mum up at the castle and then went down to the pool in blazing sunshine. It was beautiful, sitting by the pool with my mum, the water was so inviting. People began to arrive (16 adults and 16 children, ages ranging from 16 months to 9 or 10 years, including neighbours, old friends, new friends, local friends, online home-ed friends and family) and gradually the pool started to fill with people. The water was cold but wonderful once you got in, as the morning air started to heat up. We had the pool to ourselves for just over an hour and it was bliss. Something I will definitely do again - they also do evening bookings.
Then we moved round to the park right next door, for our picnic. I had a stressful few moments wondering how to supervise present-opening while getting food and other things out when what I really wanted to do was make giant bubbles. Then I remembered how to delegate and it all got easier. F had some lovely prezzies, including a handmade Puss-in-Boots (big crush!) from Nic, and the very Ariel mermaid that she had spotted the day before from Katya. Also some lovely craft items, bath bombs and a Dr Who pen that we will all be fighting over!
Bubbles were made, food was eaten, children played and it was a lovely day. Thank you to all who came, it was great to share it with you. I didn't seem to manage much chatting time but it was nice just sitting there enjoying the atmosphere.
Gradually people packed up and left. Back home the grandmas stayed for a little while and we chatted a bit in the garden before they left. The evening was just a relaxed one.

Sunday
Was a lazy day, unsurprisingly! F explored various of her new presents including painting some jewellery items, making and eating a raspberry mousse (improvised as more of an ice-cream crush mix!) and drawing a fairy palace. J and I made occasional forays into the kitchen to eat picnic leftovers and clear up the residual rubbish from picnic prep.
It ended with F having a bath with one of her new bath bombs which smelt beautiful.