Oh it's been too long again. Here we go...

After Bristol weekend - I started to get ill with a virus and my toenail was bad after F jumped on it (and then she trod on it a few days later) and we didn't do much that week but F went up to play at her friend's on the Wednesday (1st July) and had a lovely time in their paddling pool and on their trampoline and generally. I had 3 hours to myself at home! Which I spent doing nothing really - but that was kind of needed. Then I met J from work and we went up to pick her up together, stayed for a short while chatting with C and K - very pleasant in their garden. And K gave us some nice garden-grown shallots and garlic. J had some time off starting at the end of that week, but he inevitably caught the virus too and felt wiped out for a few days as I had. So not the best week off, unfortunately, for him. At least we had Torchwood every night. I had to do an intense 36-hour working catch-up as I'd been too ill until then. And that brings us to Friday 10th July

Friday:
Went into Brighton, I went shopping for some party/birthday requirements and then we went and saw Ice Age 3 in 3D, which we all very much enjoyed. Oh, we had good bus conversations but dammit I can't remember them. F always initiates fab conversations on buses. Maybe it's the height (double deckers)? LOL I don't know.

Saturday:
F's party - last year it was big, which was lovely in many ways, but I can't say I'm sorry that it was a lot smaller this year. It was reduced partly because F's friendships are changing - she had reasons for all the people she chose to invite this year, to do with their personalities, e.g. 'so-and-so makes me laugh' and 'I like dancing around with so-and-so', etc. Last year it was really just every child she could think of, I think. Also 2 families were away on holiday and as it turned out another family didn't make it as they were on their way back from holiday, but they did make it to the sleepover...
Anyway the party - only 6 kids and 7 adults in the end! I was still doing stuff all the way through, as the time when I would have prepared for it, I'd spent working, and the time I should have spent working I was ill. Still, it seemed that everyone enjoyed it - lovely kids, no rows, mostly not organized/structured but I did do Pass the Parcel near the end. Otherwise they played on trampoline, played with ponies, watched Dr Who and various other activities. F had a mission with her friend E, to take lots of photos of E's baby brother D, so they did a lot of that. I made a vegan chocolate cake with lemon (not)cream filling, but the top icing didn't work as it should, was still quite tasty though, nice and chocolatey and it did rise well. I also made some heart-shaped pastries with sundried tomato/shallot mix spread on them, which worked OK. Must remember to use up rest of pastry.
So the party guests disappeared around 6ish and E stayed on for the sleepover. The sleepover was a very big deal! It was:
the first time we'd hosted a sleepover
the first time E had slept over somewhere other than at grandparents, without a parent
the first time E had slept over without her sister
the first time D and S had slept over anywhere without a parent
something F had been asking for for about 6 months but her choice of participants had changed a few times - think we were very very lucky with the final choices, thank goodness - or at least I was!

D and S would have been at the party but were still in transit from holiday, so I gave E and F their dinner and they watched some Secret Show/Animalia on i-Player. We got the airbed in place and put the duvet and sheet on, ready for them.
When D and S arrived, their mum and dad came in for a quick cuppa as they'd been on the road for much of the day. Nice to see them and hear a bit about the holiday, and nice for the kids to have them there long enough to sort of 'see them in'. The level of excitedness increased exponentially with the doubling of amount of children, as these things do, so there was a bit of running around and craziness.
We had a few things scheduled for the sleepover, starting with trampolining in the dark at half nineish, with multicoloured fairy lights on the trampoline. It was drizzly but they didn't much care. Then they came in and had hot chocolate and toast and watched The Simpsons. Next they settled down in F's room to watch a DVD, all lined up in bed, looking very cute and snacking on bread, cheese and carrots.

Unfortunately the DVD choice (Bolt) didn't really suit half of the audience and so, after 20 minutes or so, some reappearances began and continued. There was a bit of trying to 'help' the kittens with various tasks that they normally accomplish quite autonomously - I did make the analogy that making them go somewhere was a bit like sending children to school, which seemed to have an impact! At some point I realized that because S wasn't engaged by the film, she had had a bit of head space to miss home and parents, so she and I spent 20 minutes chatting in the kitchen, about her holiday and other things and then stroking one of the kittens, finding things for them to play with, etc. Soon after that she seemed fine again and rang home quite cheerily. E also rang her people and then the film came to an end and their next activity (F's choice) was to dance around to music for 15 minutes, so they did a bit of that, then it was theoretically time (00:15!!) to settle down and try to sleep or do quiet things. This didn't really happen, and there was a gentle descent into craziness over the next hour or so. F suddenly got overtired and tearful, don't think there was any significant reason, just overtired, possibly coming down with the same virus we've had.
By 2am, they were finally all pretty much asleep, after I'd applied a variety of strategies, with increasing firmness and potential 'consequences' to deal with various non-sleeping/non-quiet occurrences!

Sunday:
J and I got up at 9ish and they were all still asleep, then D appeared about half past, followed shortly by others, all looking rather tired. I felt like I had a hangover and I hadn't touched a drink, for some reason! The parents were due to pick up at 10, so there was quick toast-eating. C picked up E and N and A stayed for a cuppa and chat, which was lovely. F wanted the paddling pool out - had been too drizzly the day before - but there was no point as we were going out.

J's dad Grandpa C arrived late, which was actually rather welcome as we had a good hour of just chilling! Then he took us out to the Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum for the afternoon. Had a lovely time, was a perfect day for it, not too hot, but sunny and comfortable. We went on the miniature steam trains, did the woodland 'ancient houses' trail
which was my favourite part, looked at somebody working molten glass in the craft studio, wandered round the cars, had some ridiculously pricey food, walked around the wildfowl areas, walked through the house and spent time by the play area.

All very good really - a long busy weekend but F really enjoyed everything.
Today was F's actual birthday, so she opened her remaining prezzies - we gave her a Flip camera and a DSi, and she also got books, games, kits, and Pixel Chix and MLP things. The kittens got together with Dozy Mog to write a card for her. We played Mario Party 8 and got the new paddling pool out - J delighted F by joining her in there! I think I'd be tempted another time, it's nice and deep, compared with our old one. It's been a lovely day, very relaxed and just us at home after all the social stuff and out-and-aboutage. Had a long cuddle with F this morning, lots of chatting and for some reason we ended up doing some improvised maths - bit like pie charts, also involving percentages.

My little girl is eight! Eight seems a serious age, a pivot, a threshold, somehow. She can be such a thinker - today we were watching an episode of Star Trek TNG and she pointed out that the people making it had had certain specific limitations on their vision of the future, due to the present that they lived in - she didn't put it like that, but that was the thought she was expressing, quite a sophisticated line of reasoning. It was in the context of research and how long and difficult they seemed to be finding it to find something out, when we'd Google in half a minute today. Yet, she can also be crazy and irrational, which I don't seem to get much better at living with!
I love the changes there have been over this last year - the new friendships, greater understanding of how friendships work, all the new stimulus and points of reference that being a reader has given her, the new independence with visiting her friend without me, having her friend over, e-mailing friends, making arrangements herself, playing online with friends, sleepovers, etc.