We seem to have done a million things this weekend - but I'm sure that in telling the story it won't seem that way.
It started off with swimming lessons for Hayz on Saturday morning. She was very cute (again) and is almost, but not quite, good enough to go up a level. I'm not upset about this - it's a bit of fun to do lessons with her.
From lessons it was a quick trip home for a shower and to get some stuff together before heading up the mountains. I drove mostly over the speed limit and the trip passed quickly enough :-) We had a quaint little celebration of UG's birthday (which was actually a while back) and the kids enjoyed giving him pressies.
After lunch we went for a walk to the primary school Mrs G and I attended. It's changed a bit - there's very obviously been a safety audit done and some playground changes have been implemented. There's also a new indoor sports hall. The grounds were pretty dirty and we had a bit of a gaze into some of the buildings and they were also quite dirty. I guess this is because school's can't afford cleaners anymore .....
Mid afternoon we left Grandma's house to go to Nanna's house for TJ's party. Pretty much everyone on the Jones side of the family was there. It was a pretty good night. LGR loved playing with his cousins and there was a lot of very noisy and animated conversation.
Then came Sunday.
It started with a very nice run (for me) and then a trip up to the shops for some food. We were fairly efficient today and got out without too much damage on the plastic cards.
After going home to put all the beautiful new food away I took the kidlets out for an adventure while Mrs G did some study.
First stop was Woronora Dam - near Helensburg. It's been a couple of years since I was last there and the drop in water levels was quite shocking. It rammed home some of the significance of the ongoing drought. It also reinforced my strong feelings of vertigo as I held up the kids to see the water on one side fo the dam and the dry land on the other.
Next stop was a park in Helensburg. We found some play equipment and had a very nice game. There was also a picnic had (not much was eaten) and a phone call made to Mrs G to see how she was going. At this point I was reminded about our next destination selling goldfish and this was all the bait that was needed to get LGR into the car.
Next was the ZooCow nursery. We bought 3 fish, some herbs, a native tree with red leaves and two golden leaved shrubs. And some potting mix. LGR and Hayzey shared a milkshake and both of them enjoyed playing the water features. Somehow we managed to spend about 90 minutes at the nursery and nobody seemed to mind too much.
A quick trip home and it was time to plant the herbs. Both kidlets helped out in their various ways. I know a bloke who got a staff/staph infection from some potting mix a while back so I'm very cautious around it now - much to the displeasure of the kids. But they had a dig and this seemed to be enough for them.
Time for a bath. LGR didn't enjoy this too much and who can blame him? It was very awkward and his wash lasted for all of 3 minutes.
Dinner was next. This was a bit of fun tonight. We were given a pasta maker last Christmas (I think?) and today we finally used it. Everyone helped out and the pasta even ended up tasting good. Next time we'll make the recipe a little differently but know we've been through the technique once there's no reason not to do it again.
So that's about it. All little things but when it's all added up plenty going on.