David Currie

We went over to Cranbury Park on Sunday for the National Garden Scheme open day. Most of Duncan’s friends from school also seemed to be there so we bumped in to someone every five minutes or so as we toured the grounds. Christine had been telling everyone about the tiny frogs from a previous visit so we were glad to find that they were once again out in force. Favourite activity of the afternoon had to be rolling down the steep hill though!

The wait was finally over and at the weekend Emma could finally enjoy her joint birthday party with her friend Rhianna. After lots of initial debate about venue it ended up being at our house and, with a few drop-outs, it wasn’t too much of a squeeze. There was a craft theme and the combination of party bag decorating, decopatch (yes – now I know what decopatch is!) and bracelet making more than filled the time available to the extent that we had to text parents to tell them they could pick-up late. The party food pretty much all disappeared (perhaps because it was chosen by the girls themselves during one of their party planning sessions at school) and thankfully didn’t cause any allergic reactions (EpiPen was at the ready). The only downside of all this is that Duncan is still keen on having his birthday at home and 5/6 year old boys are a different proposition!

The sun was shining for Emma’s sports day this year even if not on Emma! I only stayed for an hour although that was at least twice as long as Christine. It was long enough to watch Emma perform in the two team competitions and then come last at picking up balls and the Egg and Spoon! Her hat was obviously troubling her in the first (taking it off obviously hadn’t occurred to her) but it was something far more fundamental that was the problem with the latter: an inability to keep the egg on the spoon!

It’s that time of year again – Hillier Gardens have their new sculptures out. The only difference this year is that they’ve put the prices on the signs so you have to make sure you don’t read them first before guessing at the jaw-dropping numbers! The sculptures seemed a little less exotic than in some years (if you discount the pile of skull-like objects) and there were even a few that I’d be happy to have in our own garden (were it not for the price!).

I’ve been more than a little remiss in my blogging recently (nearly 5 months since the last post) but I couldn’t let Emma’s birthday pass without a mention and perhaps that will be the trigger for me to start posting again. Emma’s birthday fell in half term this year and both Christine and I took the day off with the intention of making a day of it but, having been away camping in Dorset for the weekend, both children seemed to keen to make the most of a day at home.

Emma was expecting to spend the day playing with all her new toys and, I suspect, was slightly disappointed that she didn’t actually get lots of new toys to play with! Her main present was an iPod Nano which, I shall be the first to admit, I won in a raffle at a recent conference. I did have to buy her some speakers later in the day though for fear of never being heard by my daughter again (although she’s quite capable of not hearing you even without headphones in!). Her party (joint with a friend) is still to come and I’m sure that will even the score.

And what is momentous about being 8? According to Emma, the fact that she can no longer go in men’s toilets! This fact is based on a sign in the local swimming pool but Emma has applied it more generally. I suspect more significant is the fact that Emma can be let loose in the pool on her own.

I can no longer remember life without children but somehow it also seems that Emma has grown up very quickly. Still hard to believe though that in another eight years she’ll be able to leave home and get married!