Precious Moments {8th April to 14th April}

This has been such a fantastic Easter holiday week!  I am liking this whole taking a break thing, and the children are loving getting together with their friends.  I am completely ready for next term having spent days at the computer.  (Note to self: next time plan to work just mornings and take afternoons off or other way round instead of taking a whole week off and then trying to cram all the school planning into the second week).

The week began on Saturday with some malarkey going on in the kitchen.  Son prides himself on being the strongest bar Gary in our family.  I pride myself on being the most competitive.  So when the guys were all doing arm wrestles, I just had to get in on the fun.  Y’see I know a secret.  Arm wrestling doesn’t necessarily show who is the strongest.  Occasionally it might show who is the heaviest.  Especially if said heavy person is using their weight to pull their component’s arm down.  Thomas was not at all happy to lose to his mother.  Mother was very happy 😉

Son was then on war path to prove his masculinity…..

And he did.  Lillie is our least competitive and was happy to provide him with a weak, no I mean, worthy opponent.  She used two hands, and still lost:

Thomas was just a bit happy 🙂

Then Charlotte and Lillie had a go.  Again poor Lillie used two arms but still lost:

She wasn’t too worried.  She does 100 crunches every day so by far has the strongest abs in our family.  Me?  I’m just weighty!

Saturday night we had our weekly video night with my mum over a vegetarian lasagna and Monarch of the Glen:

Monday morning I found this cute note from my youngest.  She and I are incredibly close and tell each other at least a zillion times a day how much we love each other.  The note made my heart melt <3

Everyone kept Wednesday free for a family work day.  At the beginning of the year we had emptied our house of all its boxes, past homeschooling stuff, and out sized clothes into the shed.  Our house was getting so crammed  there wasn’t enough room for the people anymore!  On Tuesday we decided to go through it all, give away as much as we could and throw away anything broken or ruined or, in the case of clothes, stained:

Gary focused on his man cave, finishing off boarding the floor:

and creating a work bench from the left over wood.  He gathered all the helpers he could find:

The little ones loved helping their daddy:

The girls and I tackled the inside of the shed:

We worked solidly for going on ten hours, sending off one load to the tip and approximately fifteen bags to the charity shop!  We still have some more boxes to go through, but we were chuffed by what we accomplished:

We have been offered a snooker table and a table football game so we do at least have somewhere to put them now, and it has firmed up our idea to create a teen nook rather than a school room down there.

Lillie offered to cook dinner that night and did a marvelous roast chicken with all the trimmings.  I am so blessed by teens who love to cook:

On Wednesday I was holed up at my computer printing past papers and school planning all. day. long.  I was very blessed by the younger ones playing happily in the garden for most of that time.  They brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers:

I remember the older ones doing that daily when they were little, and I feel a bit sad about just how quickly time passes, which renews my resolve to hold on to every second I can whilst they are young.

Wednesday the older ones got together with some friends, had a film night, after which a couple of them stayed the night:

I do love the teens’ friends.  They are becoming part of the family and just kind of blend in whilst they are here!  They spent most of the next day singing and acting out Hamilton:

Having never seen that particular musical I was mildly amused at all the marriages and flirtations going on.  In the end I gave up trying to understand it all and just enjoyed the teens obvious enjoyment at the reenactments:

Today, the girls are dancing in a witness walk at a local town.  Gary and the little ones have gone to watch, Thomas is by the pond setting up for the village’s Good Friday service on the green and I am taking the opportunity to clear out the little one’s room, which gets messy SO easily on account of its size.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend, with friends, family and lots and lots of fun!