Days Twenty-nine, Thirty and Thirty-one: School holidays

Ah, how changeable the weather in the Penines is. No sooner had Mum and Mike fled Glossop for more salubrious climes than the sun began to show its face again. I am saddened to report however that we have begun the slow slide into that season of mellow fruitfulness and abandoned the steamy haze of summer (snort!). My spreadsheet of summer holiday activities is going along crackingly too, and I shall use it for all future holidays to come. We're over halfway and the end is in sight :P. On Monday I took the boys over to Julia's house for a playdate with her daughters Ellie and Mollie. Their house abuts the Nab and is lovely. The boys especially loved the trampoline and a recently discovered nest of mice! We watched the children cavorting and Julia and I got to chat as adults, all by ourselves. It was a very odd and pleasant feeling and we have agreed that we will get together to watch DVD's once the children are at school. We headed off around 2 and stopped in at the Freetown playground. Sadly the glorious sunshine dimmed, and the clouds darkened ominously. Mindful of my washing on the line I gathered the children and fled home post-haste. We did very well, skidding in the door only slightly damp, and I managed to salvage the washing too - woot! Did a bit of baking and made mini chicken and vegetable pies/quiches - which were delicious!! On Tuesday I gathered the lasts and headed off to the Scout hut, where hours of backbreaking labour resulted in a usable storage room. Massive achievement, and one that has taken three days of effort to achieve! I still have Cub and Beaver records to sort out, but can do that at home. I will also be painting the benches next week - in an upright position this time tho!! Once home the boys retreated to their room with a large box of Sticklebricks generously donated by Akela and played like little angels. Today dawned gloriously (Praise the Lord) as we were enrolled in a Woodland Explorers event out in Charlesworth. The boys thrilled in the bus ride through Gamesley, past Melandra castle, and positively danced down the road. We finally found the correct road and trudged down it for ages (or a mile and a bit) before meeting up with the others. We then turned and walked back up the sodding hill for a quarter mile. The boys were not best pleased by this but all was forgiven when we entered the woods, built dens, created nature mobiles with bracken and brambles (guess which poor sod got to lash those on!) and explored abandoned railroad infrastructure and were treated to another exciting bus ride. Truly, their joy knew no limits. My joy knew no limits when I finally found my camera under Cameron's bed, to the amazement of both boys who had denied any knowledge of its whereabouts when I was trying to bring it along today. Ah well. I threw together some chicken soup in the slow cooker and we'll have that for dinner tomorrow and some homemade bread rolls, into which I shall cunningly incorporate grated courgette and carrot. Tomorrow, we are heading off to the library to replenish our stash of books and play with the library toys. Pray the weather holds!!