Genevieve set me yet another breakfast challenge this morning. She wanted heart-shaped soldiers to go with her dippy eggs. I was initially stumped by the request – how could I carve individual soldiers in to heart shapes? Then inspiration struck – a giant heart made from many soldiers. Genius! Sadly the eggs weren’t quite perfect – 30 seconds less and they’d be spot on.
Megan was hosting a socially distanced hen do in the garden today. This included a spot of afternoon tea which, frankly, all sounded a bit too civilised for my liking. Megan headed out to the bakery at 11:00am to pick up the party food, but apparently she’d been a tad keen and they weren’t quite ready for her, so she came home and tried again at 11:30am. Whoops!
While Megan was out, the children and I did some insect spotting in the garden. They were excited to see a cinnabar moth with striking red and black wings. Trying to get them close enough to see the moth without spooking it away proved to be a near impossible task, but they enjoyed the excitement of seeing a new creature.
Megan returned triumphant with the afternoon tea sets along with sausage rolls for the children’s lunch. While the kids tucked in to their food, Megan started preparing the garden ready for the hen do. Trying to maximise her day, Megan had also arranged for two of our friends (Gemma and Kerry) to pop in to say hello (at a distance) before the hen do started. The timing was fortuitous as they were then roped in to help Megan finish of the decorations.
Disaster nearly struck as, just after the decorations were complete, it started to lightly rain. Most of the decorations were made of paper, so we had a frantic few minutes covering each and every one with a plastic bag. Of course, as soon as we’d finished the rain stopped, but it was worth doing anyway.
With the garden sorted, Megan, Gemma and Kerry enjoyed a cheeky glass of prosecco in the sunshine while having a catch up. It would have been rude not to!
At this point I whisked the children off to Grandma Lindsey and Grandad Lawrie’s house for a garden play date. I’m sure that a hen do is not a safe place for their delicate little ears! The kids, as usual, had a whale of a time with their grandparents.
The following was written by Grandad Lawrie.
There were two very animated children in evidence when we told them we intended to spend some time playing 10-pin bowling and sword fencing on the Wii. We started with bowling and in the first round both James and Grandad Lawrie had scored a strike. Grandma Lindsey had done nearly as well with a spare. But, sadly, Genevieve had only knocked down seven pins. As a result, one would have been forgiven to believe that the world was coming to an end, given the amount of vocal annoyance emanating from Genevieve. According to her, it was all unfair and there was very clearly a conspiracy to ensure that she came last.
However, after a few cuddles and some smooth talking, Genevieve was persuaded to re-join the game and, in the second round, she scored a strike. Woopee! The noise from her was even louder than before and her lovely smile returned. The game then carried on in very good spirits with strikes, spares and all other scores applauded in equal measure.
The Japanese style sword fighting proved to be a great success; although the need for both Genevieve and James to jump up and down with quite so much vigour still remains a mystery.
A period of calmness followed with Grandad Lawrie having to name all of the ‘goodies’ and then all of the ‘baddies’ in his Star Wars mini-figures collection. Both Genevieve and James then each went through the whole collection and were able to identify, with 100% accuracy, the good guys from the villains!
However, fewer questions were asked when Grandma Lindsey got the playdough out for a period of creativity and inventiveness, with the children making interestingly shaped snails, spiders and unidentifiable insects.
At this point, both Genevieve and James were looking tired, so it was suggested that they might like to watch some TV. Both Grandma Lindsey and Grandad Lawrie spent the length of the film having quality cuddle time with Genevieve and James respectively. Grandad Lawrie had to admit that he had enjoyed the whole experience and would not turn his nose up at animated children’s films again.
It appeared that Genevieve and James were so excited about the film finishing that they danced all the way through the credits – and there were lots of credits!
I returned home to find that Gemma and Kerry had left but that they’d been replaced by Megan’s sister Daisy (the bride to be) and Megan’s fellow bridesmaid Alice. Now it’s not my place to tell you what happened on the hen do, and I couldn’t even if I wanted to, as at this point I took myself off for a sleep as I was flagging.
I do know that the afternoon tea was very much enjoyed and that the hen do was relatively civilised (to start with at least).
But while I was asleep upstairs, apparently the threesome were joined by Derek (the inflatable doll) and had a whale of a time. He was very much the life and soul of the party.
I mean, what does Derek have that I don’t?
I awoke to discover that Grandma Margaret and Auntie Sara had joined the festivities for a quick drink (still maintaining the requisite distance apart and keeping them under the six-person limit). I wish I’d known before I came downstairs as I had the most horrific bed hair at that point!
The hens had a great time as evidenced by the array of empty prosecco bottles on the patio wall. Impressive work for an afternoon!
I left to go and collect the children while the hens finished their drinks and said their goodbyes. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to speak to Derek before he left – I think we would have been good friends.
As soon as we walked in the door Genevieve began quizzing and bugging Megan about her face jewels. Within mere seconds the sparkly gems had been transferred over and Genevieve was as pleased as punch about her new look.
Megan had been on the go all day, so to give her a bit of a breather I whisked the kids out of the house again to go and see the friendly neighbourhood monkey. He was in football supporter mode today (not something I’m particularly interested in) so I’d sneakily taken a couple of balls out with as as props. The children were very impressed!
The only highlight before the kids went to bed was that Genevieve found one of the hen do games that we thought had been hidden away. It was a game of hoopla where the pole you’re aiming for is strapped to someone’s body (instead of being on the floor or wall) and is shaped like, shall we say, an invigorated male protuberance. An honest mistake, but one that thankfully resolved itself in the most delightful way. “Mummy, why do you have these witch noses on the table?” said Genevieve. Oh the joy of innocence.
It was then bedtime for the children. Thankfully they went down relatively quickly as they’d had such a fun-filled afternoon with their grandparents. But this left the issue of dinner. Megan and I had made the loose plan of getting takeaway but hadn’t organised anything, and the delivery times on all the apps were well over an hour by that point in the evening. So we opted for fish and chips as Megan could walk there and back relatively quickly while I watched the kids and tidied away the remaining bits from the hen do.
The plan worked flawlessly apart from one small detail. The queue at the chip shop was much longer than expected and Megan was due to join the online part of Daisy’s hen do at 8:00pm. Being late to a call wouldn’t normally have been an issue, but Megan was the host of the meeting and the whole thing couldn’t start without her. So I had to dial in and start proceedings. Thankfully I was too early to see or hear any shenanigans – I’m a sensitive soul and I’m not sure I could have taken it! I still think this technically makes me part of the hen do though, so I’m sad I didn’t even get my own willy straw.
Megan returned with dinner and swiftly joined the call while I plated up the food. I took my leave and left her chatting away with the other hens while I watched TV upstairs. Although the doors were closed, I could tell they were having a good time as the sound of laughter frequently managed to wend its way up to the bedroom. I won’t tell you what time she eventually made it in to bed, but I suspected she’d need a lie-in in the morning!
The Smiths Family Blog 
What a full day for everyone.
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