We were jolted awake by the doorbell as the Ocado delivery arrived 20 minutes early this morning. That wouldn’t normally be a problem, but James had been up super early and we needed every extra minute in bed. However, the delivery came with a pleasant surprise – a whopping 10kg bag of bread flour. It’s amazing what you value in this post-lockdown world!
To celebrate the bread flour, Megan enjoyed some of her dad’s homemade plum jam on toast for breakfast. This seemed appropriate as Grandad Stephen had already called dibs on some of the flour. We’re slowly establishing our own inter-family bartering system!
Megan took Genevieve to school while I dropped James off at Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen’s for a day of fun. James had a great time collecting conkers and eating ice cream at his grandparents’ house. Apparently their dog Tizzy also enjoyed some ice cream that had been dropped on the floor – I’m not sure if this was on purpose or not!
During the rest of the day, both Megan and I got stuck in to work and then, after a spot of lunch, I had to have yet another rest. I’m certainly getting value for money out of our mattress at the moment.
Megan went to collect Genevieve from school and then whisked her in to a bubble filled bath as soon as she was through the door (part of the school-mandated COVID system). There were the usual hi-jinks and shenanigans with the bubbles, but then Genevieve slipped and ended up with a face full of foam. I could hear the giggles from downstairs!
I went to collect James as Megan was helping Genevieve prepare for her Beaver meeting on Zoom. Today they were constructing a space rocket out of a plastic bottle, loo rolls and a variety of cardboard shapes. The whole thing was seemingly held together with a thick layer of acrylic paint and half of Megan’s glue gun supply. The resulting rocket was magnificent though!
We’d also provided Genevieve with five facts about Guide Dogs as the Beavers were discussing disability during the meeting. Genevieve’s top fact was that Guide Dogs go to school, but only about 3 in 4 of them graduate and become actual Guide Dogs.
In an attempt to keep James busy during Genevieve’s call, I took him up to see the friendly neighbourhood monkey. Today he was busting a groove on his piano. James excitedly pressed all the keys but was sad to discover they didn’t make any noise. This didn’t stop him spontaneously dancing and throwing shapes on the monkey’s driveway. Brilliant
The monkey didn’t prove to be much of a distraction so we headed home and started playing James’s “Sneaky Squirrel” game. He took genuine delight when all of my acorns got blown out of the tree (trust me, that makes sense if you play the game), but then threatened to throw a strop when the same thing happened to him. Some would call that karma young man!
Sadly even the sneaky squirrel couldn’t keep James’s attention for very long, so we moved in to the garden to water his and Genevieve’s flowers. The poor things get starved of water for several days and then get positively drowned whenever one of the kids waters them. We should really treat them better!
That being said, we discovered the first tomatoes on the plants that Grandad Lawrie kindly gave to us. I don’t actually like tomatoes so I wasn’t that excited, but James was over the moon when he saw the little green orb.
It was soon time for dinner followed by the bathroom and bedtime routine. James was all wound up so I gave him my headphones as a distraction. This didn’t work and he ended up dancing around the bathroom while “brushing” his teeth. In the end I decided that they were as clean as they were going to be for today and put him to bed.
Both kids went down reasonably well, but when we went to check on them I discovered that James had fallen asleep cuddling a cardboard tube. What a strange little boy!
It was then time for us to go to bed as we were both knackered. But before we headed upstairs, we discovered an envelope that had been posted through the door containing a Disability Awareness badge that Genevieve had earned during her Zoom call earlier. Her Beaver leaders are amazing!
The Smiths Family Blog 
Another interesting day
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