Monday had rolled around again so Megan accompanied Genevieve on the school run. Although she’s only been back a couple of weeks, it’s Genevieve’s last few days at school in year one. Where has that year gone? Stephen and I were both working today, so James went to Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen’s for another day of fun.
Over the weekend we’d made the difficult parental decision that having ice creams during the week wasn’t the best thing for James. We’d already talked him though this and he was on-board with the idea. So we were very amused when Grandma reported back what had happened with the ice cream van in the park.
At the park, James insisted that he joined the queue for ice cream but that he wasn’t going to have one. So they diligently queued and soon got to the front of the line. At this point, James politely said “hi” to the server and went on to explain that “he couldn’t have an ice cream as it was bad for his tummy”. Adorable! The ice cream van man said not to worry and that he’d see James another day. We are taking that as a massive parenting win!
Before heading to the park, James had painted some stones. There’s a giant stone snake at the other end of the park that’s now a little bit longer thanks to James’s contribution.
Having offloaded his artistic stones, James was keen to show off his best Tarzan impression on the monkey bars.
I went into work and had fun getting the kids to hold paintbrushes with their feet and painting. We also made a hand-print flower card with the biggest bit of card I could find in school (at the request of the students) for another teacher who has broken her arm. Oh, and I played football. It was a busy day!
Stephen work from home in the morning. He also dialled in to his Great-Uncle Alf’s funeral that was taking place in Tunbridge Wells. It was a lovely service but he said it felt extremely weird not being there in person. The closing song was Spanish Flea which made Stephen chuckle.
Genevieve arrived home from school and revealed that she’d received her school report for the year. She’s done exceptionally well and we’re two very proud parents.
Ahead of today’s Beaver meeting on Zoom, Genevieve’s leader had asked if she’d be up for running an activity. The task in question was getting everyone to make a paper aeroplane. Normally they’d wait for a Beaver to be a bit older before doing this, but apparently Genevieve’s more than confident and capable to take it on. Brilliant!
Stephen’s the household expert at making paper aeroplanes (he had a misspent youth) and said he’d help Genevieve leading her activity. They walked through the steps and practised her patter, and Stephen created a marked-up plane to remind her of the folds needed. Genevieve felt so confident about teaching the other Beavers that she started trying to explain step one before the meeting had even officially started. So enthusiastic!
When her time actually came she did brilliantly. She explained the five steps clearly and confidently, and all of the other Beavers managed to create their own plane successfully. Genevieve even remembered to deliver the super secret sixth step she’d agreed with Stephen – throwing the plane! I couldn’t decide who had more fun – Genevieve or Daddy.
It was such a successful session that we received this lovely message from her leader later in the evening.
While Genevieve was making planes with Stephen, James was busying himself on the iPad. We ended up with yet more selfies, including this gem:
In addition, he had fun making little animated images accompanied by him shouting something enthusiastically. This was by far the cutest effort:
Grandma Margaret had brought gingerbread men biscuits for both kids in place of the ice creams and marshmallows that they had been eating. These went down a storm and motivated the children to eat their dinner in double-quick time.
Both kids were in bed on time which was amazing. Stephen is now relaxing at home and keeping an eye on the kids, whereas I’m off for a socially distanced chat in my friend Gemma’s garden along with Kirsty and Kat. It’s the first time I’ve seen Kirsty and Kat in person for months – yeay!
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