Spent most of today at a quilt show - Lana and I managed to get a trip in to Sandown (aka the National Quilt Championships), which is just down the road from us, while the girls were in school. I dropped Olivia at a friend's house for the morning, and of course she's in nursery in the afternoon, so it was just a matter of someone else taking her. This is where having lots of people in the same road going to nursery is very handy. Anyway, we had a nice time, though I didn't buy much fabric (as I'll be spending a month in the US this summer, I intend to be very extravagent there, where the prices are much lower). Lana had a quilt in the longarm section (didn't win a prize, but as she's just started, that wasn't too surprising or disappointing), and another friend, who is in our small quilting group, won second place in one of the themed sections - not surprisingly, as her quilt is stunning; I saw it while she still working on it.

Not much else happening here. Conjunctivitis now gone, but boy do I wish the pollen count would go down. Blasted allergies! Oh well, what can you do (except take lots of allergy drugs)...

We've been up to Geoff's Mum's house for the weekend for a quick visit - she seems to be doing quite well, all things considered, though of course, it's odd not to have Dad in the house any more. And even more so for her, of course. Still, it was a pretty good weekend, though Olivia is a bit of a handful when she's at someone else's house as she always wants to be getting into everything (this is true at home, too, of course, but I worry about it less here). However, the weather was good, which meant we were able to get out for a nice long walk along the canal and the local school was having it's summer fair on Saturday, so we went to that - the girls loves these kinds of fairs and fetes, as do I. Back home now to the start of Wimbledon, which means even less time to do stuff as I'll want to watch some of the tennis. What a busy time of year! And only a month to go until we go to the US on holiday. How the time flies.

Absolutely gorgeous weather Friday and the weekend - probably this will be "summer" here - but the kids have had the paddling pool out three days in a row (and it occurs to me as I write that, that one of my first entries in this blog was about a paddling pool, about a year ago - amazing!)

We went up to Cannizaro Park (local park near Wimbledon Common, really beautiful smallish park with interesting planting, etc) this morning to enjoy the glorious weather and coming out of the rose garden, which has a narrow entranceway, encountered another couple with a pushchair coming in & did that whole pushchair-dance-thing & exchanged polite good mornings with them, etc, etc. and only realised after heading off in the opposite direction (and having it pointed out by Geoff - who said in a rather loudish voice "You do realise who that was, don't you?") that it was Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff and baby. So there's my brush with celebrity for the day! Guess it's not too suprising to encounter them in Wimbledon a week before the tennis starts...

Since getting back from Ireland, things have been pretty busy, not with anything in particular, just the usual stuff, but dealing with kids just takes up so much time, as many of you know. Still better than my job was at the end, though, so I'm not REALLY complaining, just a little good natured griping, especially after a generally grumpy afternoon... And now, to top it off, I've developed conjunctivitis in my right eye (here's hoping it won't spread to the left. Or to the kids...), which I'm sure is going to drive me bananas. Short trip, as Andy (my former stepdad) would say.

Tomorrow at school there's the start of a "balloon race" - each kid can buy a balloon, then they are inflated with helium, a stamped addressed (to the school) postcard with the child's name is attached in the hopes that whoever finds the balloon, if indeed it's found, will return the card. Whoever's balloon comes from the farthest away wins the race. I've offered to help blowing up and assembling the balloons (if I can still see, that is!) and at 2.45 the school will all gather to let them go. Should be fun, and an added bonus is that they are using biodegradable balloons - I didn't even know they made biodegradable balloons, but glad to hear it, as I know a lot of schools do these sort of races. Wonder how long it will take to start getting cards back? I think they're planning to announce the results at the school fair, which is about the 6th or 7th of July. Apparently, balloons from Surrey have been returned from as far away as Sweden in the past. Wouldn't that be exciting for the kids. Of course, knowing my luck, our balloons won't even get the cards returned - but then, perhaps Sarah is luckier than I am - she did win a pound on the treasure hunt at the Scout Fair, after all...

Yesterday was an INSET (teacher training) day, so no school for my kids. We took Olivia to her swimming lesson in the morning and bought some Father's Day cards and presents and then spent the rest of the afternoon mucking about. It was nice and relaxing, actually, and is a good lead off into a week that promises to be really hectic, with a trip to the embassy to sort Alex's passport, getting the car in for service and lots of other stuff. And a night out with the girls at a local Chinese restaurant, on the up side!

Olivia has a dentist appointment later this morning, which should be fun - actually, it should, she enjoys it. Sarah's is next week. At least dental care is free for kids, which is a nice bonus.

Another fun filled day today. Sarah had a birthday party to attend at Horton Farm (a children's farm), so we went down with Olivia as well (and Alex, but he doesn't really care that much about farms yet) and let her have a go around the farm while Sarah partied. She got very stroppy after a while (over tired from playing on all the climbing stuff) and actually asked to go home - such a difference from Sarah, who will never admit when she's tired and insists on pushing everything until tears come. Olivia had some tears, too, but at least she knew she needed to go. Of course she's always been better at knowing her limits about that sort of thing, like bedtime. She's the only 2 year old I've ever encountered who would suddenly stop playing and come up and say "Mummy, I'm tired, I want to go to bed now"...

After the farm, we had a bit of a rest, and then went to the local Scouts' group's summer fete. There are always lots of silly games for little kids with small prizes & lots of sweets to be won. They love it, as it's not too hard for them to actually sometimes win the games. I love it because the games are all really cheap, so it's not so bad that they usually don't win anything. :)

Otherwise, nothing too exciting here. My friend Cathi (the one in Ireland) gave me a book about doing yoga with your baby, so Alex and I have been having a go at that every afternoon, and it's really good fun. Some of it involves using the baby as a weight, but mostly it's about positioning him to see you and playing with him, a bit of baby massage, rolling over exercises, and so on. He enjoys it, though, which is great.

So, back home again. Of course the day we drove home (Saturday) was really hot, to the extent that I actually put the a/c on in the car - most English cars don't even have it; that ours does is just chance - we didn't look for a car specifically with it. It was nice on Saturday, though. Sunday, of course, when we were at home, it rained. Today was back to school for the kids and the weather is ok - warm but not too draining. Managed to get quite a lot done, though of course, never as much as I need to. I have this huge list of phone calls to make to arrange things, but all of them but one are dependent on scheduling an appointment (that's the "but one" call) and for that, I'm waiting to be rung back. It's all very frustrating as I keep looking at my list and thinking "Oh, I can ring to schedule a service for the car" and then realising that of course I can't until I get the other thing sorted. The exciting life I lead - aren't you envious?

I can hardly believe it's June already - and the number of things I need to get sorted before we go on holiday in July is staggering. I keep thinking mid July is a long way off, but it's surprisingly close. Everyone says that time sure flies by when you get older - I guess I must really be getting older, as it certainly seems to zip past these days...