Scarey dinosaur noises

I didn't start the day well, having woken at 2.15am and being still awake at 5.15. I fell asleep around then, and Thomas woke at 6.15am. However the boys were in good form, and we got ourselves up to the pool by 8.30am. James is very noisy with excitement in the water, to the annoyance of an old man swimming up the side. (We were the only people there. The poor man must have his regular routine not often interrupted by 2 noisy toddlers so I felt for him in his disappointment.) But there was no curbing the enthuthiasm of the boys, even when Thomas managed to do a painful belly-flop on jumping in at one point,

We were home by 10 and #3 daughter arrived with Ella and Nathaniel. The dinosaur hunt took no time - daughter had brought dinosaur eggs to be found with the dinosaurs, so after eating them, they had fun in the wood. Thomas told Ella about his fear of wolves but none were found. Instead they ripped bark off a felled tree to find the wood lice. They found beech nuts and we explained about them, showing a tiny beech tree near the bigger one. The looked at the leaves and agreed they were the same.

Lunch was a sausage casserole of chorizo, wild boar sausages, aubergines, red peppers, mushrooms and chickpeas, in a paprika and tomato sauce. They lapped it up. We had nectarines for pudding.

While Nathaniel and James had a nap, and Thomas rested with a bit of "Walking with Dinosaurs", Ella and I iced a birthday cake for Mr C. She decorated it with Smarties and chocolate buttons in the family tradition. We could only find 3 candles, so we were a mere 70 short, but they loved singing Happy Birthday and of course, eating a bit of cake.

We also played in the sandpit and took a walk to see the horses. The others went home, and Thomas got overtired and cried because a special twig he'd found got broken. James sensed a moment of weakness and ran off with his dinosaur.

A bath calmed things down and all in quiet. We'll be heading for bed soon.

The blip is Thomas, 3, Nathaniel, 2 and James, 1 with their dinosaurs.