Alfresco

So Steve gets in at 6.45pm and says, barbecue for tea?! I could have .... I don't know what I could have done. Whatever. We ended up welcoming the new grilli firepit into the family. I am proud of myself for not becoming psychowoman (it was touch and go at one point), although Charley really nearly lost it. We. Were. Hungry.

But Man he says it is Good to Burn Things after spending an hour and a half in the Apple store and parting with almost £200 for two shiney new (not upgraded though, that would have broken us) phones. Mine I thought just needed a new glass but apparently there was "water damage" inside. Ummm.... forensics would confirm it was not water. iPhones are not good teethers. Oops.

Anyway that was after we all trooped into Brighton this morning to make the Genius Bar appointment. We came out with new clothes for Charley, Spiderman megabloks for Ben, and thorntons chocs for me.

Home in time to drop Ben off at school for his end of term party (he said he didn't want to go but when the doors opened he kissed us both 'bye and the first thing he did was show Ella on the door his new Spidey shoes!), then spent the afternoon preparing lunch, eating lunch, feeding Charley, cleaning Charley, clearing up, saying 'bye to Steve as he went back out to Brighton, finishing eating, wrapping a screaming tired Charley (reinforced back kangaroo ruck wrap - go me!!), making "parchment" for pirate treasure maps, realising I was almost late picking Ben up from preschool, picking Ben up (happy Ben! Staff say he is a little sweetheart, that makes me smile so much!), attempting to design crafts with one child snoring down my neck and the other wanting to build his megabloks spidey car.

We made the spidey car together. It is very cool. We had big cuddles. We waited for daddy. We kind of played. I cut lots of things out and decided they didn't work and cut more things out and they didn't work and cut more things out and we were all getting grumpy and then daddy finally walked in....

And then we really actually did have a truly lovely evening! Charley seems to think the best place for crawling is on his new picnic rug outdoors (I guess whatever is over the edge makes the journey so much more worthwhile) and he spent ages crawling round the rug after Ben who was playing with one of his new-to-us toys, trying to get a-hold of it. Ben pretended he was in a boat on the sea, inviting imaginary friends to come and paddle with him. Steve enjoyed setting up the first burn and lighting it. Ben dropped a big rock on his leg and Charley fell down and bumped his head and we all headed indoors for a cuddle while we waited for food to cook but once it was cooked we ate outside happily.

And as it grew dark we dug out skewers and marshmallows and beer, got the boys into pyjamas and wrapped them in blankets, and cuddled them up on my knee on the swingseat while they fell asleep.

And enjoyed each others' company in the warm dusk until a mosquito stopped bzzzzzing suddenly and we couldn't figure out where it had landed..... then we decided to go to bed :)