Wow - time flies by!

Well, I haven't posted in over a week - have been really busy, so I'll try and do a quick catch up now.

Thursday 5th May - DS1 & DS2 home from school as their school is used as a polling station (grrr!) We have postal votes and they went back mid April, so that was ok. Spent the day trying to get things done and made harduphester's banana loaf - I've lost the link but shall try and find it and post it another time. I had made it just for us to use up frozen over ripe bananas (my freezer is over full) but then remembered that DS1 needed to take a cake to Scout camp with him, so assigned it to that instead!

Friday 6th - my dad's funeral. Gorgeously sunny day. My dad died in March, but due to several factors we were unable to have the funeral until now. Beautiful service, which we held topsy-turvily - we did the committal at the crematorium first and then went to the church for a remeberance/ celebration of life. Although the service was held by a Baptist minister (my uncle) it wasn't religious in the main - one hymn and just a couple of readings - as my dad wasn't exactly a religious man. Was lovely and very, very moving. My dad wasn't an easy man - full of his own demons, which made life around him difficult. However, without him I would not be here (and therefore neither would my children)

There was a small wake at the church afterwards, which was nice and an opportunity to talk to people. Someone played a guitar and danced, which was also nice to see. After we left the church hall, myself, my husband, my sister & her partner all retired to the nearest pub for a swift drink and then went to a cafe to catch up with the rest of the family, where we stayed all afternoon in the sun. We only left when we had to go in order to take DS1 to scout camp (none of our children attended the service - they didn't relly know him - as I said, he was full of his own demons and it made life hard :(  )

Saturday 6th - Mr G & I went out for a lovely meal with my sister & her partner. She's younger than me and we don't have the same mum. I've always known about her, but our lives were such that we've never had real contact until now. We made facebook contact a few years ago, but both of us were too nervous to take it further - we had no time for nerves to kick in after we were thrown together after our dad's death! We seem to get on well, though - which is fantastic!

We got in at just before midnight - to the news that DS1 was ill and being brought home from camp :( Thankfully he'd only been vomiting - something he sometimes does with a combination of too much food/ running around and sun, so he was fine again in the morning.

Last week DS1 had his Y6 SATs at school. Thankfully he seems to be fairly chilled out about them.

I made these: http://onelifeand3kids.blogspot.com/2011/05/bero-cornflake-flapjacks.html - flapjacks with cornflakes in from another blog - very yummy!!

DD had fixed braces fitted to her teeth on Wednesday. She previously had some removeables. Her teeth aren't quite bad enough for NHS braces - but are bad enough that braces are recommended (?? - go figure!), so the treatment has cost us £1700! EEK! She is in a bit of pain, but has been very stoical and has eaten lots of soup and ice cream!