We had a fairly low key but nice weekend. I did not work at all (hooray!). All my grants are in, I got a one week extension on my other deadline, which left this weekend without any urgent deadlines, and it made me so happy just to focus on the other areas of my life.
One of our many park adventures- O is getting more brave.
Friday night we had our good family friends over - my best friend and her two boys aged 7 and 4- as well as my Dad (my Mum was a bit unwell so had a night at home). I cooked corned beef for the adults (my MIL makes this and its delicious so I thought I’d try it). It was not as tender as my MIL’s but it was tasty- next time I’ll do it in the slow cooker instead of on the stove top. The kids had oven cooked fish and chips. The kids played beautifully together all evening and then watched a movie, it was very cute. Such a lovely evening.
Saturday Al worked so I had the kids from 8 - about 5. They played happily in the morning with only a couple of toddler meltdown moments for O- once because he had dropped a potato behind the couch and couldn’t reach it, 🤦♀️ E made toast for her and O which felt like a milestone. I took the kids to a park near us. I packed snacks, water bottles, hats, and a change of clothes for O just in case, and off we went. I definitely notice their are less things to back now we no longer have any kids in nappies- hooray. It was a stunning day and we had a lot of fun.
They had just renovated this slide!
Kids in bushes- adventures!
In the afternoon we headed home and the kids had some screen time while I… relaxed! I decided Sunday would be my chores day, so other than the dishes I watched some stuff on YouTube, read blogs, read a bit of a book, and generally did nothing productive. It was great! After a couple of hours I got the kids off screens and we all hung in the backyard in stunning weather. Saturday's afternoon I was going to cook tacos but I actually felt a little off so instead I had a lie down as Al made toast and popcorn for dinner!
Sunday Al headed off to work again, and the kids and I had a super relaxing morning. Luckily I felt totally well, whatever made me feel off on Saturday evening had passed. The kids played, I pottered around doing chores, read some of my book, cooked breakfast. Then I took the kids mid morning to another park, this one has a little traffic school playground, which E loved! They had such fun in the park, playing with another little girl too, and then we headed over to mum and dads. I had a cup of tea with them, and then left the kids there while I went for a beautiful walk close by, then did grocery shopping, ate sushi, and generally enjoying my solo time.
E loved scooting in the traffic school (not that there was any other traffic! She stopped at a stop sign, and then a minute later asked- “umm, how long do I have to stop here?” 😂
View on my solo walk
Mum and Dad brought the kids back mid afternoon and joined us for a drink (Al got home then too). The kids had had an absolute ball making forts out of their moving boxes, playing with our childhood toys from the 80s (that mum and dad kept!!)!, and It was just so lovely to have them slot in to be part of our everyday rhythms.
Fun with boxes at Nana and Papas!
We had a chill afternoon, I cooked tacos, and it was early (ish) to bed for the kids.
Sunday afternoon beer in my backyard
It was the exact weekend I needed, and I was so glad that it had a good amount of chill time for me, but NOT an obscene amount of screen time for the kids (they had 2-3 hours each afternoon and that was it).
Have a great week ahead all!
Late with my comment but what a great, relaxing weekend! Glad you finished the grants and got an extension. What are you reading? Fiction, non-fiction? I am muddling through Elizabeth Kostova's The Shadow Land (a novel set in Bulgaria), intriguing but LOOOOOOng. lol
This sounds like the perfect weekend, including the fact that the weather was "stunning." Our weather here is... not stunning. I'm envious. I like all the fun activities, plus relaxation, plus solo time!! Plus time with your parents and a Sunday afternoon beer! It couldn't really get any better than that.