Busy Sunday

Today was going to be a busy day from the start. I wanted to get in as much of what we had planned for the day although Lucy was leaving early to go a mystery party. Thankfully somehow we managed to squeeze everything minus Lucy's birthday lunch which can wait until next time she comes. I'm sure Lucy won't mind as she has another party to go to and I like to do what I can to help and hopefully make the peace.

Thankfully with the changing clocks we all managed to get an extra hours sleep including Lucy who I expected to get up at her normal time. She must have been tired from all the excitement of the day before. With Catherine home Lucy went to find her this morning when she woke. It was their voices chatting away and Lucy's giggling that woke me up and when I went into Catherine and Emily's room to see them both in Catherine's bed together.

Soon we had all Lucy's things gathered together and we headed downstairs. Lucy sat in my chair as usual, but this time with Catherine, and I turned on the television while I got the drinks for everyone. It wasn't long before everyone was awake enough for breakfast and Lucy and Catherine went off to the table to eat and with bowls empty and the television off we got on with the day. That was after a quick scoot on the scooter by Lucy.

As soon as breakfast was over, I covered the work tops in a plastic bag and we started carving pumpkin's for Halloween. After I cut the tops off the pumpkins Lucy and Catherine got on with getting their hands dirty. In went the hands with sleeves rolled up and out came the flesh and the pips from the inside of pumpkins.  With the insides safely in a bag in went the spoons to remove some of the harder flesh before carving. Unfortunately Lucy was too little do the carving herself so we discussed what sort of face she wanted and I carved it for her while showing Catherine what to do. It wasn't long until we had to Halloween pumpkins on plates ready for candles tomorrow with a third pumpkin awaiting Emily's return to be carved. 

After we finished both girls got changed and the bedtime clothes went in the wash, along with the things I need to wash for Lucy and the girls got on with playing in the family room. They didn't get to play for long as time ticked on and it was time to collect Emily from her sleep over. Lucy was so pleased to see her when we picked her up and gave her a massive Lucy welcome. Saving the fuel we continued our journey to take in the supermarket. All three of them had a great time in the supermarket together buying the things we needed for lunch and dinner before we headed home again.

When we got home Emily set about making up for lost time by playing with Lucy. This also involved getting Lucy to to help her with her pumpkin. Specifically the messy job of scooping out the inside which Lucy seemed to love doing for her big sister. Soon Emily's pumpkin was with the rest on the table and I took a picture to preserve moment. If you look at the picture of the pumpkins above, Lucy's is on the left, Catherine is in the middle and Emily's is on the right.

With all the pumpkins made it was on with the oven. The next thing was to back some cakes for after lunch. The cakes in question being Peppa Pig muddy puddle cup cakes, one of three cake mixes we brought at the supermarket, The others we some Barbie cup cakes and some Smarties cup cakes that we will make for Lucy's birthday lunch next time she is here. After I measured all the ingredients, after what happened to the icing last time, the girls got on with mixing the cake mixture in turns with Lucy starting it off with a fork and the others mixing in age order. With the mixing done we put the mixture in the paper cups and then into the oven. While they cooked the girls all disappeared to play together with the mixing bowl which came back licked clean.

After the cakes came out he oven and while they cooled, I got on with making everyone some lunch. Given Lucy has a party we decided against having a big lunch and instead had some tomato soup and freshly made bread rolls. Nice and simple and it has the advantage that it takes no time at all to cook. Also for once everyone agreed on the same lunch and no compromises were needed for a change. So everyone got what they wanted. By the time the soup bowls were empty, the cakes were cool enough to ice, which the girls did together.

With all the messy stuff out of the way, and the first cakes eaten for pudding before the icing had even set, it was time to get Lucy into the bath. Time was running out and we wanted her to be all nice and clean and smelling lovely for her party. everyone had a hand in her bath with different people doing different jobs. Soon she was all clean and snuggled up in her bath robe and sat down in her bedroom as I dried her legs and Emily went to work on her hair. Brushing and drying, while trying to avoid heating her little ears up which she doesn't like at all. Then I gathered all her things together and got her dressed and we ready to head out after hugs from everyone.

Soon we were driving to Lucy's Grandmothers where she was being dropped off for the party. It was funny that she thought it was a long way away when in fact in is a bit less than three miles away. I had to explain that it was her mummy that moved far away rather than everyone else moving and that we were all in the same places as we were before. To reinforce this I told her where we were going and we soon arrived. When she got there she was rather quiet with her Grandmother. She is normally quiet on the way back but I didn't expect her to be so shy. She hardly said a word, however I did discover who the mystery party was at her aunties for her baby cousin. 

It was as I was driving back home that I thought I could have dropped her off at the party. The dropping her with at her grandma's seemed just some from of subterfuge. The reasons behind this subterfuge being an old grudge someone has that never had any basis in reality in the past and isn't even relevant at all today. I also realised that I was correct in my reasoning about who I was doing a favour for. Of course I could be wrong, probably am, but do wonder what is the point, it is just hurtful. 

When I got home I found Emily and Catherine catching up with the friends they hadn't seen when they where away on Facebook. I know at the moment Emily is having trouble with having two lives in two separate places. With her mum being so far away she finds she is feeling left out of her close friends lives while she is in away. She feels she is missing out and I don't know what we can do to help. I'm not sure it will be as big a problem for Catherine but for Emily at the moment it is massive. Anyway they spent most of the afternoon on the computers and I hardly saw them.

Before the afternoon was over we headed out to the hills the other side of the Rutland/Leicestershire boarder. From there you can see for miles and the sunsets are magnificent. It was of those magnificent sunsets that we were hoping for and while we waited and there were a couple of friendly horses to stroke and make friends with while we waited. As the sun went down we weren't disappointed. It was amazing and heart warming. It was just what I needed. 

When we got home we I got on with making dinner and the girls settled down to watch some television together after I asked them check they had no homework they missed for Monday. Dinner was soon over and the girls disappeared. Catherine to the family room and Emily to Lucy's room to use the computer there. Emily sat and watched music videos on youtube while chatting to her friends. Catherine on the other hand settled down to play the sims without the risk of Lucy being there to shut her game down without saving it. Lucy has this habit of clicking the mouse on little x's that close the windows.

It was two tired girls that headed up to bed tonight with the time change to dream of Halloween to come. I sat and reflected on the the busy day and how we managed to fit it all in. I did find it rather stressful at one point but having said that I pleased we did everything. I had a great weekend with Lucy even if it was rather shorter than normal. I just hope that Lucy and everyone else had a great time at the party. I was glad I could help by giving up the time and maybe one day we can find away to make it up. Who knows.  We all will miss Lucy on her birthday but that is out of our hands. We can have our party another day.