Thursday photo #261

Hasn’t it been lovely to have another bank holiday so soon after Easter? Everyone seems so much more relaxed with the extra days off. Definitely a case for more long weekends throughout the year, or maybe every working week should be four days long.

The illness that wasn’t

On Friday, I dropped two happy girls off at school and went for a run. Not long after I got home, my phone rang and the lady from the school office told me that Lia was feeling sick and needed to come home. It seemed a bit odd, there had been no hint earlier that she might be ill. Nevertheless, I went over to collect her.

As soon as I saw Lia, I thought she seemed remarkably chirpy for someone who was ill. The first thing she asked me was what was for lunch. As the day wore on, I realised she definitely wasn’t poorly. I asked her a few times why she’d said she felt sick, and when we were eating dinner she finally told us the truth. They’d been having snacks at school and she was half way through her second piece of fruit when the teacher said they were only allowed one each. She panicked, threw it in the bin and was horrified that she’d accidentally been naughty.

When the teacher asked why she was crying, she didn’t want to admit what she’d done. So instead, she told the teacher she felt sick. We’ve chatted about the fact that everybody makes mistakes and that the only thing she did that was naughty was to lie. I’m hopeful it won’t happen again, but she is petrified of being told off. Having a child who doesn’t want to be naughty was never a problem I thought I’d have as a parent.

The birthday party that wasn’t

Tomorrow is Lia’s birthday and Libby’s is just a month away. Last year, the girls had a joint party and we planned to do the same again this year. They were going to have a small party with just a few of their best friends. Decisions had been made as to where the party would be and who was coming.

Then, it was their dad’s birthday. There wasn’t anything in particular he wanted, so we went into Birmingham for lunch and he chose a pair of shoes as his birthday present. The girls had a lovely day, and asked if they could do the same for their birthdays. I said they could, but it would be instead of a party. We discussed the fact that I’d probably end up spending about £200 on a birthday party, so if they didn’t want one then they could have the money for shopping instead. We chatted about the fact that on their birthdays, they’d choose where we went for lunch. Both of them agreed that they’d choose Yo Sushi.

I thought that was probably the end of it because the draw of a birthday party was too tempting. Surprisingly though, it wasn’t. Both of them decided they’d rather have the money and go out for the day. Lia wanted us all to go horse riding as a family, and Libby wanted to have her £100 for shopping. So, that’s what we’re doing. There’s no party to organise and we’re all looking forward to a horse ride, a day of shopping and copious amounts of sushi.