NotSheep

No Saturday swimming classes means we’ve a much more relaxed start on Saturdays now, but I still had to be out soon after 9 a.m. today, because Barney had his first St John Ambulance “duty” today, and was required to wear a uniform. He’d made do until now with his Scout trousers (navy-blue rather than the required black) and a t-shirt under his sweater, but he wasn’t going to be wearing his sweater today, so he needed a shirt to wear with a tie. Since he wanted to go to Fit Kids at 10, that meant a trip into town beforehand to find the necessary clothing.

I picked him up after Fit Kids and took him to our local castle, where the first-aiders were attending a fencing tournament. It all looked fab, I must say - lots of blokes in white knee-high socks etc running about waving various kinds of swords at each other. The castle was a perfect setting for it, and they were making the most of it - there were bits of the tournament taking place on the ramparts, in the banquet hall, in the solar room at the top of the keep - great stuff I took the opportunity to get some information about our local club (about four miles from here), as Barney’s been keen to participate (and today did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm!) - so there’s one more thing to fit into the schedule from September

I left Barney there and came home for lunch, where I was informed that Freddy’s loose tooth was still in place, but that he had somehow hit George on the back of the head causing one of George’s teeth to fall out! Fortunately all parties involved found this entertaining rather than distressing

I suggested that we all go back to the castle together after lunch and spend some time there - we visited the castle a few weeks ago with a home-ed group, but there was very heavy rain that day, so we really only got to explore the indoors parts of it - which are wonderful, but there’s plenty of great stuff outdoors too! I’d promised we’d come back to investigate the outdoors bits, and today seemed as good a time as any The boys had a fantastic time climbing the walls and ditches and cannons etc and we stayed until it started to rain, by which time everyone was more or less worn out anyway

I tried to call our old neighbours again and got through today; I’d a lovely chat with J, and we updated one another on all the goings-on with our respective families. They are a really nice family, and we were lucky to have them as neighbours; I hope we get to see them again soon.

Toby’s sitting up in bed beside me, playing with toys. He’s been trying to steal food from his brothers today - we discovered he likes loves naan bread, and Jack only just managed to move his chocolate-chip muffin in time or he’d have lost it