A hot weekend

Hello! Hope that this finds you well; we are hot here!! Although not for much longer as the weather turns chilly again on Tuesday. It has been really bizarre as we had record high temperatures yesterday and yet it has been a really cold May and on Tuesday it is expected to return to the high 50's again! Weird!!

Anyway, we have made the most of what could be our summer!! We saw three lots of friends this weekend which is unusual but for several reasons it was either this weekend or not for ages and ages so we decided that we would just go for it!

Yesterday during the day we went to a beautiful place called St. Edward State park and had a lovely picnic with our friends Victoria and James and their children. The men took the 4 oldest children down to the lake but Victoria and I stayed up with Silas as I was hoping that he would fall asleep  and the trail was not suitable for buggies. He didn't fall asleep but I tried very hard and then just let him have a rest for a bit before we took him to the playground. The playground is a larger version of the one in Kirkland that we call the Castle Playground and all the children loved it; it was a great one for multiple ages. The children have already asked to go again and I think we will in the summer.

After this we came home and soon after Melinda and Chad arrived for the evening which was great! We put the children to bed and then ate chicken salad as it was such a hot day! I had cooked the chicken in the slow cooker, which worked out ok although it was very well cooked and fell off the bone! I will have to try and adjust the timing next time, but I was worried that we would all get salmonella!

Today we had church this morning and then went to Volunteer park with Jeff, Jen and Ian which was good fun! It was cooler today but the park was well shaded anyway and the children had a good time. To our surprise a tiny ice-cream van came round selling ice cream out of a freezer (no Mr. Whippy!) which was  a big hit with everyone! I bought a lovely strawberry ice lolly with real strawberries in only for it to go to Esther and for Esther's ice cream to go to Naomi as she dropped hers! Ah well! Silas enjoyed his rocket lolly and got very sticky! Sign of a good time I suppose!

Our little duck family left us yesterday and we hope that they will find some water and will live happily ever after! It is a bit funny not knowing what will happen to them! On Friday the mother duck wandered round and round the garden with the ducklings trying to find a way out and so i left the gate open and she left yesterday morning. I rather miss her! And the ducklings were so gorgeous!

It is a bit odd though as I tried on Friday to get help from a couple of animal welfare organisations but with no success. It appears that although it is illegal to try and move the nest, to remove the ducks or feed them or give them water, you are allowed to 'let nature take its course' by letting them get run over by a car or die of starvation through lack of food and water (although thankfully we haven't seen any sign of this!). It seems odd that both extremes can be held at the same time! On the one hand, I want to say "It's a duck,  not a rare bird" in response to being told it is illegal to touch the nest or them and then on the other hand to say "have a heart and remove them please"! Ah well, they are gone now! Silas is still missing them though and looks hopefully out of the window and says 'duck' during the day!

Silas was funny this evening; he was watching Balamory today which he likes and he started to sing the tune when it was on! Then at bedtime, we could hear him singing through the monitor for ages! Funny boy! The girls have enjoyed the weekend - they paddled yesterday in the lake which they enjoyed and had fun at the park today too. This week I have said that we will write a book about our duck which they are excited about. WE were going to do it last week but we make pink cupcakes instead. These are rapidly becoming known as Aunty Helen's cupcakes as it was Aunty Helen who originally wanted them to be really pink! They are garish and very sprinkled!

On Friday we had a lovely afternoon in the park with Grania (friend from Utah), Ulrike and Ulrike's friend Zilly and all the children. It was warm and pleasant and all the children played well. There are 3 17 - 19 month boys and they were all standing in a line throwing dirt around.  They were so mucky! Zilly's little boy only speaks German but it really didn't matter! Language is not needed at that age when all you want to do is throw dirt anyway!

We are around on Wednesday but we are away next weekend as it is our bank holiday weekend, so there won't be a blog next Sunday. Just an advance warning! I should be able to write on Wednesday though! Bye for now!