Well actually it's a teeny bit more than the weekend, as I'm starting with what we did on Thursday first.
On Thursday David (12) was performing in a little drama that his S1 Gaelic Drama Club have been working on all year. It was performed at the Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. Since we would have had a bit of a mad rush to get home from school in Edinburgh, quickly eat some dinner and then head straight back in to Edinburgh again, the younger two boys and I decided to stick around in the city between school pick up and the show.
It was another beautiful day and so first stop was for a little run around the play park beside the school.
After this we wandered along to have a browse in some of our favourite charity shops nearby before then making our way to Princes Street Gardens for our picnic dinner.
I had packed a flask of homemade tomato soup, some oatcakes, cooked chicken and a selection of sweet treats for after. I brought some enamel mugs for us to drink out soup out of and Ally (9) absolutely loved it. He said he felt like we were really old fashioned people from the olden days!
The two of them had such fun running around playing at Super Heroes in the little spot we had chosen for our picnic.
While I watched them playing, and listened to their endless stories about Super Heroes and questions about which one I was in their current game, I also happily passed the time cutting out and sewing up some hexies. Yes, another new-found craft love of mine!
Before we knew it, it was time to make our way to the Storytelling Centre for the show.
The drama was a fun one they had written involving lots of songs that Fraser (4) and I sing when we are at Cròileagan (the Gaelic parent and toddler group) together, so he was really looking forward to it. They encouraged lots of audience participation and Fraser didn't need to be asked twice when they were looking for volunteers to go on stage! David played the part of the duck, that's him in his 'duck pond' at the bottom right!
It was a fun little show, Fraser and Ally both enjoyed watching it and David enjoyed taking part, even though he said he had been a bit nervous when he saw how full the theatre was.
On Friday we kick started our weekend with a barbecue in the sunshine.
It had a few quirky touches thanks to some fun extras I had bought in Home Bargains.
My favourite barbecue food is a good quality burger on a soft roll, with some lettuce, a squirt of burger sauce and some pickles. Perfect!
It seems that nobody is too old, or too cool, for a twisty fruity straw.
Rounding off a simple dinner, we had ice lollies for pudding. My favourite? A mint Magnum.
Then once we were all back inside we played a new board game that Fraser had been desperate to play all day. We had picked this Disney Pixar game up in Home Bargains too, and it was a great little game to play, especially for Fraser and Ally.
Saturday was sunny again.
Hubby was working, James was working at his Saturday job and Calum (15) was away playing shinty through in Glasgow.
I had a list of gardening jobs I desperately needed to get done and so was glad of a day at home. I had lots of seedlings to plant out from my greenhouse, as well as a fair amount of weeding in flower beds.
We ate lunch outdoors, something I don't think I could ever tire of doing.
And then later on in the afternoon when Fraser and Ally were getting too hot I let them spray the hose at each other to cool down.
Fraser particularly enjoyed being let loose with the hose. Look at his face!
Finally, David wanted to make a pretend bike shop for Ally and Fraser and set up a pretty efficient looking shop.
A pretty ordinary weekend on the whole, but if you know anything about me by now, then you know that the ordinary is just as important to me as the big things. The ordinary is as much of a gift as the extra ordinary.
That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the extra ordinary, and we had a spectacular extra ordinary surprise when James won an amazing Art award earlier on last week, as you may have seen on my housefulofboys Facebook page. But I've decided to leave that for another post this week because tomorrow night we are going to his A level Art exhibition and so I'll also hopefully have some photos of his art to share too.
