a weekly round-up of random happenings

I can't believe it is Friday once more! It has been a busy week and I am glad it is coming to an end. Tonight we are celebrating the end of the school year with the PTA (parent teacher association) and I look forward to a night out with friends. Just now, I am stealing a few minutes of online time, munching a lunch time bacon butty. It is delicious.

This last week was taken up by a variety of activities at school, as is always the case during the last couple of weeks before the summer holiday. Friday last week we had our school summer party. As a PTA treasurer in training, I was in charge of wandering the school grounds and collect money from doors, bar and other stalls. I thought I'd bring an incongruous wee handbag but it soon became clear that it was rather too small. It was a tiring job, and a bit scary, too. I have never had that much money to look after and I was just so worried that I might loose all or some. But I had just the right amount of prosecco to keep my courage up and of course plenty of friends, children and helpers to talk to. We raised a total of £2278 for the school. It will be great to see the money come to good use in the new school year. My children meanwhile were roaming free from stall to stall and through the woods. Our school is surrounded by fenced off woodland, which is great. Every few minutes one would appear to ask for money for yet more sweets. We got back at 10:45 pm with four tired but happy children.

On Monday, we had the opening ceremony or the schools Commonwealth Games. You may know that the Commonwealth Games 2014 are hosted by Glasgow and of course the Games are eagerly anticipated. I think the start is towards the end of July. The school organised their own games and I was required to attend no less than 5 events this week, starting with the opening ceremony and ending with the closing ceremony. In between there were the infant sports day, a Commonwealth afternoon with James and the upper school sports day. I have some budding athletes in the family, with James winning the bean bag race and becoming third in the flat race. Annie managed to get a place in the 300 metre final after a spectacular collapse on the finish line in the heats. She was in the lead for more than half the distance but then had a coughing fit and suffered from shortness of breath. She gets that when doing exercise. Nevertheless, Annie is a fighter and would have rather died than give up and she came in second. The winning girl had the cheek to say something like "oh well, someone had to win, and it was not you". Not much sportsmanship but there you go.

There was also a camping weekend with Scouts that Sam, Annie and Richard attended. They left on Saturday morning at 7:30 and returned on Sunday evening at 7 pm. The dirt and smell that they brought with them is not fit for description but I will say that their walking boots are not allowed in the porch until they are bone dry. The weekend was spent climbing rock faces and walking two munros. For those unfamiliar with the term munro, this is what we call the mountains here.

Meanwhile, James, Alistair and I spend most of the weekend in the garden and on the playground. It was rather nice.

There are only three school days left, and unfortunately one more event where parent attendance is required, the prize giving ceremony. It is of course not compulsory but since I am not working I cannot come up with a really good excuse for not going and the smug mum brigade already have their eye on me for various reasons. I dread the phrase "poor little Alistair, ...." (fill in the gap with being late for French café or for not walking the poor wee mite to school (Annie, James and Ali go together, it is a 5 minute safe walk) or not giving him the appropriate attention at the end of sports day, which apparently left him distraught, the only child who wasn't greeted by mum (really!). I was actually clearing up the coffee and tea stall we had organised for the other parents. The poor wee mite was not distraught but miffed that I didn't do the mum's race (I was serving tea and coffee to Mrs and Mr Superparent instead). Ok, I must stop here because I can feel a proper rant coming on.

Other news this week:

• I am still unemployed and continue to search for a job.
• On my "day off" (no school event) I did outreach work for a career event at a local High School. Yes, it is rather ironic.
• Sam was awarded a free ticket for the Commonwealth Games (gymnastics) at school for outstanding participation at various activities. One of 10 tickets, how lucky is that.
• We found out who will be teaching the 3 younger ones next year. I am happy will all three teachers (we've had them before) and even happier that Alistair is now in a composite class because for composite classes, the maximum class size is smaller than for "normal" classes.
• All my nail varnish has disappeared. I suspect my darling daughter and will have a search through her room tomorrow. Luckily she labels all her boxes with handy stickers and it will be easy to find the beautifying box....
• The weather has been unusually good. We've had no rain since last Friday, which is worth a mention on the news for sure.

And now I have to scoot off for a night of fun with the PTA. I never finished this post at lunch time, as I had intended. School run, laundry, play park and dinner had to be dealt with instead. I have 5 minutes to spare before I need to dash off (with unpainted toe nails). Apologies for the random photos! It is watermelon weather and the watermelons are just beautiful. I'll reply to all your lovely comments on my last post this weekend. Promise. Right after I searched Annie's bedroom. Cx