Exhausted in zone two

Our friends who have sensibly re-located to the countryside came to visit us in the big smoke, bringing with them their two boys, an acrylic camp bed (not good for 30 degree heat) and Woody from Toy Story (object of desire by three year old boys). On top of this we invited our other friends who have a little girl with blonde locks to join the party.

In anticipation of the house party we decided it was of utmost importance to appear in control of our new house – this involved painting the cupboard that my DIY die-hard husband decided to build on day two of our move. He likes doing the dusty, grungy work but for some reason unbeknown to me he can’t finish off the last five per cent. Of course eggshell and small children don’t mix so this had to be squeezed in at midnight between the ironing (also to paint the picture of domestic bliss and incase they opened the secret cupboard where laundry is normally stashed away from sight) and the cooking of double lasagne and fish pie.

I suggested to hubby that it would be great if he could do the supermarket shop on Saturday to buy in the ‘juice – wink’ and get some ‘meat’ as ‘Peachy number one’ likes to call it, for the barbie (the weather having decided to turn scorchio) but he seemed to be having some sort of melt down at the thought of taking two of them by himself so my plans to clean the house in peace disappeared in the upward movement of my husband’s brow.

Back from the stress of the supermarket with ‘Peachy number one’ deciding that he would like to get in and out of the trolley around five times before making up his mind that actually being out of it was far more fun on account of the ability to then raid his favourite aisles and persuade me that chocolate cake and gingerbread men were of far more nutritional value than carrots or broccoli. We just had enough time to unload, stash the bags and spark up the bbq when our friends arrived.

It was so lovely to see them and ‘Peachy number one’ was delighted that he had a friend that could stand up to him unlike his little brother who bears the brunt of most of his three year old angst. He  was also beside himself with the thought of a sleep over with his best friend Max and so they were only to pleased when we declared it was time to go to bed. Max’s little brother though, aged only nine months wasn’t faring too well with the heat and had to be stripped down to nappy only. We toasted our success in getting them to sleep with some champers in the garden. Our other friends then arrived and announced that they are expecting baby number two – more champagne – and so it went on, interspersed with cries from hot children and a little incident of a wet bed. We partied on until 2am – the neighbours, however, started to twitch the curtains as our voices got louder and so we had to call it a night.

The next day the little dahlings decided that 6am was the best way to award us for staying up too late and with four hours sleep we crawled out of bed and thought that we had to expend some energy (theirs not ours, we didn't have any)  – so we took them plus, scooters, bikes, water and various snacks plus Toy Story two toy to the park – we re-met the friends who had come the night before and decided there was nothing for it but to do it all gain – come back for lunch we said, so again the vino came out. I’m still tired today, my body can no longer do it and the berocca is failing on me but hey we had a great time.

Toodle pip: party to clear up, zzz to get