Another manic day

All week Carl has been sorting out the girls' room. He's taken down the six panel lights and filled the holes beautifully with plasterboard etc, then painted the whole ceiling and it looks perfect.

The walls are now lilac, and the woodwork is a nearly white colour. Just waiting for the second coat on the woodwork then I think it's done. It's strange to have a muted colour in the house. I think once we repaint the rest of the upstairs it'll look more like it fits in.

Then poor Mark can have his bedroom back (it's full of the girls' toys), and we can choose what goes into the girls' room a bit more carefully - I plan to put about 2/3 of their toys into the basement.

Friday...
Yesterday after work we went to Ricetta's for tea, then drove home. It was raining heavily so I was driving pretty carefully. Just near Greely Road a deer ran across the road in front of me. Luckily I didn't hit it, but of course where there's one deer there are usually others. Sure enough another one bolted over the road, but I had put my foot down already so it ended up crossing behind me.

I flashed the oncoming cars to warn them, then drove on very carefully...

The other memorable thing about Friday was the lemon drop martini I had in Ricettas. I was feeling no pain for a short while there, mmmmm.

Saturday...
Today being a Saturday meant swimming lessons for the girls. Mike did his usual thing of throwing all three of them in the pool, then sitting beside the pool with his laptop getting loads of work done. You'd think the humidity might be a problem but obviously not.

Someone had an 'accident' in the pool, but Mark refused to get out. We're awaiting any further complications...

After that we went for lunch at Jennifer and Craig's. Jennifer has Max and Maddie, who all of my lot adore, so they all played happily together. Craig has three boys who are lovely. So with four adults and eight children it was a busy lunch, and very nice to get to know them all a bit better.

Jennifer is minister at the First Universalist Church, which is where Mark goes to nursery twice a week, and they live in what I suppose is the vicarage - a very old house right by the church on Main Street. A beautiful old house, but falling to bits and incredibly expensive to run, so they're going to move out and find somewhere else. But really, such a beautiful old place - it was amazing to look around it. A gorgeous curved staircase, and very big old grates in the floor for the forced air heating. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have single glazing in Maine in winter, but my brain could not compute...

After our lunch we had a couple of hours back home. We explored the garden which has almost shed its mantle of snow - just a few inches left on the front and side gardens now. We assessed the damage from the ice storm, from burrowing critters in the lawn, from something very strange eating the bushes out the front, and just from the effects of being under snow for four months.

Ellie headed into the woods and started happily building fairy houses, then she and Mark played on the swings together. Mike got out his chainsaw and started cutting out dead wood. He is an American logger at heart - never happier than when he's clearing out woods. He was very disappointed when he ran out of fuel.

He picked up Hannah, and after some baths we headed to the Yarmouth Family Arts Night at the high school. They had food, a silent auction, a basket raffle, then a magician show. I would have liked to have actually bid on some of the cheesecakes, but between chatting to people, dealing with a hyperactive-then-completely-shattered Mark, and looking after children generally I didn't bid on anything.

Mike bid for Hannah to get 2 hours of being Assistant Principal - what a great prize! But he didn't win.

Mark and Mike went home to cuddle and watch Thomas the Tank Engine. The girls and I watched a magician called George something do his show. He was fairly standard, but enjoyable. Max got to go up on stage and help out, which was very exciting for all our party. Even Ellie was putting up her hand when the magician asked for volunteers. My little girl is really growing up.

And then home, all very tired. I was in bed by 9.20pm, with my laptop, clean sheets, the electric blanket on, and a new Iain Banks book beside me. Having chatted to my friend Kaye online, then updated the blog, it's now 10.45pm and I should go to sleep. Mike is at Jean's 40th birthday party in town, so somehow I suspect I'll be getting up with the children in the morning. My plan is to put The Sound of Music on for them, then sneak back to bed. We'll see....