Sunshine, movies and pick-up trucks

I just put my children to bed at nearly 9pm, having spent the evening sitting by the fire in the garden, watching them play with the children next door, then watching them all sit in their camp chairs and try to read their books using little finger lights. It was completely peaceful to cuddle up next to a blazing warm fire, under a nearly full moon.

We spent the day clearing out the woods, raking leaves, cutting back choke cherries, and thinking about re-seeding the lawn. We borrowed Heidi's pick-up, and Mike spent the day happily chain-sawing everything that didn't move.

Ellie went to June's, Hannah and Mark played and helped me and bounced on the trampoline. At one point Hannah stretched out on the swingseat, in the sun, and read her book.

This morning Carl came home from hospital. He had open heart surgery the Monday before last, and he should have been home last weekend. But he had a few setbacks, including being moved back to ICU for a while, so it wasn't till today that he finally made it. It's good to have him home. We've visited him a few times in Maine Med, but I think he's really looking forward to having the children popping in and out, reading them books, and watching cartoons with them.

Nadja's been in hospital every day, so we hired a wonderful nanny called Tara. She's been a godsend - she turns up at 8am and focuses on the children all day until she leaves around 5.30pm. One day she brought a huge box of lego, another day she brought a face-painting book, then yesterday she brought beads for making necklaces. She's coming for another week, and then I think the children will be back to the Wallaces. We've been so lucky.

I took the girls to work last Thursday. It was fun but exhausting. I found an empty cubicle for them, and they spread their pens and paper out and 'worked'. They made friends with a colleague's daughter, and they met a few of my colleagues, and Hannah appeared in the mock trial as Little Bo Peep. Ellie was in the jury and wasn't particularly impressed.

I've been working as hard as ever. I'm now officially manager of our sales enablement site, so I'm planning how to improve it, how to manage it, and building pages for it. It's definitely improving, but it's hard work - and I still have the rest of my job to do.

Uncle Kevin has moved to Maine - I went to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with him last night, and he's taking the children to the movies tomorrow.

We have Mark's birthday party coming up next Sunday, then his actual birthday on the Monday, plus we're trying to plan parties for the girls for next month. And we have granny and grandad coming out to visit on May 4th. So we're busy!