Crepeys in the Long Grass of Life

[CointreauVersial]

Thanks Beachy for the frisky title suggestion.

Well, here we all are!

I break up on the 23rd, kids officially on 22nd (21st will be the last day in) and DH on 25th!

Happy hols Beachy

NU - glad baby is back home and feeding well, very jealous of your sunshine in Newcastle drink. Brings back memories.

I am stuck typing this upstairs in my bedroom (mattress on the floor) as my living room is full of sleeping teens. It is 8.55 - not sure how long I'm expected to be quiet for.

Hatty, get your hoover out

[grin even better- I might send in little brother.

Can I just burst with pride for a moment? DD1 is in a v bright year. She is bright but not the brightest. Was glumly resigned to getting no certificates in yesterday's Achievement Assembly (she's only had Drama before).

She came back with three (3, iii) including maths which has always been her weak point and let her down in her secondary transfer tests and would quite feasibly have stopped her passing the 11+. I am so proud of her. And her maths teachers. Is now zooming ahead and on course for an A.

Hurrah for mini MI - it's lovely when these things come together and great for the her confidence.

Here, teenagers awake and lovely, very sweet boy at breakfast, I fear I am now seen as the weird eccentric mother, but I expect it was only a matter of time

MI good on her! I take it she's in a Grammar? (My one big regret about moving - there are none round here unless you pay - but then ds has had two such great years of schooling, even he recognises how much he has changed and I wouldn't give that up. Have to see how secondary pans out)

Well done Inferiorette1!

Am obsessively watching the weather forecast and praying it stays dry this evening.

Yay Rudy!!

Fantastic Rudy - very good level of academic achievement on this thread

Rudy, that's fab! Looks like all DS's work and play is paying off, and DD is maybe beginning to make a bit of a change. All good

Very well done to your dd1, MI. So lovely to see when they come on in leaps and bounds, isn't it? :)

Ds's term ends on the 18th. He got up early this morning to go off to Brownsea Island with the Cubs. He was already in a bad temper as he is tired. And as soon as he gets back tonight we are off to a hog-roast and mojito party. One of the party hosts came round early to harvest some of the huge amount of mint we have in our garden for the mojitos. Sadly, it looks like we will need our umbrella hats for the party as heavy rain is forecast here for this evening. Which is a bummer as we've had fabulous sunny hot weather all week here. Dh's band is playing at some charity bbq do tomorrow afternoon, so he doesn't want to stay out late and I reckon ds will keel over early anyway. Maybe I will send them home and stay on by myself. :)
Dd hasn't arrived back from the post-party sleepover yet. She phoned to say she didn't think she'd make her lifesaving lesson as she would probably sink if she went in the pool.

Great news about the baby, NUF!

Rose, I'm not surprised you're not particularly thrilled with the arrangements for you and your dh at your voluntary place. That would make me and Not good for the soul, I think.

X-post Rudy. Very well done to your ds3 and hooray for signs of application from your dd.
When I think of what my dd was like in the summer of Y10, I am still completely amazed that she applied herself for her GCSEs this year, but she really got her act together after Christmas. We'll find out on results day whether that was leaving it too late or not, but she certainly did her best with her revision and during the exams. A huge transformation occurred over a relatively short time, because even during the mocks in November she was still in a state of crisis and spent more time doorslamming than anything else.

Stropps, that sounds like a good plan
And LOL at her sinking in the pool! I think I may have to stay sober tonight in case the girls need picking up from the party. Or maybe I should just insist on picking them up from the party

Yes, great news about the baby, NU!

And Stropps, I am hoping for a similar transformation from DD (who used to be so diligent) I must admit to feeling very slightly smug when a friend told me that her DD(who was always supposed to be so good at art) got a grade lower for a project than what DD(who was never supposed to be all that at art) usually gets

Rudy, that's fab.

BD, she is absolutely not at a grammar - my point is actually that she could quite feasibly have been steered into second-tier ed at 11 had that been the option round here. As it is she has benefited hugely from comprehensive education and her fab teachers.

Brilliant of all the DC, you should be very proud of them. It's funny how we can't say how well they're doing without feeling embarrassed that somebody will think that we're boasting. We should celebrate their achievements. It's a fine line between over praising them and running them down.

It's glorious sunshine here - I think we're going for a picnic and walk at Allen banks after the hospital visit.

Rudy, I know what you mean. But I've schooled myself to praise my dcs for effort rather than achievement, so I feel no sense of inhibition anymore about telling people when the dcs have done really well - as long as I know they've worked hard at something, why shouldn't they and I be proud?

Yes, I too know what you mean!

ps: Ds was a lazy slacker because early on he got too used to people (NOT us) praising him just for being naturally good at stuff. I get a lot of stick from other parents because I am harsh about not appreciating stuff he's done unless I know he's made an effort. He has really pulled his socks up over the last year and now tries hard at things even when he knows he's not good at them. Like football. He has 2 left feet and is famous among his friends (and not-friends) for his lack of ball skills. But last term he joined football club and has tried really hard. He's still bad, but not as bad as he was and he's learnt he can have fun anyway. However, last Saturday he was supposed to do a taekwando demo at an event we were at and he hadn't done any practice at all for it, so I told him he had to man-up and tell the instructor that he couldn't do his solo demo because he had failed to put in the necessary practice and he needed to apologise.