The weekend that was

I love the posts my blogger friend, Chiswick Mum, writes about her family weekends, and as, in keeping with my new policy of dragging myself out of hibernation, I actually have something to blog about, I’ve shamelessly nicked the idea. I hope she will forgive me, and take it in the spirit of ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’.

Saturday was a fairly quiet domestic day, but we still fitted a lot in. Husband popped out to our local shop first thing and bought fresh pastries for breakfast, and then took Anna off to the first of her new swimming lessons. Thankfully, teacher, pool and lesson content all met with her approval. Sophia had her nap while they were out, which meant I had time to shower, wash my hair, condition my hair, shave my legs and apply body lotion – normally, assuming I get time to wash at all, I have to choose just one of the above.

I also managed to make a pizza for lunch, and then while that was cooking we took Sophia for her first ever walk outside. She toddled proudly up and down our street, and was so thrilled to be out in the world. If a baby’s character is any predictor of the adult they become, then I suspect Sophia will be an adventurer, and husband and I will have to resign ourselves to our relationship with her consisting of monthly text messages such as ‘In Brazil now. Going rafting up Amazon tomorrow! Love you, S x’, because she certainly seems determined to explore the limits of her world.

I hadn’t been looking forward to the afternoon, because I had to help Anna with her school ‘decorate an egg for Easter’ competition. I am really not good at things like that, and while previously Anna has been content with slapping some paint in the general direction of a hard-boiled egg, this year she has ambitions to win, and had decided on an ‘under the sea’ theme. To say I was trepidatious about the task of helping her create an octopus, a mermaid, a diver and a fish out of hard-boiled eggs would be an understatement, but somehow we managed it, and were actually both fairly proud of the result. I don’t think she probably will win (for context, on the way into school this morning I saw a pirate ship populated by boiled egg pirates, and a whole football pitch of eggy players), but we enjoyed messing around with paints and sequins and bits of material, and I also realised Anna had never come across the word ‘bikini’ when she requested that I help her cut out the mermaid’s ‘waterproof bra’!

In the mood for Easter crafting, we then made Easter nest crispy cakes. And when I say ‘we’, I actually mean Anna, because apart from me lifting the hot bowl in and out of the microwave, my oh-so-grown-up little girl made them entirely herself. My vital role was to test the mini eggs were up to scratch, and I did so exhaustively. Happy to report that they were, and I even managed to save some for the cakes.

I completed the day’s cookathon by making a big pan of veggie chilli for dinner, and a batch of cinnamon buns ready for Sunday breakfast.

Yesterday we were off to Oxford. Despite it being the place husband and I met, and pretty much my favourite place in the world, we’ve only taken Anna a couple of times, once when she was just a baby, and Sophia had only been in utero. I was overcome by the huge wave of nostalgia I always feel in Oxford, but I absolutely loved seeing our daughters running around playing in the beautiful garden where their father and I shared our first kiss, nearly seventeen years ago. 

We went to a lovely Thai restaurant for lunch and, once again, I was very proud of Anna and realised just how grown up she is becoming as she was willing to try all the unfamiliar food on offer. Pork belly with Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. Sweet chilli noodles. Beansprouts and bamboo. Stir-fried prawns with chilli. Actually, the thing she liked best was the egg-fried rice, but just a year or two ago she would have refused to try any of it.

After lunch we did a quick tour of Oxford’s greatest hits – Merton Street, a peek into Christ Church meadows (which are sadly inaccessible with a pram), Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera, High Street, Turl Street before finishing up at Blackwell’s for a browse and a coffee before we got the park and ride bus back to the new Oxford Parkway station.

We broke our journey home with a twenty minute dash into the Bicester Village retail extravaganza so we could pop into the Cath Kidston outlet for some new cereal bowls. I won’t go into details as to why we needed new ones. Suffice it to say that, a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally left the stair gate which normally blocks off the kitchen doorway open. I was extremely disappointed that we didn’t have longer in Bicester Village as I discovered that the Clarks shop there is doing an exclusive collaboration with Orla Kiely,and the resulting shoes are the stuff of my dreams. I am plotting whether I can manage a quick dash back at some point. I know it’s not exactly on the doorstep, but they really were divine.

Finally the children had a picnic tea on the train home – good old-fashioned cheese and ham sandwiches after their taste adventure at lunchtime – and we all got home tired but happy. It was a wonderful weekend, and I felt that we got the balance between domestic pottering and adventures further afield just right. The only thing missing was a trip into central London, so I will have to put that on my wish-list for another time.