Nice weekend but very busy and again we did not get any time to work on the Wendy house. The current status of this project it that is has been stuck at two-thirds of a floor for weeks. Never mind though. I'm fairly confident we can it have it completed ready for our grandchildren.

Robyn had a rehearsal for her first ballet exam on Saturday morning, and Daniel attended his first birthday party outside the family. I won't mind too much if Robyn gives up ballet one of these years. It seems to take itself a little too seriously for me. In the afternoon we took the kids to see Hans Christian Andersen in Africa which was quite fun but slightly too long. And then after that we took a car load of cans, plastic, glass and cardboard to our local recycling depot. The girls love smashing the glass bottles down into the huge containers.

Since it was quite a cold day, we seized the opportunity to have a fire at home in the evening. Winter has been rather a non-event this year and there have been few opportunities to get wintry-warm and cozy. We put the lights out and made toast and marshmallows over the fire for supper and the kids played camping behind the curtains and furniture. This game involves transferring most of the contents of their bedroom down to the lounge. They love it. Only slightly more than real camping.

On Sunday we went out for lunch (a three-hour affair) as it was Lauren's turn to choose a place for lunch (recent-birthday privilege). She chose what we refer to as the 'Train Place' which is a family restaurant with a huge kids' zone complete with mini ferris wheel, maze, jungle gyms, swings, mini train, rocking horses, trampoline, and more. There even seems to be some sort of hot weather cooling station with a sign up telling kids to bring cozzies on hot days. The place has been well designed on two levels with the upper (outdoor) restaurant level surrounded by a huge semi-circular lower level with all the kids' stuff. So the kids could eat and then run down to play where they liked while we enjoyed our food and an actual conversation. The food was really good. The restaurant has recently changed hands and the food used to be expensive and rather fancy but not as terrific as one hoped. Now it is more down to earth but much better. And the whole place, which was starting to get rather run down, is properly maintained again. I think we will become regular customers.