Yesterday Robyn came home and told me that according to her teacher, in South Africa 'they' are trying to get rid of Hallowe'en because it is evil and against God's love.

Part of me thinks I should complain to the school about teachers imposing an offensive personal opinion on my daughter, part of me just can't be bothered. Another part doesn't want to rock the boat at school for Robyn (and for me too). The part I'm married to is in denial that the teacher would say such a thing and is sure Robyn must have got the wrong end of the stick. This part has the easiest time as it is able to dismiss the entire thing as a silly misunderstanding.

All of me is glad that Robyn dismissed the teacher's opinion as nutty with hardly a second thought, except for a certain puzzlement about the whole thing.

'I thought Hallowe'en was just a fun and scary thing for kids to enjoy', she said.

I am glad she has some discernment and is not under the impression that teachers are gods.

Oh dear. Peter has just sent me his usual Tuesday morning swimming photo. He forgot to take the towels.

It is very hot here. Only just into November and already we are having temps of 34 and 35. The kids have been enjoying getting back into summer. I am so glad we have a pool. As a child I wanted a pool more than anything else in the world and vowed I would have one as an adult. Robyn on the other hand vows she will let her children watch Cartoon Network.

Yesterday afternoon was lovely. Our Monday schedule provides a gentle start to the week with no afternoon activities so I pick all three kids up at 12.3o and we just come home and relax. Yesterday afternoon we also did some more work on the Wendy house. It is amazing how much work the windows have proved to be.

The weekend was also very pleasant, though quiet, as the girls chose for us to stay at home. So the kids swam and we all played a whole bunch of games together, inside and outside. One of our games is Ramses II. It's a memory game, in which you have treasures hidden beneath some of the 47 pyramids on a grid of 48 squares. You have to locate certain treasures as indicated on the cards you draw, but not only do you have to locate each treasure, you have to find a path there by sliding pyramids out of the way one at a time, and if you accidentally uncover the wrong treasure en route to your destination your turn ends. There are also challenge cards and action cards such as turning the board around a quarter or half turn. This one in particular totally floors me. Lauren is chillingly good at this game. She has a memory bordering on the spooky. The game is recommended for ages 8 to adult. When we first bought this for Robyn at age six and a half, I gently tried to tell four and a half year old Lauren not to be too upset if the game was too tricky for her (she takes losing incredibly hard), and that she would enjoy it when she was older.

'OK Mom,' she said. 'Can we play it now?'

She has won every single game she has played. She usually gets at least double my score, and double Robyn's too. When she was a little younger she used to help us when we were stuck but she's almost grown out of that now, unfortunately.

We also had a good game of garden soccer with the girls on Sunday. They enjoy it when they are not writhing around on the ground in agony from whatever injury has befallen them. Peter and I tend to get a little too competitive and they are always getting felled by the ball.