Phew - it's cooled off - we're all happier!

We've had a downpour or two last night from about midnight, together with lightning and a few rumbles of thunder. Kids piled into our bed and snuggled. Was hot and humid in the morning, but it rained this afternoon too with more rumbles and now, thankfully, the air is so much cooler and we're all back to being happier people.

Went shopping to stock up on some goodies for B's 7th birthday party on Monday (yes I know it's alittle early but we've got lots happening the next few days). His birthday is tomorrow and he's ultra excited! We're having a picnic and activities in the park for his bash with some HE friends and his cousins. I keep writing lists and lists and lists of what I've got, what I need to get, what I need to cook, when I need to do this, that and the other by, what I need to take, what I've packed already! It may seem organised but it's not - there's too many lists and I'm going crazy, I know I'll forget something. We've also more-or-less decided to go camping Saturday night (see previous blog), weather permitting, so I need to start another list of what to take for that especially as we've never camped before! We have been looking up camping stuff in Argos and comparing costs. In the end we found a great sleeping bag in Tesco which we got (we needed one more) and I see they sell camping kettles for under £4.00 which I'll probably get tomorrow (once we've finally made our decision to camp or not).

Kids have been great today and are beginning to keep themselves more occupied. I got the old Scaletrics down from the loft this afternoon mainly for B and I to have a bash with. It always ends up back in the loft because B was always too young to get to grips with handling the controls to keep the cars on the track. Now he can do it! Yippee! Had some fun with this and K did too. They also played more Twister and had a good old cushion fight as well.

K's done some more wonderful drawings. I've noticed her style is beginning to change, she using more pencil strokes for shading now. I'm madly scanning her artwork to add to my website as they are too good to not share with the world! B did some doodles which were interesting and decided to turn a cardboard box into a car.

Have been picking over the tomatoes as some, I have been informed, have got "blossom end rot" caused by a calcium deficiency and lack of water. How much watering do they need - they get three good drinks a day! Anyway, here's a web page about it: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0701/blossom_end_rot.asp seems I need to get a feed into their roots p-d-q.

It was my turn to choose a film to watch after the kids' dinner tonight so I chose Fantasia which I knew would get lots of groans etc. B's never watched it, K watched it when she was about 3 and I've never watched the whole thing. B is quite musical and enjoys listening to Classic FM when he gets the chance, so I thought we'd give this a shot and see if he enjoys watching the animations to popular classical tunes. Had a few "this is boring" to start with (and it continued with K for longer), but then B settled into it he wanted to watch more and more. He was interested in the dinosaur section, obviously set to music, about how they became extint. He's got one of the free Telegraph dinosaur posters up in his room and has learnt some of the names from it and was therefore able to name them on the film. At bed time we dug our a pamphlet style book about interesting dinosaur facts. Lo and behold, my little chap who dislikes reading, began reading this to me with enthusiasm. Lots of questions too about the "big bang", volcanoes, shooting lava etc., etc.

Right, off to put up some fairy lights for B's birthday. The weather was hot like this when he was born too. I love laying in bed at night thinking back to his, and K's birth days and wondering where the years have gone.