Good weekend!
My brother & wife Jess came up for a visit this weekend. They arrived on the Saturday afternoon bearing gifts (& as Eve pointed out, some “bottles”). The gifts were basically for Eve’s birthday this week. Being our kids most were opened straight off (Jack had a little gift as well). Present from Mum & Dad also arrived. Much excitement & quite a bit of fun. They got a game that involves hammer (#lov-ley!) & there’s a nifty new ladybird rain mac for Eve – she likes it & was wearing it quite a bit.
It’s good to see my brother; I haven’t seen him in quite a while.

I was a little bit of a bad host at times as the OS 9 upgrade disk arrived. Found it at the door when I got home on Friday. It went in for upgrading before I went to pick Jack up from school. When I got Jack home I started upgrading to OSX – we went off to the supermarket for tea – so I left it installing from the second CD & when we got back it was all done. Coo! I’m happy – at all works very well. I make a conscious decision not to whitter in a geeky fashion – happy little geek that I am.

Hamish & Amber came round on the Saturday afternoon before Neil & Jess arrived. We went out into the garden to look at the frog that I released from the dustbin. Um… we have a dustbin without a lid that has never been used just stood on the front patio. Jack had put some cuttings from the hydrangea in there & it has filled with rain over the last couple of weeks, somewhat. We spotted a frog in there that morning & Jack was most interested in it. He was keen to show it off, but Louise & I realised that it probably couldn’t get out as the bin was not that full of water & there was nothing for it to jump from. Jack was rather upset at me for releasing it, but did seem to accept that perhaps it would not have been good to keep it there. They were actually frog gawping when Neil arrived. Neil managed to tire out Jack & Hamish a bit by getting them to run about. Not sure how he initiated it all, but he was timing them running between the sofa & chaise longue – having to run back & forth between the 2 touching each. Jack managed a best of 43 in a minute, but could not better it, & Hamish managed to nudge his total over Jack’s to 46. Amazing bit of distraction & a very good way of burning off some of Jack’s excess energy that he was bouncing from since their arrival. He still managed to stay up late though – he watched Monsters Inc again with Neil & Jess while Louise & I got Jude & Eve off to sleep.

We went swimming on Sunday morning – it’s Jack’s swimming lesson day – so we need to go anyway. He enjoyed himself greatly & is getting quite used to the water. Neil was getting him to go underwater & blow out bubbles. Jack needed his mask for this. After an hour Jack was still reluctant to get out of the pool, but relented as Neil & Jess were going. On the way home in through the park he stuck with them & played on the roundabout & seesaw while Louise & I pushed Eve on the swing. Home & Jack played on the Internet & Neil watched him & helped for a bit as well, before they had to head off home.