A kid's kind of weekend

When Kieran woke on Friday morning his first question was "Am I going to Lillgården today?" and when the answer was Yes he cried so hard that Tyler decided to stay at home with them. Makaila was exhausted too and only woke at 8.30 when K had a tantrum over me leaving for the day.

They went in to work with Tyler for his hour long mentor meeting where the student's got the chance to oooh and ahhh over the kids. K fell asleep on his shoulder during the lesson and Makaila sat quietly with a book at the front of the class. Our shy children loved the experience but didn't dare say "boo" to anyone.

Saturday morning we got up nice and early and were at Yvonne's just after 8am. We picked up her, her almost 12 year old daughter Yvette and Maggie Rose (their three-legged dog) and drove out to Yvette's horse-riding school. The kids were enthralled with the pre-class grooming of the horses and then sat attentively through the 40 minute lesson. Kieran hardly blinked!

We went back to their place afterwards - with Kieran protesting saying he just wanted to go home. His toilet-training started over the Easter weekend and since then he has not wanted to go anywhere - he only wants to sit on the toilet at home! But we endured, he settled and sat and drank hot chocolate. Afterwards Kieran was still eager to go home but Makaila was upset because we had to leave. I think she likes being anywhere but home and an older child and a dog definitely made it an attractive place to be.

After an afternoon nap (all but M) we went over to Lova's place. Lova and Makaila went to Suparb's family daycare together when they were just 2 years old. Lova then moved over to the daycare beside Kristofferskolan where her brother and sister go. The girls got along very well, as did the parents, so we continued to stay in contact although so much time has passed that the girls no longer remembered each other.

Still it didn't take long for them to warm up and a couple of guinea pigs certainly helped things go smoothly. Kieran, on the other hand, sat on the step by the front door, he wanted to go home and didn't want any dinner. Tyler eventually talked him round and he sat up with us and ate too. It was a lovely evening and really nice to see them again. We talked, and talked and talked and then talked some more. All the kids played, both young and old and Lova's 10yr old brother and sister were involved most of the evening. They either sat with us and talked, played with the girls or helped Kieran build train track. Lovely kids! We finally dragged ourselves out of there at 10.30 to take the tired little ones home to bed.

Today, Sunday we had a working bee at Lillgården. There is going to be a new group after the summer and Kieran's group is getting a new room. So Makaila and I were part of the team and we sanded walls, puttied and stripped wall paper for a couple of hours. Makaila was actually quite a good help and she enjoyed running between the adults and a new boy who was in "her" room playing with the toys. She also enjoyed sitting outside drinking cordial and eating a sandwich with all the adults. She sat in her "normal" spot.

Meanwhile Tyler and Kieran were doing the weekly grocery shopping - thank goodness I didn't have to do it. I HATE grocery shopping!

All in all it has been a nice, kid-oriented kind of weekend.