Fun Monday #9 A life in the day...

Enidd is hosting today's Fun Monday and came up with the brilliant idea of producing a post entitled 'A life in the day' based on a regular Sunday Times feature. I chose to document Saturday which of course does not reflect an average day in my life but thought it would be fun to share the St Patrick Day celebrations with you.

Breakfast for me was spent blogging, this is usual on a weekday as I wait until everyone has left for work or school then have breakfast whilst I catch up on blogs or even prepare my post for that day. It is a bad habit to eat at the computer and my children are not allowed to for fear they'd spill something and then we'd be computerless but when I am alone I can break my rules! Mollie and Ben dressed in their Irish t-shirts but declined my offer of painting their faces (sigh, how quickly they grow up)!

Joules was spending the day studying and Dillon was meeting friends so Mollie, Ben and I set off for the Dart station (a ten minute walk away) to catch the train into town.

This picture isn't very good but the man in it has to be wearing the tallest hat we'd ever seen!

It has been three years since we last watched the parade and Saturday's trip was the least successful. The route the parade takes has changed, we used to drive to Joules work to park the car and walk for five minutes where we'd get a front line view of the parade. This spot was actually before the official starting point so we'd see all the floats, band, dancers etc and then have plenty of time for a walk or picnic somewhere. This year we got to town a good hour before the parade was due to start but the crowd was already six deep. If you look closely at the photographs you will see a man carrying a step ladder which is not that unusual on a day like Saturday, I was wishing I had a ladder with me. We found some railings the children could stand on to see and Mollie gave me a running commentary whilst I held them tight to prevent them from falling. Unfortunately I didn't do that a great a job as they both fell back when I was trying to get more comfortable. I managed to hold onto them until they reached the ground so they were a bit shocked but unhurt. Ben did the usual but luckily I had an empty bottle on hand for such emergencies. After 45 minutes of mainly watching other peoples heads and seeing the odd float we decided we had seen enough and headed home.

I bought Mollie and Ben a snack on the way home. This was Mollie's first day without crutches but she is still limping a bit.

Ben was exhausted and nearly fell asleep on the train ride home.

As soon as I got home it was time for a peppermint tea, a flapjack and ...

...a read of the paper. Before I knew it, it was time to jump into the shower as I was heading back out at 5:10pm. My mother-in-law was treating the girls to dinner and a trip to the theatre to see Mamma Mia. Unfortunately our niece had to go into hospital on Thursday so my sister-in-law was unable to attend.

As there was a spare ticket Mollie brought her friend Annie.

We had a delicious dinner in Ely HQ overlooking the quays then it was a short hop to the show. Mamma Mia was such a fun show, who can fail to enjoy all the Abba songs and the fit young men strutting their stuff, not to mention the fabulous singing and comic timing of all involved. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed. It was nearly midnight when we arrived home and I fell into bed exhausted.