Good Friday

I started this morning far too early and decidedly hungover in spite of a solid 7 hours sleep the night before (and very little alcohol) to the sound of the Elfling's morning song (today "If you're happy and you know it - do a POO"). It was my turn for morning shift so I took the excitable twosome downstairs to give them their daily rations of bananas and milk and thanked God (excuse the blasphemy) for the fact that it was a Friday and ABC kids was hence on. After my allotted two hour shift I headed back upstairs with a fractious Monkey and an increasingly hyperactive Elfling to put the Monkey down for her nap and to start my sleep in.

More than 2 hours later I came downstairs with the Monkey who had apparently not slept to find that my perfect husband had completely cleaned the kitchen including scrubbing and mopping the floor. Now this is a noteable achievement for anyone, but our kitchen floor had reached the stage where I was actually afraid to open the door in case it was child protection come to snatch our children away from their unfit parents. The floor was actually growing. Tiles hidden under an ecosystem that was developing its own climate. To tackle it AND clean it was the perfect gift to wake up to.

We then headed off at a snail's pace with all the rest of the holiday traffic to the beach for the inaugural Jenn'spaternalfamilypicnic. Mum brought antipasto platters this year which were nice and we sat in the shade while the kids raced around and talked rubbish with my little sister's new boyfriend (very nice, great sense of humour, approve muchly). The Elfling gorged herself on antipasti and dolmades while the Monkey ate her bodyweight in chicken and Jatz crackers (we're very lapsed Catholics).

Finished off with chocolate Easter eggs that the girls ate, smeared and moisturised with before heading home to collapse on the couch. Whereupon I got a text message from best friend forever (BFF) who was bored and home alone offering the use of her very nice pool. So once we'd all had a nana nap we trooped over there for a swim. The Elfling had a ball doing flips and bombdives while the Monkey practised her underwater swimming between parents, in between giggling at Poppy the dog (oeuf oeuf) and turning blue. The girls also played with BFF's 9 month old daugther - a gorgeous little Gingernut with the most amazing blue eyes while LH spent most of the afternoon trying to play "Row Row Row your boat" on a toy piano. Watching a grown man get frustrated at not being able to use numbered multicoloured keys to play nursery rhymes is pretty hilarious.

And now we're sitting back waiting for our very unexciting dinner of pizza to cook in the oven while LH plays trains with the girls on the carpet and I ignore them all to update here. It's been a lovely day today. Watching the Elfling twirl in her rainbow skirt with her golden ringlets bouncing free from the coronet I twisted them up into today and the Monkey in her hand me down khaki cargoes (9 pockets on a pair of pants that are less than 40cm long) I feel very blessed. I know that today is a PH to commemorate the death of Christ, and once upon a time that was a sacred thing to me. But now what is sacred is watching my family. To the accompaniment of bizarre songs about poo and regal waves and blown kisses.