Our weekend happy – an extra long Easter bank holiday! – Mummascribbles

It wouldn’t be right to write this weekend post and not feature every day from the bank holiday weekend. Four whole days of family time.

On Friday morning, we had planned to go round to the messy church session that was on at a local church. We aren’t religious at all but Zach is really interested in the buildings and has been desperate to visit one. So I thought it was a perfect excuse to do it whilst also having fun. And we all know how much Oscar loves messy play so it was bound to be a winner all round.

How wrong could I have been?

It was great up until we let Oscar loose with the paints. All he wanted to do was pile paint onto his hand. He didn’t want to do actual hand-prints, he just wanted paint on his hand.

And when we decided enough was enough and cleaned him up…he went into one. Absolute meltdown.

He was thrashing around and screaming. I thought I was going to have to feed him but since I hadn’t planned on it, I was not wearing feeding friendly clothes. I thought I was going to find myself having to sit with a full boob out in church!

Thankfully he calmed down but he kept screeching and threatening to go into one. And so I left Zach and daddy inside the church for the remainder of the session whilst I took Oscar out to get him to sleep. It happened almost immediately so he was clearly very, very tired! Zach had fun though and he particularly enjoyed making a decorative biscuit and doing some more sensible painting.

Once we were all home, we made some lunch and chilled upstairs for a while, giving Oscar time to have this all important nap. He slept for ages and even carried on sleeping when we started moving furniture around in Zach’s room and hoovering.

Eventually, he woke up and had a bite to eat while Daddy started building his new bed. I say new, it’s actually been sat in the shed for ages as we bought bunk beds when Zach needed to come out of his cot bed. And now was the time to try and introduce Oscar into Zach’s room, which meant putting him into his own big boy bed.

The other half did an absolutely sterling job of bed building and we went up and joined him for the final part. Oscar was so excited by his new bed, which we hoped was a good sign!

Once the bed was finished, it was time for dinner. We had fajitas and then it was pretty much immediately time for bed for the boys. With it being the first night of them sharing a room, we weren’t sure how bedtime would go. It was fine though and we managed to watch the Wonder Woman film with only two disturbances!

Saturday came around and well, we were a bit shattered. As expected, despite the evening before being relatively successful, it was a pretty bad night. We were expecting my mum round in the afternoon but she changed her mind and decided to come over earlier, arriving at about 11.15. I needed to go out to the shops and the other half needed to blitz clean the bathroom, so whilst we were busy doing those things (and Oscar was asleep with me), Zach and nanny had some lovely one to one time. They played some games, read some books, and chilled watching The Tempest. I finally returned from the shops and we had some lunch upstairs whilst Oscar finished his nap. Once he was awake, the boys were given their Easter gifts from my mum. Zach got some art magazines that he instantly wanted to do, and Oscar got some books which he immediately wanted to look at! They were happy boys.

It was then time to start dinner. It’s the one time of year we actually have a leg of lamb because it’s always half price! So the leg went into the oven and the other half went to go and clean the rabbit out. Only Oscar wanted to go outside too and so we all went out there to have some garden fun. Oscar had loads of fun running around chasing the rabbit, playing on the slide and generally just running up and down the garden. And our ever helpful Zach had fun helping to clean the rabbit out. Of course, Oscar had a part in it too!

Once the very brief spell of sun disappeared, we all went indoors (much to Oscar’s dismay), and it was soon time for dinner to be dished up. Everyone enjoyed it. I have never seen Zach eat a roast so fast and as for Oscar, well he demolished his lamb before the rest of us. I clearly need to buy it more often!

We had cherry pie and custard for dessert and then my mum headed home and we started getting the boys ready for bed. The evening was a huge success. Oscar slept for the whole time and I managed to write a whole blog post whilst watching The Voice. After we had put together the plastic eggs filled with goodies for the planned garden hunt!

The night however. Well, I was awake for most of it. And for most of it I was also feeding Oscar. He just wouldn’t sleep properly so in the end, after Zach was disturbed more times than I would like, I took him back into our bed at 5am. I was pretty destroyed when Zach came booming in and so the other half took him downstairs. Apparently, Oscar required yet another feed but then he wanted to go downstairs, so I dropped him off and I went back up to bed for just over an hour. I fell asleep instantly – I was that tired!

When I went downstairs, the boys were fine. Playing, having fun.

It wasn’t long though before Oscar had his first tantrum. A tired related one. So on the boob I popped him. Then I tried to get him dressed and he had another one. Back on the boob. The other half was in the shower and once he was ready, he took the boys out. But Oscar was having an absolute meltdown (he had already been on the boob a third time). I had a shower and as I was upstairs getting ready, I saw Zach pushing an empty pushchair and then the other half following with a walking Oscar – who wasn’t wearing shoes because we thought he would sleep.

We decided at that point to do the egg hunt so I popped outside and hid all the eggs and then the boys came out to join me. They had a fab tine finding the eggs but sadly it was short lived happiness for Oscar because he was so tired and he had another meltdown when went we back inside. I took him up to his new room and popped him on the bed and fed him to sleep. I didn’t expect him to have a good nap as he doesn’t usually unless he is in his pram, but he did an hour and fifteen. He wasn’t ready to be awake though and so I popped him back on the boob and he fell back to sleep – remaining attached to me the whole time.

I heard the other half’s mum and dad arrive and then about half hour later, Oscar woke up and immediately wanted to go and see what was happening downstairs. Not long after, the rest of his family arrived and the afternoon was filled with five very noisy children, too much chocolate, a lot of talking and some yummy food (we cooked up a feast of pizzas, ribs, chicken etc).

At around half six, they all started getting ready to leave and the kids managed to sneak out into the garden for a quick bounce on the trampoline. Then they all disappeared, we cleared the plates into the dishwasher and got the boys ready for bed before spending the evening doing our usual – work and computer games whilst watching TV (and eating chocolate!).

And so then came Monday. The last of our four days together for the long weekend. The morning started out quite chillaxed. The other half was up with Zach pretty early and I had no idea they were even awake. I’d had another rough night with Oscar and was in some seriously deep sleep in the morning!

When we went downstairs, we all lounged about a bit and of course had a bit of fun!

We then had brekkie and the boys had a bath before the other half took them both out for a walk to get Oscar’s nap in. It was quite early but we were in hope that he would sleep. He did eventually but not after he’d requested to have a walk himself!

Once they arrived home with a sleeping Oscar, we had some lunch and then Oscar woke up. It was a bit early and he evidently hadn’t had long enough and had yet another meltdown, ending up yet again on the boobs. Thankfully he didn’t fall asleep because we were due to go to my Sister’s for dinner. We managed to get a bit of food into him before we left and then we headed on out.

The boys, as always, had a wonderful time at my sister’s, as did we. We had a lovely lamb roast, some yummy dessert, a lot of chasing each other round, a play on the piano, and a good old natter.

We started getting the boys ready for bed as we always do, and then headed home just before seven thirty thinking the boys would fall asleep in the car. They didn’t! But this actually made it easier as we all just went straight upstairs and they went to bed. It was a bit of an effort to get Oscar off the boob but I managed it eventually and then sat down to finish this post and then watch The Walking Dead!

What a wonderful bank holiday weekend we had. Full of loved ones and lots of fun (and many, many tantrums!).