Well, the big news here is that Daddy is finally home from Afganistan! Yea!! Tim got home on Wednesday, 21 July, in the afternoon, just in time to pick the kids up from school. We decorated the house with a home-made sign saying 'Welcome Home Daddy', plus decorated the outside with lots of 'Welcome Home' signs, flags, and stars. I made him one of his favorite meals -meat loaf, potatoes, runner beans, carrots, beetroot - and for dessert, chocolate brownies with a cherry sauce, made with cherries from a nearby tree. We also gave him a toy Lancaster airplane we bought at Penvensy Castle at Easter, and a mug that says 'World's Greatest Dad' (that was one of those purchase where I had no idea why I did it five minutes after the fact).

It's been geat to have him home, but he was certainly put in the deep end the minute he arrived. Imogen had a leaving/birthday sleepover the next night (Thursday), which party continued on into the next day (Friday), when a whole new set of friends arrived at 10am and stayed until 3pm. Then Abigail had a leaving sleepover party, which started at 4pm (on Friday), and ended the next day around noon. Soon after Abigail's friends departed, we were off to a party at Alice and Paul Hearne's house, friends of ours from the High Wycombe ward, which was an hour and a half drive away. We got home late Saturday night. So, it was more than 48 hours of straight partying - or, more than 48 hours of constant food preparation, clean up, and babysitting - when he got home.

We celebrated his homecoming today by taking the children to the cinema. Tim, Imogen, Samuel, Georgiana, Eleanor and Verity all went to see Toy Story 3. Abigail and I went with her friends Lucy and Sophie to go see Eclipse. I think Tim got the better end of the deal!