The Weekend

Now that two of my four are not around for a large part of the week, it makes the weekends feel even more precious.  Unfortunately the busy week means they also need most of the weekend to recover so we are torn between wanting to go out and do fun things together and their need for quiet time at home.  We mostly try and find the balance with one quieter day and one family day out.  

The rain has returned after a wonderfully dry summer but we picked the right day to go out this weekend as the grey skies that covered us as we left the house turned blue as the day went on and the jumpers I had hastily thrown in a bag were not needed.  We had the wonders of a rail replacement service in the morning that turned a normal 17 minute journey into an hour stuck in traffic on a coach but it was worth it to watch 4,000 rubber ducks swimming in the river.

There was a charity event on, the Canterbury Duck Race which saw people sponsoring a duck to win a race down the river.  It isn't a sight you get to see often (once a year if you live locally) and the real ducks moved out of the way to let their yellow counterparts through.  Sadly we got there too late to sponsor a duck as they had sold out but we got to watch sacks of ducks being unloaded over the bridge into the water.  

It happened that the start of the race was right next to our favourite park so we didn't watch the whole race as the slide was beckoning.  The big two really miss each other in the week and I gave up following them around after a while as they didn't even notice I was there, they were so absorbed in their play.  Finn loves the attention, so I entertained myself with him instead whilst Cora slept in the sling.  

We stopped for a picnic and then fed our leftovers to the real ducks before exploring the rest of the park.  My sister had come out for the day with us (the bloke was working) and four children is so much easier with an extra pair of hands! I could sit and feed Cora knowing that someone else was making sure Finn didn't dive into the river (he looked very tempted!) 

I took a few pictures whilst we were out

Finn's leggings and hat are from Ted Wears Organic

Cora's sleepsuit is from Nod London

Archie's t-shirt is from Lindex and his joggers are from Well Grounded