A good Mum

Like most working mothers, I don't feel that I get to do everything I would like with the kids. After a long day at work, when I still have to make dinner and get some things done around the house, homework (the bane of my existence) wins out over fun things and with Saturday and Sunday busy til after midday with sport and church, we often put off plans for the kids to invite friends over. Bethany in particular suffers in that area, her age group being a little higher maintenance than Toby and Joss'. Joss, in fact, is the most social member of the family, we have hardly seen her all weekend, but she was at school this week and I was at home so I planned to dedicate a day to Toby, Bethany and their friends.

Toby was having Liam over and I invited Bethany's friend Amy (such nice people, Amys, don't you think?) whose older brother is in Toby and Liam's class so I invited him too. Three extra children in our little house and my friend Maame, who could leave forever at anytime, came for lunch.

Toby, Liam and Calvin played lots of games - the board and electronic variety - so needed little intervention from me.

Amy and Bethany also played some board games and watched a movie while I made two batches of bikkies for the kids to cut out and decorate. Then, I raided Joss' room and found around 20 bottles of nail polish. Each toe a different colour, some toes a different solid colour with matching glitter on top. From the start, Amy knew she wanted me to do hers while Bethany wanted to do her own. Bethany soon saw the wisdom in Amy's position.

The boys were happy, in the end, for me to cut out and bake their ninjabread men and they iced and ate them. Toby and Liam ate an awful lot but I had to get strict as they still had hours and hours left in the day and the rule is that if anyone is sick, they have to be sick at their own house. Yes, a nasty experience led to this rule.

The makeovers continued as I painted 20 finger nails and first straightened, then crimped Amy's hair. She has lovely, long and wavy hair that I had to crimp twice before it looked anywhere near as good as Bethany's which is just made for crimping.

The girls were very keen on getting into the kitchen and cut out teapots, hearts, teardrops and other assorted little shapes for their biscuits. Nigella's recipe is great, so forgiving of rough treatment. I particularly like the way Bethany held her fingers to protect the pretty colours.

Now, it is Sunday morning and we are all back at school and work tomorrow. Getting up at 6 will be a nasty shock after three weeks of le Tour but it can't be helped. Thankfully, I have very little interest in the Olympics so can get on with making cards and choosing colours and materials for our house!