It is always a challenge to get the brood up in the morning, particularly on the days when I need to be in the office by 0830. It means they have to be dropped off at 0800, ie up at 0630! Washed, dressed, breakfasted, lunchboxed and out the door at 0750 ideally…
There are two ways of doing this, my way or my husband’s way….
On this occasion we did not do it my way…
I was truly impressed with the results.
Daddy came home from Windsor one day after work this week. You may well think, well what is so special with that? He had had a long day of meetings, but our ears had all pricked up. Did he not say “Windsor?” To our family Windsor does not only mean The Queen, and Windsor Castle, but it also means Daniels! Daniels, the Department store.
Daniels has an amazing toy section and Daddy came home, heavily laden, as usual, with all his work bags: laptop bag, another laptop bag and another bag full of paperwork – he hates to be caught without that all important document, he’d much rather carry everything about instead!
Well, this particular day, he also was laden with a Daniels bag full of glider planes. It had passed the brood’s bedtime already, but he sat them down in the lounge anyway, and handed out these planes. (Men have no concept of time when routine is concerned).
The next hour was spent carefully assembling the planes, lining them up on the coffee table in the lounge, ready for their maiden voyage the next day! I left them to it, enjoying the time to clear up uninterupted in the kitchen, get things straight in my mind for the next day…
Unfortunately Daddy had assumed all the brood wanted their planes made by him. (I believe he really bought all the planes for himself!) With Tuna he was very wrong. She wanted to make her own and see just how successful her maiden flight could be, assembled with her own fair hands, and not yet another one made by Daddy.
It was agreed the maiden flight would take place at 0745 hours (they are all would-be pilots!) BUT they had to be washed, dressed, and had their breakfast before they could venture outside (and wake the neighbours). No not really!
They all hurried off up to bed, and an unusual hush fell on our normally chaotic household that night.
Next day, you would not believe it. King Julien was up first, dressed and stationed outside my bedroom door, waiting for me to venture out onto the landing! I have no idea how long he had been there, waiting quietly for morning to come. Had he been up since 5am waiting? Gosh, I hope not! He was closely followed by Spike, and then Tuna. All dressed and ready to go down for breakfast. Daddy unfortunately did not spring out of bed quite so fast!
We were down and breakfasting by 0715, so we were well on track with getting out the door at 0755 – the time of departure to get them to their early bird club (otherwise known as computer club!) Breakfast was over faster than you could say “Hocus pocus” and they were getting coats and shoes on at the front door to make their maiden flight with their plane in one hand.
These planes are really just polystyrene, with metal wheels that clip on, and are relatively fragile, yet somehow robust.
It was a still morning outside, little or no wind. So whilst I remained inside making the lunchboxes up for the day, for once in a calm kitchen, the rest were outside flying their planes. I could hear them running up and down the front garden, running, letting them go, whoosh! and then collecting them up, and whoosh! off they went again. Up and down.
They even tried to fly them low to see if they could successfully land them on their front wheels!
OK it did take a little time to get them to put the planes back in the house, pile in the car, off to school, but it was a much better start to the day than others I would rather forget. This is one I want to definitely remember.
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