Pageant party!

Today we had a few people over to watch the pageant. A week or so ago I had one of those 'oh' moments where I realised mum and dad wouldn't be here for the pageant. Neither Nicole or I were up for taking all the kids, and though Ryan voted for one of us taking the older kids and the other staying home with the babies, we weren't that excited in that option either. It was funny to think that last year, mum, dad, Adam, Eva and even Paul Y were all there with us...
We had Nicole, Ella and Charlotte (of course) plus a bonus guest of Rufus, Jacki, Jarra and Arusha, and Vicki and Sinead over. (there's hopefully a photo on Nicole's camera that she'll put up - I couldn't find mine). So it was lots of fun for the kids, and us grown-ups had fun chatting too. Ryan of course didn't have any friends, so that was unfair - his friend Lachlan was away, and Lauren had other plans so he didn't even have her to play with. The kids (even the babies) started off well captivated by the tv, but very quickly the lure of first the food (too much as always) and then the toys drew away most of the children. Ella and Ryan lasted through till the end. I think the fascination for Ryan was much more about keeping track on the pageant poster about which float was next, rather than the actual floats themselves. They tried to get the other kids enthused but they barely even spared a few seconds to glance at Father Christmas.
Later, after Jacki and her kids left, Vicki headed off to do some things, leaving Sinead, and Nicole headed home to put Charlotte to bed and do some things too (another inspection tomorrow), so we had Ella and Sinead for the rest of the afternoon. It worked out great - Ella and Hannah made one family, Bethany and Sinead the other, and they kept visiting each other's houses for cups of tea. Scarcely a niggle to be had. Then when Nicole arrived to take Ella home, Ella was extremely insistent that they leave - wouldn't even let me and Nicole chat!

Rufus settled in well, although the cat is not that sure. All the children have spent much time brushing out his fur, it seems like that is the latest zen craze here. We did have one little hiccup, when Vicki came to get Sinead, she came around via the fodder store/railway station, and arrived asking if we were missing the dog, since there was a big black one wandering around down there. We hadn't even noticed, but one of the children must have left the gate open at some stage. Paul headed off with the leash, and sure enough, arrived back with one very exhausted old Rufus. Hopefully that is the only escape he makes!