Pasta and skills sharing – and blood tests

Yesterday was a CHEF gathering – a kind of multi-way bring and share as each family brought veggies etc to chop and cook for pasta sauce, then while it was cooking each child had the opportunity to share a skill or do a show and tell type presentation. J made a couple of cakes on Sunday (almost entirely by himself; I was very impressed!) and wanted to describe how it was done as his presentation, but we realised just the night before that the children all had an appointment for blood tests at the hospital (fortunately near to the gathering) right in the middle of the morning. This meant we had just about enough time to get there, chop a few veggies and then head off to hospital (Bob came too so also had to pick him up on the way), where children had numbing gel put on (didn’t realise until too late that this meant an extra 45 minute wait on top of the 45 minutes they had told us the appointment would take) then got to play with fun toys while it took effect. J, who had been the most resigned to it, really didn’t enjoy the experience at all, but I was able to BF L and K while they had theirs done and they both seemed to come out of it pretty much unscathed – the power of Mummy milk! All were sporting exciting plasters, which have been proudly displayed to all and sundry 😉
We got back to the gathering to find that they had just finished eating pasta and were doing some singing, but fortunately there was plenty of pasta and sauce left, so we ate while listening to the singing rather than joining in. Also found that they had very kindly delayed the cake and dessert eating until J was there so he could talk about his cake first 🙂
Quiet afternoon once we got back (dropped Bob back at work first) with lots of PC and another episode of The Secret Garden. Only one to go, I think, then we shall have to look for something else to watch…