12 of 12 october 2013

On Saturday the 12th of October I was home with Juniordwarf most of the day and we did our normal ‘Sleepy and Junior Day’ stuff (other than going to swimming because it’s the school holidays).

1 of 12 – He’s stopped doing yoga every morning with me on weekdays, but he still gets up to do it on weekends.

2 of 12 – Yesterday we spent some time cleaning out his bedroom and getting rid of a lot of the papers that were piled up on his desk. He now has a desk he can actually use.

3 of 12 – Teddy School has been back for a while on a much smaller scale (there are only six teddies in the class) and tomorrow will be the last day of their term, after which the teddies will go back to work. As a special treat, Mr Juniordwarf decided to bring in a fruit platter for them on their last day. He planned this ages ago, and said we had to go to the supermarket on the 12^th to get the fruit for the platter, which he’d be bringing in to the class on their last day. It was written on the calendar and he’s been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks, ever since his relief teacher brought in a fruit platter for his (real) class on her last day with them last term.

4 of 12 – Poor old hand mower really can’t cope with our sloping, bumpy, holey back yard.

5 of 12 – After a period where he was scared of the chooks, now he’s fine with them, and loves to pick them up. Polly is the easiest one to catch, so she’s the one that gets carried around all the time.

6 of 12 – Slabs made some cupcakes for his training course today and there were two left over for Juniordwarf and me.

7 of 12 – After a lot of yard work, by mid-afternoon I was exhausted. Time for us to sit on the park bench and relax with a drink.

8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of 12 We decided to go out for dinner for a special occasion, to a restaurant called Tynwald, which is very much a special occasion place, where we haven’t been for at least two years. We weren’t sure how Juniordwarf would go at his first ‘grown-up’ restaurant, but we spoke to the chef before we booked to find out if they could cater for him – he said everything would be fine and they’d find something for him.

They had Two Metre Tall Ale. Yay!

We started with a tasting plate that included halloumi cheese, asparagus with a lemon sauce, a spicy pumpkin coconut soup, the most divine onion crème brulée and chicken liver paté. Juniordwarf got a special mouse entrée, which was a beetroot with prosciutto ears and a piece of cheese. He thought it was great, and very quickly ate the mouse’s cheese, followed by its ears, but he stopped at actually eating the beetroot.

He tried pretty much everything on the plate, but wasn’t keen on any of it except the soup. We were happy he’d tried all the different things, even if he didn’t like them.

We know how much Juniordwarf likes pumpkin soup, so asked if he’d like soup for his main or if he wanted to try one of the mains. He wanted soup, so he had more of that (with coriander pesto – it was sensational). Slabs had the veal and I had wallaby with native pepperberry jus. Everything was glorious, as we’d expected, and Juniordwarf loved the soup.

Then, despite my sugar ban, I gave in and had the most indulgent chocolate lava pudding for dessert. It came with a poached pear, so it was a healthy option. The boys both had the apple pudding with salted caramel sauce and ice cream. On reflection, we should have just ordered some ice cream for Juniordwarf because he lost interest in his dessert after he’d finished the ice cream. So I might have had some of his apple as well.

He was pretty tired at the end of the night, but he’d been a pleasure to go out with and he really enjoyed himself. (Especially when we went into the lounge room with the lights off and cracked one of his glow sticks that he got at his friend’s party a couple of weeks ago.)