RIP Elwood - on a misson to God This was the last ever identifiable poo from Elwood the guinea pig. This week on Wednesday, a nasty neighbourhood cat was caught (by me) terrorising the pigs in their cage. The noise of him scratching at the wire was as loud as a wheelie bin - which is what I thought the noise was at first. And the pigs were squeaking so loudly that I could hear them inside the house! Anyway, I checked Elwood over, as he was stood still in front of the cat and I'd thought he might've been clawed, but thankfully nothing. We stroked them and they ate and drank as normal, so all was ok we thought. Until the next morning when I found Jake crouched over Elwood, who had died in the night.
Ben cried and asked for dad to take him into school that day. I was quite upset too, but that was really from the awful funeral I'd attended the week before. We got another guinea pig to replace poor Elwood, who was not even 3 months old, and we hadn't even had him 3 weeks! Hello Coco Curtis. (Jake is still doing fine, he's my guinea pig, Coco is Ben's).
SCUBS! Max and Ben attended Cub Sleepover at Action Stations in the Dockyard this weekend. They went to a school mate's bowling party, left early and ran to the Dockyard for 15 hours of naval fun. They did origami, watched a Night at the Museum, played Laser Quest, made a poster... along with lots of other things I couldn't quite get out of them. Here they are at pickup; Ben was on his way to 3 hours of football. The sleepover was, in Ben's words, epic.
Festivals and funerals The Puddledads had planned a beer festival, oh really? They haven't done one of those before have they.... We mums organise self-help groups to aid childcare. This just means meeting in the park and going back to someone's house to feed the kids and the dads when they stumble in the door altogether. It was my turn, so we met up at Yellow Plum Park at 2ish. We all admired Jof's new bike. (I'm getting one for my birthday!) The kids played and apart from a row over the only round stick in the park, two sets of stinging nettles and an infected bit 'n' bob, it was a roaring success. 
We repaired to our house and before the Cup Final got under way, we sat in the garden with a few G&Ts, Pimms and Kir Royales (get us). It was all very civilised. Then we remembered that we had to organise Elwood's send-off. We gathered everyone, save Johnny and Max who said it was too sad, and Jof, to look after them, on the Common and tried to dig a grave. It was harder than we had anticipated. The two small trowels didn't really help much; having a concrete garden, we have no need for spades these days. Vicky made a hole in the end big enough for a guinea bum. Elizabeth, Erin, Robert and Ben collected flowers and grass to place over him and he was taken ceremoniously from his temporary resting place (a Waitrose bag) and placed in the ground. 
Before this, Ben said he was feeling cold. The pig not Ben. He wasn't supposed to have even touched him, but he got him out of the bag before I'd realised. He tried to warm him up and then realised that he could flip him about. We tried to say we were crying through sadness behind our sunnies, but really it was dark laughter. We all said a few words and left him covered, in peace. (I'd explained to Ben about the food chain and that he would probably make a nice meal for a bigger animal.) RIP Elwood 2014 - um 2014.
When the dads got back, it all changed and became raucous! The kids ate BBQ pasta outside and we nibbled cheeses. The boys watched the Cup Final, the girls and Ben made bands upstairs, we gossiped outside, and we necked cinnamon flavoured gold vodka. Really.
Happy day before birthday Dad! Today we celebrated dad's birthday as Monday is a late day for all of us. We rode to the seafront, moved from the beach when a group of girls put Ginsters pasties on a disposable BBQ right near us, then rode to Southsea Common for the boys to play footie, while I read.On the way back the boys had ice creams in the little cafe next to the splash pool and we got home with aching bones. Dad cooked us all steak for dinner and we did presents outside in the garden with the pigs running round us. Happy days!
Ben laid the table but we left the washing line up! Classy. He made it posh but putting the flowers on it, he said.
Comments