The best laid schemes of mice and men

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.

This line from Burns, which has become a phrase in its own right, sums up last week perfectly. It means basically that whatever we plan doesn't always work out how we want it.

I had been really looking forward to last week. It was my birthday on Thursday and the boys were planning to cook dinner. We had friends coming round on Friday for dinner and then on Saturday we were due at my husband's sister's house for a birthday dinner to celebrate my father in law's 80th birthday. He and I share the same birthday!

But then the sickness bug hit our house.

Looking back it all started a week past Friday with Calum (11). He had complained of a sore tummy and head while we were out doing the food shopping and then headed straight to bed when we got home. He was sick a few times but I assumed he was suffering from a migraine. He has suffered from these since he was quite young and we have discovered that over tiredness is the trigger for them. When he gets one he has a terrible headache and needs to sleep it off. He will often be sick and the sickness is usually the turning point for it getting better. I don't really understand why, but from what I've read about migraines in children this is quite common.

Anyway, now I'm pretty sure that it wasn't a migraine but in fact the first of the sickness bug.

On the Sunday Fraser was hit with it. The little sweetie still remained his bright wee self whenever he wasn't being sick.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning Alasdair (5) went down with it next. Followed about an hour later by me. It wasn't a fun night!

Wednesday evening the remaining two boys were taken down by it too.

It took until Friday for me to begin to feel slightly more normal.

Needless to say, my birthday dinner plans were postponed and our dinner guests on Friday were called off.

We were, however, feeling ready to celebrate granddad's 80th by the time Saturday came around. So here's a wee look at the quiet celebrations.

My hubby's sister is not a fan of shopping. When it comes to birthdays and Christmas, if you can give her a link to Amazon then she is more than happy! This time round I had my eye on some new, comfy crochet hooks.

 

Granddad's birthday dinner was a traditional roast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aunty Anna has a lot of tempting things for mischievous little boys lying around on her coffee table!

 

 

 

 

 

'Nope. Wasn't touching anything.'

 

 

 

 

James and Calum had agreed to make the cake for grandad, although their energy levels weren't quite up to usual so the decorating effort was a little haphazard!

 

 

 

 

Still, granddad was happy with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had filled one of the cakes with Smarties like they did for my dad's 60th cake at Easter time.

 

 

 

 

My father in law with his 5 grandsons.

 

 

 

 

My postponed birthday took place today as it was a school holiday and my hubs had the day off work.

 

After being stuck in sick bay all last week I was keen that we should get out for a walk somewhere. It has been such a beautiful autumn here so far but of course today it happened to be the first day it has rained in ages! Despite the initial grumblings of some of the boys, we still headed out for a country walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty wet, and we all got rather soaked, but the rain did show up some lovely spider webs in amongst the autumn berries!

 

 

 

 

Back home, after drying off, I spent the rest of the afternoon trying out my new crochet hooks while my lovely husband cooked dinner (Spiced Salmon) and Calum baked my birthday cake using our trusty Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, the birthday plans didn't work out too badly.

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