Phew- busy old week here!

Well the water is kind of back on- nearly two weeks of no water was getting rather tedious! I have never been so excited about flushing a toilet! We still can't use it for drinking, food prep, washing up, brushing teeth etc (although as of this w/e we can if it is boiled and cooled) so still relying on boiled water from the bowsers, or bottled water.

Daily trips to go out and collect bottled water, lugging containers of water back from the bowsers, recycling water as many times as possible, trudging to the bottom of the garden to collect water from the butts to flush the loo (and typically this new toilet is sealed so we couldn't fill the cistern).

Things are so much easier already. It's amazing how quickly you get used to it. I am of course slightly concerned of going to someones house and forgetting to flush the loo, or looking for a bucket to sling water in the pan! LOL!

Then of course, 20+ kids for Jasmine's birthday party last saturday! We got plenty of bottles of water for drinks, managed to get everything done. Quite a few didn't turn up which was a shame, but unbelievably the sun shone through. We have a standing record for Jasmines birthdays, she has had beautiful weather every single birthday of her life, and a party in the garden each year. With all the rain so far we really thought it would lash down, we had a metal framed gazebo in case of showers- but nope, beautiful weather and a great time was had by all...

we decorated the gazebo, and with it's pointed roof it looked almost like a fairy castle.

We had a few teary (nice) moments- Jasmine opened her pressies from her uncle- and they were all psp2 accessories and games...well bless her, they won't work with her original playstation, but 'don't worry Uncle Jon- it's ok and it doesn't matter' accompanied by a big hug. Bless her heart. Cue blubbing from me and Mummy. Then she opened the last pressie from Jon, which contained a pink slimline psp2- I think it took a while for it to sink in what it really was, and she was over the moon.

I asked Jasmine if she thought Jon would buy me a pink psp2 for my birthday, and she said 'oh I'll buy you one, I've saved my money to buy the big snow white doll, and Mummy bought me that for my birthday so I can spend my money on you'...I told her it was loads of money and she told me it was ok, she would save all her money- cue more blubbing from me!

Love that girl SO much!