Crumble Making

I had a terrible night fretting about Archie. I eventually went to sleep at about 2am and then woke up at 6.45am. Uuuugghhhhhh!!!!
But thankfully he seemed fine this morning. Yay!!!
It was so horrible watching his chest heaving as he panted away last night. Ordinarily he's so still I have been known to check that he's actually still breathing!! 
We had a lovely lazy morning. Breakfast was brioches for Miss E warmed in the microwave just as she likes them. Philistine!! Virtuous museli for Mrs G and I, Choco pillows for Miss L as a holiday treat, and delicious Complete lamb and rice dry food for Archie. He wolfed if down which was good to see.
And lots and lots of tea. 
After that and a shower I felt a bit more human!!
Miss L was desperate to make a crumble with the blackberries they picked at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park yesterday. Which had been gathered into an - unused!! - poo bag (nice!!!) and then swung, dropped, stuffed down leggings and generally mushed.
Undeterred Miss L was insistent this morning that they make crumble. Mr T had kindly bought some gluten free flour last night on his trip round many, many supermarkets to buy dinner ingredients. 
Apart from oyster sauce which was required but Mrs G improvised brilliantly and the Thai chicken was better than mine delicious!!!
First they mixed the butter, flour and sugar. Unfortunately Mr L scattered it all over the table with his over exuberant mixing and then got in a sulk when he was told to be more careful!!
Then they moved onto peeling the apples. I love the look of concentration on their faces!! 
Miss L mastered the peeler but it was a bit fiddly for Mr L and it tipped him over the edge and he decided he didn't want to make crumble any more!!
Miss L was undeterred and peeled, chopped and mixed with lots of help from Mrs G (while lazy Mummy sat and watched drinking tea!!) and the rhubarb, blackberry and apple crumble went into the oven.
We had it for pudding after lunch and it was delicious!!!!!
After lunch we headed to Oakwell Hall Country Park which is just up the road from Mrs G. It was gorgeous!! 
Archie had a lovely run, the sun was shining, the children had a fabulous time pond dipping (see extras) - for fish, water boatman, larvae of some description, beetles, snails and newts. Well they didn't catch any newts but it didn't stop Miss E trying!!! She LOVED it - anything involving water and a net makes her happy!!
We picked four tubs of blackberries and ate ice cream before heading down to the park for a bit before home.
There was a bit of shouting to get my two out of the tree they were climbing and back into the car and then a fair bit of scowling and stropping but nothing out of the ordinary!!!!
A few more cups of tea and games on the Xbox and it was time to head home.
We zoomed down the M1 and made it home in less than three hours - including a stop at Leicester Forest East. Because God forbid we ever pass a Welcome Break without popping in!!
What a lovely weekend-that-wasn't-a-weekend!!