The Katherine Club

So we had dinner at the Katherine Club tonight. This is becoming a Friday night "thing" for us. Last week it was closed and we went to the Katherine Country Club, but it wasn't the same... The Katherine Club (incorporating RSL), otherwise known as "the Club" has decent enough reasonably priced meals, including kids under 5 free, so that's a bonus. The real benefit though, is that there is a playground outside and on a Friday night, there are a lot of decent kids, of varying ages and Mitchell has an absolute ball. He has a particular friend who is a couple of years older and he is there with his family every Friday night and they get along really well. And a lot of the older kids seem to be really responsible and thoughtful too. I went out to check on Mitchell tonight and one of the boys was taking his soccer ball off him. He was a little bewildered, because although the boy asked, he didn't wait for an answer. Anyway, one of the other boys said, "that's Mitchell's ball, you can't just take it." So I stood back as it certainly looked as though the kids were handling things well themselves. So Michael and I get to sit back and relax a bit, it's almost like an extended family gathering where the kids of varying ages are all looking out for each other.

Of course, tonight ended in tears, doesn't it always at this age??? This time it was because he decided to take one of those small bouncy balls with him, which of course we couldn't find when it was time to leave. The last two times it ended in tears simply because he didn't want to leave. The thing is though, the tears have been so very short lived each time, and I think that is because he really has had a very good time.

I also have to mention the frog that came into our house the other day :) There was a frog in our letter box, which we are assuming was put there by some other kids in the street as I'm not sure he could have or would have got there himself, especially seeing as we'd had mail in there a couple of hours earlier and the frogs generally aren't moving around much during the day. Anyway, I helped him out onto the grass, then a couple of hours later he was still in exactly the same spot. He seemed a bit dry so I was a bit concerned, so I went and got a cup of water to pour over him. He started breathing more heavily after I did that (I'm thinking that frogs conserve energy when it gets dry, really should read up on that) then I put the cup down in front of him and he wriggled into it. So I thought I'd just take it inside and show Mitchell before putting him out the back somewhere more comfortable for him. Of course as soon as I stepped in the house, he jumped out of the cup didn't he? Which startled me so much I couldn't stop laughing... He looked quite desperate to get back out, so I managed to get him back in the cup and then released him in the garden. I have to say I was awfully glad that I didn't keep him inside (like Mitchell requested) because he probably did a poo in the garden, and, well, let's just say I was surprised such a little frog could come up with something so big!!