Expect the unexpected

 I thought we had our weekend mapped out.  A leisurely Saturday followed by Sunday lunch with our daughter for a pre-birthday celebration.  We'd also invited our son and his family but they already had plans to visit friends who they hadn't seen since lockdown.

Saturday morning Jon rang to say that Sophie was going to her sister's baby shower in the afternoon, so could he and Max pop over for a visit.  Absolutely!  Then he called to say it might be nice for him and Paul to go on a bike ride in the afternoon and maybe have a beer in a local pub garden on the way back.  No problem.  Could he come round in the morning and have lunch with us?  Of course, then they could make an early start while Max had his post lunch nap.  So I quickly baked Rachel's birthday cake, and Paul went over to Rachel's to collect his spare bike which he had lent her husband a couple of years ago before he bought one of his own.  

Jon arrived with Max at the same time as Paul arrived back with the bike, pushing it as it had two flat tyres.  Which meant that we soon had this scene going on in the back garden.

Two new inner tubes and a bit of a clean up later, they were ready to hit the road while Max had a nap and I finished off the cake. Three hours later, they returned.  THREE HOURS!  Max had woken from his nap, played in the garden, filled the lounge with toys and had a mid afternoon snack by the time they got back.  Turns out there were two pubs on their route ...

Sunday morning, dinner in the oven, dinner table set, a mountain of veggies prepped and ready to cook.  Phone call.  From Sophie; her and Jon were on their way to their friends and the car was acting weird.  They were closer to us than they were to home so could they limp it back to here and call the breakdown company to see to it here.  Of course.  But the breakdown company said they may be 90 mins, Max was already hungry and I am starting to wonder if dinner for six will stretch to dinner for nine.  Just about.  But just as Rachel and family arrived, so did the recovery van who couldn't diagnose what was wrong but said he would follow Jon home so they could leave it at a local garage to be looked at in the morning.  Then if he broke down completely, he could tow him onward.  So we ended up with dinner for eight and a 'doggy bag' to go home with Jon.

Then after lunch I took Sophie and Max back to their home while the rest of them loaded the dishwasher and tidied up the kitchen.  

So it was a win for me, as we unexpectedly did get to have the whole family together, just about, plus I got out of the bad bit of having people over for dinner - kitchen tidying!