Connor played with Maisie and Abby until James and the others got back at half 5.
"We're home." James shouted
"I'm in the kitchen James." I said
"Go on guys go get cleaned up. Lilly-Anna please take Grace with you and get her changed." James said I heard them go up stairs and James came into the kitchen
"Yes uncle James" I heard Lilly as she went up the stairs.
"Everything okay?" James said
"Yeah they're fine." I said smiling looking out the window. Con and the girls were outside playing on the climbing frame.
"Good to hear." James said
"did you guys have a good day?" I asked James
"yeah we had a great day. all of them will need a shower tonight but other than that they should be okay oh and they will sleep tonight." James said
"thanks James." I said smiling
"Any time." James said smiling
"Want to stay for tea?" I asked
"is there enough?" James asked
"should be. I have made enough to feed an army so see if Jodie and Ben want to join us." I said
"Okay." James said and he left the kitchen to call Jodie.
Lilly, Casper, Grace and Jessie came down 10 minutes later looking rather grubby.
"Better than what you looked 15 minutes ago but its better than nothing." James said coming back into kitchen
"It was a good day though." Lilly said smiling
"What did you guys get up to?" I asked
"Went for a walk in the woods." Lilly said
"Exciting." I said smiling
"Yeah it was a lot of fun." Lilly said
"Glad you had a good day." I said smiling
"It was good fun." Lilly said
"Good to hear." I smiled
"Where are they mum?" Casper said
"Outside with dad sweet heart." I said the kids pressed their faces up to the glass on the back door
"They don't bite go out say hello." I said
"Okay." They said I opened the back door and Lilly, Casper and Jessie went outside to say hello to Maisie and Abby. Grace stayed inside with me. She was a very tired and hungry little girls.
"Jodie and Ben coming?" I asked
"Yeah they said they'd been round in a minute." James said
"Okay." I smiled.
It wasn't late when we put the kids to bed. Lilly bless her while me and con were putting the boys and grace to bed she went and sat with Maisie and Abby and read to them.
"You okay sweet heart." I whispered going into Maisie and Abby's room they had both fallen asleep.
"Yeah I'm okay." She said
"Okay sweet heart. Come on bed time." I said
"Okay mum." She said standing up and heading to her room
"Want me to read to you?" I asked turning the twins light off and going into Lilly's room
"No it's okay. I've read enough tonight. Night mum." She said giving me a kiss and getting into bed.
"Night sweet heart." I said smiling
I turned Lilly's night light on kissed her on the head and left the room.
"All in bed?" Con said he was already down stairs
"Yeah all in bed and asleep." I said smiling
"Good." Connor said
"My body clock is getting back to normal again and in two weeks I'm going to screw it up again by going to America." I said sitting on the sofa next to con.
"Your choice." Con said
"Yeah I know." I said
"When did Liz say the girls are staying till?" I asked
"She said it could be up to Christmas it could be after or it could be before she doesn't know. She wants to find them a home. She knows we can't have them long term so she's looking at the moment." Con said
"They've only been here a couple of hours but I'm going to miss them when they go." I said
"Yeah same. Wonder if we could be their rest by care." Con said
"Maybe. It would have to be something we looked into." I said
"Yeah." Connor said
We both crawled into bed that night and were asleep within seconds of our heads touching the pillows.
Over the next couple of weeks I got back into domestic life. But our girls holiday was coming round so fast.
"Lilly, grace, Maisie, Abby come on Jodie and Charlotte all be here in a minute." I shouted up the stairs.
"Coming." They all said.
They came down stairs all holding the plane pillows I'd brought them for the flight.
"Never been on a plane before." Maisie said
"It's okay we have." Lilly said putting her arm around Maisie,
"Okay." Maisie said
Jodie and Charlotte appeared minutes later.
"How many cases have you got Rhi?" Charlotte asked
I didn't say anything while I counted.
"4 but they're not very big." I said
"Okay." Charlotte said
While the kids helped Charlotte and Jodie with the bags I said goodbye to Connor and the boys.
"Have a good week and we'll see you okay Monday." I said giving con a hug
"Oh we have lots planned." Connor said grinning
"Good to hear." I smiled
"Have fun mum." Casper said
"Thanks sweet be good for daddy." I said
"I'm always good." Casper said
"I know." I smiled.
"You ready Rhi?" Charlotte said
"Yeah." I said I gave the boys one last hug kissed Connor and left.
We got to Exeter airport and got on our flight to Heathrow.
"This is only a short flight." I said to Maisie and Abby both of them were holding my hands. I'd booked the seats so that Maisie and grace would be sat with me, Lilly with Charlotte and Abby with Jodie.
"Okay girls?" I said you could see that Maisie and Abby were really nervous. I looked at Lilly and grace and smiled. Lilly had put her headphones in and was reading and grace was playing with my iPad. The pair of them looked like nothing was happening.
"It okay." I said smiling
"Okay." They said
"Right Abby your going to sit with Jodie because grace has got to sit with me. But your in the seats right in front of me so you'll be able to see me." I said
"Okay." Abby said and she sat with Jodie.
"Good girl." I said smiling
When we'd all taken our seats it was time to leave.
