(Eek! Falling behind with my Weekend Update posts! Two thirds into April already!!)

Ah Easter Weekend 2012. Well, despite the conditions being perfect for going away for a long weekend, i.e. Chantelle was off for the weekend, no, make that for the whole week in fact, seeing as her leave had just kicked in, but the reality of the matter is that we simply don’t have any disposable income between the two of us any more, meaning NO going away for us. Oh well, what can one do?

Anyway, the extra long weekend kicked off quietly enough, with Thursday consisting of little more than working from home, shopping at Pick ‘n Pay with Jess after crèche, bed time routine, steak for supper with Chantelle on her eventual arrival home, and copious amounts of FIFA 10 (manager mode) to round off the night.

Friday was a little better though, with Jessica and I visiting Chantelle at the guest house for a scrumptious late morning breakfast, before returning home to do the chores, enjoy some playtime sessions (resulting in a nasty bump on Jessie’s forehead after one dive off the sofa to many!), and eventually head out to the beach for a good hour or so of play in the sand. (Of course, I did manage to get the timing slightly wrong and arrived to a full tide, meaning no dry sand anywhere, but we did eventually manage to find a playable spot in front of the public bathrooms – where all the parents with toddlers had already congregated!)

Anyway, Chantelle arrived home in the afternoon and immediately sprung to work in the kitchen to get everything ready for Saturday’s market at Willowbridge, leaving me to finish off the bed time routine, before once again rounding the night out with a LOT of FIFA (seriously, the amount of hours I’ve spent now in my Manager Mode game is getting a little ridiculous this week!)

Saturday morning saw an early morning pack and go for Chantelle, while Jessica and I lazed away the early hours at home, shielded against the torrential rain that continued to beat down all around us for the duration of the morning. (We did have to make a dash for it down the road to deliver a chocolate cake order to a grateful number 48, but other than that, we stayed inside, nice and dry.)

The afternoon eventually rolled on in, and it marked the two of us making our way through to Bellville in order to join up with Chantelle and Cheryl at the Willowbridge Slow Food Market, where thankfully the rain had finally subsided, but where the unfortunate quadruple whammy of Two Oceans Marathon, morning Stormers rugby game, Easter Weekend, and of course rainy weather, had a fairly significant impact on foot traffic. (In other words, out of the three markets worked thus far, this was by far the worst in terms of sales).

With the market done for the day, we proceeded to lay down roots in Bellville, before finally leaving Jess in Oupa and Ouma’s care for the evening as we darted out to make a quick leftover treats sale delivery to Ryan (and view his awesome new kitchen), before hitting Cape Gate where we enjoyed some fantastic Panarottis pizzas, followed up by what turned out to be quite the funny, and surprisingly enjoyable, viewing of American Pie: The Reunion at Ster Kinekor.

Sunday and unfortunately the weather still hadn’t quite let up, meaning a morning shopping trip to Ackermans in Tygervalley ensured a winter wardrobe for Jessica this year, followed by quite the enjoyable trip together with the rest of the Montgomery Clan, through to the Blaauwklippen Farmer’s Market in Stellenbosch, where we ended off our amble through the various stalls which had been relocated into a barn with quite the fancy picnic lunch – itself moved indoors to the stunning Blaauwklippen Restaurant premises!

Back home in Bellville, we capped off Sunday afternoon with a late visit to my folks, before finally heading home to get a night of well deserved rest in our own beds for a change.

So having enjoyed Friday, Saturday and Sunday off thus far, it is no surprise that to make this combination even better one would need Monday off as well, and seeing as that’s the way the cookie crumbled thanks to all the public holidays (which now that I think about it was pretty much completely devoid of Easter Eggs this year!).

Of course, as you know us by now, we’re never content with not filling our spare time with some sort of activities, and so early Monday morning had us shooting out to the Southern Suburbs to Claire and Riley’s housewarming brunch in celebration of their newly purchased, jaw-droppingly stunning home in the heart of leafy Constantia.

This was directly followed up with a trip back to the Northern Suburbs (with Ryan as a hitchhiker) in order to partake in Damen’s Birthday Party, which of course included things like food, cake, backyard cricket and of course some sweating over FIFA battles on the XBOX.

And that was pretty much the end of Easter Weekend 2012. So no going away and no Easter Eggs, but after reading through everything I just wrote, it looks like we certainly did all right after all! ;)