read all about it :)

Summer carries on, and actually some sunny days! girls have been busy in this time. We had signed them in cor a weeks athletics camp [pm only] at local sports centre, which they v much enjoyed, finishing with a pretend olympics. I watched them on the weds try out relay, high jump and long jump. coaches v positive too all, did suspect mine not always trying…

At the weekend my aunt and uncle visited us on the way down to see their first grandchild we had a lovely time, and cheered on the athletics in the olympics on our new telly. BB also did lots of fimoing. she is absolutely desperate to have a pet tortoise, so decided she couldn’t bear to wait, so made some out of fimo.

on the sunday we stayed up far to late watching the closing ceremony, which we thought was disappointing really. shame when everything else had been fab!

the girls visited their grandparents on tues with DH [so no pics!]

weds was historyetc, which we all enjoyed. we are at the end of tudor, with some canadian exploration by french and english – so children used watercolours to depict scenes in canada which they woudl show back in their hoem countries. We also had the spanish armada – some writing, picture sorting and decoding for the queen’s speech with kfish and jax. cooking with zoe – paella and patatas bravas for the spanish themed lunch. also with zoe, making clay salamandars. gold ones were found on the spanish galleons to ward off the peril of fire. they possibly should have concentrated more on drowning risks…

Big stayed with us from history until our summer party on saturday, when the rest of her family and lots of friends and family joined us to celebrate knowing each other the party is a v chilled affair, possibly this year more tea drunk than wine – to the outrage of some of the men! but there was plenty of wine and beer to drink… the sun shone v v brightly, so tarp and gazebo loads of scrumptious food brought to share – thankyou, and generally great company. In such sunny weather the paddling pool was a blessing and much used. many kept their mythical creatures costume on for only a short while – particularly the abominable snowman [a great choice to wear a padded sleeping bag on such a swealtering day ] . we were troll – DH [costume made by BB, well done!] SB water nymph, BB fire fiend, me green woman[goddess/tree spirit etc] .

i didn’t manage to get pics of all the costumes, but we had fairies, handmaidens of artemis, leprechaun, flying pig, goose that did indeed lay a golden egg , some vampires, a man who got around to jobs death, unicorn and siren. a few more possibly too… I loved seeing our friends from far and wide, grateful they would come all this way for a party and wonderful hearing happy laughter and fun from all the kids. I always think they are pretty perfect days thankyou everyone. Anyway more pictures of a happy day [scream if i need to remove!]

All good things come to an end, some were daytrippers and some stayed overnight for pancakes the next day [there was a time slippage!!] and then curry for lunch [more time slippage] but finally house empty. always feels v v empty after a party. nice chilled day tho chatting in the garden with good friends. thankyou.