following on from our party weekend was a busy week. The girls had a 4 day sailing course, at a local gravel lakes, and were joined by a home ed friend – should have had her brother too, but he broke his finger just before it started 
. I got to have a lovely chat with M, their mother. I don’t see her often enough really! [jealous of not being the home educator still i guess] SB was repeating her level 2 [she had swine flu last time] and BB was doing her level 1. They both loved it, and both passed, and are v keen to arrange more sailing – which we haven’t done yet but should! I was lucky to see them sailing on the weds pm. SB clearly had a lot of mastery of the boat and was making it look v easy. BB was also looking v much at home, despite being such a little dot! unfortunately near the end, the heavens opened in bucketfulls, so BB came in frozen – don’t blame her for coming in! ALl of them had a hot choc from the cafe.
we had R for a sleepover on weds night too, which added to then fun. She seemed to cope quite well!
Also on the weds, but in the morning, we made half of WedEd, which was a bit more of a laidback holiday affair 
we mostly decorated jars with fimo – and v beautiful they were too :). lots of chatting and catching up as well. I do enjoy WedEd. I was supposed to do some microscoping, but realised had left laptop at home, and it is a digital blue microscope – doh! we do need a better one now tho, that will go to at least x400. sb was v unique with her take on the brief, mixing the fimo to get what i think are quite north african colours and covering her small pot. BB did a tortoise one, but was clearly not happy with it, and made me finish it. however, when she saw my tiny one with the leaves and tiny flowers she had a ‘second wind’ and was v happy to complete another one, which she was happy with. we left after lunch to dive off to sailing – as above!
Also during the week BB and DH were v busy making a tortoise home! reading the comments below you will see that fab Helen offered us a tortoise that was otherwise going back to the pet shop, so we were ecstatic to become the proud owners of the then named tortie! since the handover was the next week they were busy making a good tortoise home.
Friday i was picked up from work and we raced up to Yorkshire to see our friends at SOTP and be ready for their party in the field. As we got there so late, we only pitched tent the next day. Always lovely there, i tend to call it the last homely house, as it has a feel of rivendell about it . They also have THE BEST coffe machine 
we were the only ones staying friday, so had a very chilled evening chatting to our hosts. BB and J are such great mates they are v fun to watch together! the next day we also baked and made party food, and were excited by all our friends arriving. DH also put up the tent to get a good pitch . The weather was unfortunately iffy over the weekend but the company was decidedly not so we chatedd, ate well, giggled and laughed and some games were played [including for the kids pass the parcel and an olympics] and for the energetic, some geocaching was in order. I nearly went, but BB didn’t want to, and actually since she went on to need a quiet hug in the tent, it all worked out well that i didn’t go. As always, v sad to leave on the Monday after such a fabulous time with friends. I loved quirkle too. Thankyou again to the hosts
allthought it is always disappointing to go back to work after a weekend away, at least it was for only 1 day! and on that day DH,SB and BB met ‘wednesday helen’ to do the great tortie pick up. they came back v excited, and BB tells me he is now called alfie ‘he’ is a horsefield tortoise, so the sex is unknown for now. Anyway, he has happily settled in, and BB is besotted
and the following day we drove to ‘sunny hunny’ [which was rather a misnomer!] to visit mum and dad who had rented a caravan for M and E to share with them a holiday. uncle robert [who was married to aunty peggy] also joined us for most of the day – in his late 80′s and still looking good. M and E have had a good summer this year, with a week with us, a week with their dad in minorca [which they loved] and a week in hunstanton with mum and dad. they needed a good summer. I cam see m moving on and getting on with life currently, but e still has a lost air about her. . anyway, we had lots of fun, and all the kids went swimming for a bit, got to spend some money etc etc and then come home v late!
