A Busy Start To The Holidays!

We've been busy busy busy these past few weeks.

 School sports day and then end of term leavers assembly where we said goodbye to some friends moving on to senior school and also to our headteacher who was retiring after 10 years.
Then that same evening we were off on a train down to Kent for the kids to be whisked away on holiday with their cousins & grandparents.
They had an awesome time Little Halden Farm in the middle of the Kent countryside. Climbing trees, exploring the woods, cooking on a campfire, sleeping in a big tent, having water fights and just being free!

So when they returned home on my birthday (don't ask which one!) they were all suitable knackered!
We spent another week "down south" and we went exploring the Olympic Park and tried out some sports at the Copperbox arena there. Bird liked Netball (probably helps she's quite tall!) and was shown the basics by ladies from a professional netball team. Fluff enjoyed the handball and wheelchair basketball.

We also went for a day sightseeing in London. I've been there so many times as a kid we didn't need to go on no tour bus to see it! We managed to go to The Science Museum (didn't manage the Natural History due to huge queues in the rain), Bank of England Museum, St Pauls, South Bank, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey & Buckingham Palace.
 We also spotted a few places from the Harry Potter films. Notably Australia house on The Strand (Gringotts Bank) & The Millennium Bridge (Death Eaters destroy it in The Half Blood Prince).

So after 2 packed weeks in Kent & London we got the train back home.

Within 2 days of being home this happened:

Bird managed to drop something on her foot and break her toe! Its got to be in plaster for at least 3 weeks.

Half of the things I had planned for us to do in the next 4 weeks of the holidays had to go out of the windows as she can't really walk very well on it (even with crutches). So I've been hunting down things to do at home that don't involve much walking or trips to town.

So watch this space for the thing we've managed to find and do.

Festival Time! (Part II - The Aftermath)

Well last Saturday was our village festival. And the weather stayed fine (for the most part!)
The day started with myself and the kids traipsing up to the village hall to hand in our handicraft entries. All 6 of them.
It was the first time EVER we had entered and didn't really know the drill but we muddled through. We duly registered them all and set them up. Fluff (my son) entered a "computer generated picture" and a Lego model. His Lego model was actually a case for my Raspberry Pi so it served a purpose afterwards.
Bird (my daughter entered 3 items; Again some "computer generated art", a small tote bag that she had made herself (supervised by me on the sewing machine I might add!) and some gingerbread men. We had a bit of a panic when we went to put our gingerbread men out as the other entries were on nice plates with doilies and were all decorated. We didn't have time to decorate ours and forgot a plate. So we just had to put them out on the lid of the box we brought them in and hoped for the best.

Festival Time!

Apologies for the lack of posts of late. I've been super busy preparing for our annual village festival this weekend!

Its a proper old fashioned English village fair with crowning of the Festival Queen, a procession of floats, funfair, handicraft show in the village hall (O hai Kirsty Allsopp), pet show and tug of war on the green. I love it. Its one of my favourite things about living in a village. Everyone gets together and has a good time.

I've spent many hours this past fortnight up at school painting, glueing and doing all sorts to help get our school float ready for the procession on Saturday.

Our School's float last year (If you squint you can see me on it!)

I've also been helping my kids with their entries for the village Handicrafts and Produce Show that coincides with the festival. And the boy-childs interesting choice of costume for the Fancy Dress contest.
AND on top of all that my eldest goes off on her first ever Cubs camp at the weekend too!

Phew!

Anyway, normal service will be resumed presently; just let me get this hectic weekend out of the way first!

Photos and whether we were triumphant to follow soon!