Anniversary Party

Saturday was the one year anniversary of moving into my new house.  A celebration was in order so I invited some old and some new friends to come by for drinks on the patio and meatballs in the lounge.  The old friends included Diana and Leo, Zoe, John T. and Sally Thomas.  The new friends were my excellent next door neighbours, Aeron and Caroline, Kate (writing friend), Dawn (painting friend). Simon who bought my house and Nuala and Ian also writing friends.  Charles cooked up the Iceland goodies and served drinks.  Rachel came with Adam and Rosie.  We have been having a heatwave so there was no fear of being rained out.  In fact, it’s so hot today I can’t bear to be outside.  I am in the part of the house away from the sun with a fan blowing on me.  My only regret is that I didn’t get around to taking any pictures of everyone or anyone whooping it up.  It was a great evening and well worth the celebration.  Next morning Sally turned up at 10:30 to help with the clearing up.  Of course I was still in bed but struggled up and we set to work.  I was very grateful to her for her assistance.  We have been friends for forty years.

Here is the one picture I managed to take.  It’s Dandy (my lion) enjoying the passers by.  Only problem was, I forgot to put him to bed after the party so when I got up the next morning, there he was hanging out the open ground floor window!  He was fine, the house was fine.  It’s a good neighbourhood. 

Oxford Grandma to Brighton

Such a lovely weekend. I went to Brighton on Friday afternoon and came back yesterday. The boys were in end-of-the-week mode, which translates as tired but ultra energetic. Harry had a friend over and the last thing they needed was a 2 yr old brother trying to join in. So, I took Tom to Blaker Park for a go on the swings. As luck would have it, the ice cream van arrived. We treated ourselves to a cone of delicious vanilla with a chocolate stick to make things perfect. We came home and it was time for tea – fish fingers and chips and sweet corn. I was afraid I might have spoiled Tom’s appetite with the ice cream. Not a bit of it. After tea, FinC (Harry’s friend) went home and it was bedtime. I had brought Harry a crocodile to keep his toothbrush in and he was so pleased that he didn’t mind brushing his teeth. Our preferred bedtime reading is the children’s encyclopedia. We concentrated on the underwater fish pages and both learned a lot. He will remember the names of these weird fish. I won’t!

We went to Spring Barn Farm on Saturday. Harry concentrated on the monkey bars. He was determined to make it across all five. In spite of the heat, he kept at it and got to 4½ . Watching the resolution of a 5 yr old is a lesson. I sat on a bench watching him, praising him and complaining about the heat. Alison and Sian went out for a meal on Saturday evening to celebrate Sian’s birthday. The boys were in bed but within 5 minutes Harry came down to tell me that when he has a bad dream, he is allowed to sit up for a bit and watch telly. I reminded him that he had only been in bed 5 minutes so he said, “It was a very short dream.” Guess what? He stayed up with me and as luck would have it, they were showing a program about a giant squid which fit right in with our reading.

Sian & Alison setting off for a run in the park on Saturday morning

Harry in pj's

Curious Tom

Tom enjoys kitchen cupboard interiors

Face painting

Harry in stripes

A few pictures from my iPad which I am slowly getting used to.