No new photos, so here's an old one to keep you amused... (That's me and John, with Grandpa Flinn)
Spent the morning in the garden - put nets over my precious baby vegetables (the birds keep eating the leaves - 'the swine!!' as Scott would say) and did a spot of weeding. I really should get on with sorting out the clothes and stuff for our holiday - we are going on Wednesday, but I can't seem to get very motivated. All I want to do is eat chocolate and read a good book :)
Back in a couple of weeks!

Just having a play around with a free photo editing thing I downloaded...

It's all Mum's Fault...

When Mum gave me the Bleak House adaptation DVDs for my birthday she didn't warn us how addictive they would be!! Scott took Jack, Tom and some of the Knight boys on the Father & Son camp last night, and so Lucy and I stocked up on goodies, put Harry to bed and dragged our quilts to the settee... 8 and a half hours later (at 4.34am to be precise) we finished watching them and went to bed... yep - it was getting light. It seriously did not seem that long - we just had to keep seeing the next episode!
Jack slept in the car, and Scott and Tom froze by the sounds of it, so Harry's about the only one who got much sleep last night. Oh dear. It was worth it though, and we had to celebrate Lucy finishing her SATs - she says they all seemed fine.
Today I got a perm. My first one ever. The old cliche - I just felt like a change. It looked very poodle-y when they first did it - now it is just more bush-like. Think I like it though - it stays up better.

London

Scott had a meeting in London yesterday morning, so the oldest three kids went to friends for tea and Harry and I went with Scott on the train. Harry was very impressed with being on the train (and made sure all the commuters knew about it...)

While Scott was in his meeting, Harry and I navigated the underground - this is very good for me - anyone who has been with me in London before, knows I just follow like a sheep oblivioius to direction & signs. Harry was brilliant - it was quite packed and he just took it all in and enjoyed it, and was really well behaved.

We went to St. Pauls, and across the Millenium bridge to the Tate Modern (these are amongst my most favourite places - and it was really balmy yesterday even though I had gone fully expcting rain). Harry loved watching the boats and we spent ages on the bridge.

In the Tate Harry was most impressed with the orange paintings! I didn't realise there is a massive Monet in there too. Really nice.

We didn't stop long, then made our way to Hamleys. We found the 'Cars' cars, suffice to say...

Scott met up with us then and we had lunch at Hamleys, then decided to go on a boat down the Thames to Greenwich. The boat was pretty speedy (again - Harry was very impressed - especially at overtaking other boats!), and I got soaked at one point. The last time Scott and I went to Greenwich was when we were dating. I'd forgotten how nice it is - we wandered around the university and parks areas, and up to the observatory. Decided to make all the kids go to Greenwich Uni! We stood at the Greenwich meridian, but Harry was out of it by that point.

Headed home after that, and collected up the kids. A very nice (though tiring) day.

Harry and I had fun making him a new colouring book yesterday...we printed pictures off he CBBC website and bound them together (with orange covers of course). Lucy has her SATS this week. She seems pretty laid back and says they are going OK. Scott had an MP visit the college yesterday...with a following of TV and newspaper reporters - he was one of the MPs who had some interesting personal claims. Scott was in the room when the aide was preparing the MP to face the press - telling him act contrite etc!! Quite funny.

Nice Quiet Day (well, except for the trumpet)

Harry and I have had a very pleasant quiet day at home today. Nothing very exciting - ironing, playing with cars, listening to Winnie the Pooh tapes, playing with buttons (orange of course), colouring, reading, etc. Harry has decided to start playing the trumpet. For a 3 year old he's not doing too badly, and kept practising for quite a while. Lucy, Jack and Tom have been creating new football cards by chopping up their old ones. ('David Giggs' etc!) Big mess but they have been happy. We all like Fridays.
P.S. I am rich! I received a cheque in the post today for my job as registrar... £2!!

My Birthday Weekend

Well I turned 34 this Saturday (though I've spent much of the year thinking I was 34 already for some reason... senility maybe...) Anyway, Lucy and I had a good time trying on clothes and just about every pair of shoes in the shopping centre on Saturday morning (and with NO BOYS!)
We went to Hannah Wade's baptism in the evening which was lovely, and then after church yesterday, we headed to Mum and Dad's house in Nottingham, just in time for roast dinner and my CAKE!!! Mum had made a carrot cake for pudding, and the kids and Katy tried to cobble together 34 candles for it (all of which had been used before, most of which looked strangely deformed, plus various Christmas decorations...what a sight! To complicate matters further, we only had 3 matches left. Scott was suggesting the blowtorch) Anyway, after picking off all the melted wax, it did taste good!

This morning, Katy, Lucy, Dan, I, and a very reluctant Scott went to a car boot sale at the Cricket Club. (Scott was muttering something about muddy field...rain...cold...good money for other people's junk etc. etc...) Then he went and actually made the first purchase! (a book). Katy and Dan got some excellent bargains for their baby (due in 4 weeks!) and I got a Fisher Price garage for Harry (£2) and some gorgeous full length lined gingham curtains (£2).

In the afternoon, we all headed to Rufford Abbey, to have a picnic, wander round the lake and woods and see the bluebells - they are lovely. After adapting to the Arctic conditions (Great Grandma was wrapped in an interesting assortment of items), we had a great time! Dan set up Mum's camera on a tripod at the end and we got a good picture of all of us.

On the way back to Mum and Dad's we stopped off and had a quick run around a Maypole (we just pretended there were ribbons!), and then drove through the ford near Rufford. Both cars drove as fast as we possibly could and managed to drench the delighted spectators, but Dad's car had the windows rolled down and they hadn't planned on another car coming the opposite way at the same time, so they took rather a lot of water on board...

Had another nice tea at Mum and Dad's after, then headed home. A fun weekend, and thank you to everyone for all my lovely cards and presents!