There's nothing like a lazy Sunday

There's nothing like a lazy Sunday...and we had nothing like a lazy Sunday.

It began early.

Husband took the dogs out for a walk.

By 9 am Bea and I were in Victoria Square for a dance rehearsal.  Husband was out on his bike.

By 10.30 Bea was dancing and I was eating a crepe in St Georges.  Husband was heading to the shower before playing in church.

By 12 pm Bea and I were back home.

By 1.30 ...so was husband.

By 2pm we were on the road again to the Ballynahinch Harvest Festival.

There was a carousel which Bea fell in love with.

There was a fine food village where we had to buy some marmalade and lemon curd and cheese.

Then Bea had to practice her headstands.

We met some bunnies.

Bea played on a viking longboat...

Then we saw Katy Cropper and her dog Max demonstrating sheep handling (and yes she did it with geese)

For the final part of the display, Bea became a slalom pole for the geese to weave between.

A fine food fun fair...

but definitely not a lazy Sunday!

(Would you believe that we came home and watched Katy judging the One Man and his Dog competition on Countryfile!  She was wearing the same outfit...it must be her favourite!)

A weekend in London

We had a weekend in London to celebrate my 30th birthday and so, although there have been other weekends in the capital since, it was a convenient excuse to book a weekend away to celebrate my 40th too.

We stayed, as we normally do, on Drury Lane.  We didn't meet the muffin man, although we did find lots of dance shops, perhaps due to our location near the Opera House!

On Saturday morning we found our way here, for porridge.

Husband was in heaven.

Then we headed to Hamleys to delight Bea...

Then it was off to see the sights on an open topped bus.

Pausing for a flight on the London Eye...

...followed by a boat trip up the Thames...

...and a chance to see the ceramic poppies outside the Tower of London.

After dinner, we were overwhelmed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (flying glass elevator included) which we managed to watch on Roald Dhal Day.

Then on Sunday morning, we found our way to the secret park on Drury Lane before breakfast.

Then it was off to collect conkers at Kensington Palace...

...where we saw beautiful dresses, Queen Victoria's dolls and Bea got to hold pins for Queen Caroline (not the real queen)

Then there was just time for a coffee...

Before heading back into the centre for lunch and to catch a stage of the Tour of Britain.

(Yes, I believe that IS Sir Brad you can see with Westminster Abbey in the background)

***

But if you were to ask Bea what her favourite part of the trip was, I suspect it would be this...

...feeding the squirrels in St James' Park.

For Tea

So to celebrate turning 40, these lovely ladies...

(especially this one...)

took me for tea.

Get it?

For tea = 40

Anyhow...

Afternoon tea in the Fitzwilliam was lovely and I felt tremendously spoilt.

(Especially after I opened all my presents...)

(It's a good thing I now have an art gallery* to display them in)

*newly painted hall

But the celebrations continued...up to and beyond the day on which I actually turned 40.

One little delight was returning to my classroom after lunch (where I was surprised / spoiled / publicly humiliated by the staff in the staffroom singing "Happy Birthday" as a fire of candles burned before me - from a lovely cake - thanks Helon) to find that my classroom had been pimped for the afternoon.  The kids were able to work out (somehow) that it was my birthday and so they all sang too....

Then I headed up to my Mum and Dads' where there was even more food and cake!!!

My 3 cakes!

And returned home to discover a beautiful pink coconut creation baked by Jonathan.  But, you can never have too much birthday cake!

The celebrations continue with a weekend in London.

It really was a 

Happy Birthday to me.

(And thank you to everyone who made it so)

Beatrice's Bookworm Ball

There are several many things that Beatrice loves.  "Books" and "Family Praise Night" are pretty close to the top of the list, so for her birthday party she decided she wanted "Stories and Songs" and so we hosted Beatrice's Bookworm Ball.

As this year her guest list had extended to include some friends from school we knew that if the weather turned inclement we wouldn't all fit in our house....so for the first time ever, Bea's birthday party was in the church.

There were lots of book themed crafts to do...

Like creating your own buggy finger puppets at the "Bugs" book table...

Or,  decorating a gingerbread man at the "Gingerbread Man" story table...

Or, painting a suncatcher at the "Sunny Day" book table...

Or playing with Red, her Granny, the woodcutter and the wolf at the "Little Red Riding Hood" table...

You could of course sing "One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive" as you fished...

(or you may prefer, "five little ducks went swimming one day")

Or, you could bling up a cupcake in honour of "Camilla the Cupcake Fairy"

But if arts and crafts weren't really your thing and you were feeling a little overwhelmed / shy / bookish.... you could escape into a little book nook and just enjoy some picture books....

To create the book nooks, we brought Bea's wigwam and fairy tent.

(door open...)

(door closed...)

Peekaboo!

*******

To start the "stories" part of the party, Beatrice led her friends down the yellow brick road to Oz (aka the chapel) where Mr Hullaballoo was waiting.

(but first of course, we had to make the yellow brick road...it was hard work, but thankfully Bea had her friend to help her)

At the end of the yellow brick road, Mr Hullaballoo created the cast of "The Wizard of Oz" from amongst the party guests and his handy store of puppets.

The actors watched ....

...and acted out the story with Mr Hullaballoo

The Tin Man needed a little oiling...

...and the lion tried to be very brave...

...but only really managed to be very cute...

...and there were a couple of cheeky monkeys to try to capture Dorothy...

At the end of the story, Jingles and Mr Hullaballoo gave Bea a birthday present...

(which turned out to be a Wizard of Oz storybook....perfect)

Then all of the guest, even the particularly starstruck or shy could meet Mr Hullaballoo and Jingles and have their photo taken with him...

Starstruck

Shy

*****

After the stories, it was time for the songs, or for those of us who speak the lingo....Family Praise Night (in the morning).  The kids made their way into the church where the kids praise band played several praise songs and then Katrina belted out Let it Go (as a special birthday surprise) 

If you would like to see some of the stories and songs, click HERE

*****

Then it was back into the hall for party food...

(and yes Phoebe...I did make Rice Krispie buns JUST FOR YOU!)

Bea and I painted paper lantern as rainbows and made some tissue flowers to decorate the hall....

...and of course we stuck up our bunting!

We used jam jars for the drinks and made some vases to decorate the tables...

(while tidying up at the end)

Now I love bunting, so there was a little bit of rainbow bunting on the cake (which was rainbow sponge inside....and which I didn't take a photo of) which was sitting above a yellow brick road.  I had found a lalaloopsy Dorothy and Tin man (Tinny Ticker - she is a girl) for the top of the cake.

The very beautiful cake pops were by Carol.  You can also see the "party bags" which were books (did you guess?)

If that wasn't enough sugar, we also had a Willy Wonka ice cream and jelly bar with lots of little sweets for you to add to your desert.

We sang happy birthday!

There was then time to go and do any of the crafts you liked...

We concluded with the piñata....or as I think of him....THE DONKEY THAT WOULD NOT DIE!!!

Honestly, even after Jonathan had attacked him with a pair of scissors, it took five more minutes of ferocious bashing before he yielded any sweets...as soon as the first goodies fell the children descended on the treasure and the adults all rushed to the donkey to tear him apart.

Yet, still he endured for a further half hour!

You can see his downfall by clicking HERE