Michaels Hawaiian Party!

Sunday 19th July...Michaels Birthday :-) My 2nd eldest in now
the grand old age of 22!
We celebrated with a Beach themed party, and we decorated the
garden with windbreaks, gazebo's, bunting, a sunchair, inflatable
palm trees, a huge sand pit and 'The Beach Boys blaring out
from the stereo lol
Each guest was greeted with a cocktail and a leis and it wasnt long
before the party was in full swing.
The games i'd devised went down well, as did the table of nibbles
and from about 4pm the BBQ was cooking kebabs and bugers galore!!
The sand pit was a big hit and not only with Lewis and Holly, the
older ones proved to be expert castle builders too :-)
After the first hour it rained :-(, but it didnt dampen anyones
spirits, and people didnt leave until nearly midnight and that was
from a 2pm start time!!

The cocktails



The kebabs, which were yummy :-)



Michaels Birthday cake!



The table of nibbles and his presents!



The view from the house of the outside decorations



The 'Beach'



One of Michaels friends showing off his sandcastle skills :-)



The Birthday boy with his girlfriend, sister and friend Daniel.



Nearly everyone had arrived, some came a little later...



Presents time!! he got a bike from his eldest sister and clothes,
games and a Wiifit from us.



The games.....I made a board for everyone and stuck a starting
ticket at the top of each one! i then hid the rest of the raffle
tickets all over the house and the guests had to find the next
five numbers. All the completed cards got a little prize :-)



Another game...I wrote a few sentences decribing 4 different star
signs (info from the internet)and stuck the print-outs onto hats.
The guests then had to decide which hat best described the four
pre-selected people. It took ages for them to come to a conclusion,
great fun! and when they were happy i turned the hats around where
i had glued a pictureof the star sign to see if they were right.
They got 2/4.... not bad!



Holly, my little Hula girl lol



Cheeky boy Lewis in his 'Surf Monkey' t-shirt :-)



I wouldnt like to do these parties very often, way too much
work for one person, but i do enjoy them :-)

Twycross Zoo - Nursery Trip

We were so lucky with the weather! The forecast was rain,
and indeed back home they were having a torrential downpour and
yet less than 40 minutes away we were enjoying beautiful sunshine :-)

Lewis was a little confused bless him, as we left the campsite.
He couldnt understand why we were going home but leaving the
tent and all his toys behind. We had tears at the school but
once he spotted the coach he perked up and enjoyed the rest of
the day. His favourite animals i'd have to say were the elephants
and he was full of questions (wish i'd done a bit of research before
i went *blush*)
and something i must share...We were stood by one of the cages where
a couple were trying to find a name plaque! Lewis, without prompt,
tapped one of them and told them it was a Marmoset, they looked round
in surprise and thanked him lol A proud Mummy moment :-) He amazes me
sometimes with his general knowledge!!











Just how funny is this monkey??? its as if he's saying "leave me
alone, i've had a hard day!!" lol



Thank you to all the Nursery staff for their hard work in organising
these trips!!

One busy weekend!!!

Why do we do these things?? lol
We decided to give our new tent a trial run at a local
camp-site in Clent, it was only after that i realised it clashed
with Lewis's nursery trip to the zoo! And i'd arranged for
the older kids to come over for a visit too so poor Andy turned
into a yoyo ferrying us the 30 minute journey back and forth!
The weather didnt help, it suddenly went unbearingly hot!!
but all in all we had a lovely weekend, its just i'm thinking
next time we'll go commitment free lol





The tent has 3 bedroom compartments as well as a large living area.
Bedroom 1, as modelled by Lewis :-)







The site had a little park, but the little ones had just as
much fun playing together.









The older ones arrived! Lewis was so glad to see his big sister :-)



Michael and girlfriend Zoe



The crew!



The trial went well, we were very pleased with the tent, easy-ish to
put up (or it will be when we've done it a few times) and we had more
than enough room and it withstood a rain storm, so yeah, result!