Garden Party

What a treat!

On Sunday, Liam's work had arranged a party for all its employees and their families. Yippee! Usually the parties are only for Liam, and I just have to listen to his stories, not being an employee and so not having my own parties to go to! So it was nice to go with him and lovely to take the kids.

Chris (one of Liam's bosses) lives near us in Ulting. What an amazing house! The weather wasn't very nice, and it was forecast rain, but it stayed dry long enough!

While I drooled over the house and gardens, Sam was more excited about the marquee with drinks in - they had all kinds of drinks, alcoholic and soft, including Fruit Shoots - he couldn't believe his luck!We had been discussing what would happen if it rained - I think they were expecting about 60 people all in all - I was wondering what kind of house was going to fit us all in if it rained! But they had all weathers covered - through the hedges, we could see another lovely marquee.Before we ate, we explored the gardens. They have a beautiful lavender garden with a fountain - gorgeous colours.Beautiful flowers all round the garden - I can't imagine how much maintaining it takes.

There was a badminton net - all the kids played, even when it was pouring with rain! And a croquet lawn!It didn't take the kids long to find the barn - it had a table tennis table and a snooker table. I'm not sure about their technique, but the kids had great fun trying them out.
The partners also kindly provided other children to entertain my kids. In particular, John provided a 9, 7 and 3 year old for my 8, 6 and 4 year old to play with! It didn't take long for them to pair up!In fact Leah and Ben were quite happy wandering around the gardens, oblivious to the fact that their chaperones were shadowing them! From a distance, of course! Wouldn't want to cramp their style.

When it was time for lunch, it was a feast - salmon and beef and lovely salads and new potatoes.
Then desserts to please everyone! Especially Megan because the waitress let her have a grown up's chocolate roulade instead of a children's cupcake!

After a delicious lunch, there was just time for a bit more playing. After watching a display game of croquet...

...the kids had a go.

I have to say, I felt slightly nervous seeing Sam with a big mallet! Luckily he used it more to rest on than swing round!

Also there were at least 4 solicitors taking notes in case any negligence claims were made!

As we left at the end of a lovely afternoon, Sam was bragging that he'd had 9 Fruit Shoots!? I think Liam was secretly proud!

Creative Sheffielders

I miss Sheffield and my creative friends. I miss Karen organising me and Hilary to make cards or scrapbook. I misss Laura and me sitting at playgroup discussing recipes and crafts.

And just to remind me how much I miss them, they sent little reminders of their Sheffield talents for my birthday.

Laura not only sent some yummy tiffin, but she also sent the recipe - which she knows is just as important as cake! But her creativity came in the packaging too! Who else sends tiffin in the post? It wouldn't occur to me to do it - surely it would crumble to a mulch? But Laura knew she could do it! She wrapped it in greaseproof paper tied with nice twiney string, then in foil, put in a small box adapted from an old box. It was wrapped in birthday paper and then in a jiffy bag! I'm sure I've missed a few layers there, but rest assured that when it arrived, it looked as perfect as if we'd made it here! She's a clever girl. There were even specific instructions inside to put it in the fridge for half an hour before we ate it!

It was in bitesized pieces so everytime I went in the fridge, I had a bitesized piece!

Then there's Karen and Hilary and their lovely hand made cards.

I don't like to hoard things, but they're much too pretty to recycle. I might have to try and recreate them and then rip them off as my own design! Thats worked quite well in the past!

Ahhhh! Creative Sheffield...

Catch of the Week

Liam went fishing to the The Willows near Witham this week. He caught a 6.75 lbs tench - his personal best for a tench.

Best Actress 2008

I post these photos with continued feelings of guilt and disappointment...

Despite knowing the date of the Romford Stake Roadshow...I forgot...AND, in my defence, Delores didn't remind us!

It was during a particularly scatty month where I also missed Megan's Spanish themed school dinner and also got the date of a family weekend away wrong so that we almost turned up a week early.

It wasn't until someone at church mentioned that she'd been to see her brother in the Romford Stake Roadshow and did I know that someone called "Hastings" had won best actress award, that I realised what a terrible mistake I'd made.

Not only had I been looking forward to see Delores perform, but I also thought it was important to show the kids that someone in our family is a performer, 'cause they're never gonna see me and Liam in a roadshow! But in a few years, I'm going to expect them to take part!

Anyway, it was our loss and at last I've got some photos of what went on! I'm REALLY not sure about Delores' hair - anything in the name of her art, I suppose! And if you want to win the Best Actress award, this is what you have to do!

Sometimes people do a search on Google and come across our blog instead of what they really want to research. Like they might put into Google "care of basil plants" and it leads to our basil / cricket debate which would have been no use to them in the care of their basil!

I wonder if anyone will do a search for "Best Actress award", and end up with pictures of Delores with HUGE hair instead of pictures of Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren! She deserves to be on the list with them!

West Mersea

Caravans, a pier and beach huts - that's what I'd heard about West Mersea - so that's why we went on Sunday afternoon. Its about 45mins from our house - perfect for a little bit of fresh air after church. Of course when we got there, the tide was RIGHT out! There was a mass of sand in front of us, and it didn't take long for Liam and Sam to spot the tiny crabs running around. I had settled myself down next to a wind breaker, but as they started to wander off in the pursuit of crabs, I realised that if I didn't follow, they would stray for miles without me.

Sam became the expedition leader, dangerous I know - he was bouncing around, collecting up tiny crabs and thoroughly enjoying the sea air. And then there's the pull of the sea. We HAD to walk out to the water - the only problems were the shells - particularly oysters so we all had to keep our shoes on - and the SINKING MUD! It took us by surprise...

The kids all had waterproof sandles on, but Liam had trainers on...I and I had flipflops on!They just got sucked into the mud so I had to squish through this disgusting ooze! Sam kept shouting, "its SOOO oily"! I could feel THINGS under the mud - shells or crabs or maybe sharks?! I had to walk really quickly so nothing could bite! I think I might need counselling now!

Leah had the best idea!We did manage to make it out to the sea - it was the dirtiest sea I've ever seen, and a proper mum would have stopped this from happening......and a proper dad wouldn't have encourged them to wade out through the grimey water to a little island...By the time we got back through the mud, we were all filthy! Luckily there was tap near the beachhuts! I'm so glad the locals appreciate how mucky their beach is! We needed the tap.

Before we could wash the bucket out, we had to send Megan back to the sea to put back the two crabs she was trying to sneak home! You have to constantly watch her!
Just time to dry off in the park

Don't take your eye off Sam on a big climbing frame - its a long way to fall!
West Mersea wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but we still had a great, but filthy time!

A Sunday at Grandma's

I just notice I hadn't posted these photos from a few weeks ago at Grandmas. Although Delores initially seems to be be fed up with having us all visit...

...the grandchildren pull it back for us and cheer her up!

Birthday Dress

Auntie Barbara sent Leah a gorgeous dress for her birthday. Leah LOVES clothes, in a big way! She always picks her own things out to wear now so this dress was a BIG hit. She got it in the post earlier in the week, and specifically put it to one side to wear on Sunday. I love little girls in fancy dresses!

Cricket update!

After taking advice from Alan Tichmarsh and David Bellamy (...erm, my mum actually, but I'm sure she know as much as those two!) we collected our friendly cricket and took him to the usual release location - Danbury common! He had REALLY sticky feet - maybe thats why he'd sat on the same basil leaf for at least 3 days.


Sam used to hate creepy crawlies - Megan's the one to pick up everything gross and disgustion, but he's getting braver and wanted to be in charge of Cricket's release (although Megan had to pick him off the leaf - none of the rest of us wanted that job).


We popped to the Common on the way to church, so we didn't have time to dawdle and settle him - just time for Sam to wave him about on his finger then not notice when he fell off. I'm not saying he definitely stood on Cricket, it was very grassy after all, but I wasn't willing to

investigate the scene

Although Danbury Common was one of mum's suggestions, another was that we eat it as it would taste nice and fragrant from all the basil it had been eating! I think I've just gone off basil...