It's Autumn!!!!

I love Autumn! We've been walking to school since we started back. The girls are enjoying it. This morning was in my mind the perfect Autumn morning - brightblue skies, slight chill in the air first thing but mild temperatures, leaves turning red and golden, conkers, acorns, blackberries waiting for me to pick them...I love it. Always feel like an exciting time for year to me. As I write I have my last hoorah to summer baking in the oven - my most favourite strawberry rhubarb pie. Thank you Ryann for introducing me to it! Next week it'll be blackberry and apple crumble with custard....

Rewind to sports day

Esther's school had sports day in June but unfortunately the 're-seeded' school field was not ready so they had a sports day with a difference. Here is Esther (in the yellow team) and her good friend Ethan (who she says she will one day marry) dumping water in a bucket they'd carried from the other end of that trail of water you can see on the floor behind them... This next one is of her dribbling the ball round a cone and back. At first I thought the activities were a bit lame - I wanted some fast paced action.... - but the kids seemed to be enjoying it. It was all in teams too so no individual winners - Esther's team came 2nd (I think, it was a while ago...).

Here's just a random cute one of Eliza near the time helping herself to my lipstick.

School's out!

I can't believe how quickly the summer term went at school! The kids enjoyed the activities the school put on - the reception class always have a teddy bears picnic with the pre-schoolers so Esther and Eliza got to have the picnic together. At Esther's school they have an outdoor pool and she has been loving her twice weekly swimming lessons (come rain or shine!!), she can now swim under water and all round the pool - probably much better than me!

We made Esther's and Eliza's teachers some lavender hearts - the girls chose the fabric for each teacher, drew some hearts, cut them out and I sewed them together very badly. They stuffed them full of lavender - those little fingers can do wonders - I was thinking of going into production!

Ben went to the states for 2 weeks in the middle of July during which time I had 8 guests stay over! Joel and Jess came with Jess's mum Loneta and her niece (same age!) Audrey. The girls warmed up to them pretty quickly and it's a shame we didn't see them more - they left each day before 10 to go to London and we back after the kids were in bed. It was nice to have some company in the evenings though. Bex came and spent the weekend too which is always nice. Then right before the end of term my brother and sis-in-law, Adam and Alexa came over from Switzerland for Joel and Jessica's wedding. We all got to meet our little nephew/cousin Benjamin!
The girls loved him, of course, and he loved them and his Auntie Anna! They left the day before the wedding and Ben flew back the day before the wedding!

The next day was the big day but that probably deserves a post all of it's own...

Uncle Matt

Two summers ago we had our family holiday down at Ben's brother and sis-in-law, Matt and Keri down in Yeovil, Somerset. We had a fanstastic time! We went to the beach at Lyme Regis, Longleat, Sealife Centre, Cheddar Gorge - loads of fab places spent with some of our favourite people. We love spending time with all our family! Unfortunately I somehow never ended up posting any pictures on the blog and Matt has never forgiven me!! So he told me tonight (jokingly but as we know, all jokes have a hint of truth...) that if Iwrote that he was great he would get over the grudge!! So Matty boy we love you though we may love Keri and Lucas (their cute 11 month old baby boy) even more... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Woo hoo, can't bring this one up anymore!!! he he he he he he he he take that Matt!