Pimms and Presents

Wasn't it a glorious weekend.

Most of ours was spent outside enjoying each other's company and also that of friends and family.

I don't have any photos from Saturday which is a shame as it was such a lovely day but I kept forgetting to take the camera outside.

During the week I had spent an hour or so checking out my Pinterest boards for school holiday activity ideas and so I had a list of odds and ends I needed in order to have everything on hand. With S having had her friend L stay over night on Friday I thought I would nip to the local shops to see if I could get the things I needed and maybe the girls could play a couple of games in the garden. Unfortunately they didn't have all the items but I did manage to buy a tarpaulin and a bottle of baby shampoo. 

As I was laying out the tarpaulin on the grass T came out to see what I was doing. I explained that the tarpaulin would be doused in water and then the shampoo added, along with a good splodge of it on the tummy. Hopefully the surface would then be good for slipping and sliding across. T grinned and said 'Mum we aren't otters you know,' which really made me laugh.

The girls loved it, shrieking with delight when T chucked more cold water over them. They also loved laying on their backs making soapy angels.

Later in the afternoon we were joined for a short time by some friends and that's when the Pimms, or more accurately Lidl's Austin's, was enjoyed by the adults. It's cheaper than Pimms but tastes just as good!

We ate our tea outside, grilling the vegeburgers on a BBQ and once they were eaten we threaded some skewers with chunks of mars bar and others with jelly babies and melted them over the BBQ too. The mars bar was delish, the jelly babies were just too sickly sweet.

I spent time playing on the trampoline with T and S. We made up our own games but the thing they enjoyed most was my discomfort at being bounced around by them, little darlings!

Eventually when we calmed down all three of us were laying on the trampoline and I had T snuggled into me on the right and S snuggled on my left and we were watching the wisps of clouds floating across the sky trying to find shapes in them.

It was one of those moments when I wanted to press the freeze frame button.

Sunday morning I woke up and I was another year older.
It was 45th birthday and I even got a card from Russell Brand!
OK, so it wasn't actually from him but G had got it for me because part of my present from him is tickets to see RB in November. So excited!!!! 

I had so many other wonderful presents, here's just a selection of goodies.
The big toadstool is a money box and was from one sister, the small toadstool is from my other sister and the strawberry mug is from the children.

Cute mini sized tin from G to keep my ear plugs in, essential for a good night's sleep.

As usual I received a huge pile of pre-loved presents from my sister C which included 7 new tops, this one was my absolute favourite.

No birthday is complete without jewellery. How fab is that pearl bracelet with the heart on. I plan to take the crocheted cherries off of the keyring and make them into a brooch, they are just so sweet.

I haven't decided where this glass lantern from my mum is going to live yet, somewhere where I can use it everyday would be good

Huge excitement when I unwrapped a parcel from Diane as she had very kindly and very cleverly made me my very own jewellery holder just like the one on her blog. It's going to look really good hung up in our bedroom when we have finished decorating it. Thanks again Diane for such a thoughtful gift.

I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do on my birthday. There were a few things going on locally which we thought about going to, but my concern was with the weather being so very hot it could all become a little hard work with little (and big ) people possibly becoming over heated and no-one wants to be dealing with frayed tempers and mardiness on their birthday, so in the end we thought a gentle saunter around the car boot would do before firstly spending time in my sister's garden and then coming back home to ours.

I did really well at the car boot too.
As if I hadn't already been spoiled enough by G he then bought me the purple dress, purple top, two grey cardis and the blue beaded bracelet. We did get a funny look from a chap who was stood next to us when G was paying. As I thanked G he said 'I looked at so many different pieces of clothing in so many charity shops to buy you for your birthday, but just couldn't be sure you would like any.' I think that possibly the chap thought it was a bit strange G would be looking in charity shops for his wife's birthday gifts, but that's the way we like to do things round here!

I spent a further £1 on the stripy top, 50p on the red bag made from material decorated with ice cream sundaes and another £1 on two Ladybird books.

Needless to say the washing machine has been extremely busy since Sunday.