Birthday, bike, and pirates. June 2015.

As Madelyn was born on Christmas Day, Jo and Andy have a " half birthday " celebration for her in the summer. They have a BBQ and invite friends and family along to join in the fun.

This year the celebration coincided with the Desborough Carnival. The whole event has a real village feel to it. There are floats, a procession and a good old fashioned fete in the local rec.

The carnival queen.

This year Madelyn took part. The nursery theme was "pirates" so the children and their walking partners all dressed up to look the part.

Watch out Jack Sparrow

    

Yep, I'm a pirate !

    

A little bit of make up

    

 

    With mummy, all ready to go.

 How about this for a pirate's hat.

While we were waiting for the procession we saw a bloke selling balloons. He just happened to have an Elsa one

Is there such a thing as balloon love, I think there is♥️

 Riding high to collect the dosh. Good old daddy.

There were all sorts of rides and slides

It was quite high too! They were only supposed to have three go's but the bloke wasn't paying attention so I think she had about 10 slides!

After Madelyn had exhausted herself we made our way back to the house for presents and BBQ

First present opened  was a Frozen snow globe, it played " the" song, just in case anyone had forgotten it.

A Frozen blanket for the caravan

LaLa Loopsey

Sleeping Beauty

Cover your eyes they said,

Best present of all , a bike

A few bits and pieces for her bike.

           

Enough food to feed an army.

   

End of the evening, a bit hot and bothered

The next day Andy helped her put together some Lego. It was a caravan and it took ages to put together. So many pieces.

Daddy spent ages putting it together with Sleeping Beauty

Finally finished

At last .

It was time to test out the bike, all the gear.

  

   I didn't get any photos of her riding because she just flew off. 

After we got back it was time for tea and cake

I love you mummy

Make a wish

A Frozen cake. What else!

Happy half birthday cheeky chops ♥️♥️

Afternoon Tea. June 2015

When Val retired, one of her leaving gifts was a book of places to go for Afternoon Tea. We were looking through it while we were out for lunch. A friendly waitress recommended a place she'd seen advertised that was offering unlimited prosecco with afternoon tea, all for the bargain price of £24:99. Well ,it would have been rude not to. It was at the Tower Hotel, a place Lorna knew well as Ray had been involved in some work there.

We had a lovely stroll along the river, lots of people enjoying the bars and warm weather.

On our way to Tower Bridge.

     

Coffee stop on the way.

The bridge, the Shard and a famous statue called " The girl and the dolphin" . I forgot to look for the name of the sculptor.

The brilliant thing about London is how the old buildings rub shoulders with the new. It shouldn't work, but it does.

               

       

               

                  

We had a wander round St Catherine's Dock

                          

All very swish.

Ray was involved in the placement of this sundial. Apparently he and just one other man worked all night to get the placement right as it had to be lined up with the North Star to make sure it was in the correct position. He did a good job. 

             

Smile! 

Enjoying the sunshine.

Eventually we made our way to the hotel.

Tea time! 

A good selection.

Cheers! The first of several glasses.

Val and Lorna

Me and Charlotte.

No PG tips at this party.

             

On the menu it said "Unlimited Procsecco" the small print said------ for the first 40 mins. We must have struck lucky because that 40 mins turned into 2 hours and 2 bottles between 3 of us. We had to refuse  in the end. We'd never have got ourselves home! 

It was a lovely afternoon and we are already planning the next one.