Welsh Cakes

We just crashed after getting back from NI.  We squeezed so much in and had a lot of fun but we were all exhausted.  I was too cold to sleep well in the tent and the kids had late nights. 
After lunch, Ali showed Bonnie how to make Welsh Cakes and they experimented with cake pops too.  They were very good.

Last Day

We spent our last day at a beautiful manor house: Mount Stewart.  The kids did some pond-dipping and were very excited to find some newts. Claire's dad joined us for a picnic lunch and then we left Claire and her dad with the children while the rest of us did a tour of the house. After a yummy ice-cream - rhubarb and custard flavour, we headed back to the house and Peti prepared proper Hungarian goulash in the cauldron over the firepit.  Claire's sisters and their families joined us for dinner and it was funny to see them with their own children. 
And then it was back to the mainland.  Mum and dad picked Bonnie and Rose up and the rest of us walked to our car.  Steve had said it was at the far end of the car park but I did not realise it was really at the furtherest end of the car park.  I think we walked for 10 minutes just in the car park. (There was a bus but we had waited a while and there were lots of others waiting - we just about beat it to the car!)

W5

Last time we visited Claire we went to W5 (Who, what, why, when, where) and really liked it.  We wanted to go again as we knew the kids would appreciate it a lot more being older.
We pretty much spent the whole day there as there was so much to do. It was a lot of fun for children and adults.

Anniversary

Last year we celebrated our wedding anniversary at the Shangri-La.  This year we were in a tent! 
We began the day with an amazing breakfast (more like brunch by the time we ate) - not connected to the special occasion - including soda bread and potato bread.  How fitting to spend our wedding anniversary with our chief bridesmaid?  Even though God has taken us on different journeys and our paths have gone in separate directions it is always a delight when our paths intersect.
We packed up our tents and stopped off at another forest park on the way home where Steve and the kids rode the go-karts.  Josh took it very seriously and made a point of passing everyone else.  Steve and I played a round of the pitch and putt as a nod to our honeymoon. It was a draw - the best outcome!

Full On Tourists

We started at Carrack-a-Rede rope-bridge

Went on to the Giant's Causeway

And finished with fish and chips on Port Stewart Strand

Northern Ireland

We were all up and out the house by 5:10 a.m. - including my wonderful mother who drove the other car - to catch the 'plane at Birmingham.  We barely made it to the check-in before the closing time.  But the important thing is: we did make it!  Northern Ireland is where my oldest friend lives - oldest in terms of the fact that we have known each other the longest time, oldest also in that I cannot deny I am getting older! It is - amazingly - almost 20 years since we were at university.
After a hearty breakfast - including Wheaten bread which I think I have not eaten since the last time we visited Claire - we packed up the two cars (Claire's sister graciously lent us her car for the duration of our stay) and drove up to Glenariff Park where we pitched two tents.

 

Arriving in Belfast

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Barbecue

We have not had stunning weather since we've been back.  Not just by our 'having-just-arrived-from-the-Philippines' standard, but by everyone's standard!  It has been rainy and overcast.  In fact I had forgotten what slaves to the weather reports us English are.  We decided to act in faith and organise a bar-b-q for Sunday as the weather reports seemed to indicate better weather for the weekend.  It turned out lovely.  Warm enough to even sit outside to eat.

Trying to make s'mores to introduce our wider family to a great American tradition.  Naomi's dress was a £3.50 purchase at the car boot sale.

Worcester

What better way to follow up a car boot sale than spending the rest of the day shopping in Worcester?!  Ali needed to buy a dress for a couple of weddings she is attending so we went to keep her company and give her some "helpful" advice.  It is a gorgeous city.
We nearly got sidetracked by the charity shops but decided we needed to focus our efforts on getting the dress and, of course, we found success in the last shop we tried, right before closing time.

Watching my nephew while Ali tries on dresses.  He was so good for the duration of our shopping trip.

Car Boot Sale

I love car boot sales.  They are such a great place to pick up bargains and today was no exception.  I got a complete marble run set for £2, some clothes for 10p each, a warm winter coat for Naomi for £2 and books for 50p each.  I was rather chuffed.

Looking down on the field

Bonnie showing off our acquisitions.  Steve had already taken a full bag home!

Feeding the ducks

Following on from our trip gathering raspberries (over 4 kilos it turned out!), we drove into Bewdley and visited the library.  It has gone very high-tech with a machine that scans your books and your check-in date is now on a slip of paper - which is very annoying to remember rather then looking at the date stamped in the front.
After this, we walked down to the river to feed the ducks and then get an ice-cream at 'Teddy Gray's - an old style sweet shop which I used to go to as a teenager.

 

 

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Raspberries

After school we took the children to the farm up the road to the pick-your-own fields.  It is something Rose remembers doing last time we were back and something I have been meaning to do since we got back from France.  So, today we gathered some tubs and entered he raspberry patch.  It was really fun and the kids really enjoyed it.  They did a great job at picking decent fruit and loved the experience. As you can see Josh, in particular, was in fine form!

School Picnic

It's the day before school breaks up for the summer holiday and we took part in the tradition of the "school picnic".  We took lunch, some chairs and a rug up to school at lunchtime and them the kids came out and joined us.  Rose invited one of her friends to join us as her family did not come.  It was a fun idea and one I suggested Steve could think about implementing at FA. The thing we didn't know was that parents who came could take their children home with them whenever they were finished.

Bridgnorth

Another day trip.  Bonnie and I travelled by Severn Valley Railway to the town of Bridgnorth. It is a beautiful old town and we did the "shortest, steepest" cable-car ride. We went to a lovely tea house which we discovered had only just opened this week.  It was somewhere I would go back with my mum or sisters-in-law.

Picking up the Kids

Bonnie and I have tried to walk to school in the afternoons to pick up the kids as much as possible.  It helps me do some exercise and it gives Rose and Joshua an opportunity to chat about their day before launching into their 'at-home' activities.  It also gave us some time to chat to each other, too on the way to school!  We have picked blackberries on the way home and even though Josh in particular did not like it too much it was a really good experience for us all. As they got more tired towards the end of the three weeks, I was sensible enough to take the car to pick them up.

Steve and I chatted to both Rose and Josh's teachers this last week of school and they both seem to have settled right in.  It was such a good decision to put them into school here before the end of the school year.  It has helped the settle, taken away the build-up of suspense and anxiety of waiting over the next few weeks and hopefully, will have taken away the novelty of them being new when they start again in Sept.  Rose's teacher said her friends love listening to her stories of the Philippines, which I am sure is great for her but I did wonder what on earth she was telling them!
Joshua's teacher, who is retiring at the end of the school year, asked if she could come out to Faith Academy for a month to do volunteer work.

Two Old Men

Joshua made us laugh this evening with the following recounted conversation from school:
"My friend told me he went to the Indian Restaurant last night and he had a really great curry korma."
Hello, these guys are 7 and they are discussing food in a restaurant?!  They sound like two old men.

Sports Day

Sports Day was cancelled last week because it rained and so it was moved to today.  It was pretty nippy still - especially sitting still.  I prefer our way of doing at Faith Academy where the kids are constantly involved in an event, it was a little tedious to wait for the times our kids were running, and they only did running races rather than a range of events.  Naomi got a little bored but was not too keen on going to the play area (across the field) by herself so Steve and then Bonnie went with her for a bit.  I missed Rose running because I had gone off to take a picture of Naomi but then they re-ran the race so I was saved!