June Jumble!

Okay, so it didn't quite work to do little posts to update this month and I'm left rushing to cram it all into one before July (!! July !!).

We do seem to have done rather a lot this month. At the beginning of the month we went to meet up with a couple of my old school friends, Sarah and Iain, and their respective children, Abigail (3) and bump, and Archie (3) and Charlie (1). It was a beautiful day and we spent most of it outside in the paddling pool, on the bouncy castle and eating ice creams. Toby thoroughly enjoyed himself - most of the friends he has of his age are girls so to spend the day with a boy the same age was a dream! He asks most days when Archie is going to come to his house.

On June 5th we went to The Big Lunch in our village. There were 'big lunches' all over the country - an initiative to try and bring people neighbours together. Steve was off on a 80+ mile bike ride so I took the kids and met up with a load of friends. We didn't really meet any 'new' neighbours since we already knew most of the people there, but it was a very relaxing day. The kids both got their faces painted - I was amazed how still Toby sat to have his done; he really wanted to be spiderman so was motivated not to move! Beth went for a butterfly. A very thoughtful friend provided the Pimms, and the ice cream van was on hand for kid treats. I suspect we will repeat the picnic throughout the summer though I doubt with so many people.

A couple of days after, Beth's friend Elizabeth turned five. We helped celebrate on her birthday at a small birthday tea, then went to her party at the weekend. There was loads of yummy food, a bouncy castle, treasure hunt and races; great fun! I mentioned that Toby has a deluge of girl friends; here are two of them (Nelly and Lara) - he just loves his friends. :)

On the 17th it was the school sports day and summer faire (very sneaky - get parents there for the races then force them to spend all their money on ice creams, games and cream teas!). Beth was in two races, the 100m sprint (she came second) and the 100m 'angel' race where they balance a small hoop on their heads (she won). I don't think she really cared much where she came though I suspect she didn't enjoy being out in front as she was checking around her and waiting for people to catch up! I think she was just happy to get a shiny sticker at the end! Toby was in the pre-school race and came second, he didn't care what anyone else was doing but also wasn't fussed about winning either. I'm very thankful that neither of them are too competitive; life would be very stressful if that was the case!

Finally, the first of our homegrown produce was ready to pick this week. :) The beetroot has done really well and is pretty huge and the early potatoes are ready too. Toby helped pull them out - I was quite excited to be 'harvesting' though in some ways it is more satisfactory to see everything perfect in the ground (especially since I'll probably ruin loads of it with some experimental recipes!).