I Saw From The Beach

Sunday found me cuddling this little girl on the sofa all day:

Rosie had been up half of the night acquainting her face with the toilet bowl and the only thing she was willing to do yesterday was to watch another Harry Potter film and nap.  Perfect sick Sunday activities if you ask me.

Today food was retained and all was well with the world again, so we headed out to the local beach at Teignmouth with some good friends of ours.  Ben will keep a t shirt on at all times unless he is in the water, yet still manages to tan all over.  A mystery:

Ethan however, is not ashamed to display the pasty white skin he inherited from his father, even though he tried to run away from the camera.  He also claimed he could put his own sun lotion on and now has some unsightly pink patches all over his torso:

Noah is just an awesome poser:

As is Rosie, with her beach babe of a friend Tierney:

It is Teignmouth Carnival week so we got to see some yacht races:

And some fake sea rescues:

And what is a trip to the beach without the burying of one's legs?:

Down On The Farm

The Somerville family have had a dream for years of having land to raise animals and this last year they have made it happen!  They have a couple of fields in Ashburton where they raise pigs, chicken, some new cows and have a couple of ponies.  We get fresh organic eggs delivered every week and pork sausages, chops and mince.  I have to say the food tastes so good, I'll never go back to buying these products from supermarkets!  This month marks their one year anniversary and we had a ward social at the farm to celebrate along with Pioneer Day.  Our children loved the baby chicks (sorry about the bad mobile phone photos!):

A barbecue can only be eaten one way on a farm: on hay bales!:

A good old fashioned game of rounders finished the afternoon off:

Isn't the view great?:

Summer's Here

We were all excited to finally be free of school for the summer this Thursday and planned to go out walking, but the rain poured down and our first day was spent indoors.  I decided there was only one way for us to get through it: by watching Harry Potter while I tackled the mountain of ironing.  It worked!  Rosie had me paint her nails (which she insisted I take a photo of and put on the blog for Auntie Jay to see):

Ben made shortbread biscuits:

Of course the day ended with glorious sunshine!

Triple Treat

When Emily was unable to get any of her teenage friends to attend a concert with her, I volunteered to go if she didn't mind going with an oldie.  I'm so glad she didn't!  The venue was Escot Park, an old manor house and grounds in Exeter where we got to see some great live music surrounded by beautiful trees and scenery.  Being an English summer there was of course some rain as well as sunshine but we didn't care, we had front row views and sang along to Lauren Pritchard:

Joshua Radin:

And James Morrison:

I'm also a little relieved that a pair of seventeen year old legs were just as tired as mine at the end of the night!  Thank you Emily!

Torrential Summer Rain...

...had to happen when I stepped out the door to pick the children up from school!

My toes are in shock after being put into socks and squished into proper shoes!  Yes, I did just post about the weather.  I am British.

What A Night For A Dance

On Wednesday James and I went to London with friends to see Kings of Leon play at Hyde Park.  They rocked!  The Black Keys were supporting so it was a double treat for us.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were in good company (cheers for the photo Dawn):

I have discovered two things:

1. If Brits spend all afternoon drinking cider they are mostly happy-drunk, but there are some that are crazy-drunk and enjoy throwing their almost empty (plastic) bottles through the air.

2. Being sprayed with cider makes your hair crispy!

After arriving home at 4:45am I felt like a teenager again as we tip-toed into bed so as not to wake my mum!  She did however send me back to bed when I got up to take the children to school (I didn't argue with her) where we slept away the day until 2:30pm.  Bliss.