Painted Palms

It's that time of year at school for the year six play, which means I get to paint lots of scenery and make props instead of doing comprehension reading with the children. It's so much fun to spend the day painting!

Benny Boy

My firstborn turned 14 today! He is such a lovely boy, funny, helpful, kind, and rather handsome if I may say so. He is taller than me now, wears bigger shoes, and fits his dad's old clothes. He loves tinkering with bikes and regularly fixes up his friends' bikes and scooters. Time is flying by and I am savouring every minute of it. Happy birthday!

Dear Isobel

Amy and Ian have been visiting this week, and we have all been enjoying cuddles with Isobel. She is adorable:

Noah is so proud of his new cousin that he asked for a copy of this photo to show his school teacher and classmates!:

Family

Dear Jay,

Uncle James and Auntie Rosalyn have been down to Devon visiting with mum, they have all had so much fun catching up and staying out late! Mum of course has been talking with a much broader accent while they've been here, it's so funny that she still does that! We had them all over to watch Noah's school assembly (he played Zeus, god of all gods!) and to eat some chilli and rice. Uncle James insisted on washing the dishes (just like mum and Nana) while I had a good catch up with Rosalyn. On Sunday we took a walk with them, starting at Oddicombe beach. I will never stop enjoying the sight of a neat row of beach huts:

Do you remember those walks we used to take from Babbacombe beach (in the distance) to Oddicombe?:

It's so pretty, even on a dull day. Are you homesick yet?:

The children love Great Uncle James:

Digging and dipping toes:

Skipping stones in one of the coves:

Walking to Babbacombe:

I do wish we could walk along here together, soon.

Love your guts, Naomi xxx

Double Digits

It's Rosie's 10th birthday today! She was so excited that her birthday fell during half term so she wouldn't have to spend it at school... unfortunately it rained all day and her two older brothers are away on an overnight temple trip so she spent most of her time playing Lego and watching her favourite films. My girl's easily pleased!

Rosie was so happy that Brandi Carlile's new album arrived in the post today, she made me update her iPod immediately and proceeded to learn a whole lot of new songs! I am delighted she has her mother's taste in music. (It's a glorious album by the way, you should listen to it too!)

St Leonard's Tower

In the middle of our town stands the clock tower:

Except that it's not really a clock tower, it's the remnant of a medieval church. You can see in the picture below where the body of the church would have come out from the tower:

Well, as luck would have it, Ethan and I were shopping for Rosie's birthday after his orthodontist visit (braces go on next week, hurrah!) and the tower was open for visitors; in all my years here I've never seen it open before! We popped into the tower and were greeted by four rather lovely and elderly gentlemen, who proceeded to hide our shopping bags in a bench seat they were sitting on so that we could go climb the three floors to see the six bells at the top. Who knew there were so many bells up there? Here's the chunky front door:

And the key that fits it!:

The younger looking gentleman of the group took us on a quick tour of the rather tiny tower, telling us lots of interesting facts as we went. This is the start of the stairwell:

And Ethan going up it.  Yes, it's that small:

Here's the view of the stairs from the first floor!:

The clock face from inside the tower on the second floor:

After a climb to the third floor via a ladder, we were able to see the bells:

One of them sounded the quarter hour while we were there, and it was rather loud!

The walk back down was a little trickier, it is very steep and the steps are tiny. We learnt that the stairs go up clockwise because if the church was attacked from below, your left hand holds on to the centre of the wall leaving your right hand free to fight with your sword.  Anyone coming up the stairs would find it difficult to swing their sword!

It was also proved that Medieval people were much shorter than me and had smaller feet!:

Jubilee Weekend

To celebrate the Queen's 60 years on the throne we have had two holidays added to our weekend to enable us all to have a four-day party for the occasion. I don't often see the Union Jack flying except for on important buildings, but this past weekend they have been everywhere; on homes, shops, street lamps, gardens, and my personal favourite...bunting! There have been thousands of street parties all over the country (imagine cream teas and party food, served on tablecloths of course!) It feels like there is a great sense of community and pride coming back, it's been a wonderful time.  We had a pretty packed weekend ourselves, we started off on Saturday to west Wales for my father-in-law's 60th birthday party. Strangely, the children love the four hour drive and their favourite part is going over the river Severn on the suspension bridge into Wales:

This is what the back of the car looks like halfway through the journey (Rosie is in the very back behind Ethan's head!):

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the birthday boy, but I did get a few of the cousins playing together, and Buzz making sure that wedgie was sorted out!:

The next morning we drove back to south Wales for the blessing of my new niece Isobel. It was a lovely day and mum was so happy to get some cuddles, it's such a shame we live so far away.

Aren't they a beautiful family?

On Monday James and I went to London to see Coldplay (my birthday present!) and it was so great driving through the streets and seeing all the wonderful shop displays for the Jubilee...Liberty of London was my favourite. James didn't look at the displays, he was too busy battling the traffic and trying not to kill suicidal cyclists/motorbikes! The concert itself was absolutely glorious, my favourite song was a tie between Charlie Brown and Paradise...they blew me away! Fix you and Yellow made me tear up as always, and the funniest surprise moment was Simon Pegg popping up on stage to play the harmonica!  The party tricks were well and truly out for the show, it started off with lots of fireworks and confetti...oh, how I love the butterfly confetti:

Then there were balloons and MORE confetti:

I'm such a big kid!

The most beautiful part of the show were these radio controlled wristbands that everyone was given:

They were turned on for certain songs and they looked amazing, it really made the audience a part of the performance. There were also inflatables and strobes galore....oh, it was a couple of hours of heaven, my face ached from smiling so much!

We got back to Devon at 3am and as mum had the children we indulged in a lovely long sleep to recuperate. We spent much of Tuesday watching the final parade for the Queen...we do pomp and circumstance so well! Long live the Queen, and thanks for the four day weekend Ma'am!