Jay

I miss my twin like nothing else in the world.  Would you like to see what she does for a living all those thousands of miles away from me?  Click on this link: http://provo.org/hr.main.html and watch the second video down, 'Employee spotlight'.  Her vacant looking face on the still of the video totally made my morning!

Wednesday's Smile Lines

Would you trust this face?

Rosie: 'I was voted onto the school council.'

Me: 'What does a school councillor do?'

Rosie: 'Councillors look after the school and talk to the teachers about what the students want.  We put up the Christmas tree and we get to do the toast trolley and have free toast!  We do the gardening and we are Eco-warriors too.'

Me: 'What are Eco-warriors?'

Rosie: 'Eco-warriors keep the school green by recycling, re-using and growing things.'

Ethan: 'It's so unfair, I wanted to be a councillor too.'

Me: 'How do you get voted to be a councillor?'

Ethan: 'You put your name forward and the class votes.'

Me: 'Do you do any campaigning?'

Ethan: 'No, you just put your name forward.'

Ben: 'I wanted to be one too, but no-one ever voted for me either when I was at that school.'

Me: 'So basically it's a popularity contest.'

Ben: 'Yeah.'

Me: 'So what you're saying is that your little sister is popular and you two aren't?'

Ben: 'No.... (sigh) yeah!'

Now As The Summer Fades

I have a good friend Lisa.  She has a talented guitarist for a brother.  Lisa got me tickets to see him play!  Yesterday I headed to London with Asenath and Dawn to see Maroon 5...

... at Scala for the BBC Radio2 Live in Concert series:

The thing is... they weren't just tickets, they were VIP passes!  I got to sit in the VIP bar where the radio show was being broadcast and see one of my favourite dj's Jo Whiley do her thing, and watched Thea Gilmore play a couple of songs.  Jo also interviewed Adam and Jesse, and when it was time for Maroon 5 to perform I avoided the mosh pit and rocked out from the balcony:

They were so good, it was a great night!  Here follows some rather bad pictures of me at the after show party with Lisa's brother James:

And Jesse:

Go on, have a listen:

Thank you Lisa!

It's That Time Again

The children are back at school today and they were so excited about it that they were dressed before 7am.  I don't know what's wrong with them!  I on the other hand, am not ready for summer to be over.  (Yes, Noah has water on the front of his jumper already... and no, Ben doesn't have a black eye, it's a weird hair curl!)

You'll Always Be My Little Sis

Happy 25th!

'This Is The Bestest Day Ever'...

... said Noah!  He obviously doesn't have high standards.  Want to know what we did?  Well, we hung about in our sun-filled garden most of the day, found a rather large frog to admire, then took the bus into town (huge treat, I'm mean and usually make the children walk rather than pay extortionate prices to travel a mile or so!) to go see Toy Story 3 at the cinema.  The advantage of being (probably) the last children to see the film in Newton Abbot is that there were only three other people in the cinema... bliss!  We had pizza in the park for dinner:

Twirled around the bandstand:

Chilled out on the swings:

Climbed on everything:

And proved you're never too old to go on springy motorbikes:

I don't think any of us want to start school on Monday.

Fun In The Sun

This is the last week the children have of their summer holiday and we're making the most of it!  Today was a bank holiday, so with James at home and our friends visiting from Stroud we took off for a picnic on Dartmoor and climbed dead trees:

Got hot climbing hills:

Reached the top of the Tor to admire the views:

Posed for the parents:

Climbed between rocks:

Wound our way down many country lanes to reach Bantham beach:

Splashed in warm water:

Tried to surf the body board:

Went a little mad:

Had a barbeque and roasted marshmallows:

Enjoyed eating them:

And saw a beautiful sunset.  I want to do it all again!

By The Light Of The Silvery Moon

With both James and I in the youth programme, we thought it was high time night hikes on Dartmoor should been re-introduced... because we're a little insane... and it's been ten years since we last did it! We took over 20 youth from our ward and hiked uphill for most of the night:

Then slept rather snugly under the stars in a gully:

We woke early to a beautiful sunrise:

And continued our hike, passing Vennford Reservoir:

And beautiful trails:

It was also great to have Ben with us, I still can't get used to the fact he is now one of the youth:

The sight of our car at the end of all that walking with rather large blisters on my heels was indeed bliss:

Messing About On The River

Today we renewed our love affair with Dartmoor by visiting Bader's Holt with some friends. James was first in:

Rosie fishing with a friend:

Rosie and Ethan:

Friends:

Ben and Noah:

Maisey

I want to meet my niece so bad, she pulls the best faces: