Happy Birthday to Us, Happy Birthday to Us...

Tom and Ella celebrated their birthdays at the weekend and the weather was so kind to us.. Beautiful sunshine all day.. Ella's friends Connie and Ed came over to play, Nanna and Bampa came up, and Bob and Jan our neighbours came over to wish them both well. Sadly, Cameron was ill, so Imogen and Cameron weren't able to come.

Ella has lots of lovely presents, starting with a fairy trail in the morning, new books, things for the garden, a sleeping bag and a rather clever ride-on suitcase...

Tom had books, wooden toys, a tunnel for their train set, a waterproof suit (see later) and a lovely pull-along wooden truck. Of course, Ella ended up playing with the truck and Tom pushed the suitcase around all afternoon.. Nanna raised the bar this year and made a porcupine and baby hedgehog cake for Ella, and a train with miniature Thomas for Tom.

On Sunday, the children had another small party at the Quaker Meeting House, with their friends Libby, Tilly and Louis.

The last few weeks has also seen other birthdays past by (some you just want to forget, frankly - Karl, myself (I'm now 82, according to Ella) and Ella and Tom's cousin Aimee celebrated her 1st birthday !

Ella has been enjoying looking through the encyclopedia Granddad and Nannie gave to her and is quite interested in "human beings". Various questions have evolved - "Is daddy a human being ?", "Have you got a brain Mummy ?", "Is this what Tom looks like with no skin ?"

The combine harvester finally got to our field this week. The weather has been too wet and the wheat is almost ruined, but he's been ! As you can see, the grain lorry parked just at the end of the garden.

Ella spent yesterday sat in a bucket in the garden.. Here she is washing Tom's hair.

Tom had a rest from gardening and found a comfy place to sit. My flowers didn't look so good afterwards though.. Lots of our little friends are now starting on new journeys - starting nursery, school, Stagecoach, new school years and officially home educating.. We wish them all well.