Park, Park, Park & Park

Bella has a close friend from her time at Wycombe Abbey- Sari.  Here we are meeting in Wales .  Since both of our sets of kids are now out of school for the summer, we took ourselves off to Sari's parents place- Blacklands Farm in Bedfordshire- for this past weekend and all met up. It's an idyllic rural setting- plenty of grounds for the kids to make mischief in, a muddy pond where they dive in nude, relaxing walks for everyone, and food straight from he garden.  We even did some camping in the garden.  It is really the polar opposite of London. Here are the kids under an apple tree: D, Jack and C  And here we all are just before leaving:

Hearing a great deal of giggling and carrying on after bedtime, I went upstairs to the kids room and read the kids the riot act last night. Maybe due to my stern voice things then calmed down. When Bells and I came up to bed an hour later though, we found this site: both of them sound asleep in our bed.

D has enjoyed her Friday afternoon Ballet classes this Spring and Summer and I've enjoyed going along with her.  Some times I watch, other times I play outside with C, most days D and me have tea together afterwards. She had her final class- "The Watching Class"- yesterday.  A few snaps- Ready to begin... With her pal Izzy Just after A random picture with her other pal Talis

C has read all of the Harry Potter books with his best friend Taro, so it was a real treat when Taro invited him to Harry Potter Land last Sunday. HPL is actually the old film studio for the HP movies.  It has huge warehouses that hold the sets and props that were used in the filming.  I think it was really enjoyable to match up the pictures they had generated in their heads from reading the books and then seeing the visual manifestations.  I should add that they haven't seen much of the movies yet- a treat for later. Here they are in the Great Hall: Here they are in front of The Owl Lectern: And here they are sampling the ButterBeer: And then on famous Privet Drive:

Dorothy's birthday is on the 28th of June; Bella's father, Michael, has his on the 30th. We did a bit of a joint toast earlier this week, and all shared a bit of chocolate cake.

We celebrated a joint 5th birthday this past weekend with Dorothy and her best friend Amber (her birthday is 2 days after D's).   They decided on a gymnastics party at the local secondary school.  All 30 (!) kids had a riot. There were trampolines, vaults, uneven bars, balance beams and lots of mats everywhere.

A few weeks back, we all hopped on the car ferry and went to the Isle of Wight- off the south coast of England.  Usually the weather is pretty idyllic- the ocean keeps the southern point of IoW very moderate. We got a lot of wind and some clouds for our weekend, but the kids still had a great time.  Here they are chasing the waves on Sunday morning.