Special events

We’ve had two special events in the last couple of weeks.  First there was my aunt’s ordination at Chester Cathedral, which was a lovely day spent with family and friends, and included geocaching round the cathedral with my niece and nephew!  Chester has some lovely windows, including this gorgeous and colourful Millenium window.  One of the clues on the geocache was what can you see outlined in this window – can you see it?

And here is the lady herself: Reverend Auntie Jenny!

Then my stepfather celebrated his 80th birthday, and we had a family party at Weston Hall.  The first thing you see when you go in is this rather splendiferous bottle chandelier, though I don’t think it has any lights in it.

We had a lovely day chatting (morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea and cake) and exploring the grounds in between.  There was plenty to keep the kids amused, from chickens in the walled garden (with some beautiful cornflowers nearby)…

…to a maze (that even I in my wheelchair could get lost in)…

…and a little train which Rebekah really loved riding on with Daddy…

…and of course gravel (always a hit).

Two birthday cakes completed the day.

We have also had Hannah’s school dance show, which was fabulous, a great day with lots of the children (about 60) spending the whole day in church rehearsing and performing.  There is always a great atmosphere with the children encouraging each other and the audience getting involved.  There are some set pieces for the big groups to do, and then many of the children do solos or duets of their own making.  The music involved gets very technical – there were around 50 tracks on the computer!  It’s lovely to see all the kids having the confidence to perform, whether they’re good or not so good, and really enjoying themselves in the process.  Poor Hannah had a chest infection, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her.  It’s really difficult to get good photos because they keep moving (!) but I managed to get a few good ones in between all the blurriness.

The children have had some great school trips (would you take 25 5-year-olds on the train? Or 50 9-year-olds to the beach in the rain?!) and now we’re winding down to the end of term.  I’m crocheting for the teachers (nothing like a deadline) and we can’t wait to not have the school run in the morning.  This term has been ever so long and we’re all exhausted – I don’t think we’ll do much next week except sleep!