Off to Chamboree

Megan has headed off to Chamboree - a week at Scout camp with 4000 others!

She has to carry her own stuff from the entrance to the campsite - not sure how she will make that work!

There may be some dragging involved!

Here's hoping that the weather is kind this week and there's not too much rain!

The Loooooong queue

Miss M and Mr B saw this last week with Gma and Gpa (while I was stuck working at the LAST school to finish for the summer) - of course this was no good for A and I, so we went to see it yesterday, along with Auntie J.

It was a Wednesday, so the plan was to not book in advance, but to turn up and get 241 tickets on Orange Wednesdays.

Hmmm -- seems like most of Warrington had the same idea! The queue was looooong - never mind I thought, we've got 25 minutes until the show starts.

An hour and 5 minutes later we got to the desk - just in time to book for the next showing!

During that hours we played a fun word game that J taught us, A went to sit down and had to glug his emergency coke to ward off a hypo (he'd taken his tea insulin on the assumption he would be having a cinema snack!) and Mr B asked how long it would take about 5 gazillion times!

Still - the film was really great, and yes J and I cried :)

Warwick Castle

We had a (very) early start to make it to Warwick Castle in time to meet C and E. We found each other in the castle courtyard.

We had a great day exploring all the castle attractions....


...though we failed to pull the sword from the stone....

... we saw Lancelot (not Arthur?) pull it out at the end of the day!

We braved a walk around the walls and up the towers - the spiral staircases were rather tricky

Of course B acquired a sword

So he could imitate the fighting and the jousting!

The Warwick Castle trebuchet in action!

Hairspray

I took M to see Hairspray in Manchester - and it was just fabulous!

M insisted on doing the stage door after the show - so i stood embarrassed around the corner while she bagged autographs from Michael Ball and Nigel Planer!

Headteacher's Award

All her hard work (and all those merits she collected) paid off :)

First year at High School over already...

Future Flower

A brief break in the rain and the sun came out..... so we went for a walk to find the Future Flower....

.... it's not well signed, but having spotted it from the bridge last week I thought I had figured out where it was - and so it proved to be....

... it's rather fabulous - apparently at night it glows with thousands of LED's .... and the view back towards the brigde is pretty special too!


And as a plus for A - pretty good birdwatching on the river as well when the tide is out - next time we take binoculars!

Wet wet WET!

Yesterday I took my class on their trip to Chester Zoo - like I've done many times before - but this trip had added broken down lorries, sick children and a lOT of rain!

I've been to Chester Zoo many times in the rain - but never rain like this - think monsoon!

By the end everyone was so wet it dodn't even matter if we got wetter!

So it would have gone down as rather a disaster....

... if not for the appearence of the new baby elephant as we were hurrying back to the bus. Less than 2 days old - and possibly the cutest thing ever!

Jellybeanz do Eclipse

M's birthday trip to see Eclipse with her friends - followed by tea at McDonalds. Apparently one of the best days ever (and I only dozed off for a couple of minutes in the film!)

Eclispe Quiz

I took M to the Eclipse Quiz at the Waterstones bookshop in Liverpool 1. She won a poster with her great knowledge of the Twilight books - I was nearly no help at all, but was saved by a question about Interview with a Vampire and another one about Buffy! Mothers aren't entirely useless!

The REAL Science of the Circus

This was the keynote speaker at todays Merseyside Science Conference - it was really funny and such a good explanation of forces for KS1/2.

I am now firmly of the opinion that all training courses should be delivered from a unicycle whle juggling!

M's 12th Birthday....

... was full of presents (bags and vouchers for New Look featured heavily) - cards - a birthday tea at Frankie and Benny's - a birthday hat - playing Mario Karts on the wii - the Shell Group end of year party -cake and candles!

Skating...

@ K's birthday party - M was getting pretty good by the end, and B? Well, he fell over 13 times, but he always bounced straight up again and developed his own 'clumping along' technique!

Grandad's birthday part 2...

We spent the day in Wales with Nana and Gdad - lunch at the pancake house in Rowen...

... then the bumpy slide on Llandudno pier....

... and time for a paddle in the sunshine as well!

Evening at Otterspool

An evening at the Otterspool playground...

....where even A joined in playing...

...M trying out her mean and moody stare...

...following on from his exciting Birthday Day it all left B worn out!

Happy Birthday B!

Little Man is 9 today!

He has got a half share in a wii with Miss M (Birthday coming up on Monday) - and so spent all his spare time today playing wii sports and Super Mario Brothers.

He had cubs in the evening, but when he came home M had organised a surprise party for him, with banners, music and these rather fabby glow balloons that Auntie S and Uncle A sent - to say he was excited is an understatement!