Airkix Take 3 - the week of the birthdays begins!

Yes - here we are again - at the start of the the mad birthday week.

Today Ben had his treat - back to the old favourite - skydiving at Airkix 

{ see 2012  2014 for Airkix Takes 1 and 2}

If you look back - you can see just how much he has grown in the past 3 years -

and to be honest he found it hard to control his flight this year - 

it must be those long, long legs!

But it was still a huge hit!

We popped next door to the Trafford Centre

were Ben was yet again entranced by Hamleys

{ he got a little flying saucer remote control toy }

and he was rather impressed by this larger than life lego Darth Vader!

Stratford and Leicester on a Saturday {Othello at the RSC}

An early morning start - picking up Megs from Jamies -

then a quick drive down to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Book shopping and a chippy lunch,

then sitting in the sun in Bancroft Gardens.

Ben saw a man selling bubble wands - 

unusually for him he took an interest and asked if he could buy one.

He went over and bought it himself  #lifeskills

and then had a fine time blowing giant bubbles.

As is now usual Ben spent a the rest of the afternoon in the cafe

whilst we watched Othello.

 A great, magical moment at the start, 

followed by brutality, 

some interesting comments on racism and class

and a really quite dangerous performance from Hugh Quarshie.

Sadly, however, the second half all fell rather flat,

so - half a great production.

Afterwards we drove up to Leicester, 

and had tea with Russell, Joyce and Lizzie

{great veggie lasagne Lizzie - student cooking skills put to good use! }

We hadn't seen them since Gill's funeral - good to catch up.

It was a long drive home and it was late when got back - 

these sort of days are good - but I think we need some quiet weekends too!

Let It Go - A night with Idina Menzel

Almost exactly 6 months ago - Christmas Day 2014 -

Megs got her tickets to see Idina Menzel in concert.

It was worth the wait!

She opened with Defying Gravity -

she joked and got audience members up to sing -

she belted numbers as only she can -

she sang For Good as an acoustic - no backing - no mics -

she finished with Let it Go -

and got the whole audience to sing-a-long

and then encored Tomorrow

Great night!

Father's Day 2015

We'd promised Al's dad that we'd spend the afternoon with him -

so I only got to see my dad at Church.

BUT - he did have a cool card with a "Best Dad" badge -

PLUS - Jon and I bought him 2 new train books -

AND - I found this great photo from 1987 -

taken on Tanera Mor, one of the Summer Isles in the far north

{ growing up my dad took us on the best adventures }

Love you Dad!

 Meanwhile Al's dad had hurt his foot -

so Al had to dash off after church and spent the afternoon with him at the walk in centre

{ still - at least he had his lovely Star Wars socks as a present - "I am your Father!" }

Things did pick up after that -

we served high tea at Al's dad's house -

the teens and pre-teens were mostly enthralled by their tech....

but did smile nicely for some photos

At the end of the day -

we all love you Al - such a good dad to Megs and Ben :)

Two items of note

1. We found a  hedgehog when we went to pick Ben up from Scouts

2. He's still growing...

His last Chester Parade....

... with the 14th Methodist Scouts - next year he will be in Explorers.

After years of either heatwaves or torrential downpours -

at last - beautiful weather for a march -

or perhaps, looking at the photographs,

beautiful weather for an amble!

Nostalgia time - Ben's first Chester Parade in 2008!