Busy Weekend

Jen and a Balloon

Happy Jen

We had a busy weekend this weekend.  Saturday we went on the Midlands Translators Walk.  This took place from Caulke Abbey near Ashby de la Zouch.  Now Tom is at an awkward age for walking. He's able to walk a distance, but he needs to want to walk, and he doesn't go at adult pace.  He will either run the whole way or stop and start the whole way.  He won't really be carried either - mainly because he's heavy now.

Bouncy Castles are Fab

Hannah and Tom 

Matt really wanted Tom to come so he could show him off to the group.  Luckily I have a second cousin, Heather in Ashby that I haven't seen for 17 years, so we decided to go and for me and Tom to go and visit Heather whilst Matt did the walking.

Rachel, 'Juicy' Lucy and Me

First of all we went to Wolverhampton to pick up Roz and Alan and then headed to Ashby.  Today was the best day we've had in ages, when the sun was out it was hot - hurray.  We got to the abbey in good time and had a picnic outside which was lovely.  Matt and co then set off on the walk whilst Tom and I went to Ashby to see Heather.  We had a good afternoon, there were some stilted moments, but on the whole it was good and of course Tom stole the show.  Philip and his girlfriend Gemma arrived for about 15 minutes, wound Tom up big time and then left (apparently they are well known for doing that)  Anyway it was good to see them, Heather was looking very well and in good spirits and Ian enjoying his early retirement.

Rose, Abi and Martin

We headed back to Caulke Abbey and arrived back just as Matt and co arrived back.  We then took Roz and Alan home.  They invited us in for a BBQ, it was a lovely night so we said yes and had a great time playing in their garden.  Tom and Alan played really nicely together (Alan is 8 so quite an age difference).  We had such a good time that we didn't get home until 9pm - a very late night for Mr Tom!

Cheeky Monkey

Sophie

Sunday - the day of the party.  I stupidly decided to do the catering myself again - and rather than the usual sandwiches and processed party food decided to do something slightly different, so made 2 big lasagnas, over 150 mini pasties of various flavours and some quiches.  I do like to make life difficult for myself.  Anyway, I did it.  The food in our kitchen looked mega - thought I had over catered big time, but when we got to the venue it didn't look that much at all, and in fact I judged it just about right.

Olly dragging 4 others around the hall

Not sure how many people came, but at a guess about 60, was good to see everyone in one roof having a good time (even though we were all stuck inside and it was a gorgeous day outside).  Most people turned up and the bouncy castle kept the little ones entertained without much intervention from the adults - not too many tears or fights.  It almost felt like our wedding, so many people to get round and speak to and not enough time (especially when trying to man the bar and sort food out as well)  Luckily Jude and Craig came down to help - really don't know what we would have done without them - felt really bad as it was the first time we met Craig, and a) we took him away from the Tour de France b) put him in a room of screaming children who he didn't know and c) made him do all the washing up.  Sorry Craig, but THANK YOU so much, it would have been a disaster without them.

Tired after so much bouncing

I think everyone had fun, I do know that it was all over too quickly.  I will be very sorry to leave all my friends in Telford, I have met some really lovely people some of whom I have really connected with, they have made motherhood so much easier for me.  I really hope I keep in touch with them and they some to visit us up North.  I just hope I manage to make some new friends in Cumbria / Yorkshire who are as good.  (I feel some cake bribery coming on)

Came home and collapsed, not been sleeping very well recently due to hay fever.

TRAUMA
At 9.30 on Sunday evening, Tom started grizzling in bed, quite out of character for him.  He wasn't crying properly, just grizzling.  After a couple of minutes Matt decided to go up and check on him.  He found him sat on the floor (very strange, he never gets out of bed), Matt put the light on and had the shock of his life, Tom's face and arms were completely covered in blood.  Matt shouted immediately for me to come up, I ran up and couldn't believe what I saw.  Basically his face looked like a badly done Spiderman face painting.  His whole face was red, his arms were red and his hands were red.  It didn't take long to realise that it was a nose bleed.  We took him dripping blood into the bathroom and tried to stem the flow.  I phoned Shropdoc who were pretty much useless.  Anyhow, after a while it calmed down and we were able to clean him up a little.  We sat him down, Matt read him a story and we put him back to bed.  We didn't hear from him again.  It was very traumatic for Matt and I, less so (thankfully) for Tom.  We now tell him not to pick his nose in bed and have put his sponge wedge back in his bed as we aren't too sure if he picked his nose or fell out of bed onto his nose.  I'm just grateful he didn't see his face!