Another Busy Weekend

Lakeside from Fell Foot Park

This weekend was very very busy.

Saturday looked like a nice day so we headed off to Lakeside and got the boat to Bowness.  Tickets are half price to residents at the moment so only £5 return which for a 40 minute journey each way I think is very good.  We were all togged up in thick coats, gloves, hats etc so we sat outside and enjoyed the view.

On arriving in Bowness we had lunch in 'Aunty Val's Tearoom' - spicy tomato soup for me, chorizo and emmenthal panini for Matt and sausage bap for Tom - it is almost as if they knew we were coming.  We left with happy bellies.

On the boat

Twilight cruise

We then went for a walk around Bowness exploring shops, looking for Christmas pressies (not too successful!) before getting the boat back to Lakeside.  On the boat back there was a large Japanese party.  Matt couldn't resist and did his party trick of asking in Japanese if a couple wanted a photo taken of them.  He got the usual reaction of disbelief, but the couple were friendly and they were chatting for the rest of the trip.  It's not often that Matt gets a chance to speak Japanese so he was very happy.

On Sunday we got up early and were in the car before 8am.  We were on a flying visit to Telford. Luckily the motorway were empty and we flew down (until we hit a diversion at Eccleshall which meant we had to go through Stafford!)  Not to worry we got to the ice rink dead on 10.30 - we were the second to arrive.

Hannah, Becca and Tom

Helen and Thomas

Having cuddles and kisses with Sammie

The gang

Sophie and Tom

Jake and Tom

We met up with loads of friends at the soft play area next door to the ice rink.  Luckily it was empty, in fact the whole time we were there I think there were only 5 other families which was great - we basically had the place to ourselves and it was clean and bright - much better than any of the others.

People turned up in dribs and drabs.  We had primed Tom earlier on who he would see.  He said that he didn't remember any of them, but as soon as they arrived he was off shouting their names and playing as if it was only last week that he saw them all.  He spread his love around, spending time with everyone.  It was a joy to see.  In fact I didn't play with














him at all - I just left him to it and chatted with my friends.  It is always so difficult to get round to everyone in such a limited time - almost like a wedding, you leave feeling that you haven't spoken to anyone really.

Leo, Lucy and Mae

Jessica, Olly, Seren and Tom

Time went by too quickly, within a blink of an eye 2 hours had gone by and we had to say goodbye to everyone.  Oh well, not a huge problem as we had a date with more friends in a pub.  We headed to the Two Henrys on the outskirts of Shrewsbury where we met up with our NCT friends.  We hadn't seen many of them since December last year - so there was a new baby to cuddle (Max - Seren's brother who is now 6 or 7 months) and the babies had turned into toddlers.  Oh and there was a bump to admire (Jessica is going to be an older sister next year)

We had two tables - one for the children and one for the adults.  The children are old enough now, that they sat really nicely with each other eating their lunch with very little incident.  This was fantastic as it meant that the adults could chat without much interruption.

The pub had a soft play area, so once we had all finished we all headed over.  Once again we more or less had the place to ourselves and the children went off and played whilst we chatted.  I actually felt at a loss at one point - I'm really not used to Tom amusing himself.  I figure school has had quite an impact on his confidence playing with other people - he just got on with it.

Around 4pm we called it a day and headed back home.  We all had a fantastic day.  Tom was asleep almost immediately and woke up in a good mood.  We had dinner at The Bridge on the way home which is always a favourite.  He ate up half of my lasagna (not surprising considering how much playing he did!)  A good day, we all went to bed tired and happy.