August, holidays, airshow party and all that jazz.

Our summer did not seem to be as rammed packed with events and outings as usual but then I went to write this post and realised we had actually been quite busy.

Start of Martin's two week annual holiday

Yet again we were staying at home for this -  firstly we are off to the states for a big birthday celebration later in the year and secondly we wanted to see the South East (formally Herne Bay Air show.

We started with the boys staying for a sleep over and a meal out at the Rose in Bloom. Lovely pub grub meal spoilt only by the fact that most of the play equipment was broken leaving the boys with only the swing to play on (although they were quite facinated by the trains passing by) and Finley made a friend with the older girl playing there too.

Much of the first week was spent getting the house and garden ready for our 60th birthday garden bbq and party but we managed an 'adventure' with Laura, Wayne and the boys in a trip to Hastings. Worried about the poor weather we opted for the Sea Life centre there but as it turned out the weather was amazingly hot and sunny. After the sea life centre we had lunch (which again was tasty but took nearly an hour to get served) in a pub which had seating on the front pavement so we watched the world go by. Then we (stupidly?) took the boys on the peddelo swans!

We let the train take the strain back to the car park as some of us were wet from our boating experience and all had tired leggies.

As we still had some time left but had run out of change for the car park we took a slow drive back to Folkestone Lees where we found the most amazing playpark. 

The stone maze

The climbing frame

As much sand as Beckett could possibly want.

On the 12th it was the big party day. Kelly and Laura had been put in charge of decorations so there were lanterns, helium balloons )and apparently bunting which they forgot to put up). It all looked very festive. There was way too much food and plenty of drink. The boy's bouncy castle was put up by the hot tub and chairs were dragged from every room into the garden. The weather even stayed sunny and warm so we could all stay outside.  

Sadly there were many friends and family who could not join us but there were still plenty who did manage to come and it was fantastic to catch up with people from our past we had not seen in many years, to touch base with my cousins and to get to know the neighbors a little better. Everybody seemed to have a good time.