Weekend away!

The very elegant birthday cake

Firstly, my apologies for not posting more regularly...I have been ill since I got back from the weekend with a horrible fluey bug which has left me feeling very washed out and aching. Anyway, enough of that...back to the fun stuff. Alex and I went to London on Saturday for my brother's 30th Birthday party. It was a party in 2 halves, an afternoon session with cucumber sandwiches, cake, tea and champagne at which all the babies were present (7 who were 8 months or less) and then an evening barbeque. It was lovely to spend time with Andy and Nel again and to catch up with some friends I have known for years. The afternoon was so funny with all the babies in various states of being fed, winded, sleeping, crying, playing etc. Nel's mum, Brenda, was in her element as she absolutely dotes on babies. Alex made friends with Sascha, an 8 month old who is his cousin by marriage (or something!) and spent ages exchanging coos and sloppy raspberry noises with.

Andy blowing out the candles, helped by his son and 2 year old nephew, Stuart.

The birthday boy, Andy, and his son, Daniel.

The evening BBQ saw most of the babies peacefully asleep and those without children turning up. It was an entertaining evening with far too much food consumed by me (an enormous beef burger for starters!), alcohol flowing freely (not consumed by me!) and lots of laughter and chat. Andy and Nel have a lovely garden and have recently put down decking so we spent the evening out there.

The guests all sitting outside at the bench or on the decking enjoying the summers evening.

Sunday morning was very special as Alex and Daniel were happy on their playmat together, and Andy, Nel and I got to have a lovely chat before I set off. The nightmare came on the car journey home...in an attempt to avoid the roadworks at the end of the M1, I decided to go up the M40 instead...this turned out to be a disaster as it was the day that there was a shooting on the M40 and the motorway was closed for several hours. This meant that my 4-5 hour car journey was turned into an 8 hour epic. It could have been much worse than it was as fortunately I was stopped in the service station when it happened so it meant that I was able to put a rug on the grass and let Alex have a kick around on that as well as take him for a walk in the push chair and borrow a room to feed him in. All this meant that he was quite happy, although I was rather stressed and upset. I was relieved when we finally got home.

Alex lying in my bed on Sunday morning while I got dressed.

Since then I haven't been very well so haven't been doing much these past couple of days... feeling a little better this afternoon so hopefully will feel more like doing stuff tomorrow. The weather hasn't helped...cold and wet today. More tomorrow.

Love,

Caro

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