Catch up with all the news!

We are fast approaching the end of term here in the Fens, and there has been a lot going on!

Saturday was the last gymnastics session, and it went really well. By the time I had been to Tesco and done the shopping, I was ready to collapse. It was a very full-on kind of day, and I also had in the back of my mind that I was helping to deliver the Sunday service and needed to get some things ready for that.

Sunday morning, we took the service and were pleased and relieved at how well it was received. We have to do another one a week on Sunday, and then again on the 31st August, so we are getting plenty of practise in. After that, I cooked the Sunday roast, and we enjoyed that. After clearing up, I took the YFG to the local RSPCA centre where they were having an open day. It was huge and there was loads to look at and do. The EFG preferred to stay at home and snooze! When we came home, it was time to get things ready for tea, as we had visitors coming. We planned a traditional Sunday tea, with sandwiches, sausage rolls, mini pork pies, crisps, and then cake and pavlova. There were eight of us all together and we had a good afternoon and evening chatting together until the guests left at about 9pm.

Yesterday, on Monday, the EFG felt sick at school, so we had to go on a mercy dash to fetch her home at about 1pm. Luckily she was never sick and returned to school today. Monday seemed to fly past - after school, the YFG took part in a school talent show with two of her friends - she and T were the backing singers, and the other girl did the most - that girl was fantastic! And they won!! Later on, it was weigh in day at Slimming World and the good news is that I lost another pound and a half. I had been hoping for two, but I'm not complaining. As the FH reminded me yesterday, all the exercise I am doing will mean that I am hopefully building a bit of muscle, so it will be more important to take my measurements often than to take too much notice of the scales.

Today, I went to school this afternoon for the Leavers' Assembly. It was great fun as the children in Y6 including the YFG acted out sketches of events that had happened in each year of their primary school careers. It was hilarious in parts, and they had a lot of fun putting it together. They also sang, "I did it my way" except that they changed it to "We did it our way" and they did!! The Headmistress gave them each a Certificate of Achievement - the YFG's says hers is for her enthusiasm for learning. The local Rotarians presented each child with a lovely dictionary, and they also gave a couple of prizes; a boy and a girl each received an award for service to the school and community. There was a cup for a child who overcame a problem to achieve at school - the deaf child was given that. Then there were also a pair of boy and girl's cups for progress across the child's school career - and the YFG was the proud recipient of the girl's cup!! She was a little disappointed to hear that she has to give it back after a year, but we'll take a photo of her with it so she can remember it all.

Tonight the YFG has been preparing two packed meals for her trip to London tomorrow as her class is off to the Apollo theatre to see "Wicked" and they are all really excited!

The EFG's end of term has been a little quieter as she is not leaving one school and moving to another - she is moving from KS3 to KS4 though. Her GCSEs begin in earnest in September and she has already been set homework for the holidays to prepare work for the Art and Design course. She has been nominated in 14 subjects for a Certificate of Effort and Progress - again! This brings with it a £5 WHSmith voucher, so she has kindly donated it to the funds as she recognised that I am going to have to buy her a lot of art materials, so she thought it would be good to put the voucher towards some of it all.

Tonight I had a major fright when I was out doing the rounds, shutting up the chickens. I could hear what sounded like heavy breathing or snuffling in the lavender hedge behind the "orchard" of fruit trees. I couldn't imagine what it was at all - I wondered if it was a fox that had got into the garden and couldn't find its way out again...whatever it was, I dashed back into the house, slamming the door behind me and told the FH he had got to come an investigate! Being my hero, he came out and wielded the torch in that area. He soon found the culprits - two hedgehogs sniffing round each other!! They were really making a lot of noise, just sniffing each other, nose to nose, as if they had just met and were sizing each other up. We are hoping that they might be Mr and Mrs and that there might be little ones in the offing!