friends

our friends andy, gill, adam and luke came round for the afternoon and we had a lovely time. they arrived by bike:

andy looking like a monty python by the BBQ with his knotted hanky hat:

here are tony, tanya, liz, jane and numberous kids as seen earlier today

(photo by jane)

we had a nice afternoon today. elton was still here, and another friend and her two daughters came along for lunch. the children had their own picnic table for added fun and excitement.

here is elton. he’s staying with us again for the evening and we had another BBQ as this is what we do when Elton comes along.
here is elton wearing his lady-hat from New Zealand:

a bit later on paul, liz and baby dougie joined us. paul, elton and i were all in sheffield at the same time and so it was great to have a mini reunion
here is baby dougie:

i started up the barbeque by liberally spreading matchboxes across the top:

when i’d lit the BBQ esther said “daddy are we having a barbeque or is that just for a photo”. i think this photography thing might be having an effect on my family
here is the fruit pie:

we found a magic shrinking machine so esther could play jenga more competitively.

having a party ? spitting with rain ? simply send the kids out and make them sit under a gazebo. parents can stay inside the in dry and everyone’s happy.

and then when it drys up then can all sit in a row and eat their puddings:

it’s been a day of fun today. we went to esther’s school’s summer fayre this afternoon and this evening we went to a BBQ at our friends’ house in the next village
in classic british fashion it was too cold to stand outside (we did try for 30 mins before admitting defeat) and eventually the only person outside was Steve, our host, who was doing the cooking. a most excellent evening.
tony babysitted this evening and was able to use the wifi successfully thanks to this morning’s fiddling. we may have to adjust the hourly babysitting rate to take account of the added Internet access facilties available.

we spent a very happy afternoon in the dragoon household. they’ve got a little kitten which kezia loved. it’s called tickles

and here’s grahame and the cat:

esther made this hat in sunday school. people were keen to try it on. i was keen to take their photo.

it’s lynda’s birthday on monday so we celebrated at a music practice last night witha cake.
i’ve pixelated the candles so you can’t see how old she is. that’s not right and proper apparently. see how she points at the tea cups.