The month of May.......

The month of May has been a busy one for us and this had left little time for blogging but I'm hoping that as things settle down I will have more time to write.

May started with a big celebration as our daughter Rachel celebrated her 16th birthday on the 1st.

Followed by a tea party and fun in the garden the next day 

before heading off to youth group with her friends. 

Tomas needed an explorer jacket for a jungle day at school so I made this reversible jacket with some fabric that I had originally intended to use for Jack's safari themed bedroom and never got round to!!!

He is now nearly 15 so I don't think it will get used.

The following week was Rachel's last day at school as she went on study leave before her exams started. This is a big day at her school and it is tradition to arrive in some sort of fancy dress and strange transportation. It also meant I had to make three alien headbands.

I went along and watched as flash cars, buses, land trains, skateboards, bikes and even a steam engine arrived, cheered on by the rest of the school and watched by us parents.

Rachel's group of friends decided on a Toy Story theme as Buzz Lightyear had been their mascot since year 7. The school then put on a Leaver's Breakfast for the students where old photos are shown and both teachers and students perform on stage and certificates are handed out. It was all over by midday and then it was off to Pizza Hut for a celebratory lunch before getting back home to crack on with revision as exams started on the Monday!

Rachel has been working hard and is already half way through her exams as I write but it does mean she has monopoly of the computer and blog writing on my phone isn't great.

Probably like the rest of the country we did get a glimpse of the sun and had a lovely few days where we even had the sprinkler out

but unfortunately this half term week has been quite grey and miserable so there have been lots of lazy days at home although we did enjoy feeding the ducks at Writtle yesterday.

For some unknown reason a man at the pond decided to catch and pick up one of the ducks and the big goose at the top of my photos tried to protect it and all the ducklings on the grass, served him right as it just seemed like a senseless thing to do!

After a good feed, of breads, rolls and croissants, this duck decided it was time for a bath.

It was a lovely way to spend a hour and gave Rachel a bit of peace and quiet at home for her revision.

Jack has had a nasty cough this week and paired with the bad weather this has meant quite a bit of time has been spent talking to and playing with friends on the playstation. For those of you with teenage boys how do you balance the time spent on these games? I'm not a big fan so have a tendency to call time on it but I do appreciate that these games aren't a quick thing either???

Finally, it's not often you find photos of me here on my blog and after about 100 attempts at a selfie (!!**???) I think I finally managed it.

Here is me sporting my new hair do.