A circus, thank yous, games and more.

Yesterday we finally got together with friends for a birthday treat, between the 10th birthdays of the two older girls, at a lovely local teashop.  After tea/hot chocolate and cake/scones there we came back here and after a short rehearsal, S & I were treated to a circus performance by the four girls, various cuddly toys, A and Mr Fox as the ringmaster.  It included human cannonballs (leaping of the swing), a tightrope walking giraffe (attached by string to a cane and manoeuvred along the washing line), "bear back riding" (not a spelling mistake - it was teddy bears riding on children's backs), clowns (bears with red noses made from pingpong balls) and more.

Mr Fox, the ringmaster with A.

Alice & Ted - the clowns.

Jolly - the tightrope walker.

"Bear-back riding"

A with the Diablo

M, one of the human cannonballs.

And K, another of the human cannonballs.

Mr Fox with his amazing ball catching trick.

A the mime artist.

K, one of the contortionists.

And M contorting.

J & M doing dangerous scooter tricks.

All the performers taking their final bow.

Today K has been catching up with making and writing birthday thank you cards.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of the one that was to George, the guinea pig (who had given her a freebie balloon from a taxi company).  It was a cartoon strip "true story of the little blue balloon", that sadly was burst on a thorn on a hedge on the way home, complete with thorn saying 'Mwahaha', followed by a picture of scissors and sellotape and a happy ending of the (now flat but) happy balloon with some little baby balloons.  She has also written a thank you card to my brother, Uncle M, who she knows has got her a present, but she hasn't had it yet!  And as well as doing several thank you cards, she also made this one.

For me, just because.

M and I had played The Game of Life for the first time in ages, which was fun and very close indeed, M won by the smallest margin possible, although she wasn't very happy that she didn't get to adopt twins or a pet.  Later she and A also played Carcassonne, again for the first time in a long time and again it was a very close game, but this time it was A who won.

The girls also played with a friend from a few doors down, both at her house and then here, which involved dressing up as Wizard of Oz characters and 'ice-skating' on the laminate floor in 'Granny's room'.

In other news, I mentioned previous that M had been 'making' again, it was another Mister Maker make, which I wasn't allowed to take a photo of until it was finished.  Here it is and I think it turned out rather well!

M's new suitcase.

Now we're hoping that the impending stormy weather doesn't stop us getting to Asfordby tomorrow, while A is trying to work out if and how he can get to London for two meetings, before heading off to Berlin on Tuesday for the rest of the week.  The girls have got a visit from Granny to look forward to from the middle of the week, so hopefully won't miss him too much.