A very French wedding.

The two Stainsby girls escaped Four Acres for a weekend in Paris!
I drove down to London on Thursday night with Leah,and after spending the night at maman and daddy's with Sarah, we were joined by Kaz and Andy at 0630 and off we went. The three sisters had great fun "being" together ( a feat rarely seen) and winding daddy up!. We arrived in Paris in the afternoon and settled ourselves at Babette and Bruno's townhouse in "La Garenne Colombes". Unfortunately feeling unwell I needed to visit a GP who got me back on track for the wedding festivities. Saturday saw the arrival of countless wellwishing bouquets, a lovely get together lunch and meeting my cousins whom I haven't seen for fifteen years... We got our glad rags on and then to the "Hotel de Ville" (registry office) for a very legal, concise ceremony in the most oustanding room. The bride and groom were beaming with joy and the guests were delighted to be "in" on this very tender and happy union. The reception (once we had extricated the minibus from the very low ceilingued parking) was held in Auvers (where Van Gogh lived and painted the church) and the meal was a gastronomic sensation!!!
Sunday arrived and with the extra hour we lazed around, before suddenly having to up the tempo to pack up the bus ready to leave as soon as the buffet lunch was over (and Andy and Sarah had returned from their shopping trip across town!) We drove back to Blightey, as many other Brits did, hence the enormous queue at Eurotunnel! and arrived back to London rather later than anticipted. We stayed on for the night and drove back home to our boys in time for breakfast on Monday morning.
It was a memorable weekend for the wedding of course but also for having the three girls together with M&D, Leah enchanted all who met her and looked adorable in her dress (thanks Julie)

A busy house for the week

Jon and Janneke came over for the ½term week (21st - 28th Oct) , so with their three children the "dormitory" housed 8 children each night! Busy mealtimes were interspersed by independent or joint activities indoors, outdoors and further afield... Starting off with a puppet show at the New Life Church in Sleaford, a walk around Billinghay to see the Zoetropes, Four Acres garden with it's trees to climb and trampoline! a vist to Lincoln cathedral, Tattershall castle was a great success especially as we watched a eurojet coming in to land at Conningsby.Our friend Simon came over from Nottingham to catch up and Uncle Mark joined in the fun with cousin Charlotte to make for an uncommon gathering of the three Stainsby boys.

Being "cultured"!

½ term was on us and after a morning tidying up we decided that a change of scene was required. We drove into Sleaford, parked at Cogglesford Mill car park and walked along he river enjoying the scenery and making the most of the side sculpture park... We went to The Hub and discovered their "Fold" exhibition where we put our hand to Origami! Our jumping frogs wouldn't have won any olympic medals but the effort was good! We also went all the way up and walk around the roof walkway.

A visit from down under

We were pleased to welcome Catherine for a couple of days (18th-19th Oct) , a cousin from Australia who has been staying with maman and daddy. She took on the challenge of visiting our larger than normal family and was immediately adopted by the boys who found her to be a willing game companion. Whilst the big boys were at school the rest of us went into Lincoln and went round the awesome cathedral as well as enjoying a lunch at Pizza Hut! We then visited the grandly named "Sleaford Castle"! and enjoyed a picnic as we watched the trains go by.

The Feast is here again!

The Billinghay Feast is upon us once more.... The Harvest church festival is on Sunday so it must be the funfair this weekend! Uncle Mark and Charlotte came with us on Saturday night, and a great time was had by all..... Well mummy seriously regretted her friend Julie talking her into riding the Waltzers!!!!!!!!!!

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Discovery of a local amenity.

What a lovely afternoon we had for our first venture joining in with the "Billinghay Family Walk". We met up at the Mosaic and then headed off in convoy to Ostler's plantation. The walk was gentle pushchair friendly although we chose to use the backpack and baby carrier and it was lovely to see all the children running off along the woodland paths...

A few mushrooms were found but our knowledge didn't strech to recognising them let alone naming or knowing whether they were edible!

Thank You Chris and Sue for organising the walks, we look forward to the next one along a different route on the 4th November.

A beautiful busy day...

The boys set about a little bit of work building and filling a woodstore and lots of fun together on Saturday as they made the most of some glorious sunshine.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

My first lunch!

Ok mummy...I trust you but this is strange.

What do I do with it now?

OK this is quite good... can I have a go?

Looks like sweet potato was a success today! We've given in and started on solids a little earlier than 6mths as she is crawling around so much, burning her milk calories and she has also tried taking food of my plate!

I'm sitting! Well sort of!

The problem is I want to be crawling and getting stuck under armchairs!!!

Out for lunch!

Thank you David for a Lovely lunch out at the Penny Farthing on Sunday. We all tucked into a roast at the carvery and the children hungry as ever, were on their best behaviour.