Fun!…with added cake…

I am gradually getting back to normal after our jolly family weekend in a couple of wooden cabins handily situated between the coast and the New Forest. It was an early birthday celebration – for me! – and I was so thoroughly spoilt I almost forgot how to cook and wash up! The weather tried various guises, until the sun got his hat on in the middle of the first day and stayed around for the rest of the weekend.

I came across a very strange thing on the beach the first morning. It was cold, grey and misty, with a strong wind…

We came down the cliff…

… and on to the shingle to admire the little beach huts…

Higgins spotted a potential friend, but he passed on by…

The beach was all but deserted, but for three people in wet suits, inflating things, which soon caught the wind and developed minds of their own. If it hadn’t been for the wet suits I would have thought they were flying kites, but it dawned on me they were heading off into the grey and windy sea…

Mad! I thought, Completely Bonkers! On a day like this?

So despite the cold I hung about, snapping away like the worst press photographer, waiting to see what would happen.

Eventually, with the kite bobbing about energetically high above him, the first wet suited individual headed down to the surf, while I carried on the same little chunter to myself…MAD…totally barmy…

Until he got into the sea…and on to the board….

and Wayhaaaay…. Yes!… NOW I see….

And when the sun shone, we went to the New Forest…

Higgins had a slightly different perspective…

…but he did find a place to play Pooh Sticks…

And in the evening there were balloons, and bunting, and a truly amazing birthday cake…

Looks a little familiar don’t you think?

We prolonged the weekend a little by travelling along the coast for a night with son Thomas and family, where Higgins was able to meet some special bloggy friends when Penelope By The Sea came to tea, with Alice…

I was very surprised and touched to be given a birthday gift…

it was very nearly too pretty to unwrap, but I was persuaded, and found …

Which made me very happy!

(And if you pop over to Penny’s blog, you’ll find out where that pretty fabric tie came from!)

And now we’re home.

Some of us have been sleeping off all the rushing about entertaining small boys…

…and some of us have been sitting in the sun squaring circles…