Celebration week

This has been a lovely week, with lots to celebrate.

On Wednesday Benjamin came home with his first ever school report, and it was brilliant! Am I a proud mummy or what?! I was so pleased with him that we let him choose his reward. His choice - to go to the local pub for dinner on Saturday! That's my boy!!
However on Thursday we met friends for coffee at Starbucks and walked back to the car past Pizza Hut. The resulting conversation went something like this:
Ben "Mummy I can still change my mind can't I?" (I'm panicking thinking he has decided he wants different friends at his birthday party on the Friday!)
Me "Um, what about sweetheart?"
Ben "I can choose somewhere else to eat, can't I?"
Me - with relief! "Yes of course - where do you want to go now?"
Ben - jumping up and down with excitement "PIZZA HUT PLEASE"

Friday was Ben's 5th birthday and we celebrated with a party at home for 5 of his friends. With the weather as it has been I was a little concerned about keeping them all amused, but I needn't have worried as the rain stayed away long enough for a long game of Stick In The Mud in the garden (thanks Mike!) With Pass the Parcel, and a treasure hunt around the house, plus the excitement of Ben's new bubble machine, they were more than happy for a couple of hours.

Saturday Benjamin and Samuel had an invitation to a birthday party, but when we got there, Sam decided that he couldn't cope with being the only small one in a group of 28 5 year olds, so opted to come to the pub for lunch with us instead. Benjamin stayed and had a great time!
Dinner at Pizza Hut as promised and another late night for the boys.

We had a lazy Sunday morning watching Finding Nemo and eating popcorn waiting for my sister and her partner to visit for "Auntie Weekend". They bought lots of presents for Ben and spent the rest of the morning playing in the garden with the boys while I made us all a roast dinner.

After watching the Grand Prix we decided that we would go out geocaching, as the rain had been very minimal all day. As soon as we left the house it started pouring and didn't stop until after we got back an hour and a half later. It has been a very long time since I have been this wet. But at least we did find the cache!


And then yesterday we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. As some of you know, for us that is a major achievement. Anthony took the day off work as we should have been going to Ben's Sports Day (cancelled due to the rain) so we spent a quiet day doing all sorts of things. I had a beautiful watch for my present, but as Anthony had bought it so long ago (Feb in fact) the battery had run down, so we took it up to Old Town to have a new one fitted and while we were waiting went to The Old Bank for coffee and the most scrummy chocolate muffins. I can recommend it, especially with little ones!
After lunch Anthony took Sam off to visit family and I got to spend the afternoon enjoying the company of Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner. Sadly not quite all to myself as 4 other people walked in just as the film was about to start, but it was lovely being in an almost empty cinema. Am I the only one who cried when Will died??

We couldn't go out for dinner, so shared a bottle of champagne with our pasta supper instead, and we are going to celebrate properly in Italy.

Its lovely to have so much to be thankful for and celebrate. Just wish the weather could turn a little more celebratory to match!