Birthday celebrations

No, not anyone in the family, but Orchid Vale (Ben's school) and Swindon Scrapaholics.

Friday was the school's first birthday, so they decided to celebrate by having a small party.

We were treated to a video of the school's year - the kids looked like they loved every minute of being in school, and the best part of the whole year according to Mrs Kalynka (the head) - playing in the snow. The whole school went out to play and then came back in for hot chocolate. How great is that?

After the video, the school choir gave a lovely performance of some very difficult African songs. Being my son, Benjamin is part of the choir, but I was surprised to see that some of his friends were missing. When I asked my friend Emma why her son Jack wasn't singing, she said that the whole choir hadn't taken part, only those specifically chosen by Miss England (deputy head, choir mistress and Ben's class teacher). Proud mummy moment number 2 of the week!

After the singing we all went outside to the story chair, next to which a very deep hole had been dug - big enough for one of the nursery children to fall into! Into this hole the caretaker, a child from each class and Mrs Kalynka put a time capsule containing work from each class. The idea is that it will be dug up in 10 years time for the next generation of pupils to see what life was like at school then.

We all traipsed back to the school hall for birthday cake & drinks, but had to wait while the local papers took pictures as we had some "celebrities" come to cut the cake - 2 Swindon Town footballers, who have children in the school.


As well as the celebrations, a new piece of artwork was unveiled in the reception area. Every child that was in the school at the end of the first school year made a mosaic tile and they were all put together to create this glorious piece of artwork.
Benjamin's tile is the one on the top row surrounded buy turquoise tiles.

It was a nice afternoon, and a lovely way to celebrate the school being a year old, especially for those children who had been there from the start.

Saturday was another day of 1st birthday celebrations, this time for Swindon Scrapaholics. There were lots of challenges, some gorgeous stash to stroke (and well let's be honest to buy!) from Scrapajack and of course cake to be eaten!

I had a great morning sat next to Jools (thanks for all the inspiration) and I actually managed to get a LO finished, thereby completing Sandie's sketch challenge. And here it is - the first layout I have completed in a very long time! Just a shame I couldn't stay for the whole day - those jacket potatoes smelt wonderful as I was leaving!