Wow, May this year has been super busy. Matthew celebrated his 6th Birthday, we had a sad unexpected trip back to Northern Ireland, I had two fairs, Jeff's parents came to visit and my sister got married. Also since I last posted, way back in April there was my sisters Hen Weekend and Matthew learnt to ride his bike without stabilisers. Want to see some pics?

April

Hen Weekend in Lymington.

Matthew learnt to ride his bike (this picture shows him practising on Callum's bike). When Matthew saw our 4 year old neighbour Joseph learning to ride his bike, it gave him all the confidence he needed to try it for himself. AND guess what, he picked it up within minutes!

May

We bought a trampoline for a joint birthday present for Matthew and Callum. It arrived a few days before Matthew's birthday and sat in it's box in the garden undiscovered for a day. Then the boys were off sick from school and it was spotted. I decided to see how far I could get with putting it together before Jeff came home from work. As it turned out I got this far...not bad for 1 woman?

Especially considering that this is what I had to contend with...

And after dinner, the enclosure was fitted and the trampoline moved to it's new home. Secretly, it felt like it was my birthday too, you'll often find me out jumping on it, even when the kids aren't!

Matthew's 6th birthday. We had a party for him at home on the sunday, the day before his actual birthday. The weather was lovely and the kids enjoyed playing on the trampoline, the swings and in the playhouse. AND of course you can't have a party without musical statues and pass-the-parcel. Nor, in my case, bunting and homemade party bags!

Matthew's birthday this year shall be remembered as the year of the Lego. He received 9 kits and amazingly they were all different - this made for one very happy kid, he loves the stuff.

The day after his birthday I helped out on a school trip to Corfe Castle. The photo below looks beautiful, but believe me it was very windy and cold up there!

May also gave us some sad news amongst all the happy events; Jeff's Gran died at the age of 89. When we told Matthew he was beside himself sobbing - he's a sensitive wee soul. An unplanned trip to Northern Ireland followed, although the reason for going was sad, it meant that we got to spend lots of time with Jeff's family which was lovely. We managed to squeeze in some time with our friends and the boys got to go to birthday party.

Matthew had Medieval Day at school. This time I decided not to make him a costume. I was simply too busy and with his birthday a week before there was the perfect excuse to buy him an outfit and accessories. This is him outside his classroom before he went into school. He had a great day, coming home with a gold medal (made out of paper) for his jousting! 

The same day I had a stall at Callum's Pre-school May fair in the morning, Matthew had a birthday party to go to after school and I had a wedding rehearsal to go to as well. Meanwhile Jeff was away for the day in a golf tournament, which he did very well in, winning the afternoon competition. All this the day before the wedding - thank goodness Jeff's parents (who had come over for the wedding) were staying with us and could help.

As for the wedding itself, you'll have to come back soon to read all about it!