Pictures speak louder than words

We celebrated Sophie's 11th birthday today. (Her real birthday is on Tuesday, but we'll be camping then, so it seemed better to have the celebration today, so that the whole day could be about her.)

Here she is, with Emily tucked up with her, before breakfast ... still my snuggly baby girls... (and, just for the record, every child does have his or her own bed...)





Last year we'd wanted to Go Ape, but Soph wasn't tall enough; this year, after putting immense psychic energy into the task of growing, she is just about exactly 1.40m, we could finally go!

And we had the perfect day for it today - blue skies and heat! Yes, actual heat! It got all the way up to 30 today (low eighties for the fahrenheit people). The forest was gorgeous and the climbing and jumping was fabulous; just what we needed.











We went out for lunch afterwards. The courtyard restaurant was lovely and food was absolutely amazingly delicious but the bill ... well let's just say it's good we enjoyed the meal because I think we spent the month's food budget.





When we got home, we played with one of Sophie's birthday gifts (Mario Kart for the wii; we're all pretty bad at it but it's tons of fun...





Then I baked Sophie's birthday cake. She requested brownies, and as the birthday girl, got first go at the mixing bowl.





I used the recipe in the book I keep talking about and it turned out delicious - though, as usual, not as pretty as their version.

Making a wish...




And then we started packing for tomorrow's camping trip. Looking at the time, today's trip, actually!




We'll be driving up to Scotland; home on Saturday! The rest of the pictures from Sophie's birthday are here; I'm very grateful that no-one was quick enough to take one of me the time I skidded through the pile of woodchips at the bottom of one of the zipwires on my bum. Just for the record, you should try to avoid getting woodchips in your undies if at all possible; it's not a pleasant sensation.