Birthday, baking, bouncy castle and busyness

So, still 2 weeks behind! On the Sunday when the family came we had quite a good day, except for no one being able to take a decent nap, apart from Lydia, and delayed naps leading to no one being ready enough to go to the evening service, so we had tea together, lots of nibbly bits from M&S, their feta and pepper in rolled up filo being especially tasty. I think Daughter enjoyed the break from cooking and 2 extra pairs of hands to help cope with lively children. Son in law's attempts at a nap were disturbed by his son insisting on going up to the spare room and chatting.
On the Monday, I walked into town to buy a Birthday card and a cake for our Daughter, her husband had said he would try and make a cake, but I thought, if he didn't get around to it....
Tuesday was our Daughter's birthday. We went up there, taking the cake and her present, a book, The Blue Door Venture, another in the series by Pamela Brown, which I had loved as a child, with a few bank notes interspersed in the pages for her to spend on something she likes. Son in law had made a cake a lovely chocolate cake with a ganache filling and topping; for the uninitiated ganache is pure chocolate mixed with cream! It was decidedly better than Nat's attempts at baking! (and it put the M&S offering n the shade!)

We were all ready to go out, but there was still the question, where to? I had looked up places to visit in Hertfordshire, and one that came up was Knebworth. A stately home and gardens, with a children's play area. I mentioned this,and apparently daughter had also looked at it, so Knebworth it was.
We piled into our respective cars and headed off for Knebworth. On our arrival we parked near the play area and decided to walk up to the house, quite an uphill hike. Nathaniel is at the awkward stage when he quite often doesn't know what he wants, so after a while of walking he began to be awkward,and one minute it was,'Want to ride in the buggy', immediately followed by, 'No buggy want to walk'. this rather slowed some of us down, but eventually we reached the House and the barns where the cafe was.
We were going to bring a picnic, but son in law's purchased picnic offerings had been  deemed unsuitable, and we were pleased to see that the cafe did a lovely variety of food. After our meal, we browsed the gift shop, then walked through to the gardens, and the dinosaur trail. We found the maze first, and all managed to find our way around it, Nat running excitedly with some older children, he obviously couldn't read the 'no running' signs. Then we did the dinosaur trail, but didn't feel we had enough energy for the woodland trail too.
Back in the gardens, daughter taught Nat the joys of rolling down slopes.  I went looking for husband who seemed to have disappeared, then I found a gap in an ornamental hedge, which led to another garden, then another. I felt a bit like Alice going after the white rabbit, but eventually I caught a glimpse of husband at the end of a fourth or fifth garden, and caught up with him. We both said how amazing it all was.
We found the family,and began the walk downhill to the play area. Nat was a bit young for Fort Knebworth, but there was lots more to play on. I was casting envious glances at the zip wires. Later I saw 2 mums, probably in their 40s having a go. Wish I'd had the courage! We sat with drinks in the under cover picnic area, then later had an ice cream. We also watched Nathaniel bouncing like a kangaroo on the bouncy castle.

'prehistoric' creatures

rolling down slopes

hidden garden

Birthday girl

s

Knebworth house

Centre of the maze

The family

One of the many tree sculptures

 sitting on a crocodile

scarey dinosaur

Daughter's plan was to go to a Pizza place, which also did salads,but she decided it was too early. So we went back to her home with the intention of going to the local pizza place later. Unfortunately Nathaniel fell into a deep sleep in the car in the way home, he was put to bed, but later couldn't wake up, so we had the birthday candles, and ordered a takeaway from the pizza place. They only did one salad, and there were dough sticks with it so it wasn't ideal, I just didn't eat much of them.
We had  a bit of cake for afters, then came home, Nathaniel slumbered on.
On the Wednesday I overslept, so skipped my WW meeting, I did the usual Sainsbury's run, then later that day caled in on Daughter. apparently Nathaniel had awoken at midnight, and his daddy had given him some food as he hadn't eaten since lunch.
On that Thursday I hired a carpet cleaner, I'd been promising myself that I would clean the carpets for a couple of years. It was a rug doctor, and I'd forgotten how heavy they are to use. I did the sitting room in the morning, the later did the hall. Friday I hoicked it up then stairs, did the landing and the visible bits of the carpet on our room, then came down the stairs with it. It was hot heavy work. you wouldn't believe the colour of the water which came out. Later, I went over the heavy traffic area in the sitting room and was quite pleased with the results.
So Saturday we had to return the carpet cleaner, then into town for our usual Saturday shopping trip.
Sunday was  a fairly normal Sunday. On The Monday we went up to Daughter's and helped her get ready for a trip to the big garden centre, where we had lunch. There were not many plants, I was looking for something to fill gaps in my front garden pots. We still managed to spend too much, we bpught a rather nice 'double shepherd's crook' for holding hanging baskets, bird feeders etc Husband commented that the garden is now is full that the only way is up!
On the Tuesday I set of to buy a couple of things in Sainsbo's, saying as I left, 'I won't be long'. Ha! it was one of these days when I bumped into 3 different people whom I haven't seen in ages. The first whom I have known since our Daughters were at school together had been very poorly, having had a brain tumour then a stroke. We shared an office for a while when I worked at the hospital.
The rest of last week wasn't exciting, I spent time in the loft looking for something which I must have thrown away, discovering other things which  had thought I'd thrown away. I say in the loft, but I was actually perched on the ladder twisting round. I found the storage from some old bedding had split, so I ended up washing 2 double blankets, I single duvet, and an old bright orange 'eiderdown' bedcover. I definitely need to start a new charity shop bag. We visited 2 more local garden centres, where I found reduced bedding plants,and dahlias,and husband found the stuff he needs to keep the water in the water feature unsullied. I also began to cut back the raspberries. As we walked into town on that Sasturday, I started to get back pain. My disc was playing up, probably I've been overdoing things again, humping carpet cleaners up the stairs, and twisting round on the loft ladder.
I really do need to learn to ask for help sometimes. There I'm almost up to the beginning of this week.

fuchsia hanging basket

back garden border

water feature

New dahlia