A Birthday and a bike hunt.

The Sunday after we came home was Lydia's second Birthday. We went to our Daughter's after the morning service at church, and we gave Lydia her present, she opened it, and it was a hit! It's a Fisher Price happy house and can be quite noisy. We had a lovely lunch,  then after a while most of us dozed off.  Eventually our Son in Law took the children to the park, then we had tea. Lydia was quite excited by her hedgehog cake. After tea the children went to get ready for bed as it was late, so we came home.

unwrapping the gift

Waiting for Granddad  to put it all together

Here comes the cake

Nathaniel is impressed

Blowing the candle out 

On the Monday a lot of my time was spent sorting clothes, washing, and stocking up on food, and we had a roast chicken for our evening meal. On the Tuesday I wasn't terribly organised,  I saw the Doctor in the morning for a problem which had worsened whilst we were away. Then collected the newspaper. I wanted to go to Watford. Before we went away I had bought Lydia and outfit for winter, and had forgotten whilst away to look for something for the boys. We didn't go till the afternoon. I found them both an outfit, then we were going to walk to a cycle shop to look at the bikes. As we approached the road where the shop is, we suddenly saw that it was cordoned off as a crime scene. I couldn't work out how to get there by car, so we drove to another shop, couldn't work out where to park, we stopped at a petrol station to fill up, then drove back along the road, spotting the small car park too late to turn into it. I said, 'Let's just go home'. Later I looked up the incident online, and discovered someone had been stabbed, that is why there was a cordon and police  everywhere, in broad daylight too!
We had the children on the Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, on the Wednesday, Lydia was napping when we got there, I had left a pan of soup cooking on a low heat, fortunately it was ok when we got back,and I had a large bowlful. There was plenty for the next day too, it was one of my 'use any old veg from the fridge' soups, Cauliflower and bacon. Nathaniel decided to watch some Thomas,  on the Thursday and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open, in fact I may have dozed a little.
On the Friday, I said I would like to visit a cycle shop in Berkhamsted. So we drove over there after lunch, we had a browse in the garden centre, they have their Christmas decorations on display,all very pretty, but I think I have enough. Then we looked in a couple of shops before finding the cycle shop. It was smaller than I imagined, and they had Raleighs, but mostly for children. I asked and was told ' We could probably order it for you'. I said 'thank you but I'm still undecided which colour, and wanted to see them again.'
We split up and went each to our own favourite shops, meeting up in time to go to the antiques/retro shop together. Then on the way back husband said he wanted to go somewhere else, I ended up I M&S cafe, sent him a text asking if he wanted coffee, then got no reply. Just as I  paying for my tea he arrived. No problem, we ordered him a coffee, and sat with our drinks before doing the weekend shopping in the store.
 On the Saturday morning we put on our walking boots and went for a walk through the local 'village', up towards the hotel. We were surprised at how little building has gone on on the redevelopment field, there are as yet no completed houses. We wondered why the delay. I don't think that the local primary school will cope with a large influx of pupils. The trees were not as spectacular this year, some still haven't turned, others have had their leaves blown off in the high winds which we had. We came along the path through the golf course,over the railway bridge We called in at Sainsbury's for the paper and other oddments, and were home in time for a late lunch.

A rose in the churchyard