A Winter Wedding

We were lucky enough to be invited to the beautiful wedding reception of an old friend Iain and a blogging friend Chloe (of naturallychloe fame) this past weekend. Of course, we were delighted to attend and had been looking forward to it for quite some time! Louie was so excited to meet little Ava.

After getting a little lost, we arrived at the beautiful barn venue. We were made to feel so welcome and immediately were shown to the sweetie bar. Chloe did such a good job with all of the decorations, it was truly lovely!

And then we got down to the main event. Dancing.
Louie had so much fun running around, dancing with various ladies. It was safe to say he charmed just about everyone in the room. Except maybe Ava. She seemed a little scared of him, poor thing.

The beautiful Mr and Mrs!

New best pals ;)

I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. My camera was playing a little silly. I think it may need a big clean up but hopefully it will be back to its usual self soon!

Thank you again, for inviting us. We wish you very well for your new married life! 

Calke at Christmas

This morning we had a lazy lie in, big breakfast and headed off to Calke Abbey for a day jam packed of festive themed things! We ditched our plan to visit the Cirencester Christmas Market as Papa wasn't so keen on traveling so far just for the day, and as our plans to stay over fell through, the line up at Calke seemed too good to miss out on.
The house and gardens were only limited, but they offered something different from the normal (lovely) property. In the house there was a tour of a few rooms which had been decorated for Christmas, the State Bed featured a typical christmas present for the lady of the house, and we also had a visit to the servants hall which hasn't been open to the public before.

Then we walked up the hill and tied our ribbons on to the wishing tree. A very sweet Christmas tradition.
After a nice warm cup of tea, we headed off to meet Father Christmas. Luckily we only had a little wait, unlike everyone else as the queue reached into the courtyard for the rest of the day!

 As you can imagine, Mr Bee was so pleased to meet the infamous Santa. He was so star struck that he could barely remember a thing! He asked Father Christmas for a scooter (which he has been asking for all year) and some books. He promised to leave Santa a cup of tea and a cake (because everyone else leaves mince pies), a carrot for the 'red nose antlers' and that he would leave his present under the tree so that Father Christmas knows that he has been a good boy. So very sweet! On our way home, Louie told us that he didn't much like Santa, because he didn't give him a kiss goodbye.

The Riding School held an afternoon Tea Dance for the children and what a wonderful party it was. Of course, running around ensued until order was restored with ballroom dancing, the hokey cokey and the biggest pass the parcel we have ever seen.

What kind of Christmas party doesn't have yummy mince pies?
Then the sun began to set and we started the Christmas Chimes walk, with a beautiful poem guiding us on Christmas trees.

Lights guided us to the church with beautiful candle lanterns lining the pathway, it was a beautiful sight to behold. The crescent moon came out and looked stunning through the trees.
A day full of Christmas cheer, we had such an amazing day, truly lovely.

A Birthday Party

Today, my beautiful niece turned two! We ventured up to the North for a day of celebration.
On our way, we visited Grandma Julie. We played on the big trampoline, what fun! They had funny fake grass!

Then we made our way to a local soft play centre, the venue for the party.

There was Summer, the birthday girl.

There was Pass the Parcel (you can't have a party without pass the parcel!)

There was cake and sparklers.

There were party clothes.

 There were new friends.

 There was lots of food!

 There was laughter (Nana and Poppa)

 There was lovely bunting.

 There was lots of mess!

 There were party hats.

 There was dancing.

There were lots of baby toes.

There were presents for the birthday girl.

 There were lots of things to play with.

 And there was the proud Mummy!

We had such a packed full day but it was possibly the nicest birthday party we have been to. Thank you so much for inviting us Dani, we wouldn't have missed it for the world. Here's to many more fantastic parties!