"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Confucius
"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." Louisa May Alcott
So I left my camera behind where I had spent the day on Sunday and didn't get it back till Friday so this was a particularly not good week for photo of the day!!! Did take photos with school camera on thurs and fri though.
Monday 18th October
Tuesday 19th October
Wednesday 20th October
Thursday 21st October
The setting description created for the Oscars work. This wasn't actually a group in my room but a good photo to include!
Friday 22nd October
The winning Oscar from year 2 for our radio advert!
Saturday 23rd October
My birthday present from John to see Don't Stop Believing in Derby. Super duper evening.
Sunday 24th October
Back in bed feeling somewhat ill, but got Bambi with me :-)
This is one I was taken to for my birthday last year in the West End and I went again a week after my birthday this year in Oxford. I heard a lot of hype about when it was first coming to the West End and thought it was probably something I should be part of but didn't really get my act together. In fact, I never really make special trips to see specific musicals, it's more just that I am in or decide to go to London and look to see what's on to go to. Can't think what the last thing I deliberately went to see.
This outing was a birthday present from John. We had simultaneously become fans of the TV show Glee at the beginning of the year and used to discuss it together on our car journeys. At the end of the school year (and the day before John asked me out) he gave me a CD from the show. So it has always held a special place for us and I was highly excited to be given the tickets on my birthday for us to go together on the first day of half term.
We finished moving John out of his house and dropped some of his things off at his parents home (including the lamp on the left!), then he drove me onto Derby. A very nice theatre. We really weren't at all sure what the show would be like. It was called a 'tribute show featuring songs from the hit TV show and other gleeful songs'. We needn't have worried as it was absolutely fab. The cast highly resembled members of the TV show, but introduced themselves by their own names and didn't put on accents!!
Our seats were A1 and A2 so we were very close and could literally see the sweat flying off the cast!! There was a great selection of songs from the show (and some others) and we definitely left with that feel good feeling!!
Time to record about the big birthday double party bash!
My birthday was on the Thursday and I shared it with 3 children in my class - what are the chances??? So we had a bit of party excitement there that day. Last year my kids didn't know it was my birthday but I liked the fact that they did this year.
In the evening (after a lot of indecisiveness) I went for a meal at the Big Bang with John and family. Favourite restaurant!
Then came the hard work. Months ago I was thinking it would be nice to have a birthday party with board games and wondered if I could persuade John to have a joint party as his birthday is a couple of weeks later. And then we started going out and so I worked on persuading him!! For some reason, we decided that it would be a good idea to have two parties. One on the Friday night for work colleagues and one on Saturday night for other friends, one at my house and one at his house. Now I am glad we did it, but will never do two like that again, especially on consecutive nights as it was so exhausting - expecially during the day on Saturday as we were working at John's house!!
We had great fun making movie invitations. All credit to John, as it was his idea and I would never have done it, but am so glad we did! Somewhere along the lines, a board game party turned into a board game party with crystal maze theme. Here are the sneakily edited invites:
We had a really positive response to the invites which was very flattering.
So party number 1: my house, Friday night, 3 couples from school. Managed to rearrange the lounge so it looked nice and get everything set up beforehand and risotto cooked despite getting a flat tyre on the way home from school! Team Ed and Team Richard were picked out of the crystal ball and then the games begun. First up was the mystery round: Rapidough!
On events where not everyone was partaking, others could look through the 'windows' into the gaming area! Picked up from the school art room!
Round 2 - skill, jenga!
Round 3 - after tea and precake, bananagrams! I was delighted with the squealed response I got from 2 teachers when bananagrams was revealed!
Entering Medieval land - these were whisked out of the recycling bin!
Party take 2! John did a great job working so hard in the day to make his house look perfect. And I think it looked really lovely ready for a party (and so I took quite a few photos!)
We had help setting up in the afternoon too :-) and even managed to get a nice photo of just the two of us!
We were brought some lovely sparkly which was exciting and we opened during the pre-party mingling stage.
And these were the crystals that were up for grabs when you won a round:
And let the games begin... round 1, mystery, rapidough. Sounding familiar???
And next up, Jenga, with opportunity to watch through the windows!
Dinner time, not cooked by me tonight. A yummy vegetable curry.
And of course Judith was there too. Hmmm, I'm feeling hungry now! It's currently 13th November 10am!
And bananagrams for afters.
But what's this? A change? Round 4, physical, was hungry hippos tonight!
And then a bonus round of Uno Extreme, one of my birthday presents!
The winning team - don't they look happy!
And a lovely group shot - so pleased to have everyone looking so happy!
