STOP PRESS: sunshine!!

OK,  I don't want to jinx us or anything but this is the second day in a row where we have had sunshine for more than a couple of hours in a row. Summer, perchance? We wish it had been around last weekend when we had our very old friends (from Adelaide days) John and Jenny visit with their three kids. Luckily we decided to do our canoeing down the Cam river on the Saturday when it was at least half decent weather. Sunday we went for a walk downtown and then to the Fitzwilliam Museum before freezing in the park. The canoeing was fun - you have to wriggle between the punts (the flat wide boats with a person up front pushing with a long pole) as you meander along with the impressive college parks and gardens on either side and the occasional bridge overhead.
Coming up: this Sunday Brendon will take Sean to another birthday party while Finn and Katherine are off to see the Jubilee airshow at Duxford. It's less than 6 weeks before we leave so have started planning our France/Spain trip at the end and a trip to London to see the Thames river pageant on the Queen's jubilee weekend.
Here we all are last weekend in town and one too of Sean (Finn wasn't so keen to pose for Jen!)

Photos from Finn's camp

What do you mean, I'm going the wrong way?

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I've just heard that Mum has raised the age for me to get a DS



What's that gurgling sound?

Whose brilliant idea was this camp anyway?



Finn, you rock!

Finn did not drown, pike out or die from the canteen food (which he described as disgusting!) at his school camp (Wed-Friday this week). He did get a bullseye in archery, get covered in mud on a blindfolded obstacle course, make a raft and then race in it, rockclimb and sail. His new friend got cross at him and the other boys in their room for being messy and preventing them from winning the tidiest room award (perhaps we should have warned him about Finn and tidy...).
    Hardest thing was going to sleep at night in the pitch black (that's how the other three boys in his room like to sleep but it made him scared and then he couldn't sleep). Other than that, it sounds like he had a grand time, particularly at the talent night where it sounds like there were some real class clowns performing.
   We met him at the car park at school and we all had an icecream before coming home to his favourite dinner of ham and pineapple pizza and then the boys set to with their new Lego sets.
   Three cheers to our little man for having the guts to go off into the wilds of outer Cambridge and spend three days and two nights with a bunch of kids he only met a month ago.
   And three more cheers for our littler man for going off on the school bus without his big brother. He was busy looking after his friend Heloise.

Legoland

For many English tourists, the stately raised walls of Windsor Castle are the great landmark in this area of England. But for just as many others (most of them, admittedly, not yet in their teenage years) it is the plastic yellow walls atop another hillside not far from the Queen's ancient castle that make their hearts race with excitement. At the sight of the sign for Legoland, parents will have a slightly different reaction involving a sudden contraction in their back pocket as their money leaks steadily out.

After a drive of a few hours involving a bossy sat nav system and a curious route by most of the inner west of London, we arrived on a bleak Bank Holiday Monday at the Legoland Hotel carpark. Giant Lego figures guard the hotel entrance and the foyer is tucked under the prow of a massive Lego boat. As you enter, you see a pit of Lego being swarmed by small children. Behind the long reception desk is a collection of what must surely be all the Lego minifigures ever made. Row after row of the little icons take up the entire wall. A discreet giftshop tucked into one corner gives absolutely no insight into just how much Lego we will find for sale within the park later. We head up to our room. We missed out on a premier room (where literally everything is Legoed from the sheets through to the curtains) but still there is a box of lego waiting to be made and creatures made of Lego all through the room, which is themed Adventure. Off to the park!

The park is huge. We spent almost two days and still managed to miss quite a few rides. The most amazing part of the experience is the vast array of statues made from actual Lego. Finn and Sean are on a camel outside the Raiders laser shooting ride (above left)  and the life size knight and horse above can be found outside the massive fake castle within the grounds.




Finn making a Lego racer. The boys then got the chance to race against each
other and other kids on a small racetrack.

 


 Duck ahoy! A silly duck made out of Lego.

 

On the second day, we had more rides and fun and also had another turn in the massive Big shop making our own minfigures. What fun! And of course with Daddy away in Oxford that day, the boys managed to con Mummy into buying them an extra set of Lego each. It was a wonderful adventure.