This latter half of July has been a funny old time. It started with me becoming a year older, not something that I usually get all that fussed about, but despite a bad start to the day itself I also had a lovely spread out series of celebrations and treats. Things certainly started to look up with the postman appeared at the door with a large box of treats from Bettys - with strict instructions on the outside that it should be opened straight away as it contained edible delights the postman looked disappointed when I signed for it!
Both Mr C and Little Miss C must have been busy on notonthehighstreet.com as a series of packages arrived from there before my birthday and I was lucky enough to open some wonderful presents on the day itself. The kind of nice thing that you never buy for yourself as you can't justify doing so, but that you look at in catalogues and online and think "ooooh that would be nice".
It's years since I've had any sort of a birthday "party" but something inspired me this year to just invite round a couple of local blogger friends and their families and happily the date chosen for a BBQ coincided with the start of the recent spell of hot dry weather. After all the rain we'd had amazingly we were able to sit out in the garden without coats and wellies and five children were able to explore the outdoors and we even had to apply sun cream to some of them. Having the opportunity to sit back and relax with good friends for an afternoon was bliss and very rare. My lovely, wonderful, thoughtful friends brought gifts with them too – a bottle of champagne to chill until Baby C arrives and a package of beautifully chosen items all with a sewing theme. Both gifts just perfectly thought out – thank you ladies.
Since the birthday celebrations finished there have been family celebrations of a different kind as my sister got married on Saturday. I was a (rather large) bridesmaid and LMC made an adorable flower girl. The recent period of hot weather meant that I'd finally been able to convince LMC that wearing a pretty dress was a perfectly acceptable thing to do and rather than walk down the aisle in jeans and a Peppa Pig t-shirt she instead wore a beautiful vintage-style print dress and looked adorable and scarily grown up. Apart from a complaint that the wedding service didn't include enough singing – hence a quick rendition of "wind the bobbin up" during the prayers – she thoroughly enjoyed herself and all the attention that all the other wedding guests gave her. She completely loved the dancefloor and even at one point grabbed Mr C and I by the hand and insisted that we dance together! It was lovely also to see so many family friends and family members, some of whom haven't seen LMC at all before and others who saw her last when she was just 6 weeks old. Much has changed since then.
Someone pointed out to me this morning that August starts tomorrow – quite where July has vanished to I wasn't so sure, but then sitting down to write about all the nice things that have gone on in just half the month makes me realise just how busy we've been and how much has happened. In addition to all this our loft conversion work has continued and we're even looking at the possibility of the main work being completed this week. There will still be things to sort – like painting and carpets – but it's actually feeling like the end is near and as my due date approaches I'm feeling rather relieved about that. The idea of not having my house full of builders every day is a very attractive one!
So that was July then. Roll on August – and hopefully a month full of completing things. And fingers crossed that Baby C agrees not to put in an appearance until everything is complete!
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