April

Ben's tennis is blossoming at the moment. He has been coaching the juniors at the tennis club (he earned quite a bit of money in the first two days of the Easter holiday). Michel said that Ben is one of his best assistant coaches, very enthusiastic and committed. Added to this, Ben won his first tennis match for ages on the 5th . It was a club match against Bromley and he and Dylan both won their singles matches convincingly and then won the doubles. All matches were won in straight sets, a really good start to the season.

Beccy's athletic season has started with an open meeting on the 4th April at Deangate. She competed in the 400m and recorded a time of 71.42 seconds.

The Easter holiday has gone by very quickly. We have done very little of note but had a few outings over the Easter weekend. On Friday we visited Dan and Helen and went for a walk in Hatfield Forest. Alexander entertained us with his babbling and laughing. It rained while we were out walking and his coping mechanism, being in the sling with no waterproof protection, was to go to sleep!

On Saturday we visited Richard and Emma and met their twins, Naomi and Ava for the first time. There is a vast difference between coping with one baby and coping with twins. The girls were really happy and contented and obviously used to their routine. We walked around Leybourne Lakes and then went back to Richard and Emma's for a spaghetti bolognese. We had a really relaxed evening and didn't leave until nearly midnight - hope we didn't deprive them of much needed sleep!

On Easter Sunday I set up a small scale easter egg hunt for Ben and Beccy which, despite their advancing ages, they seemed to really enjoy. I couldn't believe how hard it was for them to find all the eggs, even though every one of them was visible without moving anything. The egg hunt was followed by scout paper collection, then Dan, Helen and Alexander arrived with home made hot cross buns (with chocolate ones for me). We had all been invited to Marion and Alan's to see Brian's sister Alison, on a visit from Hong Kong, and his Nan who was 95 this week. A large number of his family were there.

From there we went to Sue and Colin's wood, near Rye, for a barbecue. The wood is quite remote from anywhere, has a variety of wildlife including wild boar, and consequently no facilities. There were spiders in the toilet tent and there was a lot of fuss about getting rid of them so that the children were not too scared to go to the toilet! Brian made a barbecue area with a couple of paving slabs, blocks and wire racks and we had a feast all spread out on a picnic blanket in the middle of the wood. Sue had even brought a burner so that she could make everyone a cup of tea. We had to pack up eventually as it started to get dark and, with no habitation around, it gets very dark there. (Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures but this is a good opportunity to do something with a picture from the last barbecue in the wood, for my birthday and Joe's birthday).

On Easter Monday we walked with Sue and with Nathan around Cliffe Pools hoping to see a lot of birdlife. It was probably the wrong time of year as we didn't see very much, although it may have been because the children were making a lot of noise.

We watched the film 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' all together on the 'on-demand' TV. What a sad film! Beccy and I had been reading the book but neither of us had finished it. It might be difficult to read it now that we know how it ends. Very good film, gave us a lot to talk about.

Beccy received two invitations for the Gifted and Talented presentation evening at her school. She was nominated for ICT and Technology and also for Performing Arts. Beccy didn't win in either category on the evening but it was an entertaining event, some good speakers, musicians and dancers. She was given a special mug with some sweets in on her way out so she was quite happy!

Other notable events this month:

Beccy camped at Buckmore Park with the scouts, taking a short break on Sunday morning to play a football match. She came home quite exhausted.

Both children marched in the St George's Day parade followed by sitting through the service in the cathedral. We managed to remember the money for the collection this year and I bought them both a bar of Fairtrade chocolate as a reward - they're never too old!

Brian and I went to a party at Matt and Sarah's. We haven't seen them for a few years and had the usual surprise at how George and Harvey had grown. Promised to keep in touch more often and hope we will. Life is always far too busy and I'm not sure of the merits of this but I'm quite happy the way it is for now - might suffer from exhaustion at some point though!

Ben completed his GCSE Art course with his final two day exam. Hopefully he will get an A overall for this one. His revision is becoming more and more important and he attends revision sessions in various subjects voluntarily.

Beccy is now sailing one session a week after school. She has done two sessions and seems to be enjoying it so far. She is training at the athletics club more frequently and will be competing at various meetings throughout the summer. She won player of the match and scored two goals at a match against London Girls and her team won a local tournament.