Party on

Whoa, what a weekend! So much partying and booty shaking!

In the last couple of days we have been to a teddy bears picnic party to celebrate a friend's fourth birthday, a camping party to celebrate a different friend's fourth birthday and a surprise party for a friend's fortieth. Three totally different parties, three totally different groups of friends, three fantastic occasions.

Miles and Hermione were exceptionally taken with the camping party which included copious tents, bunting and a bouncy castle. Activities involved searching for bugs which had invaded the campsite (thankfully just toy ones) and dodging strong winds and driving rain - all in all an authentic camping experience which was great fun - particularly from where I was standing under the gazebo with a glass of wine in one hand and a hot potato wedge in the other. My kinda camping. There was also a lucky dip tent full of balloons and gifts which went down a treat.

The fortieth surprise party was such a laugh. A group of local home ed friends got together to plan a surprise for one of the mums. We thought about going out for a meal one night but then one of the mum's offered her home and the services of her husband - how very generous of her! Her husband happens to be a fabulous chef (that's his proper job, working in Michelin Star type restaurants) and he rustled up a wonderful feast of Indian food followed by the squishiest most divine chocolate brownie injected with vanilla baked cheese cake to follow. There was much talk of arm pit hair, (whether it is or isn't the way to go - with women sitting on both sides of the proverbial fence), how best to knit or weave a hot tub - that is if you can't find a suitable large plastic container and also five rhythms dancing.

Today we headed into town to partake in the 'Quiet Riot' which basically involved a whole load of people listening to their MP3 player and dancing on down in the street to their own groove. It was good. Following that we watched a variety of performances to include a street dance group, a fusion of ballet and bicycles, a flamenco dancer with a life size puppet and maypole anarchy. Two of my friends and one of Hermione's friends were in the maypole dancing. I wish I had their community spirit and energy. One of my friends in particular has been involved in quite a few scratch community theatre and dance performance. She's a star!

Off to crash now with some courgette soup.