I think this is my favourite photo from the wedding we were at last night, although I am wondering if Sam is actually picking his nose!

We had a fantastic time celebrating Dennis & Lucia’s marriage with them; the ceremony was intimate and moving, and the reception has to be the most fun wedding reception I’ve ever been to, it was great. Just a few more photos:

I was supposed to be at Lola’s birth, guess it was rather dumb to then go on holiday and only come back within a week of her due date! Looking forward to meeting her later on today

In the meantime I thought I’d blog this as there will be no pictures from me, because my camera is stuck inside our camping trailer which we had to leave in Belgium (long story to follow for anyone who hasn’t been watching my Twitter!).

Stupidly proud of myself for having passed, and guess what, now I *still* have less classes on my licence than most of you! Anyway, phew, and thanks so much for all the good lucks and congratulations. I was praying hard and just to prove there is a God, there was hardly any traffic on the roads Thanks again to Andy Taylor of Taylor Made Driving (link link link!), I couldn’t have done it without him!

Saw why the test only has a 20% pass rate this morning at the test centre though. This young chap was in to be tested at the same time as me and I watched him try the reversing thing, which is pretty much the first thing you do. He reversed, turned, then pulled forwards three times, and you’re only allowed to pull forwards twice in the whole thing. So he failed instantly.

Later on it turned out that my instructor had talked to him and found that his company had put him in for the test with little or no teaching, and he’d never reversed a trailer before in his life! Couldn’t believe that a company would waste the test fee like that; perhaps there are people out there who could just pass it (we’ll see if Steve manages) but given how hard I found it, thinking I was a decent enough driver in the first place, I’d be surprised.

So obviously the low pass rate is more because people enter it before they’re ready to do it, or because they take it without really knowing what it entails (chap today clearly didn’t know he could only pull forward twice as he really didn’t need to drive forward when he did).

Anyway. Now I’m looking forward to Steve’s turn, which hasn’t been arranged yet, but it won’t be too long to wait.

Have leapt back into normal mode here (having been in zombie ‘can’t think about anything else but towing’ mode for the past few days) and done lots of catching up on housework this afternoon, there is more to be done but it will have to wait until later or tomorrow.

We’re looking forward to the party tonight!

edited to add – here are photos from the party:

We have had a varied day. Josiah’s been with Becca, who looked after him so that I could be free to be a juror if necessary. In fact I didn’t have to; instead I spent my day helping out with walking Anna’s school year group to the local High School for a day of sports and science, and then at work with Steve.

Anna had a great time at St. Luke’s, but apparently it hasn’t convinced her to go. Abbie had a good day at school too, and Joe had a fab time with Becca, doing a model kit that he got for his birthday as well as a trip to the park with his scooter in tow.

We were going to go to the Exeter Festival opening night but as it was raining heavily (on and off) we shelved that idea and went to Wagamama instead – Josiah has been wanting to go for ages – well, since it opened last year. Had a fab meal there and then came home to watch Stormbreaker, Joe’s birthday dvd.

The bad news is that my ibook’s screen seems to be dying. It’s been a bit dodgy for a while (someone bashed the back of it rather hard once and it’s never been the same since) but now it’s even worse and I can only use it when it’s open at a 45 degree angle, which makes life a little difficult. Not quite sure what to do about it either

And parcels arriving on the right day! Steve and I were worried that our present for Joe wasn’t going to get here but then it did

He’s had a lovely day, lots of presents this morning so a big thank you to everyone who got them to us in various ways (more photos on flickr). Have made time for lots of lego play between activities today

We went to Crealy and he spent a happy few hours racing around with another little home ed friend, then I treated him to lunch.

When we got home his parcel was here and he was really happy with a grown up scooter of his own, and went down the road on it to meet the girls from school.

We’re off out now to swimming and then taking Gizmo to the vet, so he’s having to come to the pool with us as well – should provide some extra changing room amusement! Steve’s dashing home to get Anna to ballet on time, and eventually we’ll all end up at home together later on.

We knew that Em was planning a Very Hungry Caterpillar party for Robyn, so when we spotted a caterpillar costume in town it was the perfect birthday present for her, along with a hungry caterpillar colouring book. The party was fab too More photos here if anyone’s interested.

And then some from when we gave Caleb and Elodie their birthday pressies. Their birthdays are both in May so we’d been organised, and then decided we’d like to see them open them – so glad we did as the presents went down really well and they both spent the whole day in their dressing up clothes

Of course Easter is a special occasion as well. We celebrated yesterday together – we had an egg hunt in the courtyard here, with chocolate eggs as well as plastic ones with clues to the Easter story inside (which my friend Liz had sent – and I have to specially thank her as everyone here appreciated it, it worked really well ). After hunting we went indoors and sat round the table to look at the Easter story clues, and then Dad read the Bible and we all tried to sing a hymn that only three of us could remember! (think Steve has some amusing photos of that but he’s not as sad as me so you won’t see those till we get home).

After dinner we went on a long walk from the farmhouse to Belstone Tor – didn’t quite make it to the very top before turning round to come back. Stopped for a drink in the pub at Belstone and then walked home again. Took us 3.5 hours altogether and Elodie walked most of the way too which was very impressive! Played Trivial Pursuit in the evening. In fact we’ve played board games most evenings which has been a highlight of the week for us so far.

Had a lovely day here while Em & Adam were trying to squash too-big furniture into a too-small house. Sun shone, we made lots of yummy cakes (which are being saved for our holiday!), and it was the last day of term, which is enough to make everyone happy here. Off for a week now, see you all soon