Joy!!!! and some sadness too......

Yes this is a post of contrast in a way. Starting on Thursday when I got yet more scrapping done! Hooray! I love this LO, although I got carried away with the yellow-ness of it, hence the idea for a title! But it's so apt, Bella does look like butter wouldn't melt, she has the face of an angel and yet she's a demon inside!

On Friday we took the kids swiming for the first time in aaaaagggess. Because I work at Bromsgrove School I can use the pool facilities at certain times, so we took them there. It's a lovely pool and we had it to ourselves on Friday. This was the first time Bella had been swimming in a couple of years actually, and I felt sad as she was terrified. She clung onto me crying for a long time and it took ages to calm her down. She kept saying she was going to sink and die! Anyhow, it went well and they all had a great time. More on the swimming later..... Then on saturday unfortunately the crop was cancelled so we went up to see Jon's parents. The kids love seeing Nanny and Grandpa and they were super-excited! Now I do moan about my in-laws from time to time, well lets face it, they wouldn't be in-laws if I didn't now would they?! But I have to say, and this is hand-on-heart, they are truly the best in-laws I could hope for. And i'm not saying that because of their massive generosity and because of the reason we went up on Saturday (more later!), but truly they are great fun, the kids adore them (and isn't that the most important thing?) and they are also very thoughtful (I only have to open the pantry/fridge to find a selection of all the foods/drinks me or the kids have ever mentioned we like), but to mention many other things about them. Unfortunately my FIL was ill, but we still had a nice time. I have to travel back up on Thursday to fetch my............new car!!!!! Yes I have a shiny new sparkly car waiting for me up in Stafford, all ready to drive safely over to Germany in!!!

So, that aside....as MIL was at work and FIL needed some quiet time, we drove to Cannock Chase (Jon's parents live literally at the foot of the Chase with stunning views), and took the kids to the German Military Cemetary. I know it doesn't sound like a kids day out, but Cam is very into WWI and WWII at the moment and we like to indulge him since it's such an important subject. It was incredibly moving. We have German family (only by marriage but we are very fond of our German family and consider them much closer than I guess they really are, if that makes sense?), and in a way although that should perhaps have made it more poignant (perhaps?), it didn't because actually it was just so sad regardless of whether you are English, German, American, Russian or whatever. 5,000 men buried who died during war, and that should never have happened, enemy or not. Just acting under orders and during a time of killed or be killed. Some of them weren't even named. Just unknown. It's just tragic and it made all of us, even Cam and Maddie, feel very emotional. And not forgetting that this is still going on at this very moment around the world. It felt weird taking photos, but I wanted to. And I felt mixed about seeing Maddie running around. She wasn't charging, she was very respectful. But in one way it was so sad thinking that many of these men were young fathers. But isn't Maddie (and all other children of course) our hope for the future? And wouldn't these men love to see happy children running around?

So we left, and drove on. A true scrapbooker, i'd brought my camera, only left it at the house, and what should we see? Amongst the trees, right at the side of the road, with the sun streaming through, a group of ten or so deer all standing in a group. Not in the slightest frightened of us. Where was my camera???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we went back this morning, took some photos at the cemetary but didn't catch any deer. We see them all the time, they are often in Jon's parents garden, but I've never had my camera (and all those Sassafras papers at home too!!!).

We returned to the house to a glass of bubbles and the kids had a play in the garden playing a game which involved shooting Cam's plastic soldiers down with a hose and ending up completely soaked!!!

Finally, we got home to find in the porch a bag of clothes and shoes for Maddie, from a friend. Including, a brand new pair of Lelli Kellis!!!!!!! Maddie has wanted some for years and at £40 a pair, she hasn't been too lucky! She was so chuffed and Bella was so cross!!! Guess I'll be shopping for a smaller pair tomorrow!!! We went back to the pool today, Bella was great, loving it! We told Maddie to try diving and guess what, she did a full somersault on her way into the pool, first time (oh and I haven't shared my news about her yet, will do soon!)!!!

Sorry for the family-photo-heavy-post, I'll leave you now and get on with some more scrapping tomorrow :)

Thanks for popping by xxx