Panto time!

Yesterday we had a great day out up in Rugby where my Mum lives. We met up with my Mum and Sue, and my brother, sister in law and nephew for lunch and then the English New Year tradition of a pantomime. For those of you who aren't familiar with a pantomime ('panto'), it is a play which is put on around Christmas/Nw Year time for families and filled with comedy, audience participation, singing and dancing. They are always based on a traditional story like Snow White, Cinderella or Aladdin (like ours was). The male characters are often played by women, and there is always a panto 'dame' who is a larger than life female character, almost like a jester but female, and is always played by a man. Yes, there is a lot of cross-gender stuff going on!

We met for lunch first and the kids enjoyed sharing dessert as you can see here. It was ice-cream and the biggest child portion of fruit salad I have ever seen! 

Uncle Rob trying to get the kids to look at me behind the camera but they must have 

thought I was above them for some strange reason!

The kids loved the panto and Lucy especially loved the singing and dancing. It was lovely to see her face light up as she first saw it all going on in front of her rather than on a TV screen. She and Harry were a little afraid of the evil magician character when he came on, and a few bangs and loud music scenes, but overall they loved it and I can see going to the theatre more often from here on in.

Mum is a biog theatre goer and often performs with acting and singing groups in that theatre and others locally, so she was very proud to take her grandchildren and introduce them to world of amateur dramatics. A lovely day out and another great reason for being back here in England....we were able to drive up to Rugby and meet with family within an hour, have a lovely time and be back in time for dinner :)

Today has been mild so despite the drab skies and spots of rain we made the most of it and took a long walk across the park from home and through the woods which Lucy loves to explore. We took in the playground halfway round and then headed over the hills and back into town for a yummy cup of tea and piece of Victoria Sponge cake. Perfect!

Couldn't resist including this picture of Lucy from Friday during our crafting afternoon. We did make some playdoh shapes and used a kit that Granny gave her for Christmas - foam fairies which you have to put together with glue after picking out their outfits, hair and wings. Lucy took it very seriously and made sure that each fairy co-ordinated and had everything in the right place. She's such a Virgo and so my daughter! 

After that was finished she emptied the entire contents of the drawers and then spread them out all over the kitchen floor and studied them, used some and then walked away and found something else to do!...notice her bum falling out of her trousers!!! :-)