Stonehenge and Cousins!

It's been a very busy week! On Monday we took students to Stonehenge and surrounding areas, which meant I was out for the entire day.  It was a lovely day for me because I've not actually been to Stonehenge before, and it was a treat to go with some of my favourite students.

Whilst I was doing that, Rich and the boys met up with my sister and her family. They had a lovely time wandering around London, ending up at the Tate Modern, which has a huge space that's ideal for kids to run around!

This is Avebury, which has a stone circle and lots of lovely sheep and lambs.

Here I am in one of the ancient stones...

And then at Stonehenge.

Meanwhile the cousins were getting reacquainted at the park (while it was dry!).

The next day was a free day for me so we all went to the Natural History Museum. Again, I've not been before and it was a phenomenal place - even the building itself is worth a visit.

Raf was a bit scared of the dinosaur exhibit at first, but he ended up liking it. His very favourite thing was the escalator through the planet and then 'experiencing' an earthquake!

That's a big one....!

Outside we met a sort of unfriendly robot!

And then to Wagamanas for some noodles. Rory adores his little cousin Charlie. And Charlie was really getting in to the noodles, and he even tried the chopsticks!

Aunty Melissa looks after Charlie, which was really nice for me as I got to eat lunch without Charlie throwing food all over me!

Raf was unsure of the noodles but he did love the tofu.

Favourite Uncle Sam!

Melissa and I were booked in for tea at the Ritz. Much to my dismay, though, she cancelled it as it was going to be a very late tea... Not to be derailed, we did head for a still fairly posh cream tea at Selfridges, and Charlie came with us while the other kids went to a toy shop with Rich and Sam. Charlie very much enjoyed his first tea, and even had a sip of mine.

I should also mention that I did share a nice bottle of Rose with Melissa at All Bar One, which helped make up for the Ritz! Whilst there the kids were sort of crazed. At one point they disappeared downstairs to the loo, and a man came up asking, 'are those your children?' We were all set to deny this (fearing the worst and that we'd be charged with neglect) when he said, 'they're simply delightful'!

The next morning Melissa came over and we headed to the park for one final wet soggy walk. 

And then to warm up the older kiddos watched some TV together on the iPad. Amazingly there was no real argy bargy! We'll see them again when we return! Lots of wonderful memories.