A chocolate overdose, some croquet and a winner!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break? It has been surprisingly relaxed here, the calm before the storm maybe with the cricket season imminent.

As all the children are now off school (all three finished on different days!) we've managed a few lie-ins and cups of tea in bed. This coming week Little Miss has 4 mornings of gymnastics (9am start in Norwich) as well as her usual 2 evening sessions - boy she'll be worn out! And then the second week number 1 son is on a cricket course for all 5 days so it'll be a busy couple of weeks - just call me the taxi driver!

However this Easter weekend has been lovely, the weather not too bad for us in the
 East of England. The odd flake of snow coming down but mostly sunny; it has been bitterly cold towards the end of the day though.

 

 

 

On Sunday we went to friends for the annual Easter Egg hunt which is a fantastic event for lots of people, all of whom take lorry loads of chocolate! Number 1 son chose not to join us mainly because he was having trouble actually removing his dressing gown and putting one foot in front of the other! (Lazy-itis at it's best!) We contributed four eggs (we're a bit tight!) and then the children were locked in a darkened room while the adults scattered the eggs far and wide. Little Miss had a plan this year as the eggs are often hidden in the same places year after year so her main aim was to climb the rope up to a high branch where there is usually a golden Lindt bunny.

 

 

However what we did not know was that this year they had added a treasure hunt for the older kids and
Little Miss managed to almost scupper the whole hunt! She scrambled up the rope, right to the top but was a bit puzzled to find an envelope and not a chocolate bunny - she had to scramble back up and replace the clue before the teenagers were released!

 

We did find lots of chocolate though, collected in straw hats issued at the start, some were in trees, some under leaves, a few stuffed into molehills!

 

We also ate a few on the way around the fields!

Some furry alpaca watching the egg hunt!

As described last year there were the usual assortment of eccentric people gathered for the hunt - it makes people watching a bundle of laughs! The lady who always greets me like a long lost sister was there, she threw her arms around me and said how lovely it was to see me, she also greeted my husband by name; we still have no idea who she is!
The man who in previous years had arrived wearing a ladies fox fur was noticeably absent but the pianist who has a nervous twitch was there once again.


After the egg hunt and obligatory football match we played "crazy croquet" but by that time (6pm) it was pretty chilly and our fingers froze to the mallets! The crazy bit was that the lawn was lumpy and bumpy with added fir cones and rabbit holes - good fun though!


Our haul for 2013!

 

 

 

 

But now onto the giveaway I promised to mark my 1st anniversary as a blogger. Thank you for all the comments, all names were put into the Easter bonnet to be drawn by Little Miss.

 

The prizes I chose to giveaway may not suit everyone but they reflect a bit of me (because I love to read) and a little bit of my family - with a connection to cricket. The first book is this



I read this a few years ago after finding it at a jumble sale. It looked interesting and quite funny, I was attracted to it as the author was Harry Thompson who created the TV shows "Have I Got News For You" and "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" amongst others. But I loved it. A super read and you only need to know the tiniest amount about cricket (I know virtually nothing!) it involves a cricket team who endeavour to play in every continent of the world, something I'm sure my family would love to do - imagine I'd have to watch cricket in Australia, the West Indies, India, oh how difficult that would be! The writing is superb and I even bought it on audio book for us all to listen to in the car! It made me roar with laughter more than once and also cry more than once, it's so well written. I was reading it one day at a junior cricket match when the Mum sitting next to me, who at the time was studying the match with a rule book on her lap, leant over to ask me a question. I suppose she knew I had spent most of my life at cricket matches and she could see I was reading a book about cricket so she assumed I knew something about the game! She said "I'm sorry to appear stupid but would you mind telling me if the boy over there is standing at silly mid on or square leg?" Unfortunately she was not impressed by my reply of

 "hmmmm, I think he's a fielder"

She never asked me a question again so at least some good came of it!

The second part of the giveaway is this

A children's book by Tom Blofeld. Tom lives not far from us and, along with a friend, has developed a children's outdoor adventure park where the characters in his book live. Bewilderwood is a great place for a fun day out and we can walk to it! The vague crickety connection is that Tom's Uncle Henry is a famous cricket commentator on BBC radio, known as Blowers.

So I hope this makes a giveaway the winner will be happy with, I have added a couple of other things too, please feel free to pass the books on if they're not your cup of tea!

 

So without further ado I will announce that the winner is Justine!

 

I must go now there are several Cadbury Caramel eggs with my name on.... but don't tell the kids!