Birthday and Dedication weekend

Well it's been a really busy few weeks. My poor husband is working like mad preparing for his CFA exam. 

It's this financial exam which he spends 9 months preparing for. It's a truly evil exam which has 6 300-500 page textbooks in it's content and you have to memorise around 250 formular for it just to name a couple of the evil things about it! Unfortunately it means that around this time of year we don't see each other a lot as he works 2 hours before work and 3 hours afterwards. 

However the 2, 6 hour exams are on Saturday so for two months there is no CFA yay! 

Unfortunately I've also had viral gastroenteritis so it's been interesting to try and balance everything! 

Anyway last weekend it was exciting as it was my birthday and Nemo's dedication at church (a way of welcoming a child into the church). 

We went up to my parents for the Friday and Saturday as my sister and her husband from N.Ireland came over. On the Saturday I opened all my presents, I was a very spoilt. Here is a summary but by no means an exhaustive list of my presents:

 

My husband made good use of a sale in m&s (so proud of him!) 

And yes he did buy me stickers and a baby wooden toys because they are cute!

And a basket!!!! I love baskets, I'm a bit addicted to them :)

And finally my hubby went shopping at www.strayjewellery.com (amazing jewellery with free p+p) and got me loads of things but here's a couple of my favourites:

Little tea cup and tea pot :) 

A little owl pocket watch necklace- how sweet! 

 

My brother and law and his wife got me this beautiful locket.

My sister and her husband got me lots of clothes and two extra scarfs (because I always need more whatever my husband says!) 

This is one of the lovely tops they have me 

They gave me my presents in this bag though- I really am a big kid! 

My mum and dad got me a deckchair go the garden, I love the stripes and how old school it is. 

Here's a picture of it wrapped up!

They also gave me a new crochet book and a massive pack of soft dk crochet wool that will keep me going for ages!!!

I've started crocheting granny squares for a bath mat. 

So the weather having been gorgeous the weekend before was terrible on my birthday so we decided to go to Lincoln for the day. Unfortunately on the way we encountered what promised to be a huge traffic jam so we diverted to a place called Southwell. We had some tea and cake in a cafe and then went round he charity shops. We picked up some good bargains including these posh ties for my husband at £3 total:

We then went to the park with Nemo whilst he rest of the family was cultured and went to a World War exhibition at the local cathedral. 

Daddy and Nemo enjoying playing on the  swings. 

A really blurred picture of the local squirrel eating an acorn.

Then there was an massive outpouring! After the rain trailed off we continued in the park using a nappy to try and dry off the slide! My sister took photos so I will have to steal them from her. We then used the nearby assault course (for children) for our own competition. We must have looked a sight, 6 adults doing this childrens assault course, it was very serious with rules and time trails! 

We finished the evening with a Home made Thai curry and birthday cake!

So on the Sunday morning we traveled down to Briatol for Nemo's dedication. Of course 5 minutes before we were due to go up Nemo decided that he wanted a feed and having borrowed my sisters dress for the occasion which didn't allow for easy access I had to bribe Nemo with breadsticks and rusk. This did mean during the dedication he was dropping bits of rusks all over the platform in the front of church! Again my family have the photos. 

Afterwards we went to a local cavery with my parents, sister and brother in law, my husbands mum and my husbands god parents. I made a cake for Nemo (a blue iced square cake with his name as a wooden train on top). You can see that Nemo enjoyed it! 

It was a lovely but tiring weekend so we spent our evening just relaxing at home, such a lovely weekend :)