Fireworks

Yesterday we went up to the Neville Juvenile Bonfire Society Procession and Fireworks (bit more info here too). We were very excited because F's friend E was going to be in the procession, for the first time!

We had to have an early dinner, so I did chips and salad with burger or sausage. J wasn't up to coming as he felt rough with a coldy thing and coughing and general aches and pains. I just had time to take up the second leg of F's new trousers for her to wear, so I finished that quickly while we were digesting our dinner and watching Star Trek DS9 (episode Homefront - good stuff about paranoia and invasion and the weighing up of civil liberty against homeland security, etc.). 

Forgot to mention the clothes actually in Friday's post. That was what we did between Forest School and watching a film on Wednesday - 2 parcels of clothes had arrived that I'd ordered the previous weekend for F and she spent ages trying them all on (this is a first!) and saying how much she liked them (also quite new!). In the end I went for large (age 13 some of them!) and high quality warm clothes for her, from M&S and Boden, and spent a fortune in the hope that they will last 2 years... I was really delighted that she was so thrilled with them and I think we spent about 90 minutes with her trying them on in various combinations. Also for the first time in years she has 3 pairs of pyjamas, as opposed to mostly sleeping in her clothes, which she has been known to do quite frequently, due to her clothes often being quite sleepable-in (consequence of button phobia)! One of the pairs of pyjamas even came with its own little matching bag so all ready for next sleepover. 

The best item is this really warm jacket - it's so cosy, I want one.

So once I'd hemmed up the trousers and she'd put on warm clothes, off we went up the hill.

The roads are closed for firework procession nights, so once we'd got past the crossroads there were more and more people heading the same way as us, including the usual groups of young people chucking bangers and twirling ropes with lit ends, etc. Steered F well away from all that. Bought a couple of LED things for her as is traditional on these occasions.

As we turned off the main road, we watched the tail end of the procession go past and then headed up to C's house, then found C and co. at the corner of their road, waiting for the next pass of the procession. It was a perfect night for it, very clear with a bright full moon. Eventually, after a bit of a wait and various antics from young people further up the hill, putting bangers under a traffic cone and making it jump, the procession came our way. There was a Basil Brush tableau, featuring Basil working string puppets of Cameron and Clegg, and a Guy Fawkes effigy, and then a few rows behind we spotted E, walking hand in hand with her lovely grampa in their bonfire jumpers (green and white stripes). E was even holding a flaming torch and looked very happy! All very exciting. We waved and watched them go by, and then the rest of the procession, various costumes and musical instruments in different sections. Then C decided she could catch them at the other end of the road too, as it would be better to get a short video clip rather than just blurry photos, so she set off legging it along the road, with little D attached in baby carrier. F decided to go too, so I set off in pursuit as well. F did a much better job of keeping up with C than me. Then K and little M decided to come along too, but via their house to make use of bike and scooter respectively!

At the other end of the road, I suddenly found someone was hugging me - turned out to be an old friend, other K. We used to take our daughters to a very quaint Music and Movement class together about 5 or 6 years ago, was lovely to see her as had lost her number, so we had a quick update chat and swapped texts to save to contacts. Might go for a drink sometime in November.

Then we saw E go past again, hope C managed to take some video of it.

After that, we went back to C and K's and had hot chocolate, tried out their new reclining sofa and waited for E to come back and the fireworks to start, while little M tried to watch a bit of Little House on the Prairie in amongst all the hoo-ha. And toddler D showed me a toy elephant and did 'e' noises with it, and also pointed out K and said 'mama', which I hadn't heard before properly.

We were able to watch the fireworks from their house, which was great, the girls all sat on the windowsill and after a very long wait, the fireworks were absolutely excellent, the best I've seen up there. There were so many times we thought we must have seen the finale and one of us would say 'that's the end' and then there were more. Very happy girls and lots of attempts from all of us to describe the colours and shapes and general excitement and loveliness of the fireworks. D unimpressed and sleepy and would rather we had opened the pack of fig rolls that he had waved at me as we started up the stairs.

Eventually it really was the end and we whooped and clapped and could hear the crowd doing the same just over the rooftops a row of houses away. 

We finished up with giant sparklers and headed home, it was about 10ish by then. F stayed up till 11 telling J about it and then just hanging out a bit.

Other than that, all I can remember of yesterday is that we all played a few rounds of Big Brain Academy together and I had a nice bath with a bath bomb and a glass of ginger wine.

Today has started nice and late, and F is still in bed at 2pm, playing DS! She's pretty tired as she's been waking early a lot lately.

Not doing anything today, except cooking a nice meal later for all of us.