"It is better to have burnt and lost, then never to have barbecued at all"

The sun being out makes all the difference to everything. The weather has been terrible this week and with Opeie and Mrs M being unwell we haven't done much and because of that i had no motivation to write a post. Today has been a great day though and has really made up for the eventless week we have had. After Seth's Tae kwon do class today we had a potter around the shops (where i found a Dr Seuss book for 5p, Amazing!) before heading to the park, both me and Mrs M had left our phones at home though so no way of getting any shots. After the park we did a little 'Meat run' as we decided today was going to be our first BBQ of the year (finally). I love a good BBQ and after cremating some sausages(it wouldn't be right if i didn't overcook something)...

And masking the taste with the good stuff...

We sat down to eat. I love being able to just sit out in the garden and enjoy the weather and the boys love chasing each other about.  I'm yet to get round to any of the weeding in the garden and i will continue to use our 'British weather' as an excuse for as long as i can get away with it.

After food Mrs M decided it was time to clean or pirate water table off ready for the (fingers crossed) great weather that is hopefully on its way. Opeie loves the water table so it was nice for them to finally get to play with it. We should really have put it in the shed after last summer but it had remained turned upside down on our garden table (which also should have been in the shed) all through the winter. Being made by Little Tykes though it made no difference because it scrubbed up like new and apart from a little fading the boys were happy and getting wet withing half an hour. This is the third summer we've had it and it's still going strong.

This year we decided that the pirates needed a Nemesis so Seth went off in to the house looking for suitable archenemies, he came back soon after clutching our Nuby Octopus which i thought fit in great. He may look cute but this smiley tentacle wielding bully managed to kidnap and hold Spider-man against his will.

It's been months since Opeie last had a dummy, he was never really that interested in them so our dummy case served as a great holding cell for our friendly neighbourhood Spider-man and could be suspended from the mast making their story that little more dramatic.

Spider-man was soon rescued though by the jolly pirates, the pirate table kept the boys occupied all the way up until we went out, we literally had to drag Opeie away from it. I think it will get loads of use again this summer (weather permitting).

Late afternoon we headed over to see Auntie Lotty for a few hours to make the most of the last bit of sunshine for the day. we went to the park, had a rolling down the hill contest and played an epic game of Ackee 1.2.3. It was a great end to a fun afternoon with the boys and Lotty had a great time too which is always good. Its lovely knowing we have such great family round the corner.

 Hopefully today's weather is the start of things to come (but i wont hold my breath). More importantly the sunshine has given me reason to start writing again.