![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jude.hanlon.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/iphone-20110116-007.jpg\" "\\"glammed")
<\/a><\/p>\n..and somehow managed to not pull faces for the camera.<\/p>\n
Some atmos shots from the party…<\/p>\n
my men…<\/p>\n and the fabulous cake<\/p>\n click to embiggen – it’s worth it! Joel was angling for the angry birds piece, but I think someone else whipped that one. And by the time Daddy was acquiring cake he was in no fit state to be identifying Angry Birds through napkins…<\/p>\n On the way down we stopped at the services. I don’t think this picture makes us look like bad parents, do you?<\/p>\n To be honest, they were fascinated that under 18s weren’t allowed in the area where the slot machines were. Especially when a little boy wandered in there, and apparently triggered an announcement saying “Only over-18s are allowed in this area. If you are under 18 you must leave immediately!” I think that’s when they took up prime viewing position to see if anyone else was told to leave…<\/p>\n The following day, on the way home, we took this bridge (worth every penny of \u00a35.70)…<\/p>\n …to Raglan Castle, which Steve and I went to in the autumn, but as we’re English Heritage members of more than one year’s standing, we get free entry.<\/p>\n We like this one. It’s huge and very ruined because the owners were on the losing side in the civil war.<\/p>\n I went a little bit hipstamatic crazy – sorry about that… I love the 4th picture here, which captures Joel mid-explanation. He’s telling me that he thinks the big hole (probably foundations\/cellars) was probably a garbage dump as there’s a bit of garbage left there. Didn’t really have the heart to correct him.<\/p>\n We played hide and seek, starting with finding Daddy, then Mummy, then Joel wanted a go. When we started counting, he shot off over the bridge and headed up to 7 storeys of spiral staircase up to the top of the very tall broken tower. He got very disappointed when we stopped him, and henceforth insisted on him being accompanied by a grown-up for hiding. Which had we thought about it, was an obvious rule really. Heaven forbid he should be anything but dangerously adventurous…<\/p>\n So we ended up with a trip to Ikea (which is what we would have been doing, had we stayed home – I like to think of it as a win-win!) – both Wednesbury and Warrington as the first one didn’t have the shelving unit we were after.<\/p>\n And now back to work, to relax!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, instead of being boring and dull at home, we went to a friend’s surprise 40th birthday party in Bristol. The theme was James Bond so we all glammed up… ..and somehow managed to not pull faces for the camera. … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n