Easter Holiday activities in Dover

On Friday I took Mum and the girls down to Dover for an overnight stay at the Chick-Burton household, along with Matthew and Liz and their kids.  There were quite a few memorable events, including:

• Amazing work ethic demonstrated by the older kids and many of the adults who built garden beds, organised stuff off to the tip, mowed and trimmed, burned off garden rubbish etc.
• A family home evening about Easter led by Liz and involving a treasure hunt for items that related to the Easter story
• Noodle fights in the front yard (Sam and Lewis were scary, but didn't seem to actually hurt each other)
• Face painting - seriously hindered by Hannah who wanted to hang off my elbow - most children wanted to be Easter Bunnies in various pastel shades, sorry to those who didn't get painted this time.  No photos of fresh painted faces in my collection I'm afraid
• Bike rides, beach visits and playing at the park
• Tears over who got to travel by what method and with whom (little cousins wanted to be with big cousins)
• Kids decorating and eating Easter biscuits
• Kids learning how to hand-make chocolates
• Bethany's amazing blackened feet after she helped out with the bonfire wearing her crocs
• Trying to get 17 people to sleep in a shed with no walls, a mosquito zapper that kept noisily executing bugs, a printer that self cleaned noisily and Granny sneaking in and out in the middle of the night
• Pillow fighting with Granny
• Leila and Beth harassing Liz and Matt (who were in bed) and getting tickled 
• Forcibly removing the mattress from under Liz and Matt to get them out of bed on Saturday Morning
• Teaching Hannah to wee on the grass, when she wouldn't use the environmentally friendly (waterless) loos on the premises
• Driving Hannah to the local park toilet (she did offer to poo on the grass too but that wasn't quite as acceptable)
• Hannah admiring (and chasing!) the chickens
• Sophie admiring and patting the white horses across the street
• Making and eating mexican food for dinner
• The Biggest Pavlova I have ever seen, decorated with cream, cherries, blueberries, frozen raspberries, chopped up fruit bars and shredded coconut
• Leaf weaving by Liz and Mariah
• Leila hiding under the table so she could play Bethany's DS without being detected
• Matthew having to lie under his car and manually fiddle around with the starting mechanism every time he wanted to go anywhere
• The long, late night drive home

Thanks Libby and Tony.  I'm putting together a web album to link to this blog, so check your e-mail for the link: you can add your own photos to it if you like.