The weather is not flash today, a good day for mooching around at home. The kids brightened things up with a good old fashioned gingerbread smash! After a moochy start we headed to Maldon for a roller skate .Then headed to the promenade for a seaside walk along the estuary .The children had a great play at the adventure park,then ice creams at the seaside store. Then back to stock for a quick late lunch before Lynn and Stacey and her children Connor and Ruby came over for a catch up, Which was great. The children had a lot of fun playing and on the tramp. Glen. A rubbishy day was easily made brighter by strapping on roller skates! We went to a nice quiet rink where we could give it a good go with not too much of an audience ... and in the grand scheme of things we weren't too shabby. The U.K. Lovewells made it look easy, but to be fair they'd been recently. Daniel found it hard - he finds blades much easier - but stuck with it and by the end was away. Gemma found it easy but didn't risk getting too flash. I was, let's call it 'cautious', but by the end could skate around at a respectable speed and I didn't fall down, so I was happy! The dads were supervising... After that the weather had cleared some so we took Poppy the dog for a walk at Promenade Park. The kids played in a pirate ship play area, and we watched a boat race while wandering around with ice creams. There was a cheerful bustling atmosphere. A bit of extra time was spent at the end playing ball with Poppy, while Glen and Paul were knights in shining armour helping a family change a very stuck tyre! The evening was spent catching up with Glen's cousin Lyn and her family, and Uncle Charlie. The ever generous UK Lovewells hosted a lovely dinner, and much conversation about the differences of era and country of upbringing was had. All the kids got on really well again, kids are so great at finding commonality despite age and culture differences. By the end of the night they were thoroughly exhausted by exuberant games. The whole household crashed as soon as heads hit pillows, much sleep needed before another adventure tomorrow! Robyn