The ceremony itself was at the Orleans House Gallery and passed off very smoothly. Emma got a laugh when she asked rather loudly ‘can you pass me a book please?’ just before the service started. At least she was polite! The gallery has some nice grounds for the kids to burn off some energy in and thankfully the rain didn’t come to anything. Duncan seemed particularly taken with the classic car in which James and Emily departed.
The festivities then moved to a hotel in Richmond. Once again, the children were well catered for in every sense of the word. When I came in from parking the car on the hotel front lawn (!) they were nowhere to be seen. I eventually found them gathered round a bald guitarist playing amusing takes on nursery rhymes! Then, at the meal, the children were given party bags much to our dismay as we had explained to Emma earlier in the day that you only get party bags at children’s birthday parties. Still, they were a welcome diversion during the speeches (for the children that is!). The food wasn’t bad either. Duncan particularly enjoyed the massive bowl of ketchup that came with his fish and chips.
The children then enjoyed racing around outside under the instruction of Granny Sue and Uncle Ian until it was time to come in again for the dancing. We finally left about 10 o’clock and, not surprisingly, it wasn’t long before Emma and Duncan went to sleep in the car. Thankfully they both transferred in to their beds without any fuss when we got home and everyone even had a reasonable lie-in the following morning.