Friends and family

On Saturday we were invited to a family friends' house for lunch.  Since there were so many of us, the plan was that we would set up a gazebo in the garden.  It was so windy and it was very hard to put the gazebo up, and because the side panels of the hexagonal-shaped structure were all mesh, they did very little to cut the wind down.

We had a lovely lunch, there was plenty of food.  Despite the cold, we thought that we could take the children to the local park to help them burn off some energy.  So Alison's cousin Simon and I took their two, Isabelle and Alex, and Ethan and Owen to the park.  Here are all the pictures I managed to grab that day:

Owen on a bouncy rocking dog at the park

Ethan and Owen trying to balance things out

Later on, after we left, we headed back to Southampton where we were going to meet up with my sisters and their children.  I hadn't realized that I needed to book somewhere and so a last minute arrangement had us meeting at an Italian restaurant, La Fenice, in Eastleigh.  Despite all the children being tired from the travel, they played nicely while we waited for the food, and again after they finished eating. We all had a nice meal and it was nice to be able to sit and catch up.