Pam's Visit over Jubilee Weekend

So many fun and exciting things happened over the weekend. Primarily, though, my very close friend from Columbus, Pam Sabo, came to visit and got to meet Ellen.  We met 13 years ago while living in the dorms at OSU.  Pam, married with two boys, Dominic (9) and Ethan (7), was able to give advice to us new parents and offer support by holding Ellen when nothing else would do. She arrived on Friday, 1st June and flew home yesterday morning... it was a fab 5 days together.

On Friday after unpacking and giving me wonderful presents from her family to mine, we went into town, had lunch at Poppy's Tea Room and walked to The Quarry, the park along the river.

On Saturday, Giovanna turned 1 year old!  We were invited over to the Marshall's to celebrate with a BBQ with their family.

Ross, Adriana and Giovanna Marshall

Gio's birthday cake that Adriana baked

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend started on Saturday, so on Monday we had a group from our church over for afternoon tea.  Luckily the weather was nice enough we could all sit outside.

Lots of typical tea party foods - cucumber sandwiches, biscuits, scones with clotted cream and jam, various cakes and snacks.  I provided strawberry and blueberry shortcakes for a red, white and blue theme.

The group

Pam holding a sleeping baby

On Tuesday, we drove to Chirk Castle in Wales. "Completed in 1310, Chirk is the last Welsh castle from the reign of Edward I that's still lived in today. Features from its 700 years include the medieval tower and dungeon, 17th-century Long Gallery, grand 18th-century state apartments, servants' hall and historic laundry."

Ellen's first time in a castle!

After visiting the castle, we ate lunch in Llangollen, but were only there a short time as it had started to rain.

Us with 10-week-old Ellen

So comfy on Daddy