Today my parents, sister and I travelled to Leeds to attend the final ever service at Meanwood Methodist Church which has been our family church for many years. Weddings, christenings, funerals, Sunday School, Scouts, Brownies – all sorts of things. Friendship and family, love, fun, worship, memories beyond measure.

It’s slightly strange attending a funeral for a community building – the same bittersweet emotions as any funeral except you have to stand inside the perfectly healthy, living building and say goodbye to it anyway.

I took this photo after the final service finished – it hurts thinking those pews will never be full again.

Monday means MDanz for Tori & Arthur and this week they had pom-poms. Yes, I joined in. It was awesome.

We’ve lived in our house for over a year now and whilst I was in Leeds Caius finally transferred the pile of pictures in the front room onto the stairway wall. And my guitar too. It was lovely to come home to and makes me smile whenever I see them – I especially love the canvas of the Smalls when they were small.

Caius randomly suggested taking the kids to the park after school – then I discovered he had his mini quadcopter in his pocket and realised there was an ulterior motive 😉

Singing Simba stopped singing. We fixed him because we all love Simba.

Tori has apparently been working hard on her handwriting and remembering her finger spaces – I’m very proud of her.

Today we went to Birmingham for an ‘adventure’ – we took the train because the Smalls have been begging to go on a train for ages. We didn’t really have a plan and it turned out to be a great day of window shopping, exploring, food and discovery. We visited the gallery and museum and then headed into the library. If you haven’t been to the Library of Birmingham then go. I want to live there, it is amazing. As is this photograph of Artie & Caius I took there whilst we were sat watching random people playing Ping Pong for free in the library basement level outdoor amphitheatre. (I told you the place was awesome.)