The day before Eric's birthday we had a BBQ in the garden. Amanda Persson, Claudia, since a month married to Magnus my son and Riza.
Eric was barbequeing his own sausages on his own BBQ.
Riza, Jennifer and Camilla (newly ordained Deacon) with her godson, Eric, hidden behind her.
Eric got a few gifts to open the day before his birthday.
Eric's birthday party has started. Steve Chipperfield and Alan Madden are looking at Eric.
Robin and staff tought the children how to make pizza in a wooden oven (behind Robin). Notice the pizza that Robin elegantly is throwing in the air.
Pizza making
Pizza making
Claudia, Magnus, Lewis and Ulrika
Ursula and Chris Shuldham-Shaw are flanking Angela Glanville to the left, while Alan is putting a protecting hand around his granddaughter Octavia.
Captain Sparrow is chatting to Ajoy, Clare and Josh.
Sophie
Abe, Josh, Eli and Felix
Captain Sparrow (he looked and walked and talked like Captain Sparrow in the movies) is together with his assistant entertaining the children.
The children are queuing up for pistol duels.
The duel is about to start.
Eric is blindfolded and trying to hit the bag.
His opponent, Richard, weren't so good.
and it became even more difficult, when they moved the bag. But Eric loved the cheating!
More fun
Even the adults enjoyed the spectacle. From left: Gary & Antoinette Beament, Kevin White and Richard Davey
Eric is blowing out the candles while Genevieve and Mama are overseeing it all.
Later in the afternoon we organised Lasertag shooting in the park.
The parents are watching the lasertag game.
Two of Eric's teachers, Amy Kerr, his present teacher in grade 2, to the left and Katharine Knott from Eric's year in reception to the right. Between them Katharine's sister. In the foreground Eric's classmate and good friend, Daniel.
Playing in the park.
Hiding behind one of the huge plastic balls.
The parents didn't hesitate a second to move into the warzone.
Ready for attack.
Goodentertainment for everyone.
In the evening it was videogames for those left.
Claudia, Eric, Magnus, Amanda and Mikee, who had come home now.
Claudia and Eric concentrate on the game.
...while Amanda and Mikee had a girlish chat.
Since Eric was born, we have every year arranged Eric’s birthday party combined with a summer party at Knightstone Manor. This year unfortunately Mikee was away with her school over the weekend but several of her friends were still present like lots of Eric’s. Altogether we were around 110 guests. Eric’s godmother Camilla came down from London newly ordained as a deacon (See Camilla’s ordination) together with Amanda, her daughter and we had a BBQ the day before.
Tradition is nice, but so is variation. This year we tried to make it a little bit different. Robin (from the Rusty Pig) came with a wooden-fired oven on wheels for making pizza and he taught the children how to make a nice pizza. And Captain Jack Sparrow appeared full of mischief and found a partner in Eric! Finally the party moved to the park as we had laser-tag fights between different teams.
My camera didn’t work properly (providing me with an excuse to exchange it to a new one) and overexposed all pictures. I have tried my best to rescue them, but I didn’t quite succeed, and in a few cases I thought it was nice to keep the image of a lovely day although it may not be up to standard.
Mikee came back in the evening and could join the overnight guests for a dinner and a game of video.
