Somehow the CHEF sports day got missed out last week (I think i was too busy being steamed up about the LEA visit!), so I’m going to blog it now, then fiddle the date to get it in the right place 😉
It was a stinking hot day and we were late because of waiting around for aforementioned LEA meeting, then picking up K and rushing over to Cherry Hinton Park – still haven’t found a route which feels sensible! – in a boiling hot car was not a good start. We got to the car park to find that there was one beautifully shady space left, all the rest being in full sunlight, but that we could not get to it because of a bin lorry parked in the way! Decided to get everything ready before unstrapping children and fortunately by the time that was done and we had waited and grumbled for just a few minutes the lorry was on the move and we could get to the space. A few minutes well spent, it turned out later!
The sports day was great! Really laid back, with Chris doing his usual combination of fun, enthusiasm and just enough scariness to keep everyone on the hop :mrgeen: J joined in with everything (except for one wobble when an activity seemed to need a partner and he was sure nobody would want to be his 🙁 ) and generally had a whale of a time, K joined in when he felt like it and L wandered around trying to be like the big boys and girls – and also spent a fair amount of time riding an enormous bike (rather bigger than her!) and actually getting it moving 😀 I, meanwhile, was able to have lovely chats with real grown-ups under the shade of the trees, enjoying a cool breeze – definitely a good place to be on such a hot day.
Once the organised activities and the picnic were over we bowed to pressure from the children to move across the park to the paddling pools, where Helen and I paddled in the shade, chatted and tried to keep our children more or less covered up and/or in the shade. The ice-cream van did a brisk trade 🙂
The boys and L paddled and swam in tee-shirts and pants, so when the time came to go we were able to just pop off wet underwear and put on clean dry pants, trousers and socks – which L and K promptly soaked by going back into the pool while I was getting J changed *groan*
Then we made our way back to our nice cool car (see – those few minutes waiting for the space were well worth it!), with a minor detour into the woods, a brief pause to rescue SB from a tree, a couple of arguments as to how long was reasonablt play when each extra minute playing meant about 10 extra minutes in traffic on the way home… the usual sort of thing really 
