Baginton Party in the Park 2012

As part of our busy lives, Mr Bogert is a member of the Baginton Events committee who last year arranged the very first Party in the Park.

This year they aimed to make it bigger and better, and they did rather a good job.

Mr Bogert slept in 'The Spaceship' on the Millenium Field on the Friday night as security. He ctaully took the Small Person with him for a mini adventure and she was super excited. She went to sleep no problem, but at about 1am I got a phone call "Can I bring her home? Now?" It seems she woke up and then couldn't go back to sleep.

Saturday morning we squeezed the Small Person's dance class in then rushed back for the event which started at 11am.

I painted the kids faces before we left the house because, to be perfectly honest, we can't justify £3 per Small Person for face paint. It was difficult though. I had no black! Just about every single design you can think of involves black in some form or other. Enter the saviour of the day: my liquid eyeliner. Not the easiest thing to draw with, but it did the job. I also didn't have any thing paint brushes, but we got there in the end.



Zacky's Dragon - Raaaaarrrr!!!!!



Alexandra's Flying Butterfly

We had told friends about the event and ran into some of them there. I met an old school friend that I haven't seen since school, the Small Person blew bubbles for Little Miss T, Zachary's friend.

We listened to the brass band and watched the dance school perform on stage.

We also watched the dog agility show with Auntie Charlotte and Uncle Anthony and their dog Suzie. Mr Bogert and the Small person even took her around the agility course (without much success!).

Auntie 'potato salad' Heather, Uncle Andy and Auntie Heather's Mum met up with us and we watched the tug of war which my cousin and my Dad were both in. I hen got handed a camera as Mr Bogert decided to lend a hand. The facial expression crack me up!

My Dad and his partner were running a tombola stall and my sister was selling cupcakes and cakepops. My cousin was helping out on the Rugby Club stall. Mr Bogert was busy lending a hand where he was required and taking all of the official photographs of the day.

The kids had lots of fun playing on the fire engine and trying the helmets on.

Mr Bogert's Mum came along with her friend and took the Small Person off for a little while to go on the bouncy castle and some stalls. I took the opportunity to finally make it around to the craft stalls again. I was a little disappointed there weren't more stalls, but supposedly there should have been more and they just didn't show up. I could have spent quite a few pennies on the stalls that were there though. There was a lady who had some lovely knitted items and the price she was selling them for was so cheap! I couldn't believe it considering the time and effort that must have gone into the lovely things she had. Zacky had a knitted teddy bear (who he takes to bed) and it was only £1.75! If I'd had a few more pennies in my pocket, I would have bought a few more things. Alexandra did go back to that stall later with Mr Bogert and bought a similar bear for herself.



The Smaller Person with the two knitted bears later in the evening.

There was a petting zoo that we never even made it around to for the simple fact that every time we started to head in one direction, we raninto another friend or neighbour, which is not a bad thing mind you. It's lovely to see so many familiar faces out enjoying themselves.

AND we actually had decent weather! The weather we had been having was awful! Even the night before it absolutely threw it down. One of the roads on the way to dance class on Saturday morning was flooded. The field actually drained quite well so it wasn't boggy (Except near the one entrance) and it didn't rain all day. I do think ho the weather had been affected how many people chose to come out for the day - it still looked a bit uncertain.

The bad weather came just after the day event had finished and the change over was being made for the evening, but almost as though it had been ordered, it cleared up well before the evening event started.

We sat (we being me, the Small People, Auntie Heather, Uncle Andy and Auntie Heather's Mum) inside the big event marquee that had the craft stalls in earlier with a couple of other groups. The committee had hired a huge stage for the event and they started with Mr Ben, a cover band who were brilliant. As they played more and more people filtered into the field. The food stands and beer tent kept running right through, so instead of the Chinese (like we had last year) we had burgers from one of the stands run by the village shop.

After Mr Ben, there was Espressivo, a quartet of singers who were also very good, followed by the Spires Youth Orchestra who played in the firework finale.



Mr Ben



Espressivo



Mr Bogert on camera duty chatting with one of the other committee members during the performance.

It turned out to be quite a lovely evening, with weather good enough to sit outside. The Small People did not tire and did not get grumpy. The Smaller Person did actually fall asleep in his pushchair just close to the end of the evening meaning he missed the fireworks, but he'll get to see fireworks over on the field in November for the annual village bonfire :)