On With the Party

And what a party it was! I can tell you it was a huge success, without abandoning my natural modesty, as I, Bris, only played a small role. The success was all thanks to my lovely friend Yvonne and her willing band of helpers.

My role might have been small but the gateaux I cut up certainly weren't!


As you can see from my first picture, I really had to put my back into the task of cutting the gateaux as they were still well frozen (we weren't joking when we said we got there early).

Henry and Chelmer came in to admire the food table once we had loaded it up.


What you can't see, however, are the tonnes (or so it seemed) of steaming jacket potatoes and the vats of very spicy chilli to be served with them. It was hard to wait until the end of the service.

Although Henry and Chelmer hadn't helped with the food they had done a great job with helping decorate the hall and the decorations really helped create a party atmosphere.


We all thought the 75th birthday balloons were really cool. Even so they were surpassed by the fantastic entries in the children's painting competition (they had to paint the church). They were so good that it was really hard for the Bishop to choose a winner.

Talking of the Bishop again, he was kept very busy. Not only did he have to judge the paintings he had to cut the birthday cake which was in the shape of the letters 75.


We were going to help Bishop James with the cutting, but when we heard that two ladies were present, whose father had built the Church, it was of course only right that they should help with cutting the cake. We had a chat with the ladies and learnt lots about what the Church was like when they were girls. It was one of the best history lessons we've had for a while.

We will certainly remember this birthday party for a long time to come. True we had some lovely food and enjoyed the bubbles from the Bucks Fizz going up our nose, but the thing that really made it, was the great atmosphere and all the chat and laughter. We like spending time at Hindolveston as there is a great community spirit.

Lots of love, Bris, Henry, Chelmer and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Celebration 75!

We were all up bright and early this morning in order to be over at Hindolveston in good time for the celebration service and to help with the last minute preparations. It's been a busy and exciting day, but it's all over now, and we've got time to relax and start telling you all about it.

A lot of work had gone into preparing the service of celebration and it came off really well. The church was comfortably full and there was a good buzz in the air. The Bishop of Lynn, Bishop James, gave an inspiring talk (with very few notes - Bris was impressed) on the communion of saints, focussing on legacy of the past and our potential for shaping the future.

The highlight, however, was the village's drumming group, Trix 'n Stix, who performed a piece written especially for the occasion, called celebration 75.


Before the service Henry and I (Chelmer) helped Ronnie, the group's leader set up the drums. As you may recall from previous posts, I am a drumming bear so I couldn't resist having a quick go. We tried out 2 set of drums, but there were far more types that we've got in our pictures.


Not only was the drumming foot-tappingly good, there was a chant for everyone to join in with. Half the congregation, led by our friend Paul (who you can in the picture below), rapped out a loud 'ceeeeeellll-e-brate' while the other half, which included us, ended each 'celebrate' with a loud shout of '75!' It worked really well (and proved the church is not a stuffy and dying institution) and even the Bishop joined in and seemed to enjoy it as you can see in our next picture.


We took a movie clip on our camera, so we could share Celebrate 75 with you, but we had forgotten that our movie clips don't include sound! so there's nothing to share.

While we were busy helping with the drums before the service, Bris was helping with the lunch preparations in the hall.


As you can see, he did a great job and we'll tell you how the party lunch went in our next post, so keep reading.

Lots of love Chelmer, Henry & Bris xxx