Bonfire Night in L'ampton

We went down to the in-laws for my birthday weekend, which just happened to coincide with the Bonfire Parade! We had such an awesome weekend, I was spoiled rotten with gifts and a divine triple layer chocolate cake, a parade that went right past the house, a huge bonfire on the beach and a fire cricket display too! Okay, the last three weren't exactly in my honour, but I can pretend, can't I?

We went for a walk to the beach front in the early evening, the kids got to ride on a couple of the funfair rides. I just love the little guy's expression in this one.

Look how happy my big girl looks here, I can't believe she's turning six in a couple of weeks.

A friend dared to ride the Hellraiser. Yikes, it was fast. I tried shooting her as she came past, but I couldn't even see her. I took a bunch in rapid succession, and manged to get her in one!

The old steam engines are definitely the highlight of the parade. The sound of their engines chugging alone, the shrill toot of their horns, and the smell of oil and steam and metal...of course, getting stuck behind one on our way down to the coast was less fun ;-)

My husband pointed out the little guy to me...he watched the whole parade in this position, in absolute awe of it all.

The different bonfire societies from neighbouring towns and villages all took part, dressed up in a wide variety of outfits, from native American, to African, to traditional English...

...check out King Henry and his wives coming up behind Chaka Zulu!

The Morris Dancers are fascinating to watch, I love the way they dance and criss-cross.

Armed with cupfulls of pennies, the kids were carefully rationing them out between the bucket collectors. We have managed to go down every year since we arrived in the UK, it's a tradition I hope we can continue for many years still. Thanks Grandpa and Clauds and Uncle T, we had a lovely weekend!