Royal Wedding and May Day

At the end of our extra long Easter holidays we celebrated the Royal Wedding and had May Day Bank holiday weekend away at The Kears. We had some gorgeous weather for our time away. We had some Kear family photos taken on the Saturday and enjoyed family time - playing in the garden in a make shift paddling pool with the hose! Great fun!


I love the serious expression on Samuel's face here! And Eliza's laughter on the one below!
Olivia, Samuel and I watched the royal wedding in our living room. We made bunting and union Jack flags to wave. Liv was so excited to watch the beautiful bride become a princess. I really enjoyed the whole thing too and thought the wedding ceremony was lovely. They used the same two hymns we had at our wedding - good taste!!
When Olivia returned to school they celebrated the royal wedding by inviting parents and friends to come and see each class dance an English country dance and watch the children enjoy a picnic on long tables like a traditional street party. They had all learned the words to Jerusalem which we all sang together. It was a simple yet traditional and fun way to celebrate the special wedding. I hope the memories stay with Olivia.

Olivia with two special friends.

Alfrick

We had a family gathering in Powick, Worcestershire during our Easter break. It was lovely to see lots of family and catch up with them.
We went to one of my most favourite places....it's a walk that we call the Alfrick walk, I think it's proper name is The Knapp Paper Mill. We've been going for walks there since I was a small child. Infact there are some photos of a walk we did there a few years back on my blog somewhere. It is best to go there in Spring (preferably bluebell time) or Summer time. Everything is lush and green and dripping with flowers. There is a little orchard,wild garlic, ponds, a river, a hill to run or roll down and woodland. If you are very lucky you may catch a glimpse of a darting kingfisher along the river bank. The place buzzes with wildlife and bird song.
It isn't a long walk, you may go and find it quite ordinary but I have such fond memories of being in this beautiful place with the people I love.

Family photo in the orchard
Resting by the river and chat, chat, chatting.
Playing and paddling
Olivia with her great Auntie Julie, 2nd cousin Amy and cousin Auryn
We visited great granny and grandpa, aged 98 and 97!!

Another family photo outside Julie and Ray's house
My cheeky boys!

Easter Hols week 2

The Easter weekend was spent with the Corbins this year. We had a lovely time together doing egg hunts, playing tennis, having the paddling pool out and enjoying bluebell wood walks....

Easter Hols Week 1

As I begin the huge task of catching up I hope I remember all the details which I wanted to include in these entries! Easter seems like such a long time ago!!

As was mentioned in the last post we had glorious Summer weather during our Easter break and we made the most of it. We had cousins staying at mum and dad's and so we had fun day trips and playtimes. Here are some of my favourite photos from week 1....

I always love finding a few branches and decorating our Easter tree with eggs and ribbons!

We had a great day at Twycross Zoo. The kiddies loved it and so did the adults too! Look at these expressions, would love to know what they were both thinking!


Samuel looking funny in a hat that is way too small.
Ice cream time!

We had all of the little girls from Liv's class over for a playdate. We did crafts, face paints, jumping on the Trampoline and a picnic in the garden. Samuel loved all the female attention.


I love this photo. Look at the concentration in making her first daisy chain.

Camping Fun

We had a super long Easter holiday this year - almost 3 weeks and we had lovely warm weather too!! (we are hoping it will come back during our Summer months!!).

We had a camp out in local woods the first weekend with Hans, John, Joshua and Eliza. It was great fun. We loved making a fire and cooking our tea on it! All was going really well until poor little Eliza woke as we were going to bed. She was really suffering with teething, so after a while of crying John took her home to bed and they joined us again for breakfast in the morning.





The kids had a blast!

The Joys of Spring

What an absolutely wonderful Spring we have had so far! It is always my most favourite season of the year and with all the unusually warm, sunny weather everything has come out so quickly and ahead of usual time.

We had fun at our annual visit to see the baby lambs (it really is me that is more excited about this than Olivia!). She had fun with her little friends in the barn whilst looking at the lambs now and again, whilst I cooed and aarred over the lambs.





We also had three bluebell walks with various friends and family members. I love being in woodland at this time of year when everything is bright fresh green.

Growing Boy

Samuel is growing far too quickly. He is nine months already and I can see the little boy emerging even though there is plenty of baby too.
We love this boy! He makes us smile and laugh. He can clap his hands, do the motion of wind the bobbin, wave goodbye, wrinkle is his nose, shake his head and make a lot of noise when he wants to! There is also a bit of a temper at times - I wonder who he gets that from?? It is really special to see the interaction between him and Olivia, they love each other.
Here are some photos from Christmas up until April of our little man, well not so little - he is a chunky monkey and is still not crawling as there is too much chunk!
February 2011, 'Horsey, horsey don't you stop.'

March 2011, happy boy.
March 2011, Ooh give us a kiss!

April 2011, Sunshine.

April 2011

April 2011, big smiles - can you see my tooth!