WOWS ABOUND

Camper heaven

This weekend was such FUN! Saturday morning Samuel had footy training, I took Christy for a run/ride from Chiswick Bridge to Twickenham Bridge along the river. She is SO good at running next to the bike on the lead! wow.
Then we went to an art gallery in South Kensington - just behind Harrods to see Banksy selling his graffiti artworks for £50,000-60,000!!! wow.

Love Rat by Banksy

Then we prepared our house and food for the first bbq of the year. We had over 5 families for dinner - 14 kids!! Unfortunately Jeff was away for the weekend and he is an absolute master at bbqing on the Webber and none of these aussie men could cook on real fire - whats THAT about?? wow. Anyway, everyone had a great time, it was so relaxed - last guests leaving at 10:30, it was 12 by the time I had mopped the floors...

Honey with her 4 sweet kittens

This morning we went to Rebeccas, her cat had kittens on Tuesday and we got to pet them today - wow! It was very sweet watching the kittens and petting them - with one finger only. The kids loved it.


On the way home we stopped in at Volksworld for the afternoon. The annual VW show - oh my, we had a really good time there, drooling. The kids spent their savings to add to their Vdub collection.

how is that side kombi side car??

Then when we got home we planted our first seeds, chillis, basil and cucumbers - to germinate indoors. This week we will also divide up the 4ftsq vege garden into 16 1ft squares and start some seeds directly into the soil. I think the last of the frost/snow is over...(hope).

On the equinox I bought us all a new pair of gloves for gardening and a bird feeder with a load of seed for the little blue tits and robins who are busy nesting now.


This evening we watched "My Little Sunshine", not exactly suitable for young kiddies, but its real life and we LAUGHED. Mainly because we could relate to the Kombi issues! hehe.

BOOK WEEK

Gandolf and Merlin

Today was dress up like a Dragon day, which was expanded to include princesses, knights, wizards etc. So, the boys pilfered our dress up basket and came out as magicians. Book week is such fun. They have several famous authors come and give talks and sign books, they have comedians, performers, ALL sorts of FUN FUN stuff going on this week. Event after event ...

Merlin and his knight in shining armour

MOTHERS DAY

Sunday we went for a bike ride along the river to Teddington. I hadn't been this way for years. We were supposed to get all the way to Hampton Court Palace, but it was just too cold. So, we stopped at one of our favourite river side pubs and ate instead. It wasn't a remarkable day, but it was good to get outside and active and fang around this bike track. A toasty fire and a 'warm ya to the bones' bath was required afterwards.

Project

On Saturday after footy training Samuel came to me and said, I want to do an art project - YAY I thought, get out the paintbrushes, palette etc. No, he said I want spray paint...At the side of our house, left over from xrta large xmas dinner table as been a peice of mdf. So, They went for it. Here is the work in progress.

RIVER RIDING

Today, we went to a baby shower and since Jeff was working, the boys and I decided we'd like a ride - in line with our using the car a whole lot less. So, we cycled - as soon as we left there was a down pour, followed by a beautiful rainbow! Unbeknownst to me there is a tow path along the river all the way. We cycled to Putney along the roads, a bit hairy scary with little Os to say the least, but we arrived with no major incidents and had a nice time talking babies and watching toddlers.

Then we cycled home along the river all the way, between 4-5pm - a lovely light time of day by the water. We had to duck our heads to cycle under the lovely looking hammersmith bridge. I think it must have been just after a super high tide as the path was super muddy, which was super fun for the boys - weeee, no concern for getting covered in mud whatsoever.

We stopped at a pub for a drink and arrived happily home -What a fun adventure! Its funny, when the boys are enjoying their cycling - they sing!

handsome boy is growing up

DONKEY KONG AND SWEET

3 weeks ago we got one of those notices through door saying we need to go to the post office to pick up a parcel that is too big for the letter slot. So, yesterday I found the mislaid notice and went to collect this mysterious parcel - oooh, we love surprises! Inside was a christmas gift for Oscar from Switzerland, these 2 characters: Donkey Kong and Sweet.

Donkey Kong (the character on the left) has a little bag inside him full of cherry seeds. This bag can be removed, heated and apparently cherry seeds hold their heat for a looong time, so the soft, cuddly, little guy is also warm!! SO much more cuddly. I don't think he has been put down since he was picked up!

Oh, I've just been informe that "sweet" needs a mention, he is super duper soft and being a tiger, he is also extra special.

Thank you Swiss Family Robertson!

xx

WELCOME TO SPRING

Today mother bird woke up earlier than the chicks. You know how the chicks always just get up early and the mother bird lays in bed, feeling like she needs SO much more sleep? Well, today was REALLY weird. I woke up at 7am, bright and chirpy and there were no chicks around for another hour! It felt like this was the first time in 9 years! - I can see that looking after my body, taking vitamins, excercising and going to bed earlier is having me wake feeling alert and fully refreshed - yay! Maybe I'm just coming out of hibernation, as the days get longer and warmer. But it felt weird to be up earlier than the boys and I can imagine it becoming a trend as the chicks turn into teenagers and I have to d-r-a-g them out of bed.

Speaking of Chicks, we can feeeel spring is not far away. We've had 2 blue sky days in a row, sure there was rain all night and early this morning, but the joy of a cccrisp blue sky day is sooo worth it. We enjoy special days with blue skies so much more because they are so rare. With spring in mind and daffodils, crocuses, snowbells and bluebells all out at once!? Normally they take it in turns between February and April but this year, they are all fighting for attention and it feels too early and still too cold for them, especially the daffs. So, we are thinking we'd like one of these.

An Eglu, perrrfect for the city, we could have organic chickens keeping out garden free of too many bugs AND we could get eggs! I also secretly think a beautiful white duck, just like my childhood Pheonix, because ducks eat slugs and snails which ABOUND in our garden, though I think ducks are more messy and don't just stop at slugs, they eat flowers and veges too.

Also we are thinking about one of these fabulous playhouses! Oh my, its times like this, we wish for more money, Can you imagine having a fort like this in our back garden? Me thinks Grandpa needs a project when he is over this summer...