A boot-nic in the park-ing lot

It's one of those rare days I'm glad it's cloudy. It's been hot as the proverbial hades the last while and rain has been hard to come by.
After a few days of respite, and thankfully some rain, we are enjoying a day out by our great river, the Thames.
Bugz is doing a 20k in prep for a marathon in October and the kids and I are soaking up some less strenuous activity, Amber on skates being towed by Saz on her bike.
Lunch is in the boot of the car partly driven by a ravenous Sarah and partly by expedience - the full picnic layout just doesn't mix well with mobile kids.



A sinful tri-dog bun (complete with bird) followed by oodles of more righteous fruit.

I shall enjoy the coolth of the weeping willow I'm currently perched under for a bit more and then re-engage hyper-mode with kids.



Peace.

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Baby Q

Luvly braai being had, new baby Q in action, would love to add some family and friends!



-- Post From My iPhone

Summer's Day in Spring

After a decidedly chilly week, Summer just exploded in Reading this week-end.

Today called for a picnic outside and makeshift umbrellas:

 

 
The girls on the trampoline:

Shpring trying to take hold

Against the tide of an undecided mother nature, spring is finally coming out. Brilliant to see and hear dozens of bird species in the woods just beyond our fence. We've been feeding the local squirrel families, and there are often 3 or 4 in sight at a time.

At the park with the girls at the moment and it looks glorious.

Location:Worrall Way,Earley,United Kingdom

Inside casa del Wood right now.

Dinner is being served to recently showered, swum, arted and schooled squabbling kids. No diningroom table just yet... As you can see.

Smile everyone!


Still to do homework, submit an assignment before 10 tonight and prepare for a meeting between 00:00 and 01:30. High speed snooze an then begin tomorrow!
Peace


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Amber’s 8th

For some months now Amber has been counting down the sleeps till her big day. First on the agenda was what to ask for – this took some serious thought, and eventually distilled to a list of Hello Kitty items.

She got the Hello Kitty, doll thing for Christmas and has developed something of a craze about all things HK. The Build-a-Bear workshop in Reading is where the purchase was made, and they have a massive selection of clothes, furniture and accessories. She chose the kitty, stuffed it, chose and gave it a heart.

Since then, she’s spent hours on-line making a list of all the clothes and other HK things that she’d like to add to her collection. So, from all the family all she got was Hello Kitty stuff. Clothes, pyjamas, slippers etc AND a chair!

Amber wanted us to hide all her presents so that she could have a treasure hunt in the morning.

Sadly, or maybe, predictably she woke up the entire house at 4:30 in the morning and came through to us very excited. Sarah was NOT amused at being woken at such a horrid hour, rolled over and went back to sleep. Amber was too excited to sleep in her own bed (no we were not going to do presents at 4:30 in the morning) so she spent the next 2 hours or so in our bed as still as you can imagine.

The party at The Mad House was at 12:00 and about a dozen friends from school joined in to wish her a very happy day.

All played out, the girls finished off the party the way all good ones end, with snacks and cake!

Once home, there was the wearying task of unpacking more presents… no more Hello Kitty dictates here though.

Happy birthday Amma!

Halloween…

So the night finally came, the kids have been in and out of their scary kit for weeks in anticipation. It really is the first Halloween of any significance we’ve experienced, and it seems to be quite an event.

We stocked up on the candy, gutted a pumpkin (or 3), and though we were out most of the evening at the fireworks show, we still managed to serve a few trick or treaters.

Tonight’s main event was the fireworks display though, and I’ve been really looking forward to it. Held in a park but a mile or so up the road from us, on a huge sports field. En-route we noticed loads of families and groups of kids out with axes in their heads, etc going from house to house, bags of sweets in hand. At the venue - lots of darkness, with lots of lights for sale, lots of people there to see the show, and quite a festive vibe to it all.

These are some shots of the kids (and us) playing with light.

Below is Sarah painting on the night.

Ambers turn

Then we got to writing names… this was a little more interesting

But they turned out nicely – this is a form I would love to experiment more with.

A view over the crowd – everyone waiting for the show to begin

Ok, ok, so I don’t have any good firework shots! Mainly because I chose my 1.8 standard for the display, which was just way to fast, I’d have stopped it down, but then I had a very nervous child crawling up my leg when some of the larger rockets covered the sky… poor thing. Next time, I will do better - (and take my tripod!!)

Over and ooooooooooowt!

Hello!(ween)… the run-up

Greetings from the blogless Woods, it has been a while…

Ah well, we are all back on track having bidden farewell to the unwelcome swine, who with the exception of Amber, left us alone for the most part. Saz had a fever for a few days, and some mild symptoms, but nothing close to what poor Amma had to deal with.

The girls are both in good health, currently on a holiday camp and loving every moment of it.

It’s Jack time of year again, and so, as is becoming the custom, we have dutifully carved out our lantern in preparation for Saturday. This year, we have to be ready for trick-or-treaters, tho, I don’t think ours will be venturing out just yet… but I may be wrong. Sarah wants to do up the front of the house with glowing lanterns etc to advertise, if she gets her way, we are going to have to be well stocked.

Please pay no mind to the disaster zone that is my kitchen tonight… nothing good has happened here today :s

The other bit of run-up news was the school disco for the kids here’s some imagery from that evening…

The party was one of those that leaves me feeling that the next generation of party animals is well on it’s way. They grow up SO young… I remember Std 5 well, and I don’t remember it being this advanced, not by a long way. True, that was several decades ago, so perhaps, the next generation of fuddy-duddies is also on track!

Will see you again soon – I hope!

Hayley’s Birthday

Well, today I was thoroughly spoilt!

Woken up with Pressies in bed;

Followed by Coffee at a bookstore with Colin (buying travel books, of course); Lunch at the river with the folks;

Afternoon birthday cake with the family;

What more could a girl want!

Sports Day at School

English weather being what it is, the girls’ sports day had to be postponed by a week because of a sodden field. Fortunately messers Duckworth and Lewis were not called upon, the day was left to unfold as it would. As it was, we had a narrow escape with touch and go conditions for most of the day.

Recollection of my childhood sports days had more to do with trying to dodge the cross-country draft, and other endurance nasties… a 400m sprint is still the stuff of nightmares. Amber and Saz’s day was a varied one, with competitive activities ranging from skipping (how many jumps can you complete in a minute), shooting for goal in mini-soccer, tossing bean-bags into hoops etc, before anything track took place. Still, there was a lot of fun to be had, and it was.

No photography of the off-track activities was allowed, ditto for the first event of every track race. Apparently there are people who have too much to fear in life. Nothing a year in ZA wouldn’t cure.

Here we are, the old, the young and the neither, waiting for the days events to begin.

Saz the speed queen… the races were mixed, with boys and girls competing in the same events, not the levelest of competitions, but still…

Squeeze came in with some good placements

Amber, not as nimble as her sister still scored for her house, but the boys in this group were astonishingly quick.

What follows is the customary inclusion of the “impossible races”. The best strategy is to hold the hoop on your head / ball in the spoon and belt it down the track – our kids are just too honest for podium places.

Well done kiddies!

The moms and dads did a tug-o-war each, it was good fun, can’t remember the last time I strained so!