Birthday fun

I suppose Tom had two birthday parties.  The main event was the weekend before he turned two,but we also had a little birthday tea and present session on his birthday.  Pizza and party rings, very popular.

Of course the problem with presents on your birthday after tea when you're two is that you are generally not very fast at opening presents, and far too excited with the contents to be bothered about the next present for quite some time.  This, in turn, means you're quite excited come bed time, and refuse to consider being in your cot until Mummy comes home at about 10 o clock.  Still, we enjoyed the first evening of Tom being a terrible two sitting together on the settee watching crime drama.

The main event was a shared party between Thomas, Lewis, and Penny, which we had in the narthex at church.  Plenty of space, plenty of toys, meant for plenty of children and plenty of noise.  They had a whole lot of fun, as you might imagine.  

This is the closest we got to all three sitting down together.  Note the snazzy matching outfits sewn by mums.

This is probably the time to point out that the party was circus themed.

So, yes, ridealong toys were involved and a firm favourite.  Here's Tom playing with Adair, and then trying to drive through the tunnel.  Unsuccessfully, although that didn't stop him trying multiple times.

Having the party at church meant that we could use the toddlers' play equipment, such as the ever enjoyable slide, and the parachute.  Tom loved the later although only to watch really, and he certainly helped others to vacate the slide as soon as possible for him to have another go.

Then we finished off with a birthday tea, a big top cake, and a lot of tidying up.  Thanks go to Kirsty, Jayne and Elspeth who did all of the organising, and to the various grandmas who commandeered the kitchen.  Thomas had a great time.

Happy birthday Thomas

So our little boy is two.  His birthday has snuck up on me in the same way that Tom does - he quietly gets on with his own business and suddenly you turn around and he's two.  He's a lovely two too; he's giggly, he's affectionate, he's curious, he's independent, and he's a charmer.  He's my little boy.

Half term holidays

With Marisca starting school, we've started having school holidays.  I took the week off and had the first two days with the children while Elspeth worked, and we then did our tour of the South for the rest of the week.

Monday and Tuesday were mostly hanging around at home and doing various bits and pieces.  Including the ice cream farm in non-ice cream weather...

And here's Marisca in a characteristically eclectic set of patterned clothing!

On the drive south we stopped at Bolsover Castle, making use of our English Heritage membership.  Since we were here last, they've built a very cool playground, featuring a long wooden wall walk which both children rather enjoyed.

And we had a bit of a walk around the grounds too, including this lovely tree.

We then popped into the main castley bit and I found a couple of statues in alcoves.

Yesterday, after finishing the visitations, we went on the train into London from where we were staying in Richmond.  Both children loves the trains, of course.  And Marisca looks all set for the big city in her new hat, appropriated from Karen earlier in the week, and not since relinquished.

In London we made a point of visiting Big Ben where the real life bongs are that we hear at 6pm on the radio quite a lot.  That was quite exciting.

And the last photo is of Tom, enjoying a cake while London hustles and bustles around him, at the Natural History Museum.

It's been a good half term holiday, finished off before driving home with a Personal Best in the 5k parkrun at Bushy Park.  Convenient timing and location to be there on Saturday morning, wasn't it?!

A relatively nice trip

The clue's in the title - we had our annual trip to the South to catch up with grandparents and the like to show them how much the children have grown and how talkative they are.  And although we didn't do any staged photographs this time, here are a few.

A summery autumn day in Richmond Park

As part of our tour south we found ourselves in Richmond Park on Friday in quite lovely warm temperatures, to have our picnic lunch.  This, naturally, led to some children having fun and a daddy having fun photographing the children having fun.

Here you go.

Elspeth's birthday

Before we get to someone's second birthday we ought to acknowledge that Elspeth's had a birthday too!  We had a lovely autumnal day visiting the little park and the mill.