Castles and Pirates

We've been on holiday, of which more later.  On my birthday, as it happened, we went to Conwy, to see the walled town and the castle.  As we arrived we saw a couple of people dressed as pirates and imagined they were off to a party.  The further we got into town, the stranger it became - a larger number of people dressed (some quite convincingly) as pirates.

[Incidentally, what makes a pirate costume?  Parrot and pegleg are cliched and were relatively rare, but many of the people were unmistakenly pirates even without these.  We reckon that it's basically "historical plus hat".]

Anyway, it turned out that Conwy was having a pirate weekend.  Of course.  Most of the shopkeepers had dressed themselves and their windows in pirate garb, and there were various pirate activities going on.  Marisca, Elspeth and Tom partook of a swing boat, but that was about the extent of our involvement as Marisca declared that she didn't like pirates.  She definitely liked swing boats though.

I later (just now, while researching Conwy pirates) discovered that I had snapped a picture of the Best Pirate Wench winner (historical plus hat, note).

While dodging rain showers we took a turn around the castle - a nice example of what it is.  Conwy is kind of littered with good bits of building, being an old town, and I liked the Telford suspension bridge, although time, tired children, and rain stopped us from investigating much farther.

Reaching

In the last week or so I've noticed Thomas really reaching for things that interest him.  He has been doing it for some time, but I've really noticed him doing it all of the time now.  He doesn't reach for everything, just interesting stuff like packets of seeds (I didn't have the camera to hand for the aftermath of that one), cups of tea (no aftermaths yet, thankfully), and of course his toys:

Painting the garden

A perfect bank holiday pursuit - good weather meant home improvements in the garen, painting over the blue and orange with more natural stony colours.  Marisca came to help a couple of times which was lots of fun!

There's no before and after shots of the garden because a) I didn't think of doing a before shot until it wasn't before any more, and b) although I've nearly finished the painting, the garden is in a complete state, so can't really be described as after yet either.

I'm sitting, I'm sitting!

And for long enough for Daddy to take a photo too!

Although not, you may notice, for long enough or consistently enough for Daddy to reposition me into a better location where you can see my face or where my back isn't to the window.

Can I have some food yet?

I'm nearly six months old, I really am...

I'm going to my birthday party!

This is the first year we've really done a birthday party.  3 is old enough to get excited about a party (the main hoped-for features were friends coming, and bringing her cake, with candles on, which she would blow out).

So, Elspeth organised a fabulous party at home, for Marisca, with Charlotte, Maia (Myer), Maia (Mayer), Will and Jack visiting, along with Isadora to keep Thomas occupied.  We had a rainbow theme, we had dancing, we had lots of tea brewed by Mary & Stewart (thank you!), we had balloons inside and out, we had birthday tea and cake, yes, with candles.  We sang Happy Birthday.  Everything a little girl could wish for, and she went to bed tired and happy.

Rainbow and rainbow bells...

Rainbow fruit skewers...

Rainbow balloons...

Rainbow veg...

And playing with rainbow rice.

The balloons were very popular with everyone.

The quietest moment of the day!

Marisca demonstrates how to demolish a fruit kebab...

...and waits with a smile as we all sing Happy Birthday.

And Thomas had a great day too!

Marisca's third birthday

We have a three year old.  That means we've survived the terrible twos and now have a threenager, apparently.

We had a great time yesterday.  Marisca is well into birthdays and parties now, is great at unwrapping presents, and is very polite in saying thank you for them.  She gets really excited about everything she's given, and at the end of the day she recites some of her favourite things and activities.  Here are a few photos of the day.