Herm camping

We went to Herm for two days at the end of the half-term holidays and the weather was just amazing.

I'd do that again in a trice. I might even do it if conditions weren't perfect - but of course that's very easy to say.

Happy Birthday, Jonah

And just as Cara's Birthday disappears behind us, Jonah's looms up.

He's 9 you know.

I'd almost given up counting.

This was the only recent picture of Jonah that didn't require me to take it from a great distance. He's too camera shy.

Chokloot

Sometimes, small things make such a big impression

I want chokloot.

So does Cara.

It's probably the best thing ever

Happy Birthday, Cara

It was Cara's 6th Birthday on the 19th.

Six, eh? Sheesh.

Needless to say she had an awesome day

She asked for a cake with fairies on it. In the past we'd always drawn on the cake with icing tubes, but given that it was a cream cake, we had to go another route:

I think I was the most chuffed about this. But I don't care.

To add to all that, they had a sleep-over at Grandma's that Saturday and she got a letter saying that she'd been accepted to receive tuition for violin, viola or cello (please, please, please don't let it be the cello, it's too biiiiiiig). Anyhoo, it's really excellent news as we were beginning to think that no news was bad news. The deal is that, if you are accepted to do this thing, you get free tuition (as long as you turn up to the orchestra practices at the weekend as well - which is cool).

Jo's up next.

Nine, eh? Sheesh.

Easter into Summer

We've all been busy, Meriel with Ecomodo, which has recently launched and Cara with her plasticine (Jo with his Beastquest and DS).

Since the introduction of the iTouch, the blogging has suffered. It's quicker than a computer for most uses, but can't blog so well - end result, less blog posts.

Anyway, there have been birthdays (well, one really, Meriel's 40th) and birthday presents (a trip to Jersey on the bikes):

There have also been numerous other 40th birthdays, most recently John's down at Sausmarez Park (an 80's affair with some of us dressing up so much that we no longer looked like we did in the 80's - not me, mind):

And we've had visitors over Easter, namely Kirk, Helen, Finlay and Alice - which was awesome:

There have been other things going on, of course. Kids are doing well at school, we're well into the summer term. Jo is fast approaching the time when we'll have to look inot the workings of the 11+. Cara is well established in the infants dept and Lenny is PTAing (not a real word, I know) as usual.

I'm not about to make resolutions about more frequent entries, but the evidence of what is going on is loosely conveyed by our Flickr account, which usually serves as a reminder about what should be blogged anyway.

Skiing - Again!

Twice in two years. We are clearly forming a habit.

Alpe D'Huez this year, along with the Hurdleys, the Marshal-Thomases, Simon, Mel, Tom and Claire.

Just for the full picture, here's a link to Dan (Hurdley's) Flickr set of the holiday

The kids got lessons from ESF and were doing really, really well by the end of the week. Lenny had his 40th up there (which was a most awesome day).

Here's the snaps:

Christmas

We were in Hampshire at Imogen and George's for Christmas, which meant travelling through London. So we took a few days to see some friends and do the two things we have to do when we go to London - see a film and go to Yo!Sushi. We saw "Up" in 3D and ate popcorn. Check the groovy glasses:

We stayed a t Gran and Pampa's for a few nights and most mornings we got a visit from this really friendly fox:

I mean, it's not too often that you can sit next to a fox and take a picture, albeit through a glass fronted door.

We went for a walk through Richmond park when the weather allowed and the kids fed the ducks and went tree climbing:

Then it was off to Alton for the main event. It was very white down there, so naturally everyone got into snowball fights almost immediately:

There was also this quite frantic episode where we went for a walk and halfway round left the teenagers in charge of the smaller kids while we went on a longer route. Naturally they got lost in a big forest and we had to split up and run around the place looking for them while the sun dipped below the horizon. Found them just in the nick of time. All fine.

One quite strange, but awesome highlight was our present to Pampa. A sphere made up of 216 spherical neodymium magnets. A great toy and as it turns out a great game, too. Once disassembled, it's a non-trivial issue to get it back to being a cube. So we all got a chance to try to put it back together. The shortest time was under a minute:

Ans so it was that we returned to Guernsey for a short rest before going skiing - what a life!

Blog-lag catchup

It's so easy to get behind with posting new entries. There's almost too much to post up, so let's just start with the kids:

There, see? The same, but bigger. These shot were taken in London just before Christmas, so naturally the next post will be some of the images and stuff from then.

Christmas concerts

Both the kids had Christmas concerts, Cara with her year 1 friends and Jonah with the Schools orchestra:

Cara got pride of place, being the chef who mixes all the Chritmas ingredients into a big pot. She did soooooooo well.

Jonah's orchestra concert was really impressive and although we thought their conductor was ruling with a rod made with a little too much iron, it turns out that he's really quite nice - he just doesn't want to be left waiting around for everyone to turn up on a Saturday morning. Anyway, the results of their labours speak (or play) for themselves.

Wet, windy Winter

There really isn't much to do when it's howling outside and the nights have closed in. So things here have taken a turn for the TV and the DS.

Ahhhh, the unifying force of Nintendo:

Both Kids have been doing super well at school. Only a couple of weeks ago, Cara's literacy teacher stopped me at school and said "I just had to tell you that your daughter is a delight to teach". Can't say fairer than that. They are soooooo good.

On vaguely the same subject, Cara got to look after her teacher's teddy for the weekend. He's called Sunny. All the kids eventually get a go (if they're good) and seeing as most people stuck pictures in the book that came with him (as well as writing about what the kids did with him), it seemed rude not to push the boat out:

Aaaaaaaaaah!

In other news, it's coming close to Christmas and we'll be off to London, then we'll head back for New years before heading over to the Alps for a ski holiday.

Wining

Meriel's making lots of wine.

We'll never drink it - unless we're thirsty

It doesn't half bubble, mind:

Mini strobist

Cara's got into photography lately. She knows how to use more of the functions on the P&S than I do (which is saying something).

I also set her up with a strobe, brolly and DSLR and she got some pretty inspiring results for a five year old:

Although her assistant was awesome (and underpaid).

End of the hols, start of the term

The relentless march of the school calendar means alot less of this:

and much more of this:

Oh, no, hang on, that's not right. Oh well, at least she's wearing her uniform.

Cara's in year 1 and Jo's in year 4, which just goes to confirm the truth behind all the clichés dealing with the speed that children grow up.

I'll try to get a video of the kids cycling to school on their bikes before the weather turns and we're stuck in the car again. The only trouble will be getting past the health and safety problems associated with using a camera on a bicycle - I'm not talking about the law, it's just that if the kids see me do it, they'll bring me to book, which I guess is my fault in the end.

BOB

That'll be the Battle of Britain day, then.

Took the kids out of school over lunch so they could watch, although apart from watching the red arrows we might as well have taken them to the park. Still, they always impress (the red arrows - and I suppose I have to say the kids do, too).

And this year there was an F-16 (which was too loud for the ears of those who are of a certain age):

Lest we forget, the blades also repeated their practice session over the house just like last year. They even did the same "dive bomb our garden" routine - of which I will never tire. It's a good thing, mind, seeing as their display has such a small radius and we watch them from such a distance on the actual day, that the show over the house is much, much better than the event itself:

To the beach!

We've been to the beach mostly this summer (I know we posted already about this). WHenever Jonah has had a mate round we've headed for Petit Port or Marble Bay - Cara's mates are a little too small to take on a hike like that, but so saying Cara usually accompanies the boys.

And at Petit Port there were more waves - and bigger!

We also went down to Ladies bay to look for razor clams. No luck yet, but we'll try again some other time.

Cara's tooth

Cara lost her first tooth the other day.

She wanted to keep it, so she had to write a letter to the tooth fairy asking for the money, but also asking to get the tooth back.

In the morning, there was the tooth, and there was the money. That fairy's a soft touch!