flowers

Chris came home the other day with flowers for me...


and also a bunch of tulips for each of the girls
they were so amazed and very pleased.

A hamster in the house

Meet Lucy, she's a 4 1/2 week old hamster which Rebekah got for Beth for her birthday. 

It' a little early for her birthday but you have to get hamsters when they are in the shop. 

Chew Valley Lake walk

A day out walking at Chew Valley Lake was fun, mud was plentiful and the children all enjoyed the day.

Samuel being taken off for roasting, his Dad even volunteered rope to make sure he stayed there!!

Paul, Lydia, Rebekah, Beth and Tim.

The whole gang out for a walk in the mud 

Gerry may have comfortable trainers now but this water was too deep so she had a fireman's carry!

Rebekah, Lydia and Beth

Lunch on the logs.

Beth and Lydia trying to carry Beth B. 

Rebekah uses the wooden tuning fork to check if the birdsong is in tune!!

In reality she lifted this up to Chris and Tim and said "look I've found a 'U' "

Dizzy animals

This morning I got permission to wash the favourite animals!!! They seemed quite happy as they went into the machine... They were none the worse for wear when they came out either, maybe a little dizzy

Memo (pronounced like Nemo but with an initial M), Bunny, Doodles (the little white dog) and RB (Rainbow Bear)

Sing along a Sound of Music

An evening at Sound of Music was great fun. It is customary for people to dress up as something from the film so I made some costumes from "curtain material" originally a duvet cover. One double duvet cover made dresses for 3 adults and one child!!! I was amazed.

Beth and I were ready to go out for the evening.

It was so cold that there were a number of coats covering up outfits but this is the group.

Vicky, Karen, Emma, Angela C, Angela P, Caroline Genna, Annette

Sue A, Tom C, Tom P, Beth and Sue S

Laura and Sue S the Nuns
Beth, the Von Trapp child, Angela the Nun!, and Tom, the Von Trapp child.
Vicky and Karen, the nuns, Sue, a few of my favourite things and Emma the Nun in the front row with Annette and Genna the Von Trapp children in the back row.
Tom(Captain Von Trapp), Angela (Maria), Caroline (An Extra) and Vicky (the Nun)
Tom and Angela
Sue as a few of her favourite things

The whole evening was really fun although the children found it rather too late (they got into bed only just before midnight). Some of the other costumes were imaginative and varied although if you looked into any local pub window before hand it was full of Nuns!!!

Skiing Graphs with explanations

Girls and Grandparents

While we were away my parents took the girls to @Bristol for the day 

Beth finding out what it feels like to be a hamster

Drawing with light

What girl dinosaurs REALLY looked like

"Don't swing too high....hold on" comes Grandma's voice from the kitchen

Snow White never looked THIS cute

skiing in Schladming

Once again we left the children in the capable hands of my parents and went skiing in Austria. This time Paul was working as a ski instructor and Beth, Marina, Tim and Fiona were along for the experience of falling over and enjoying the scenery. As usual when together there were lots of laughs and far to many photos taken.


Tim and Fiona's first day meant lots of sidestepping up the nursery slopes, they feel very steep at first but that wasn't to last.
Tim came off the rope pull and pinged the rest of the beginners off with him!!
Chris on the Button lift
lunch on day 3
Time to do the diamond run, going off the top of this run looks like pushing yourself out into space as it is so steep. Two years ago this run convinced me that off piste was for others and definitely not for me. This time the run was lovely to do and we were even followed by a class of children who looked no more than 5 years old. (they looked like ducklings following their teacher and even flopped back onto the piste proper at the bottom just like ducklings falling into a pond)
Rainbow Bear still hasn't got any proper ski gear but he joins us anyway and enjoys an almdudler to drink. He didn't spend anywhere near as much time in the snow this year.
Lunch time in the snow, we decided that the gondola was not only the ideal form of transportation back up to the top of the mountain but also made an excellent moving restaurant. We weren't quite quick enough in eating lunch so we had to go back down the mountain and up again but we were all warm and cosy!!





It was a tiring week with loads of fun and giggles and rest!!

These are Fiona's photos at the last count there were 70 from Fiona and Tim hadn't even started to sort his out!! There may be many more photos to follow in this post! If the slideshow isn't showing properly double click on it and it should take you to the orignial slideshow.