A weekend filled with friends

Warren is definitely one of our boys' new favourite people. He has been staying with us for the past 10 days. They adore him and don't leave him alone for a minute. It's a pity we won't be able to see him more often!

On Friday night Phillipa came for a psuedo sleepover while her mom and dad went out for dinner. Nicholas was excited beyond belief. Since the two of them started school in September they don't have as many opportunities to play together as before. They had so much fun from the minute she arrived until they snuggled up in our bed and fell asleep!

A similar scene unfolded on Saturday night when Gigi, Isobel, Genevieve and Oliver came over to visit. The lounge looked like a bomb had hit it, but supper was civilized, bath time was fun and they all went to sleep with little protest. For us it was great to catch up with the parents. We'll have to do it again sometime soon!

A house in the country

I met Alex in hospital when I had Nicholas and she had Freddie, and then later again when Daniel and Lawrence arrived, that's when we became friends. Needless to say I was sad when they moved to Cheltenham last summer. We finally went to visit them this weekend. It was great to see them all and to get a taste of life in the country. Their boutique B&B, Ravenhurst, will be open to the public later this year. Their Georgian mansion is magnificent and they make great hosts so I have no doubt it will be a success!

Their Georgian mansion

The grand staircase to our suite
(can you spot the children?)

Biking buddies

The park on their doorstep

On Sunday we climbed Cleeve Hill
(highest point of the Cotswold Way)

The trig beacon at the top

Evidence of the wind that nearly blew us away

The four boys

Leftovers from Christmas

Nicholas came home from school on the last day of term wearing a crown and carrying a homemade bag of festive arts and crafts. We had no time to explore the contents before we flew to SA so we had a lovely surprise to cheer us up when we got back a couple of weeks ago. I love all the personal touches like the hand print reindeer, finger print christmas tree and a card he designed for us in ict (computer class) with a lovely handwritten message inside!

I also love the fact that the school took one of their Christmas drawings and turned it into Christmas cards for us to buy. So for the first time in yonks I sent Christmas cards this year. What a lovely momento for me to keep!

Upon closer investigation I realised that quite a few of the cards we received this year came from the kids own artwork. I am a massive fan!

There's a wotty in my potty

It seemed like the perfect time to embark on toilet training while we were in South Africa. Some of the reasons were that we had 2 weeks to dedicate to the task, there were lots of helping hands and Daniel was kaalgat (Afrikaans for naked) a lot of the time. Our strategy was to cut to the chase and skip the potty and sitting and go straight to the toilet and standing. It went so so and by the time we got back to London Daniel was convinced he was a big boy so we simply had to perservere. When I composed this email a week ago I wrote: "I think we've got number 1s under control but number 2s are still a bit hit and miss" but with the help of bribery and corruption (aka chocolate coins) and song and dance (aka victory jig) I think we've succeeded. Pretty good going considering that it took 1 month and we only lost two pairs of jocks: one on the highway in Joburg and one down our toilet in London - don't ask!

Home From Home

We're back home in London after a wonderful holiday at home in South Africa. It was much shorter than we are used to but it was just as nice as usual. The best part about our annual trip is undoubtedly spending time with all our family and friends and this trip was no exception. Hopefully I'll get around to sorting through all the photos and doing some blog posts of our trip soon. In the meantime here's a sneak preview: Janine did a great job of summarising one of our photoshoots. As nice as any holiday is it is always good to be back home. This was the boys reaction when I asked them if they are glad to be back!

Merry Christmas

By the time you read this we'll be on our way to sunny South Africa. I know I am not going to much time for blogging but I will no doubt take hundreds of photos, which hopefully I will process sooner rather than later, along with the photos from our last trip to South Africa (2010/2011). Where did this year go and where was I!?! We're delighted that we are going to see some of you, and we're really going to miss those that we're not going to see. I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the four of us!

Christmas Party at Play School

Daniel's play school had a Christmas Party for the children on Tuesday. As you can imagine there was a buzz of excitement. Along with the usual arts and crafts they had face painting, a magic show and a santa who gave the children a bag of little presents. I think Daniel liked the present most of all but for me the magic show stands out. When the lady asked for a helper, Daniel stuck up his hand shouting me! me! me!, and she picked him. So he got to do some magic and made a real bunny come out of the box!

Christmas Cheer

There are so many cute Christmas gimmicks out there for the kids. Janine and Noa made these really great videos from Santa for Nicholas and Daniel using PNP (just click replay video) . They're a brilliant bribing tool that is for sure. The boys keep asking me if they can watch the videos over and over again!

Pete supports a charity called NSPCC that sent the boys these lovely personalised letters from Santa. They were so excited when they arrived and Nicholas figured out that they were from the man himself. Once again they keep asking me to read them 'just one more time'!


And then there is this my personal favourite from Elf Yourself