Bowling

Yesterday afternoon, between all the fun in the snow, we had a playdate with Nicholas' best friend from school. Whenever he has a story to tell it involves Vinicius so I am glad they had a chance to spend some time together out of school. I'm not big on playdates yet, simply because I feel like there just isn't enough time during the week. I am still of the mindset that if I do have a playdate it needs to be with our old friends that we don't see that much anymore. Going bowling worked out just perfectly. Much less pressure than entertaining at home. It was also nice doing something different that's fun for the whole family!

The four boys couldn't resist playing in the snow afterwards!

Big Freeze

BBC calls it 'the big freeze'. The temperature has been hovering around zero for the past week but it has been accompanied by sunshine and blue skies making it not so bad. Nicholas was delighted when the temperature finally dropped below zero. Every day we go out and see ehether our bowls of water are frozen and check the temperature. Imagine the excitement when we found a half frozen fountain the other day!

This morning we woke up to this spectacular view. It didn't take a lot of encouraging to get the boys dressed and downstairs. They love staying in their pjs as long as possible on weekends but the white stuff was far too tempting. Before I knew it they were out of the door!

They built their snowman pretty much on their own. There was alot of discussing and directing going on but I thought the end result was rather impressive. We didn't even have to get our hands wet and cold!

Nicholas wasn't so sure about the whole snow angel thing. I don't actually blame him as it was a bit soggy by then. We'll have to try it again when we're in the mountains and the snow is fluffy!

We ended off a lazy Sunday with a drive through Richmond Park. While Danny had a snooze and Dad listened to the rugby commentary in the car Nicholas and I went for a stroll along the icy stream. We had a lovely conversation about the beautiful winter scenery that surrounded us. It's not often that the two of us have time to ourselves!

The Year of the Dragon

Chinese New Year is yet another good excuse for learning through theme based activities. Claire did a post containing some really great ideas. Here are some of the things that the boys made at big school and play school: Chinese writing (and eyes!), lanterns and dragons of course. We also had a Chinese feast for supper. We have stir fry once every week, eaten with chop sticks, so that part wasn't that novel. The crispy duck, however, was a huge hit. Nicholas wants to know when we're going to China now!

PS: Nicholas got a certificate for an excellent show and tell about dragons. He took his pop-up Dragon World book in, which in itself is very impressive, but apparently he gave an excellent talk about Chinese dragons. Co-incidentally, or actually not, he got the prize this week too. They had to bring in something rough or smooth, and he took a piece of volcanic rock that we found on Mount Teide when we went to Tenerife in November 2010. I take show and tell quite seriously and he loves it as much as I do, so it is great that he is getting rewarded for his efforts!

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!

Picasso

Daniel drew his first face all on his own. I was so impressed. I did a step by step demo on my side of the white board for him to follow. Not touching their drawings has always been a philosophy of mine. The beauty of the white board is that you can erase and redo until you're happy with the end result. Just when I thought he was done he said, " Wait, I have to colour in the eyes, right?"!

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!