Trip to the Deer Park with Rachel and Baby V

The girls are totally in love with Baby Violet and quite frankly who can blame them.  She is absolutely gorgeous.  Having got 1 baby, 2 children, 2 adults and a buggy loaded into the car (why am I looking at downsizing ?!?) we went to the Deer Park.   I love it here but the girls having heard the word 'park' just wanted swings and slides and seemed oblivious to the fact that there were amazing views everywhere.  In the end an ice-cream seemed to settle their disappointment and a promise of coming back to see Rachel and Violet next Wednesday and of course a trip with them to a 'real' park !!

Teepee

I am rather partial to a bargain and so spotting a large 12 man teepee for way less than half price, I knew 1 had my name on it......  So I bought it and with the help of Emily and Livvy, we built it.
It took a little over the 10 minutes as per the instruction sheet so not a bad effort, however it was far larger than I had imagined.
Last night, 11 children of various ages slept / camped out in it - with plenty of room to spare.  The teepee went quiet at around midnight and gradually came to life again from 8am, when the kettle went on and 48 rashers of bacon were cooked on the Skottle.  That will be my next purchase - absolutely brilliant !!

London Lunch - Pitcher and Piano

Today was the first Chelsea home game of the season.  There is one good point about being a chelsea widow complete with 2 chelsea orphans...... and that is match days are a great day for a London Lunch.
Today, with our regular London Lunch friends, we headed for the Pitcher and Piano in Richmond.  Our group were very luckily seated under a headed parasol.  The heavens truly opened many times during our lunch but we all stayed warm and dry.
Following lunch we all headed to the ceramic cafe and whiled away a few hours pottery painting vases, cups, tiles and egg cups.  Can't wait to see the finished results.

West Wittering

I grew up near the seaside.  To be specific, 15 minutes away from Redcar in the North East, in what was Cleveland but is now Teeside.  I loved it, and it is locally renowned for its famous Pacitto's lemon top ice-creams and the 'stray end' where you can sprinkle sand on a concrete slope and spend many a happy hour sliding down this on a plastic bag !!  Anyway, my daughters, being made of hardy northern stuff will quite happily spend many a happy hour in freezing cold and soggy wet conditions on a beach with a bucket and spade.  I love them for that and being just like me.  However, our local beach is 1 hour 15 minutes away and is not polluted by ICI wilton.  A spectacular site (at night) but am sure is to blame for many childhood cases of asthma in the north east.  The girls will squeal with delight at any opportunity to hit the beach and have never seen them jump in the car so quickly !!

Chipping Sodbury

Simon left for India today - for 10 whole days and is to be the longest spell we have spent apart.
The girls and I decided to head to my parents for a couple of days.  We love it there.  Its a great place to visit and a truely beautiful part of the world.  Between Bristol and Bath and near the Cotswolds.  We were lucky enough to be able to break up the journey at a half way spot and call in at Junction 13 of the M4 - Chievely.  The Newbury Manor Hotel is the venue where some good friends are getting married in September.  It was a beautiful summers evening with the most amazing sunset.  Am very excited about photographing Cath and Karen's wedding and can only hope that I manage to produce some images that I can be proud of, and that they will love x

Olivia (Livvy) is 6

My youngest daughter turned 6 today.  I have no idea where those years have gone.  Both my daughters are incredibly lucky that we have a fantastic family and that we have THE most AMAZING group of friends that dote on them.  I only hope that they realise just how lucky they are.  Today we went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D, followed by a chinese and all topped off with blowing out candles on a cake and tucking into a very large slice of it.  What more could a birthday girl ask for ?!?!