only just....

Despite my best efforts Tristan is not green fingered at all, and equally not interested in growing anything. This is the school given sunflower, finally on its spindly little stem getting higher than Tristan.

I treated it as an experiment to see what would happen if I left it up to Tristan - and now I know: frequent wilting, staking required and a variable stem indicating times of feast (when it rained) and famine (the rest of the time).

Pants

We are trying the whole potty training thing. It's not going well! We get regular cries of 'no pants just nappy'!

 Also the child has an amazing pelvic floor and - in working out that there was a marble/ sticker / chocolate in it (as we get more desperate) - is capable of doing 3 drips and demanding a reward and then repeating. Often. This gets very tedious!

Tour de...Newbury

 Manu has been cycling for a while now and decided (why?!) to join a race! .  I read him the options of 'short','standard' or 'long' - the short option won as that was still 44 miles (twice the amount he has done before).

He did it in an impressive 3 hours and 16 minutes (although I would be impressed by any time for any distance), and is already thinking about his next one (Portsmouth this Sunday?).

10 years!

It was our 10 year wedding anniversary and Manu had the bright idea about having a big party (which was great until 2 days before when the stress hit us and we kept think - WHY?!!)

I might not have been able to re-use the wedding dress for various (ahem!) reasons, but some bits did get re-aired (like this sign). We did actually miss the proper date (July 3rd according to the inside of my ring) as we were so busy organizing the party!

Manu and his brother, staring into the middle distance.

 

 As well as the family, we had a lot of French people (I don't think the local hotel knew what had happened) which was great and a fab chance to reconnect.

We celebrated with the sacrifice of a pig! The potatoes were divine as were the salads. It was a South African Bra-ii chefs so no cultural bias.

Us girls, dig the shoes Jade!

 

 We had an ice-cream man turn up ostensibly 'just for the kids', although although the adults were just as keen!

Our very unprepared thank you speech (Sam being asleep for his first night away from us in a Travel Lodge with grandma)

Doing the okikoki (no idea how to spell that) - the French were a bit confused but very enthusiastic.

The bouncy castle was loads of fun, although it did swallow a lot of shoes..!

We had planned to release 10 balloons (not sure what this symbolizes!), but in the end only did 8 as it got a bit dodgy with the wind, trees and drunkenness!

All in all we had a great night and a good opportunity to catch-up while over-indulging.... although I'm off parties now until at least Tristan's 21st!

The emergency services

 Tristan (and Samuel) got to go in a police van. Tristan is modelling both handcuffs and a police hat (mixed messages!) in the 'bad person box'.

The boys in a fire engine (less props than the police had).

And a very old fire engine, yes even older than when mummy was a girl Tristan!

Camping

It's been a while, but we have returned to camping. Although this was courtesy of the school who had hired a field.

Unfortunately we didn't remember some of the things we said we would have to sort out from last time, so we once again found ourselves deflated in the middle of the night, and left the mattresses in the bin in disgust (and so we are obliged to do something about it so we don't repeat the experience again!)

With a combination of sun and lots of children, the day inevitably turned into a water-fight fest - and one we were actually well-equipped for (Tristan modelling his orange weapon)!

Circus tricks

 We did some circus tricks in town.

Sam wanted to do tightrope walking/ balance beam

Tristan turned out to be a natural at the hula hoop (which was really surpising considering how useless we both are!

No more hitchhiking...

... for Samuel anyway.

Poor little thing has got 2nd degree burns on his hand courtesy of stroking the fondue machine (much parental guilt). Fortunately the beloved and still much sucked thumb is unaffected.

On the farm

A day at the farm.

This is Sam's preferred clothing. He would wear sun glasses permanently if he could. This was taken a second after he stopped climbing in the rabbits cage.

Sam feeding the lamb. He insisted on telling it off and bossing it around along with all the other animals who were trying to get the milk.

Tristan went down the drop slide for the first time (although Manu had to give him a headstart and knock the first metre off his descent.

Tristan jumping on the pillow. It was quite hot in the sun so this was the best way to deal with it!

Wild west

We went to a local fair with a wild west theme.There were all the traditional stalls and a Punch and Judy. The boys got into the theme of things....

Grandma with her cowboy

Tristan playing splat the rat (/bag of sand)

World cup frenzy (the new signings!)

We have started a marble reward system with Tristan, every time he gets 5 marbles he gets a pack of football cards. Manu started it, saying that it was good for his geography and reading (hmmm I think he's just looking for another ally for watching the matches).

With the help of his very talented aunt, we managed to do a surprise for him with him (his dad and uncle) all playing for their respective countries. This was the selection he got!

Here is the moment he opened the pack...

And a close-up of him  - not sure the skill levels are exactly right especially given that on a few of them he's outperforming the star players, but perhaps the decimal point is in the wrong place!

Hall in Newbury

The Halls came to visit....

We had a fun packed weekend which included lots of water fighting - this picture shows the two side of the water fight!

Kite flying at Donnington castle - in a storm!

We got some time away from it all to pop in the yacht....

 ...before speeding off in our cabriolets!

Sam's singing

Sam loves singing - this is his version of 'baa baa black sheep'

 (although I'm sure that was clear to anyone hearing it!

Sam is 2

It's tough with boy number two trying to do a different set of cakes to the first. Tristan had Fireman Sam and Samuel got Thomas the Tank Engine) - or that was the aim.

The finished cake, or, viewed together, 'Thomas and his range of edible train-related nibbles'!

On the plus side everyone agreed it was a train, but there was much debate as to whether it was Gordon or Thomas. I think where I went wrong was doing the face a few days before the rest and not having the scale quite right!

The calm before the storm.

We were really lucky with the weather and the kids all got to play outside.

Sam getting ready to blow out the candles.

Some of his friends having a bite to eat.

Peche

Peche aux petits ( poissons et enfants )

 

Et peche aux gros ( poissons et adultes)

 

 2 Black bass , cuisinés par mami , a la sauce a l'oseille,  un régale  !

Chez Papi et Mamie 2014

Papi fait la cuisine dehors , la plancha (Merci S et P pour son cadeau.)

 

Tristan, encore en train de grimper aux arbres . Mais comment est il arrivé la haut tout seul ?

 

Les roulades dans l'herbes, c'est super .... quand Mummy m'aide ! 

Sinon, c'est un peu dur le sol ....

Apres une grande journée, on ecoute papi avec attention. Bientot l'heure du dodo !

A la mer 2014

Tristan having his annual pony ride. This time we broke with the tradition and had 'noisette' rather than one of the successive Paulies.

We went rowing although it was a bit more like pinball as we went from side to side bashing into the banks.

and the return journey - a bit wider on the return fortunately

the trip down to the beach

and here we are on it, digging one of many holes.

Sam in one of the holes, while he still has long hair (just before the chickenpox led to a forceable removal!)

Sampling the sea - not warm

Sampling a chocolate shoe - very nice.

We went for a cycle ride (Tristan got good at this with the lure of the beach at the end of it did it everyday) and a walk in a forest infested by giant ants.

Tristan made an assault course.