Skip to main content

Family antics: Spring 2018

Well.  This has been a spring, hasn't it?  In less than two months we've gone from this:

to this:

via a LOT of rain.

It feels like a long time since I wrote a general family update, so here are a few highlights for March and April.

Easter

Toby and Theo both needed Easter bonnets this year.  I was dreading the whole thing, but to my surprise, both boys were enthusiastic about making them, and it turned into an enjoyable experience.  They didn't win any prizes, but they were very proud of their hats.


We also baked and decorated biscuits, and took them to my parents' for the Easter service at their church.

 

Car


We parted with our aging and decrepit Rover and traded it in for a shiny new vehicle.  Graham did all the hard work finding the new car, but it was well worth it.  The gears work.  The windows roll down.  The doors open without falling off.  It even has a voice control system which tells the boys to "Please speak more quietly" when they yell at it.  Such luxury.

Walks

We discovered a couple of new walks.  On one, Theo learned to play the saxophone, we followed an old Roman road, and we sat in a WWII bomb crater.



On the other, Toby built a house among the rocks, Theo kept asking where the volcano was (answer: 600 million years ago), and we visited a monastery.




World Book Day

Toby wanted to go as Willy Wonka.  I briefly considered making a costume, then bought it on Amazon.  Best decision.  Made my life about a million times easier.  And he looked fantastic.


Theo was quite happy to go as Superman.  I was quite happy about that too.

Entertainment

A Writers Day organized by the Association of Christian Writers, of which I have now become a member.  The speakers were from Premier Christianity magazine, and were both excellent; even though I wondered if it would have been more useful to spend six hours actually writing, the day was informative and entertaining.


A 2nd birthday party and a 1,000,000th birthday party (or 64th for those who don't speak binary) where we saw friends and family that we haven't seen for an embarrassingly long time.  The millionth party included karaoke, so we had a go at Shut Up and Dance as a family.  I didn't think the boys would actually do it - well, I didn't think I would actually do it - but we did.  And it was fun.

At the 2nd birthday party


The Play that Goes Wrong - absolutely hilarious.  I can't remember when I last went to the theatre, and I can't remember when I last spent an entire evening laughing.  That night I did both.

Spring!

The magnolia is in bloom for about ten minutes every year (there are petals all over the lawn already) but looks lovely while it is.  So here's a family portrait in front of it.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten books that shaped my life

Ten books that shaped my life in some way.  Now that wasn't a problem.  I scanned the bookshelves and picked out nine favourites without the slightest difficulty (the tenth took a little longer). The problem was that, on the Facebook challenge, I wasn't supposed to explain why .  Nope.  Having picked out my ten, I couldn't let them go without saying why they were special to me. These books are more than a collection of words by an author.  They are particular editions of those words - taped-up, egg-stained, dust-jacketless and battered - which have come into my life, been carried around to different homes, and become part of who I am. How to Be a Domestic Goddess Well, every woman needs an instruction manual, doesn't she? Nigella's recipes mean lazy Saturday mornings eating pancakes, comforting crumbles on a rainy night, Christmas cakes, savoury onion pies and mounds of bread dough.  If you avoid the occasional extravagance (20 mini Bundt tins...
3 comments
Read more

Unto us a son is given...

Did I mention something about life getting back to normal in October? Oh yes, I was just finishing work and looking forward to at least two weeks off to organise the house, stock up the freezer and buy baby stuff. Then little Toby threw a spanner in the works by turning up five weeks early! Which would put his birthday in... let's see... October. So much for normal! For those who would like the gory details, here goes. If you are a mother who had a long and protracted labour, I advise you to skip the next bit - or if you don't, please don't start sending me hate mail. You have been warned. You see, we'd been to all the childbirth classes (yes, just about managed to finish them) and learned all about the different stages of labour, and how many hours each lasted. We learned some relaxation techniques and various things Graham could do to help coach me through long periods of contractions. And then we turned out not to need any of them, because the entire thing...
3 comments
Read more

Cake creations

Many of the cakes I make at work come from a book of designs, mainly produced by Decopac . We are supposed to only make cakes from these designs. Often, however, customers come in with a picture or idea and ask if we can make it for them. Always up for a challenge, I usually agree. I then try and get a snap of the finished article with my mobile phone. And I thought you all might like to see what I do all day... A co-worker asked if I could draw frogs. Funnily enough, owing to an incident in my teenage years (involving a friend with a boyfriend called Frog and the signing of end-of-school shirts), I could. This cute cupcake cake was the result. This is what his family wanted. I'm not sure what David thought of the idea. However, my newly-acquired airbrushing skills were put to good use. See, I haven't forgotten all my chemistry! Not quite there, but it's quite difficult to make an irregular hexagon into a kitten. You will notice that this is another cupcake cake...
2 comments
Read more