Halloween 2010

We mostly celebrated Halloween in Wales on Thursday Oct 28th because this was the last night that all the cousins were together under one roof. These three have worn their superhero outfits every single chance they have gotten, starting with the moment they wake up in the morning.
Nia and I planned a little Halloween party and invited cousin Leusa over too (she is the cute little witch on Rhiannon's lap). Baby Valentine was a sweet pumpkin.
First we had a dance party and played "Musical Bumps". The troops were in great form.
We also played "Pass the Parcel" and "Pin the Spider on the Web" in between eating veggies with houmous, grilled sausages, and cupcakes! Good times...
Then we went outside wearing glow bracelets and played with fire sparklers. Rhodri gave them all a safety talk first!
So nobody got hurt from that episode and then we went inside to get cozy and warm again. Here is sweet baby Val the pumpkin with Auntie Nia!
Nia and kids left Friday but we hung around for the weekend and drove back down south on Sunday, arriving home just in time to put costumes back on and walk 'round the neighborhood handing out lollipops. We only went to our 3 friends' houses but it was great to be outside doing anything after spending 5.5 hrs in the car! So anyway, that was our Halloween for 2010.

Cousins reunited

We met Auntie Nia with cousins Gabi (aka Crazy Gabs) and baby Valentin at the train station on Sunday afternoon and have been rocking the house with them all week! We've spent good portions of the days outside with Nain and Taid because the 3 big kids have far too much energy to be contained in the house. Here are the troops with Nain out for a walk.
And a quiet moment with Taid on the couch.

Long lost Emma

Last night, Rhodri and Nia and I went out for the evening. We went to a presentation and discussion of sorts, then decided to go to the pub for a 'swifty'. We nearly decided NOT to go to the Conwy Castle pub but in the end we went and were ever so glad that we did because we saw the very long and very lost friend of Rhodri's called Emma! Here is the happy reunion!
Emma lives in south Wales now and although she sang in our wedding 11.5 years ago, we had really only seen her 1 or 2 times since then. So we were ever so surprised to run into her at the pub in Conwy! Here is a self-take of the 4 of us: Nia, Emma, Rhodri and me.

Reunion with Leeds Uni pals

We met up with some of Rhodri's friends from his days at Leeds University - they all have kids around the same age as ours so it was a lively reunion. We went to another Uni friend's housewarming party in Great Missenden (home of author Roald Dahl) and then stayed nearby at an old abbey-turned-conference-centre.
Here are (clockwise from l): Neel, Zara, Resh, Kitty, Sid, Charlotte, Rhodri, me, Rhiannon, Tryfan and Cian.
Some of the highlights were watching Sid be the Big Papa Gorilla who was leading a whole herd of baby gorillas crawl around the house at the party (with loud dance music pumping in the background), lighting fireworks in the back garden, and then the next day playing hide and seek in the extensive grounds of the abbey hotel place.

Haircuts all around

Rhiannon and Tryfan and I all got our hairs cut at a hair salon which is just down the road from us! Linda runs a salon from a customized annex to her house, and as you can see it is totally decked out and looks like a real hair salon! She has a box of Legos and a shelf of children's books, paper and crayons to keep waiting clients happy. Rhiannon was content to lay on her back and just relax while Tryfan got his hairs cut.

Tryfan turns 3 for reals

So finally today Tryfan turned 3.
It felt like he was 2 years old for such a very long time! Since it was a Tuesday, we had Forest School in the morning and so we had a little celebration there in the form of having a 'real' fire at our house in the back garden firepit. Big excitement to cook popcorn over it for reals rather than just pretending. Here Tryfan is with his small class.
After Forest School, Tryfan slept and slept until we finally woke him at 3:30pm so that he could go to his 2nd swimming lesson. That was disastrous because he was grouchy and ended up getting very upset. But afterwards, in the late afternoon, we had our friends "Sarah and the gang" come over for presents and cake. Tryfan was really excited to get a Fireman Sam cake (which I had ordered from a lady in the village who bakes cakes as a business).
Here are Rhiannon, Joe, Tryfan, Hattie and Charlie all sitting around the table ready for cake.
After cake time, the 5 kids just ran around the house playing games and jumping off furniture while Sarah and I shared a bottle of wine and Rhodri took off to go get fish and chips to bring home for dinner.
And so, at a big 3 years of age, Tryfan is:
- a very articulate speaker
- an extremely good listener: he gets so engrossed in stories that are being told, whether they are stories from a book, made up stories with no visual aids or stories on TV
- almost always smiling except when he is upset, and when he is upset he is VERY VERY UPSET
- still totally obsessed with Fireman Sam
- branching out into also being interested in policemen, Woody, and Buzz Lightyear
- really good at jumping into big muddy puddles
- quite confident and chatty with people that he hasn't met before .. he is always saying things to people that we pass on the sidewalk or when we are out for walks in the forest, like "Look at me, I'm riding my bike" and "Hello Mister"
- genuinely very sweet and considerate of other people. The other day he saw Hattie sitting by herself crying and he went up to her, put his arm around her and said "Are you alright, Darling?"
- a good little snuggler
- really good at getting all the way dressed all by himself
- still very coordinated, agile, strong and lean
- completely adoring of his big sister :-)

Tryfan turns 3 ... nearly

Today Tryfan's nursery school (the one at Rhiannon's school) celebrated his birthday since he doesn't come here on Tuesdays. They sent home a Birthday Box to put special photos and stories and other things to share, and Rhodri was able to work from home this day so that he could be there to share the special celebration.
One of Tryfan's teachers (Marie) embroidered a really sweet little sign for the occasion and all the kids baked muffins in the morning to eat at the mid-morning party. And then of course he got to wear the birthday crown and cape. So cool!
Here is the scene at Tryfan's nursery party. There are 12 kids that are in this group and the staff really go to a lot of effort to make it special for the birthday kid.

Sunday on the Weald

Today we did a cunning thing: we packed the kids' bikes into the car and I dropped Rhodri off with them to go on a bike ride while I did some grocery shopping for the week. It was a gorgeous day and the troops set out into the Weald on their bikes.
They went a long way actually, and Rhodri was so organized that he brought two customized leashes to tow the troops up the hills when they were too tired to pedal.
Thank goodness for mobile phones - they were a long way from where I had left them so i was able to find them eventually by talking to Rhodri on the phone. Hopefully they will sleep well tonight!

Sleeping beauties

Rhiannon decided to move Tryfan's bed to be right next to hers so that they could 'cwtsh' (cuddle) together whenever they wanted to. Sure enough, we found them asleep together in Rhiannon's bed.

Bikes in the forest

Today the kids and I hung around and did various fun but low key things while Rhodri worked on a project in the back garden. They keep begging to ride bikes every minute they can so we set off into new terrain today. We turned the other way out of the driveway and cycled down the sidewalk a hundred meters or so, then crossed the road and went into the forest on a gravel road.
The leaves are starting to turn and fall, and it is such a treat to be outside in these conditions! We followed the road which was mostly flat or downhill, then went down a big hill until the road turned into someone's private land and there we turned around and went back up the hill. It was too steep to pedal up so the troops walked and pushed their bikes up. I kept expecting complaints and whining about being tired etc, but they raced up the hill each trying to be the first one to the top, and then turned around and went full speed back down. Here is Tryfan pushing really hard (you can tell because the tongue is sticking right out!).
We rediscovered the huge grandaddy Beech tree which has a nice place for standing at the base. We first discovered this in the summer when cousin 'Crazy' Gabs was visiting us. I didn't capture the full immensity of this tree here, so look further down for a wider view.
See how huge it is?! The place they were standing is on the backside of the tree from this angle.
Anyway, after our bike riding expedition we went back to the house for lunch. Then Tryfan announced he was tired and wanted to sleep so he climbed into bed and had a nap (how cool is that?!). And while he was sleeping, Rhiannon and I went to a 'Jumble Sale' (aka Community Garage Sale) at the village hall just down the road. I gave Rhiannon 1 pound to spend, and with it she got a pink skirt, a pink dress, a shimmery after-bath powder box (which was brand new), and a feather boa, and with all that still had 55 pence left!

I found some good quality watercolors and a pencil drawing that I paid 1 pound for, signed by EH Shepard of one of the illustrations from Winnie-the-Pooh. The drawing is from one of my favorite bits where Pooh is climbing into an umbrella and explaining to Christopher Robin that "Sometimes it's a Boat but othertimes it's an accident, depending upon whether I am on top of it or underneath it". It does look like an original drawing and I know the author and illustrator were from somewhere around here, but I haven't taken it out of the frame to look with a magnifying glass. Anyway, it made me happy to purchase those 2 items! And actually later in the day after Tryfan woke up, we went back to the sale as they were nearly all packed up and done with, and found 2 child-sized paddles (for our canoe!) and Tryfan found some green child-sized scissors and a small blue car, so we were happy all over again.

Around the world one book at a time

Today was the World Book Fair at Rhiannon's school. Everyone had to bring a book that had to do with another country and wear an outfit to go with the book. I had totally forgotten about this ordeal until the night before when our neighbor and friend Sarah rang to remind me about it. Thank you Sarah!
Fortunately we had a few books to choose from and we could have gone with any of the hundred of Welsh books we have, but instead we found a story about a Cypress tree in China and so Rhiannon wore her Chinese dress. This was actually the first time she has worn it and I really wanted her to do so because it is very special: our former neighbor Beate (from when we lived in Norway) brought it for Rhiannon when she went over to adopt Yasmin. Rhiannon wasn't so keen on wearing it and was embarrassed at first, but by the end of the day I think she was happy that she wore it because of all the compliments she received. Anyway, here she is looking skeptically and cautiously around the corner of the school building at all the other kids in their costumes.

The Wood Pile

We had a supply of firewood delivered the other day... wasn't quite expecting THIS! Just a big wet pile of wood dumped in our carport. Thanks. Apparently this is common practice here but it is such a big contrast to Norway where wood was carefully dried, neatly stacked, bagged and delivered to wood storage location at one's home!
As the drop location above is also the main skidding zone for high speed bike runs down the driveway, you can imagine the open-mouthed, scowling disapproval of Rhiannon and Tryfan! But the shock didn't last long. Rhiannon went straight inside to get her work gloves (and Tryfan's also) and started preparing to move the wood. Fair play! Here are the troops in action, bike helmets on in preparation for resumed races down the driveway.

In their own eyes

Rhiannon and Tryfan are getting pretty good at taking photos of their own. I discovered these beauties on the photo memory card the other day!
I recognize this spot as Tryfan's favorite hiding place -- behind the couch on the window ledge with the drapes to help the disguise.

Ardingly Autumn Show

This weekend we went to the Ardingly Autumn Show and Game Fair. We saw lots of people wearing wellington boots and tweed jackets. Here are the troops trying on some hats.
They got to milk a pretend cow that squirted out real liquid. Very exciting!
We watched a dog agility competition for awhille, and this was really fun to watch. There were two teams of two people and two dogs each competing against each other in a relay style. The first dog had to jump over the hurdles and crawl through the tunnel in a certain order and then race back to the starting line so the dog's handler could hand the baton off to the other dog and person team. It made us miss Bentley though :-( Only 1 more month until he is back with us!
Soon it started raining and even though we were prepared with our raincoats, we decided to take the opportunity to invest in an umbrella for Tryfan (Rhiannon already has her own).
When we had gotten our fill of mud, farm animals, leather goods for sale and other fairground pecularities, we headed to the nearest pub. The troops got to choose a few sweeties from their bribe bags while Rhods and I had a pint each of local brew. Good times!