Reunion with Leeds gang

We went up to the north part of London on Sunday so that we could get together with Neel, Dan, and Zoe (Rhodri's friends from Leeds University days) and their partners and children. It was a rainy day and we all played inside and ate a delicious meal together.

Monty, Cian, Rhiannon, Zara, Paul, Edward and Tryfan

All of us!

Sleeping Queens

Our household has been obsessed with the Sleeping Queens card game!
My lovely sister Heidi gave it to Rhiannon when we all went to her wedding in Nevis last month. And since then, we have literally played this game everyday... usually more than 2 or 3 times a day. In fact, one of the key cards (Rose Queen) is now recognizable from the back so we've had to change the rules of the game so that a different card (Rainbow Queen) is a key card.
Thank you so much Heidi. We all love this game!

Mental

Post-Easter visitors

Gabs, Valentin and Auntie Nia came to spend a few days with us this week. We had a fabulous time even though the kids were back in school. They were so excited to have Gabs sleepover in their room for nearly a week!

There was plenty of mud to squelch through

We revisited the Nest but didn't spend too much hanging out in it.

The troops were desperate to get to the Fallen Down Tree and here they are each in their own imaginative world.

  Thank you SO much for making time to visit us, Nia!!

Bodiam Castle

We decided to spend the last day of the Easter holiday period by doing something a little special. So I took the day off work and we all went to visit Bodiam Castle which is about an hours drive away. It was a beautiful day and as we have a National Trust membership, it didn't cost us anything to visit. There was even an Easter Trail that the kids followed - they hunted for clues throughout the castle and wrote down codes on some paper, then turned them in at the end to get a prize.

Here are the troops running from the car park to play at the WW2 bunker with the castle in the background.

Standing in front of the moat and talking about ducks.

There are some enormous fish that live in the moat. I think this one is used to getting fed by people walking by!

Looking out over the countryside with the help of Dad

Self-take as we were leaving the castle - I think this is one of my favorite self-takes of all time.

View of the other side of the castle which has a walkway to get to the front entrance.

Giant Easter basket

I've been wanting to build a giant Easter basket since reading this book to the kids last Easter..
My lovely cousin Annie was visiting us for the weekend so we all walked into the forest across the road and met up with Lou and her family.
We found a place that was flat and had lots of sticks on the ground so we went straight to work.
Here are Helene, Lou and Felicity carrying an old tree
Rhodri teaching Oliver how to use a billhook to get the scratchy bits off
We washed our hands using trusty ol' Dr. Bronners peppermint soap before having lunch
Sitting inside the basket (also called "the Nest") getting lunch distributed to all of the hungry basket builders.
Here are Lou, Steve, Arnold, Oliver, Rhiannon, Annie and Rhodri lunching.
Timer shot of all of us! Rhiannon, Helene, Felicity, Tryfan, Rhodri, me, Finley, Lou, Annie, Arnold, Steve and Oliver.
And here is the empty nest which is still in the forest waiting for anyone to come and take refuge in it...
During lunch we chatted about Eastery things - Easters past and our plans for the rest of the day. I did bring a copy of the Bible with me in my backpack but we ended up not using it on this occasion. Anyway, I would love to start the tradition of celebrating Easter by building a giant nest to spend quality time with dear friends and family.

Egg hunting

We had an Easter Egg Hunt at our house on Saturday morning and invited some friends over..

Rhiannon, Sophie and Oscar looking at their findings.

Sharing the wealth amongst themselves (with supervision)

Enjoying a bit of brunch under cloudy but mild skies.. Tryfan, Bruno, Cat, Annie, Helene, Emma, Oscar, Rhiannon and Sophie

 

 

13 years

We celebrated our 13 year anniversary today. Its really nice to have a babysitter living with us! We went out to dinner at the Griffin pub/ restaurant that is pretty close to us but we had never been there before. Rhiannon took this photo of us before we left for dinner.

Start of Easter festivities

Today we celebrated the start of Easter break by going to Nyman's National Trust property for an Easter Egg trail. Rhodri was out playing golf, so Helene and I took the kids. Here they are on a giant bench:
We followed a trail to search for clues which then were used to solve a puzzle and turn in to receive a prize (chocolate egg). When we finished, we had a little picnic in the middle of a grassy place.
Both of the kids brought home their class bears (Snow Bear for Tryfan's nursery and Spencer Bear for Rhiannon's class) so they joined us on this outing as well.
It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon and it felt really springy too - hurray!