Pooh Sticks Bridge

Today we made the pilgrimage to Pooh Sticks Bridge, which is a few miles from our house. We collected sticks on the way.
And then we had a picnic lunch on our blankets
Tryfan found a stick in the shape of a letter Y
On the bridge, ready to put sticks in the water!
Waiting for the sticks to come under the bridge
The view downstream. Many many sticks have participated in the Pooh Sticks game, and during a summer of not much rain, the sticks don't go very far!
Here is the door to Winnie-the-Pooh's house (maybe... there is no sign above saying 'Sanders'..) It didn't open but the kids did a lot of knocking on it to see if someone might open the door from the inside.
It was a perfect English summer day, in that it was sunny and warm but breezy and not too warm. We picked blackberries along the path to the bridge and just enjoyed the day.

Road trip to Wales

As part of our weekend adventure, we stayed one night with Nia, Cris, Gabi and Valentin and then the next night we stayed at a hotel in the Brecon Beacon National Park. It was so beautiful there.
Rhiannon and Tryfan did lots of playing outside in the grounds of the hotel - there was another family with older kids there who were willing to play hide and seek, whats the time Mr Wolf and Red Light Green Light with us. Dancing on the tables was permitted too!
We went to the Eisteddfod Festival earlier on Sunday and saw Auntie Sioned and her boyfriend Lorenzo. Such a happy reunion!
Our wild animals
A bit out of context since this was taken Sunday morning, but it was such a cozy morning scene of toast and cartoons on the couch at Nia & Cris' house.
So yeah, we had a great road trip and the drive home was fast with both kids asleep and Sara listening to her headphones the whole way. We got back Monday afternoon (2 Aug) and then Rhodri got back from his travels on Wednesday night.

First cinema experience

.. and we did it in style! The kids and Sara (our Norwegian au-pair/ friend) and I drove to Cardiff for the weekend to visit south Wales. We stayed with "Crazy Cousin Gabs" and baby Valentin and of course Nia and Cris. We surprised the troops by going to see Toy Story 3 (in 3D!) on Saturday.
Even baby Valentin liked the movie, even though he didn't get to wear glasses.
We also went to the Eisteddfod -- the annual Welsh festival of music and arts and so forth, but that wasn't until Sunday.

Ditchling Beacon

We took a picnic to the Ditchling Beacon, which is a high spot in the South Downs that has several paths to walk on and enjoy the view. Part of the reason we went here was because Rhodri wanted to ride his bike up the famous hill that summits at Ditchling Beacon. So we gave him a head start and he beat us! There were beautiful clouds and we had a relaxing saunter and picnic in the grass.
Here is Tryfan standing (doing his "Super-Tryfs" move) on the top of the monument.
And Rhiannon sticking her tummy out and showing how brave she is!
Ditchling Beacon is one of a chain of prominent hill fort sites with views over the weald, although only traces remain of the rampart and ditch. At 248 metres (814 feet) it is the third highest point in the South Downs National Park.

Old and new friends

Today we had a visit from our old friend Neel and his family! Neel was Rhodri's housemate in University and he lives near London with his gorgeous wife Reshma and their two kids. They happened to be in the area so they called in and spent most of today with us. Here is Zara and Cian with Rhiannon.
Zara is about a year older than Rhiannon - they played together pretty well for the most part. Same with Cian and Tryfan.
We mostly sat around talking and ignoring the kids while they played in the garden - bliss!
Hope its not another 10 years before we see them again...

Hidden letters

Tryfan has become really good at seeing letters in daily life.
At first he was only spotting the capital letter 'T', and he would excitedly point and say "T for Tryfan!". But now he sees the letters M, F, P and d around the place too. We went for a walk in the forest a few days ago and he found that a tree root intersection formed the letter T, then later found a branch on the ground that looked like the letter F, and the zigzags on the road to mark where you are not allowed to park do look like letter M's (which I had never noticed before he pointed that out).

In other news, its been a long week. Rhiannon isn't feeling well right now so she is mostly laying on the couch being allowed to watch Peppa Pig and Fifi and the Flowertots (not all day though!). Today was the official start of summer around here, as all the local schools let out today.

Weekend reunion

Our Swedish friends from Norway came to visit us on the weekend, and we spent most of Saturday afternoon at nearby Tulley's Farm. This is less of a 'real' farm and more of a 'farm fun park' but it worked for us very well on this occasion. Here is Sofia being quite competitive in the racing tractors with Rhiannon.
Then there was a Rubber Duckie race course with manual water pumps to help move them along the course. This was good fun.
And some kind of colorful spiderweb that the troops had fun getting tangled in.
Then we went into the Maize Maze and gave up after about 15 minutes because we didn't have the patience to find all the markers and stamps and it felt like we were getting close to ice cream time. But it was fun to run along the narrow pathways surrounded by corn... actually maybe I was the only one who thought it was fun! I've always wanted to go through a corn maze...
During ice cream time, the kids were fascinated by the Chicken and Fox musical performance.

On the way back home, we stopped at nearby Coach and Horses pub for a lovely dinner.
Such a great way to spend a Saturday!

Friday afternoon

When we picked up the kids from KidCo, they were full of beans and Tryfan had an alien hat on that he made himself. Of course, he prefers to wear it upside down and usually backwards.

Musical bums

Our friends and neighbors came over for dinner on Tuesday and we had a grand time.
Everyone's favorite game is Musical Statues, but Charlie and Hattie introduced us to "Musical Bums" - where you have to sit down when the music stops. Good times!

Saturday morning

Today was cool and overcast, such a welcome contrast to the heat on Thursday and Friday. As soon as we had finished breakfast, we went out into the back garden to play. There were squillions of spiderwebs in the grass and also on the clothesline which were covered in dewdrops.
I love this picture because it just captured the feeling this morning - gray but glistening with nekkid Tryfan busy in the background and Rhiannon posing because she thought I was taking a photo of her. Its funny how Saturday mornings are sometimes.

Nursery garden opening

Today there was a "Cream tea and scones" opening celebration at the nursery where Rhiannon and Tryfan go on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The celebration was for the completion of the nursery garden. Here are some members of staff, some mothers, most of the kids, and the guy who designed the outdoor space.
Rhiannon took a fancy to this garden design guy (Simon) and kept calling him her "big boy friend", deliberately separating the words "boy" and "friend". She kept chasing him around on the tricycle she was on and asking him all sorts of questions. Then we all had fresh strawberries, scones with cream and jam (as advertised) and left for the day. It's been really hot lately so we went for a swim at Sarah's house around the corner in the late afternoon.

Conwy Mountain

Today we also went for a walk up Conwy Mountain, which is one of my favorite places in the area. It was a very windy day with clouds racing across the sky.
Lots of tall bracken and an outcrop of rock that we perched on for awhile before turning back.
Some passers-by offered to take our photo
Overlooking the village of Dwygyfylchi
Making faces into the wind from the top of the perch
We plan to drive back down south to Sussex tonight and hope that the kids will sleep in the car...

Visit to the Fire Station

Today we visited the Llandudno fire station and got a personal tour from Dewi (son of Auntie Eirlys) who is a real fire fighter.
Watching Dewi lay the fire hose out on the ground.

And then Dewi let Rhiannon and Tryfan squirt the hose!

So then of course Tryfan had to put into practice what he learned at the station back at Nain and Taid's house.

Greenwood Forest Park

We met our friend Bleddyn and his kids Ceiro and Meilwyr at the GreenWood Forest Park, which is about 30 minute drive away from Llandudno. We've never been here before, but we will certainly be back! Here is the action photo of us on the Green Dragon roller coaster -- the world's first people-powered roller coaster.
Its people powered this way: you first walk up to the loading platform of the funicular and ride down the hillside. The combined weight of all of you in the funicular as it goes down the hill is sufficient to pull the empty coaster cars up the hill to the loading station by steel ropes and pulleys. Then you walk up another set of steps and sit yourself in the cars and enjoy the delights of the family roller coaster as gravity takes over. Indeed, over a year of operation, the ride generates more power than it uses!
The 4 kids had lots of toboggan races down the bunny slope.
And Rhiannon took Tryfan on a fast ride around the tricycle track... that is, until he wanted to have a go at pedaling and he pushed her off.
There was a section of the park that was just pure forest and was set aside for people to build shelters/ dens. The forest floor was cleared a bit and there were plenty of branches and sticks laying around for people to use to build shelters. So simple and wonderful. And from the edge of the forest one had the most beautiful view of the surrounding mountains of Snowdonia.
It was a spectacular day with great visibility of the mountains of Snowdonia and even down the Lleyn Peninsula. This isn't the best view of the mountains but its better than nothing.
Here are the troops before we said goodbye for the day. Tryfan had fallen and scraped his knee, and so he was showing it off in this photo.
Anyway, it was a brilliant day! Tired kids are happy kids after a day like this.

Cousins in the sun

We are spending a long weekend up in Llandudno at Nain and Taid's house. Rhiannon and Tryfan's cousin Leusa (18 mo) lives in town as well, so they were delighted when she came over to visit on Friday. She and Rhiannon were fast friends, especially since they were wearing matching pink polka dot outfits!
The back garden gets really nice afternoon sunshine so we spent a lot of time just hanging out back there.
And of course playing underneath the clothesline is always fun.
Tryfan's favorite activity (still) is being allowed to play with the garden hose with the water turned on.
On Friday night, Rhodri and I took his parents out to dinner as a thank you for helping us get our new car over here (they drove a few hours and picked it up so that it was ready for us to use when we moved to the UK in May). Auntie Eirlys babysat for us and we had a lovely meal at Signatures restaurant in Conwy.