Monthly Archives: August 2009

Choo chooo!

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Sam and RichTo help us celebrate the long awaited bank holiday weekend we decided that a trip out on a steam train would be just the thing so this morning we set off to find one.

Luckily there was just the thing running – the wonderful Bluebell Railway which uses a piece of track from East Grinstead through to Sheffield park. On this bit of track they run a number of steam engines which have a range of different carriages and services. We got a day pass ticket and went off on the line to Sheffield park and after a quick stop for lunch headed off to find the nearby Sheffield park garden.

The gardens are very lovely and impressively were the work of the famous landscaper ‘Capability’ Brown. We admired a number of views across a large waterlily covered lake to the beautiful (but unfortunately private) manor house which looked like it was straight from a film version of one of Jane Austen’s books. While wandering round the many paths we also happened upon a fantastic little tea van that was thoughtfully provided to keep the park visitors refreshed. Rich climbed one of the largest trees that I’ve possibly ever seen and also did a very good duck impression that I make me smile for some time to come.

After such excitements it was time to head back to catch the last train from Sheffield park to East Grinstead. More photos were taken of the trains and we also managed to secure a private booth to ourselves. Be sure to check out the lovely photos in the new and improved photo gallery.

Visiting Katie and Aedan

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Aedan and Sam looking cuteAfter hearing about how my friend Katie has really gotten into baking recently Sam and I decided it was high time we paid her and her gorgeous son Aedan a visit. Now that Sam and I seem to have longer journeys with the pushchair down to a fine art we will hopefully be making more effort to go visiting friends during the week.

Little Aedan is toddling around like a pro now and with his cute smile and pretty eyes is very good at getting into mischief and then charming his way out of it. Sam seemed to enjoy watching his antics and was happy to play with whatever toys Aedan found for him.

Sam also enjoyed the attention he received from Katie’s friendly dog Jupiter who did a good job of keeping us all well licked which Sam found good fun (me not so much…). We went out for a good walk with Jupiter plus another dog during which we managed to get the boys to sleep so when we got back we sat down to a nice cup of tea. Katie brought out some very tasty cakes that she had made just the other day and the pretty flowers on the top were almost too nice to bite into.

Thanks so much for having us Katie, we are sure to be back soon, especially if there is more baking going on 🙂

Sam’s weigh in

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Sam with CookieSam is delighted to announce that his current weight now is 9.20 kg (20 lb 4 oz).

His growth on the chart seems to now be completely ignoring any of the curves it should be following and is just steadily going up in more of a diagonal direction. However, as the health centre people seem happy with this then we are also pleased. I’m thinking that once Sam decides to perhaps try crawling somewhere for a change or failing that have a go at walking then his weight gain will slow down again.

More fun at Kelsey park

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Why hello Thea!

Why hello Thea!

Ah Kelsey park – how I do enjoy popping in to see you 🙂

Yup, yet again today I found myself visiting Kelsey park again, this time with my sister Thea, little Katie and Cara. The park was as lovely as ever and the weather was also pretty perfect for sitting out with a picnic. We treated ourselves to some food from M&S and had a good lunch before needing to visit the play park.

Katie had a good time meeting some of the other children (at one point climbing over another little girl in her attempt to scale the helter skelter without using the stairs) while Sam spent some time having a good swing. After Katie’s exertions in the park she needed a bit of a rest and it seemed that only Cara would do.

Thanks for spending the day with us Thea, Katie and Cara, Sam and I had a great time 🙂

Farm fun

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Thankfully the Children’s centre that Sam and I go to have started back again and today we joined two of the staff members as well as some other mums with little ones for a visit to a fantastic city farm. Sadly I forgot to bring along the camera so I have no photos of Sam with some of the animals we meet there. We saw some cute baby turkeys (or poults as they are called), hens, ducks, horses, loads of different chaffinchs, rabbits, pigs, goats and sheep. There were horse rides for some of the older children as well as feeding time and a time slot for petting some of the rabbits and other smaller animals.

Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short as I had been a bit daft and forgot to bring Sam’s beaker along. However we will definitely come back to this park as Sam gets bigger and spend much more time saying hello to all the animals.

If you went down to Nonsuch park today…

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Park fun… you were bound to get a surprise.

For every one who once worked with me,

and now has their own baby to bring,

came to Cheam park to all join in a big picnic.

(it kinda follows the tune for teddy bears picnic if you really try)

What started out as being a small outing to meet up with Joh, Eleanor and Clare turned out being a lovely gathering that also included two other work colleagues. Chris was there with her son William and stepson Ewan and it was great to see how much bigger the two boys are now since the last time I saw them. Mike also came along with baby Ivy who is pretty close in age to Sam. Mike is taking a break from work to have a go at looking after Ivy full time so we were all pretty impressed with how he was doing.

We all had some tasty picnic food and then headed off to the play park so that the older two boys could have a good run round while us adults and babies could chatter away. I really enjoyed the chance to catch up with so many friends so many thanks to Clare and Joh who organised it.

Bye bye Grandma!

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Sam and Cara in Greenwich parkSadly today was Sam’s grandma’s last day down in Southland with us. We tried to hold on to her for longer but she insisted that she was needed back home and that her train was leaving today.

Yesterday Cara collected us from our home in the morning and took us back to her place while we decided what we were to do that day. We had made plans to maybe visit Greenwich – but changed our minds when we realised that it would be a bit of  a tricky journey. However, we did go in the end and spent some time doing a little window shopping in some of the lovely little Greenwich shops and then went to a little cafe near the entrance to the park.

After a tasty lunch which included a cake course (yum!) we headed off for a quick wander round the park where we came across a very nice play park which looked like lots of fun, definitely one to come back to when Sam is a little older. Unfortunately our trip back home was slightly traumatic as our bus driver didn’t seem to be a very good driver and had some real problems with a hill start after which a good few people decided to get off… that’s the last time I avoid doing a short walk by catching a bus!

Today Cara brought round her mum and minion number 4 (aka Nick) to spend some quality time with Sam. We all visited the mobile toy library together (hooray for the big white van!) and had a simple lunch back at tea towers before it was time for Sam to say bye bye to his grandma.

New shipment of minions

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Bath time funWe’ve all been very happy to have a couple of visitors from Northland this weekend. Sam’s grandma and grandad both came down late on Friday evening and spent Saturday and Sunday with us in Tea Towers.

We had a quiet day on Saturday with a lovely barbecue in the evening which Cara and Nick also came round for. Sam’s grandad discovered that tapping our fence also causes Sam to giggle and much fun was had by Sam as we all had a go at giving the fence a good tapping (I wonder what the neighbours thought of our strange behaviour?). Sam was also treated to a bath in the evening with the help of two willing wannabe minions who seemed to enjoy it just as much as Sam did.

On Sunday we all headed off to Kesley park for a picnic lunch (courtesy of M&S) followed by a trip to the play park and a wander round the lovely grounds. Sam’s grandad had to go and catch a train back up to Northland in the afternoon (bye Rich’s dad – thanks so much for visiting!) but we kept hold of Sam’s grandma as we think she may be useful for a few more days.

BBQing at work

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Sam meets GryphonWanting to make the most of some summery weather Rich’s good friend and work colleague Steve decided that it would be a good idea to have a small barbecue for the elite at work. Obviously Sam and myself were also invited 🙂

Steve was very organised and did all the shopping, food preparation and cooking himself and even managed to get food cooked at the time that it was planned (a rare occurrence at a BBQ). We both ate well as Sam was very good and had his post dinner nap without a fuss. After Sam’s nap there was enough time to watch a croquet game (which Sam found hilarious – check out the video on Rich’s blog) as well as meet some of the older staff members as can be seen on the left.

We then had to dash off, but luckily the chicken had just finished cooking so with the buggy and a skewer of chicken each we headed off for our train home.