Sam’s photo tour

Leave a Reply

Sorry for the lack of posting recently – life has been surprisingly busy without anything much to report about. Because the house is pretty much looking how we want it now I thought it high time I took you on a tour of it… however Sam got hold of the camera so this has now become a tour from Sam’s perspective.

What a nice shiny floor we have here in the hallway

This is what our stairs look like, they are good for bumping down on your bottom

This is where mummy & daddy store their things - I also sit next to this when I'm playing hide and seek

This is our table and our computer - I'm not supposed to play with this

This is a close up of our fireplace - isn't it pretty

Guess what this is...

Yup - it's my lovely new kitchen!

Hi mummy - where are we now?

Ooooh - lot's of pots & pans

Ahh - it's the Kitchen, did I surprise you daddy?

Last room - the lounge

Sam hopes you enjoyed his tour!

 

Now I’m off to recharge the camera battery, perhaps when it has some more power I’ll let Sam take you on another tour upstairs 🙂

 

Happy New Year

Leave a Reply

A Happy New Year to all our family and friends.

I took a picture of one of the presents that Jessica made for me this Christmas and I wanted to share it with you guys as I thought it was quite good. Jessica made both the Angry Bird (or cross bird if you are Samuel) and the Pig in the photo below.

The Angry Bird ricochets of the Pig's tower

Halloween fun

Leave a Reply

Tiny mummy

Last weekend we were invited over to a friend’s flat in Manchester for a lovely Halloween party with their 3 year old Ivy as well as another couple we know who have another 3 year old called Eleanor. The kids all got to wear costumes, little Ivy had requested to be a pink alien so her mum had made her a fantastic outfit out of pink fun fur fabric. Eleanor got dressed as a corpse bride and did a great job on her own face paint by surrounding her mouth with red lines which looked pretty scary.

Sticky Sam

Sam also had a go with the face paint but he wanted to try all the colours and ended up looking quite spotty. Sam was supposed to be a bat/batman, I had sewn some bat wings to the back of his batman tshirt and borrowed a batman mask from a friend, but because the mask only stayed on for 2 seconds and because Sam had done an interesting job with his face paints he didn’t look much like anything 🙁 Emily also wore fancy dress – we still had the ‘mummy’ baby grow that Sam was given for his first Halloween and Emily fitted it perfectly!

After we all had eaten plenty of tasty party food (including some fantastic red squiggly fairy cakes with eyes and bat shaped cookies) the kids then got to play party games. My favourite was where they all had to try and eat donuts which had been hung on a string without using their hands to help them. They all eventually got the idea and spent ages trying to get mouthfuls while us parents watched and laughed ourselves silly. Sam got covered in the orange icing that was on his donut – but because of his alternative face painting it wasn’t too noticeable. They then all had a go at bobbing for apples which at least ment they ate one healthy thing during the party!

We all had a really great time and Sam is already asking to attend more Halloween parties so I’ll have to start thinking of something exciting for next year.

 

 

Nanny comes to visit

Leave a Reply

Emily loves getting hugs

Last week Emily & Sam had a visit from their Nanny (my mum) who travelled up from London to spend some time with us all. Sam was delighted to see Nanny and spent the entire time chattering away at full speed and showing off all his toys. Emily also enjoyed the visit – she loves to be cuddled so having another adult about to be hugged by seemed to meet with her approval.

Apart from a quick visit to a nearby gardens we didn’t get up to much, instead we stayed in and chatted which was lovely. Thanks for coming up to visit us mum – hopefully we’ll see you again soon!

Getting out and about

Leave a Reply

All set to go

It has been almost 3 weeks since our little Emily joined us and even though both Rich and I are pretty tired most of the time (Sam never seems to be tired – I wish I had his energy!) things seem to be going surprisingly well. Little Emily is a very placid baby and so far likes chewing fingers and blankets, surprise headbutting, sleeping and having her milk. Sam seems fond of Emily too – he loves to pat her head and give her kisses and will occasionally put one of his toys in her moses basket for her to play with.

Because Sam is such a ball of energy we’ve had to start getting out and about again. This is a bit of a mission for us at the moment as although Sam walks well we usually have at least a mile walk to get to any of the things we do in the week. So when Rich is about we all head off together each pushing one of the buggies and can travel a little further afield like we did this weekend when we went to a lovely little local park.

Let's ride the rails!

Most of you will know of Sam’s recent obsession with all things Thomas the Tank Engine. He was very lucky to receive plenty of Thomas related Birthday presents this year (including a Thomas cake) so it was hardly a surprise that he was very excited to be going on a miniature railway at the park. The miniature railway was everything we could have hoped for. I’m not sure what I was expecting – some sort of simple little train thing going round with a few carriages attached perhaps? The miniature railway was just that – proper small scale engines that really burnt coal and could pull a surprising amount for their tiny size.

Sam had a great time and ended up having 3 rides on both an electric train and a steam train. The little engines go surprisingly fast and were quite tricky to photograph but hopefully you can get an idea of just how wonderful they were from this photo. I’ve now decided that I too love all things trains and I’m tempted to try and become a member of the Sale Area Model Engineering Society just so that I can have a go at driving one!

 

A new arrival

Leave a Reply

There has been very little sleep here at Tea Towers due to the arrival of our daughter Emily. Both Jessica and Emily are doing really well despite the mini-heatwave we find ourselves in at the moment. Jessica and I were very relieved to see that the (scan) prediction was correct and that we had a baby girl. We’re really pleased to have the family we hoped for with one of each.

Emily in hospital

We’ve been trying to adjust to the difficult task of caring for a newborn and, whilst we’re better at it second time around, we have the added complication of keeping our first born happy. Samuel has welcomed baby sister and has given her a cuddly rabbit as a present. However, I have seem him quickly pick up all his cars when I carry Emily into the room so he isn’t in the mood for sharing yet.

Emily napping this afternoon

I hope that we’ll soon be settled enough in our routine to let everyone meet Emily… but in the meantime just spare a thought for us when you’re enjoying a full night of sleep.

Settling in

Leave a Reply

Our new sign

We’re now getting fairly well settled in our new home. There’s still plenty to do but we’ve got all the essentials in place so anyone who wants to visit us is more than welcome. Unfortunately, we can’t offer a place to stay unless your comfortable with the concept of a lilo-style airbed.

If you want our new address or land-line number, let us know on e-mail or mobile and we’ll give it to you. The picture on the right is the new name sign that Jessica has made which is hanging in our porch. The area is very nice and pretty quiet but we’re starting to feel like we’re the only family who doesn’t have a car on their drive. I think I’ll eventually have to buy one as it seems to be an essential part of life up here. The Manchester tram system is poor when compared to the Croydon one we used to know, but it’s just about managing to get me to work.

Hope you can visit soon.

Birthday fun

Leave a Reply

Watching guinea pigs

Due to the Grand Prix being on my Birthday weekend again, Rich ended up being away for most of it so we decided to celebrate it together on the Monday instead. I really wanted to do a family trip out somewhere so after a quick online session to find out what sort of amusements were available locally we agreed on a little place called Ponderosa.

Little jockey Sam

This place is full of animals – they seem to have a little bit of everything from some rabbits and guinea pigs that you can pet to a little aquarium, some reptiles and insects, farm animals and most popularly with Sam some ponys that will give toddlers rides.

Sam still doesn’t seem to be overly keen on looking at large animals, though he did really enjoy watching the bunnies hopping about between enclosures. He was a little startled by the llamas and not very impressed by the reindeers (they have clicky knees – did anyone else know this?) Luckily there were also a few play areas with slides and swings which he did really like, oh – and a pond with ducks on that he spent a good amount of time shouting ‘Fabo!’ at.

We all had a lovely day out and as I also got so many wonderful presents it ended up being a really nice extended Birthday. Thanks to all of you for your lovely Birthday wishes and thanks also for all my beautiful cards and fantastic presents 🙂

 

My quick break

Leave a Reply

My lovely friends

Sam and I have recently returned from a short trip back south where we stayed for a few days with some of my lovely friends. Getting away from all the stresses of buying our new home has been really lovely – being pregnant and stressed is not a good mix but hopefully there isn’t too much longer until we do get into our new home.

We were very well looked after at Esther’s home, Sam shared a room with his friend Tom and they spent a good few nights chattering away together before finally falling asleep. I ended up with an en-suite bedroom while Esther & Ben got to enjoy sleeping on their sofa downstairs! The food provided was also of an excellent standard and included freshly baked meringue too – so very yummy.  I would definitely stay again.

Getting to spend a few days down South also gave me the chance to catch up with a number of other good mum friends that I have made with Sam over the last few years. Kim, Mark, Abi & Isa it was so very good to see you all – Sam and I have missed having  you just down the road from us and being able to spend some quality time with you all has been fantastic. We also got to catch up with some friends at the play cafe and one of the local toddler groups and Sam just settled straight back in to playing with all his favourite toys.

Thank you all for the wonderful welcome (Kim & Esther especially) it was great to see you all again and hopefully some of  you will be able to make it up to Tea Towers 3 when it is established!