The Chill out zone

The beach at Lepe is our chill out zone, a place to shake off the cobwebs - and throw a few stones out to sea. Not included in this picture is Gregory, sitting in his space rocket with a feather duster!

Rockin' and rollin'

The best things in life are free... and this is one of those moments - Miranda finding her mobility and Lewis fascinated by the experience!

Caught in the act!

As she gains confidence scooting around the floor, so she starts to take an interest in anything she's not supposed to be doing! Opening the kitchen cabinets is a particular treat, .........oh no I've been caught at it again!

Legoclub

Lewis was very excited by the delivery of his first Legoclub magazine which arrived today, which was good timing on their part as Lewis has been very busy recently making all sorts of new models! Greg as always very keen to join in, so hopefully we'll see some new creations now inspired by the other champion builders in the magazine - there's nothing like a challenge to get Lewis going to the next level....

Big Brother

Loopy Lew looking very self confident, next to his little sister. Tiger is making good progress with his school work, and he's adjusting well to having a fair bit of homework to do. His guitar playing also seems to be coming along nicely - it's amazing sometimes to see things all improving at the same time.

Messy Eater

Following in her mother's footsteps and proving that eating can be both theatrical activity and olfactory pleasure. Mealtimes can be lots of fun, and sometimes real torture - this is one of the lighter moments!

Miranda's playmate!

This would have been yesterday's picture, had it not been Lewis' birthday Party. But when we were dropping his friends back home we bumped into Dawn and Carol, and they popped back for some Birthday cake.

Dawn loves playing with Miranda, who shrieks like a banshee when she's playing "Pass the Parcel" - we're not sure who had more fun though!

Truck Drivers Party

Lewis had a few friends around today for a Truck Drivers Party, so here's a few photos of the event. Thge boys had great fun making stuff like Truck Drivers Mugs decorated with their own designs, Traffic Light Biscuits and Lorry Pizzas....

The real treat came when they got to eat their produce and share Lewus' birthday cake which he stayed up until 10PM last light decorating!

Focussed energy....

It was on a night like this...

...eight years ago to the day that we became a family. Little Lewis came into our world, and things have been changed forever.

Tonight we went down to Calshot for some fresh air and a run around, and this shot quickly taken on the way back to the car is far better than the birthday portrait that I took earlier in the day. If I could find the first portrait I did of Lewis, in my arms just a few minutes old, as a reflection in the hospital window .... I would - but who knows where it is?

So here's my Champion rider, my Tiddley Pom, my big Tiger! Eight years old.

This was the first pic of Lewis that I ever took, ...well the first of Lewis and I, that I ever took reflected in the grime of Basingstoke General Hospital's window.

My hasn't he grown!

Froggy 2 - The final installment!

No kids in this picture - it's the first time there's no Brown clan on the posting.

Well Froggy and his family are almost family and they do live at the same addres as us!

Caroline was doing some gardening earlier when I was summonsed, and this is the result. Froggy, or son of froggy, as he is obviously smaller, has got himself stuck in the spout of the watering can - although suffice to say we did manage to get him out safely.

Reminds me of the time we nearly got our car stuck in a narrow road in Granada!

Moments before disaster...

Greg proudly displays his masterpiece, hand decorated plate with surf duder on surfboard. What the picture doe not show is Miranda tugging sharply at Greg's rear, which precipitated in the plate in pieces on the kitchen floor.... and a very upset Greg. The whole incident only set in context by Mummy having said "Now mind you don't drop it" only two minutes earlier!

The bump on the head is from yesterday's bike crash...

"Did you really make it Lewis?..."

We had a really nice bike ride in the forest today - Greg managed to ride from Denny Wood over to Brockenhurst off road with the promise of a picnic from the pasty shop. He had a bit of a nasty fall from his bike on the way, but this did not dent his enthusiasm! We ate 7 pasties and a whole Apfel Studdel from the French Connection Patisserie between us, before making the return journey. I didnt take my camera so today's picture is from earlier in the week when we visited the new site. This is Lewis showing Greg his work on display in the foyer of a truck he's made from papier mache.

Hello Froggy

We had a visitor in our garden today, who was hidden under some leaves in the garden. He stayed for quite a while, and seemed to enjoy our company!

He was rather huge, does anyone recognise the species?

Hmm yes he's a common frog!

Walk a thin line...

Lepe tonight was gorgeous, with the sun much lower in the sky now as we head towards Autumn. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn brown in places, I noticed as I came home from London today. The sunset was fantastic, a huge disk of vibrant orange as it went down.

I love the sky at Lepe it is always interesting, and this silouhette of Lewis is one of my favourite pictures of the day.

My school is fun

The boys started at their new shool yesterday, it's been completely refurbished as the Infant and Primary schools have been merged into one. The new building is superb, including some fun features in the playground - this reminds me of the old time funfair we visited on holiday!

Off to School

A big day for Gregory, it's his first day at Waterside Prmary School, and boy was he excited! He's always been keen to keep up with Lewis and has really responded well to this challenge.

The end of an era....

...and the begining of a new one!

Greg will be unable to play football with me lunchtimes now, as tomorrow he starts school full time. One minute he's your little boy and the next he's growing up faster than you are ready.

My first tooth!

It's been a long time coming but at last, ....Miranda has her first tooth! So now we can all relax, whilst the bawling begins in earnest.

It has been a tad frustrating for all of us as the last month or two have been quite a noisy and disrupted - and we were actually looking forward to the process begining - now's the time to find out!

all grown up now!

Well this is the original Brown Clan; Juliet at rear, Christian and Joanna, and yours truly. Taken over the weekend at Joanna's 40th - the last of the clan to hit middle age!

Miffi's 40th

Today we had a clan reunion for Miffi's 40th in Kyre. Here's the record shot from this afternoon

Nearly gone...

Eggy sandwiches for lunch today, and they were taking their time to disappear, so I put my time to some better use, whilst I waited for Greg to play football with me.

Sun shining through the windows and a nice wide aperature always creates a nice visual effect, although the shot with the best eggy sandwich did not have the best eye contact...

90 degrees of separation

another snapshot of the steady progression from ape to humankind ....."I heard that Daddy!"

I've been in London all day today so this pic is a few days old, and rendered in black and white. Somehow b/w creates a timeless quality that colour cannot match

Eye eye!

About six years ago I did a series of close ups of Lewis' eyes, so it was time to revisit the subject. My lens doesnt focus quite as close as the 990 I previously used, but I like this portrait which captures some of Lewis's inquisitiveness.

My tonic!

Poor little Greg has been unwell, he spent most of last 24hrs back and fore to the bathroom, but he's looking like he's over the worst now.

So this is a recent pic to remind us all why he's my best tonic when I am feeling down...

BOGOF

Caroline went shopping this morning and came back with a special offer from Waitrose!

Improved recipe, 10% extra, or was it "buy one get one free"

The leggless Partygoer

Did you hear the one about a leggless footballer, a chocolate cake and a small boy? Well Miranda thought it was funny anyway and Greg joined in....

The footballer needed a trip to casualty but seems to be recovering nicely!

Kids at Play

We've not had the boys playing in the study on the blog for a little while, so todays picture is to redress the balance.

The lego construction is the refinery, and this was taken after we'd managed to "get rid of Miranda" and restore order to the building site.

Go fly a kite....

End of the week again, and we find ourselves at Lepe - and tonight it was kite flying that took our fancy. Lewis tried the stunter but the wind was fairly strong, whilst Greg yanked his foil butally as it held it's own (just) in the sky

Miranda looks on with charicteristic "Why don't they let me have a go...." expressions.