Daddy can I tell you a story?

At bedtime Greg was not ready to sleep, and after telling me about things at school, he sensed I was ready to make a move downstairs, and asked me if he could tell me a story.

So he told me all about Mr Squirrel who used his acrobatic tricks to get some food for his family.... It was a lovely story, and I'm looking forward to the next chapter....

Sit still Dolly

Dolly patiently putting up with Miranda as she arranges the whole clan into the high chair. It'll be time for lunch next....

Me too, me too.....

Well here I am again and have included a sample of mippys art work, not being a girl to be left out of anything. You can see the influence of school already as as soon as she was finished she brought it to me and asked me to put her name on the back. Been down to walk Domino and say hello to the pesky baby goats, Miranda is getting better with their bouncy ways despite Daisy having a nibble of Lewis' abundant hair - is she dropping a hint its time for the scissors. Jon will probably be back tomorrow with fantastic pictures of his trip to Exmoor, I might have to start my own blog!

While the cats away...................

The old mans away having a shin-dig with his photo pals so I thought I might have a go at this blog stuff. As per usual he makes out it's difficult, but if I can look after three children cook dinner and manage to pour myself a glass of wine, blogging is child's play.
I chose this picture of Mippy as it just about sums her up today.... "Yes Madam. What is your next wish???"
If I make it through tomorrow I may attempt it again.

That's all folks............

Fifi Pants

This one means more to us than anyone else I guess, as it's Mippy pulling her spare pants out of the emergency bag. Those with Fifi printed on the front always get a warm welcome from Madamoiselle!

She looks particularly mad in this picture with her baseball hat on....

Sit still!

Now if I asked them to look at the camera and say cheese they'd know I was joking, and misbehave wildly I should imagine!

However I found this one in Gran's photos that she sent me, so I thought it should go up on the blog. Caroline is not frowning or sneering, so I guess that confirms it must be personal....!

Studious

The boys are back to school today after the Easter break, so I bet they will be exhausted! I gave Lewis some english grammar exercises to do as I was heading off this morning, and you should have seen his face - work, what's that?

Brotherly love...

Lewis and Greg can be fiercely competitive, to the point when it becomes rather irritating. But with Miranda he has endless patience in looking after her, and making sure she's happy. This was as he explained how dangerous it would be to go too close to the edge, and maybe fall over...

Just take a look at Mippy's expression - determination or what?

Hobo {ho~meward bo~und}

We've had a flying visit from my old school chum Dorrien, as he passes through from Pheonix Arizona to see his folk, and assorted loose women in darkest Wales.

The boys always fall for his blend of guitar toting, gasoline fueled, wheel spinning lifestyle...but this time he was also centre of Miranda's attention too!

This was first thing as Lewis was getting a guitar tutorial, just before we had breakfast and headed for a blustery walk on the beach at Calshot. There's not many people who know all about the Schneider trophy, but today we found someone who was interested in rediscovering our local history!

Pulling up the drawbridge

The castle takes shape, with today's labour creating the entrance complete with working Portculis, and the archer has now a bow and bag of arrows. The battering ram is strategically positioned to break and enter....!

Can't imagine how happy Greg must have been with all this, but I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow....

Knight's Castle

Every day we get a new bit of knight inspired creativity - this one's Greg's drawing of his knight approaching the castle.

Our kitchen is slowly disappearing under the sea of models, drawings and paintings. The walls are decorated with the various crest of arms, completed by Lewis Greg Mummy and Miranda (I'm still working on mine) I must get a photo of these before they disappear, but that would involve getting the camera out of the back of the car....

I've just worked out what the curved shute is on the RHS, it's what I think is called the garderobe....

Big ships in the night

Saw the new P+O boat "Ventura" in the docks tonight on my way back from the train station. It's simply huge with quite a nice light show overhead to announce it's status...

Back on a more human level this is Greg from my pile of "must use this one day" shots from a few weeks back

See saw

Happy days under blue skies.... This was yesterday whilst laying on my back in the playground (on top of the see saw) just after Mippy appeared on my chest!

I guess this must have been slightly before we tested the roundabout to it's limits - ah the power of hind sight!

Today the kids have been making a castle out of cardboard abd gum paper, having been down to the library and stocked up some fantastic "How to..." books...

Perfect Picnic Spot

After yesterday's picture by Greg we were inspired to visit a castle and track down a few knights, and engage in a little battle. In the end we had tomake do with this scene of rural tranquility, where we had our lunch overlooking the stream railway and village of Corfe Castle. I had to resort to a 'joiner' to get the whole view in!

We had a good trek around the village, and pushed the playground equipment to the limits, and unfortunately Mippy's lunch rejoined us after a particularly vigourous go on the roundabout. The day was rounded off by a visit to Swanage for a walk on the beach, and supper in our favourite seaside restaurant, with the sunset glow casting it's orange glow over the boats bobbing in the bay.

The knight in his castle

The colours seem a little forward in his picure by Greg today, but if you look closely you can see the line drawing a little deeper, and it's a fab illustration.

He loves making pictures, and when I popped him into bed he told me the story that goes with this picture. The knight it seems is outside his castle, and about to do battle...

I'm afraid that all the finer detail has now escaped me, but the way he told the story about the knight and his allies really captivated me. I can still see that look on his face - total engagement!

Lepeing around on a Friday night

We had the whole damn place to ourselves, other than a few dog shi**er libertarian types.

The wind was howling tonight, and the football kept racing away, regardless of how hard it was kicked.

As the sun set, we made our retreat, the cobwebs having been well and truly dispersed!

The evil eye...

Lewis is reading 'The Castle of Adventure' at the moment, and ".....it's just getting to the scary bit" he tells me as he cuddles up next to me this evening.

He's a keen reader, and would probably still be reading when we went to bed if we'd not despatched him at about 8pm or so.

Skipping along...

We've had particularly fine weather here of late, and last night I spent the evening taking photos on the beach at Keyhaven.

So today I'm posting this shot of Greg as he bounces along at Lepe...

Classic April Fool...

Barely a week has gone by since we remarked that we could have played an April Fool trick on the boys. I can still remember when we were kids ourselves we used to pretend that it had snowed overnight, and of course in April, no one would ever believe you!

You can imagine our surprise when Lewis announced this morning that it had snowed. We begrudgingly had a look through the curtains and were amazed to see everything completely white, and it was still falling! We didn't waste any time having breakfast, but got ourselves dressed and were in the garden playing snowballs, before it disappeared.

By this afternoon although most of the snow had gone, we had a bracing bike ride in Denny Wood, so we're all feeling a bit worn out by beddie 'bye time

Shake your thing!

This photo turned up in an email from Chris on Friday, as he'd been downloading Gran's photos from her camera. Greg being his usual funky self, and Miranda trying to keep pace.

It's funny seeing someone else's photos of the kids - the perspective seems so different to my own. The camera it is often said does not lie...?

Tonight I'm listening to a great new release from Chris Bowden's The Tomorrow Band

Bright and breezy

This morning at about 6.20 Greg arrived in the kitchen with a big smile on his face. He always wants to be picked up when he's in this sort of mood, but my back is no longer up to this sort of thing. He's like a big sack of potatoes, but much more wriggly!

He was desperate to show me some drawings he'd been doing in school - and what a delight they were too.

Little Red Indian

Chiefy Tomahawk in his Forest shelter, reading patiently the smoke signals on a far hill. It looks like war is on the horizon....

Greg loves sitting in these little structures that we find all over the forest. One day we'll have to take our axe and a small backpack and see if we can survive the night in the trees, under our own shelter.

All good things....

I came home to find Lewis working on another drawing on the kitchen table, he'd already done one whole watercolour since this morning when he had an early morning lesson with Grandan.

The kids are disappointed this evening as everything is back to normal, and G+G have gone back home to Wales. This was the scene just after we'd sent the boys the school and Mippy was having her last cuddle with Gran!