Sunday 12 August 2007

Martha's Blessing





Today at church Martha was given a name and a blessing by her dad. After church we had all the family and some close friends back to our home to enjoy some food and each others company. Martha was welcomed this weekend with the company of Grandma, Aunty Ali, Josh and Isaac; Aunty Sam, Kris, Nathan and Lewis; Nan and Grampi, Steve, and Matt; Aunty Helen, Andrew and Cara; Great Aunty Sally and Kelly; Great Uncle Peter, Julia and Matthew; Andrew Lovewell and Kevin and Tracey Tait.

Saturday 11 August 2007

American cousins



Ali ,Josh and Isaac arrived on Friday night, as did sally and kelly. On Saturday Mum, Dad , Steve and Matthew also arrived from Bournemouth. We all went to Weelsby Woods in the afternoon with Sam, Kris , Nathan, Lewis, Grandma,and the Brownes. After Emily and Isaac went to climb the poles on the assault course, there started a competition to see who could climb it the quickest, and with the best style!! I think speed went to Matt and style to Josh who climbed them with oe hand on each pole! Even dad had a go and got to the top - well done dad!

After that we all went back to our house for a BBQ.

Monday 6 August 2007

under the stars...





it had been a really warm and sticky day. It was really uncomfortable inside the house and the girls were playing happily in the garden - but at 8pm i thought that we should bring the girls inside and start getting them ready for bed. Then Richard had another idea - why not enjoy the beautiful evening and camp out in the garden under the stars.

The girls jumped at the idea and were in pyjamas in record time. We set up a ground sheet, camp mats, sleeping bags and blankets on the lawn, and Richard got a fire going in our patio fire basket.

We toasted marshmallows on the fire and as the stars came out talked about the constellations and showed the girls how to find the North star.


The girls all slept through the night with Martha waking briefly for milk and then settling back to sleep. It was a lovely impromtu evening and was a lovely way to discuss and marvel at the creation.

Thursday 2 August 2007

water, water, everywhere

We decided this morning that we should get the tent down whilst it was nice and dry, even though we had decided to not go home until tomorrow. As I was about to go outside to start this task, it started to rain, and did not stop. It wasn't heavy, but we didn't want to pack away a wet tent.

Me and Emily played the first of our newest games bargain - the old classic - Downfall (50p) Emily quickly picked up on the strategy. We played with 8 counters each, and didn't worry about the order to get them through. The first game I won - Emily still had 4 left. The 2nd game Emily only had 2 left when I finished, and the 3rd game she had only 1 left as i finished. THen we played a game with 5 counters each that had to come out in the correct order - and Emily won!

We had promised to take the girls out again after lunch (allowing daddy to work in the morning). Because of the rain we decided to go back to the Littledown centre for a swim. We had been here already on Saturday with Sally, Kelly, Helen, Andrew and Cara - but the girls all love to swim and they all wanted to go back there even though Naomi and Liesl knew they would not be able to go on the flumes. You have to be a cofident swimmer to ride the flumes - so on saturday Emily had shown her confidence by swimming the length of the learner pool on her front, and then on her back too! Emily said the pool at the end of the flumes was deeper than her height.

By the time we got home for dinner the sun had dried the tent. So we were able to pack it away almost completely dry.

On Friday we didn't get away from Bournemouth till 11.30am and we had a long hot day in the car, not returning home until after 8pm.

Wednesday 1 August 2007

Adventures in the forest


After playing some good games with Alan & Katie last night I decided to pay a visit to the charity shops in Boscombe this morning whilst Richard was doing some work. I went into 5 charity shops in the 2 blocks of shops I had time to visit and spent about £7 on 6 books and board games. What a bargain! I will blog about each games as they are played!

After lunch we set off to the New Forest and Linford Bottom. I missed the turning but we decided to keep going and find another spot to stop for a ramble. We came to a lovely little spot where the road fjorded a river. We pulled over and stroked the horses and foals that were there. Then we discovered a sand hill and the girls played for a couple of hours running up the hill, sliding down and digging in the sand. There was also a rope swing in a tree and a huge bough on a tree which they sat on. It was a very hot day, so the girls wanted to then go back to the river for a paddle. We hadn't taken any change of clothes, swimming costumes, or towels, so we asked the girls to roll up their trousers so as not to get too wet!! Well it was only a matter of minutes before Naomi and Liesl were in the river up to their waists, and Emily asked if she could swim. So by this time we thought what the heck- they might as well enjoy themselves. They all took turns jumping in and out of the river until they were feeling a little bit chilly! We went back to the car and stripped off all their wet clothes. We dried them as best we could with what we had available - Matt's fleece blanket and covered their nakedness with their raincoats. Daddy bought them all an ice-cream cone with flakes, and they looked a picture eating their ice-creams dressed in their raincoats!

In the evening after we got Martha settled in bed, me and Jasp had our first date since Martha was born. We went to see Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix. IT was great. we thouroughly enjoyed it, and best of all, Martha had only stirred once, and settled back straight away when mum gave her her dummy. We all slept in the living room so as not to disturb the sleeping girls by moving them out to the tent.
Family Memories
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