What a brilliant weekend!  The sun’s been shining and Family Agar has been busy.  Saturday saw us heading to the Wild West for a Cowboys and Indians party (a.k.a Reading and my brother’s summer gathering!).  But more on that later…

We took a bit of a meandering route to the party.  Our first stop was an unscheduled one in the Surrey Hills (caused by a rather grumpy and hungry Sophie not enjoying the long car journey) – whilst I fed her in a car park, the boys paid a visit to the Hogs Back Brewery.  Matt claimed this was so we could buy provisions for the party – but I note several bottles of beer have appeared in our fridge…

After this short detour, we headed off to Crowthorne to visit Matt’s dad.  With the sun shining, we didn’t leave the garden for the duration of our visit, enjoying an al fresco lunch.  Alex helped his Granddad feed the birds and the fish, whilst Sophie did some relaxing yoga with Kazmer!

I’m surprised Alex didn’t fall into the pond, he loved watching Granddad’s big fish swimming around!

We then headed to The Look Out in Bracknell for some quality playtime in the brilliant adventure playground there.  Here’s Sophie on the swings showing off her two teeth

and Alex clearly had fun!

As Sophie’s naptime drew nearer, we packed everyone back into the car and let her sleep as we drove on to Reading – to my brother and sister-in-law’s annual Summer party, themed this year on Cowboys and Indians.  As soon as we arrived, Alex sped off to the bouncy castle, and stayed on there for much of the afternoon!  Only the discovery of the joys of water pistol fights tempted him away from bouncing!!  I’ve had to pop out today to buy him a water pistol as he hasn’t stopped asking for one since we got home!

Whilst Alex was running around like a crazy thing, I enjoyed some relaxing time with Sophie and my parents in the sunshine!

Here’s Sophie getting into the spirit of fancy dress with her daddy and her Uncle David:

It was a fabulous gathering – as it is every year.  Thanks bro!  With two incredibly tired children, we made a quick stop at my parents’ hotel in Reading to get them ready for bed, before driving home to London.  Thankfully we managed to transfer them into their beds without too much trouble – and enjoyed a couple of hours with our feet up!

After such a crazy Saturday, we stayed very local today – making the most of the sunny, hot weather in Herne Hill.  Sophie and I met the boys after their weekly swimming session (where Alex swam a width on his own with a float and his swimfin!) in Brockwell Park for a picnic.  Alex splashed around the paddling pool and Sophie stole most of his lunch!

After a quick ice lolly at the market, and a trip to the toy shop for a water pistol, we headed home to relax.  It wasn’t long before the new pistol got put to good use – taking on our neighbour Tom over the fence (note, Matt taking on an 8 year old by himself!)

We spent most of the rest of the day lazing around in the garden.  Heaven.  It’s fun just watching Sophie manoeuvre herself around the grass – she made some forward progress with her crawling today, and is very confident at rolling and shuffling – so she can pretty much reach anything she wants.  I think in a matter of days she’ll be picking up the pace.  Gulp!  Here she is wearing a proper summer dress for the very first time.  She’s growing up so fast!  And is still such a happy thing: