A busy couple of weeks has meant I’ve neglected the blog – sorry folks!  Just time before I tackle my inbox to do a quick photo blog of some of the things we’ve been up to over the past fortnight.

I seemed to completely fail to take any photographs of the lovely visit last weekened we had from our friends Kate, Mike and their toddler Tom.  Their trip coincided with some beautiful weather, so we enjoyed a very civilised lunch in Dulwich Village followed by a lovely explore of Dulwich Park.  It was so nice to be back outside again – and we bumped into several local friends during our wander, all of whom were getting their children out in the sunshine too!  A big gutted I don’t have any snaps at all – it was a lovely visit.

Last weekend, we also enjoyed another great trip to the Horniman Museum where we enjoyed having a look at their brilliant new “Extremes” exhibition.  It was the end of the day and the gallery was almost empty – and as a result, Sophie and Alex had plenty of space to run around safely and explore the extremely family friendly displays.  They loved how “hands-on” it was – and particularly enjoyed pumping water for camels, expermimenting with different temperatures in front of a heat sensitive camera and using their sense of touch in the pitch dark tunnels.  Would highly recommend it -we’ll certainly be back!

Alex and Sophie clearly had a good time with Jacqui this week – Sophie starting to assert herself over her big brother more and more.  She knows who is boss!

This weekend has been crazy busy – we’ve packed something into nearly every minute (hence matt and I are completely exhausted right now!).  We started Saturday morning with early morning appointments for the children at the hairdresser.  Sophie could barely see through her long fringe, so she had a very professional cut.  I’m still amazed she sat still so long as the very young (and clearly inexperienced at cutting toddler hair) hairdresser carefully clipped sections up and did a very thorough cut!

Alex was keen to get his hair coloured green rather than cut, but thankfully settled for a bright green smock instead!

After the hairdressers, we headed over to our NCT friends Jess and Jonathan’s house for a playdate with Alex’s friend Arlo.  They had a blast running riot around their house – and we all enjoyed meeting gorgeous baby Ivan who arrived a few weeks ago!

After a couple of hours at home for lunch and some quiet time, we were back out again, this time at Alex’s friend Rosita’s third birthday party.  The weather was mild and springlike, so we all enjoyed spending time in their garden.  The children loved the little treasure hunt laid on for them with treats like bubbles after every clue!

And of course, the absolutely highlight for Alex was the cake!  Here he is holding his “girlfriend’s” hand as her cake came out – she even let him help her blow out the candles. So cute together!

This morning was another early start for our weekly trip over to Brixton for a swim.  Alex was in for a treat when we walked past the Brixton fire station – unusually, the doors were open and when a fireman spotted Alex gawping at a fire engine, they invited him in to have a look around.  He was thrilled, and even got to sit in the driving set of the engine.  So nice of them!

After our swim, Alex and I headed up to London on our own to one of my favourite places – the Unicorn Theatre – to see a play for toddlers, “Not now, Bernard“.  We met his friend Jake there – and I was amazed at how brilliantly the two 3-year olds behaved.  They sat beautifully still for the 45 minute production and thought it was absolutely hysterical.  Alex gave the rest of the audience a running commentary of all the action, he was so engrossed!

A nice walk along the Southbank afterwards, and a family trip to our local Sunray Gardens finished off the afternoon.  Sophie, unlike her big brother, seems already super keen to learn to scoot and cycle.  It took us months to persuade Alex to scoot and we still haven’t really succeeded in getting him to love his balance bike – but Sophie is desperate to figure it out:

A spot of chocolate cake making and a bunch of bedtime stories concluded the hugely busy, fun weekend.  Slightly dreading work tomorrow – but lots more fun stuff planned next weekend.  Only five days to go!