Just time to post a quick update on what we’ve been up to recently – according to our smartphone cameras!!   It’s been a lovely fortnight – pretty quiet for us, but involving lots of snuggly family moments and chilling out at home.  We’ve particularly enjoyed spending lots of time outside now that there’s a hint of Summer.

We’ve had lots of fun with friends – visiting an NCT friend for lunch and a playdate.  Amazingly, we managed to have a relatively calm lunch together – quite an achievement with five children under four present!  I think the boys had exhausted themselves sword fighting upstairs…

We had a lovely visit from my parents – which included quite a watershed moment for us.  For the first time since she was born, someone other than Matt or I put Sophie to bed.  My mum did bedtime one evening and it went brilliantly!  Suddenly a new world has reopened for Matt and I – the chance to go out to the theatre or for an evening or event, perhaps, for a night away…!

I just love this photo – just an ordinary moment captured in a second.  Both children look so engrossed in their grandparents – gorgeous!

We hosted some friends one afternoon which saw much of our garden dug up by the little ones (look how proud Sophie looks below!) and pretty much all of Alex’s belongings removed from their shelves/drawers.  Took a while to tidy up after that one – but don’t really mind when the children had so much fun!

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, we did one big excursion up to Little Italy in North London for the 2014 Canal Cavalcade.  We’d wanted to take the children up to see the canals for ages, and I’m so glad we picked last weekend as it was so colourful and vibrant.  Alex  was delighted with all the kid’s activities, including some brilliant powered boats that he could easily steer on his own and the little zorbs that splashed in a shallow pool (although with the zorbs, he insisted on trying them but decided immediately he didn’t like it – so that was £4 rather wasted!)

Kamikaze Sophie prefered the steep inflatable slide and got very upset when she’d used up all her goes on it. Poor Matt was quite sore after accompanying her repeatedly up and down – but she clearly loved it!

It was a beautiful day – the canal boats looked beautiful, and the market and fair alongside were really lovely. We’ll definitely be back next year.

We whiled away the rest of the afternoon in Hyde Park at the Diana Memorial Playground – both children were completely exhausted from their busy day!

Sunday was very quiet, with Alex, Sophie and I meeting some friends in a local park for the morning and us attempting a family bike ride in the afternoon. Matt had picked up a bike attachment for Alex and was determined to have a go. It’s way to big for Alex, but he loved it nevertheless!

With Bank Holiday Monday dawning sunny, we headed up to Dulwich Woods for our first ramble of the year. We spent a good two hours exploring a new corner of the woods we’d never visited seeking out good trees to climb and bluebells to admire. We found a stunning fallen tree which gave Alex plenty of opportunity to hone his climbing skills. Both children enjoyed a bit of a bug hunt and found countless woodlice and worms!

With much of the woods still very muddy, and Sophie determined to explore the messiest areas, we popped her in the backback and picked up the pace. I enjoyed some lovely snuggles with her on my back!

We rewarded ourselves with a massive pub lunch at the Dulwich Woodhouse and a quiet afternoon at home with a visit from Alex’s “girlfriend” Rosita and her family. All in all another great weekend.

I’ve just spotted the time, so I must go to bed! More soon to mark Sophie turning 18 months…