I’ve been sorting through some photographs this afternoon and realised that I haven’t written anything about our Summer staycation! After our week in Scotland, we’d planned to go and spend a few days camping in Northern France – but the … Continue reading
We’ve had a really lovely weekend – but now I come to blog about it, I find myself very disappointed that we took so few pictures! So this will be brief! With the weather suddenly properly warm and sunny, we … Continue reading
We’ve been enjoying having lots of old friends visiting us over the past week. Last week Katharine and her daughter, Emilia, decided to use our place as a base for a summer holiday to the capital so we had the … Continue reading
I’ve been feeling quite bereft this week now that the Tour de France is over for another year – but I got another surprise fix of cycle racing at the wonderful Herne Hill velodrome today! We’ve been regular visitors at … Continue reading
July always brings one of our favourite events of the year, and a real local highlight for this Herne Hill family – the brilliant and overwhelmingly massive Lambeth Country Show! We go nearly every year, and have done since we … Continue reading
I can’t let this weekend finish without sharing some photographs from our wonderful 4th July! We had just about the most English experience you can have as our friends across the pond celebrated their independence – we had a proper afternoon tea at the London Four Seasons! Our cousin Linda is visiting the UK from Canada, and she invited the family to afternoon tea at her hotel – and what an amazing time we had.
We arrived to the most beautifully decorated room and were greeted with champagne and stunning flowers. Linda gave the children gifts, which were supplemented by the hotel which had also provided a basket of presents for them – it was like Christmas.
From start to finish, we were made to feel so welcome. Any fears we had about taking our crazy pair, along with their one-year-old twin cousins, into the Four Seasons evaporated immediately – the staff did everything they could to make sure we were comfortable, from providing toddler friendly sandwiches, to smoothies, juice, ice cream etc on demand!
The spread was wonderful – check out those cakes:
Sophie even enjoyed a champagne flute of apple juice to go alongside our bubbly!
She was very impressed with the tea – look at that little face peaking out between the goodies!
The children were all brilliantly behaved at the table. Alex and Sophie even managed to eat some sandwiches before tucking into scones and jam! The food was delicious – and seemed never-ending. As soon as we neared the end of a platter of sandwiches or cake, it was immediately refilled – who knows how many scones I ate. Whoops!
It was such fun having the four cousins together – it happens so infrequently that we attempted lots of photographs (once we’d wiped the jam off their faces and hands!)
Can’t believe how quickly they are growing up! Don’t they look smart!
We just about managed to get all four of them sitting calmly together – although never quite managing to get them to look at the camera at the same time!
Alex and Sophie love their little cousins!
Sophie got some extra twin cuddles – they loved the little Paddington Bears the hotel gave them!
After our tea, the children opened their presents from Linda – two remote controlled cars. Thankfully we were the only event taking place in that area of the hotel – I’m not sure how often children run screaming along the marble corridor racing cars in the Four Seasons!
It was a stunning building – great toddler walking practice!
Alex was in heaven – I love his face here. And love the reflections in the shiny floor of Linda going in for a twin cuddle!
Before we dragged ourselves away from the wonderful tea, we did a few group shots. Here are some of the ladies
And then all of the ladies together – if only my mum didn’t have her eyes shut!
We didn’t manage so well with the boys – Alex cut his knee and was far more interested in inspecting the injury than posing for the camera:
What a dramatic boy we had (the cut was about 1 cm long!)
What an attractive family:
There we are – full of cake and champagne! What an incredible and special afternoon. Massive thanks to Linda for being such a generous host. It was such a pleasure all being together.
Look at my lovely new blog design! Big thanks to Ellie Illustrates for the beautiful design – what a treat!
If only I had a super exciting post to share that was worth of such a professional look! The recent heatwave has result in so many water fights and hose sessions that I haven’t dared have my camera out. But we’ve certainly been enjoying the sunshine. I love how easy it is to get ready and out of the house now the children are in shorts, tshirts and sandals – no more faffing around with socks and jumpers.
They have spent almost every second of the day outside and are brown as berries! We had a wonderful day last weekend at Matt’s old secondary school where he celebrated 20 years since leaving (how are we that old?!). He went to a boarding school set in some seriously stunning grounds. It was boiling hot, but the children ran and ran having a brilliant time exploring with their friend, Rosita (whose dad randomly went to school with Matt). They jumped on the bouncy castle until they were scarlet and then ran riot around Matt’s old boarding house – jumping on the beds and hiding in the rooms.
They were so hyper that it perhaps wasn’t wise visiting Matt’s parents straight afterwards. They continued to run riot around their garden, splashing in the paddling pool and chasing each other. I’m not sure Koko, their new puppy, quite knew what to make of my crazy duo. Despite the chaos, it was lovely to catch up with Dick and Michele and to enjoy cuddles with the dogs. Not sure we’ll be invited back for a while though 😉
Here they are in a very rare stationery moment!
They slept well that night!
On Sunday, we were back in Brixton for our usual morning swim. Alex’s independent swimming is coming along in leaps and bounds. We were worried that he enjoys being underwater so much that he wasn’t listening to a thing in his lessons, but he can suddenly swim for a good 5 metres in a really good, flat position so clearly some of the instructions were going in. Now he just needs to learn to take a breath without having to stand up and he’ll be there! Amazing.
Other weekend highlights over the past couple of weeks include a fabulous trip to Burgess Park to the British Cycling BMX series competition. Some of the youngest competitors were only a couple of years older than Alex! The pro racing was incredible to watch, although I think the children enjoyed the nearby playground a little bit more – here they are showing some sibling love!
We also stumbled upon the concert series in Ruskin Park a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed listening to the London Saxaphone Choir on the traditional bandstand complete with deckchairs – a very British treat after a work trip to Washington DC the week before!
Apart from those highlights, it’s been a really quiet fortnight. Matt and I have both had particularly busy times at work – and the children have been having a blast with their childminder. It seems like they’ve spent the last week entirely in their swimwear at every waterplay in Southwark!
And occasionally with clothes on, they’ve kept cool with lollies and ice cream.
Thanks for the fab photos Jacqui! Life is good when you’re 2 and 4!
We’ve got a busy Summer ahead with our annual camping trip fast approaching, the legendary Lambeth Country Show and family holidays to Scotland and France. And of course, the build up to Alex starting school- he has just 2 weeks left of nursery and only 6 weeks left with his childminder (although brilliantly she’ll be looking after him a couple of nights a week after school and during some of the holidays – phew!).
A quick look at my flickr feed reminds me of a series of trips up to the river in London recently. Now the weather is getting better, we’re finding ourselves drawn to the Thames for day trips. And with Sophie no longer napping, we’re enjoying some lovely long days out.
On the spur of the moment one Saturday morning, we headed over to Greenwich Park for a runaround. The playground there is excellent and entertained Alex and Sophie for ages – especially the new high ropes and the extensive sandpit.
Only increasingly rumbly tummies persuaded them to leave the playground – and we headed right to the river to the lovely Cutty Sark pub which had tables right on the Thames with a delicious lunch menu. Alex loved the massive anchor outside – the perfect thing to climb while he waited for his lunch!
After lunch we slowly walked back to the centre of Greenwich, walking along exposed stretches of beach like mudlarks – and nearly getting drenched by the sudden wave caused by a passing boat!
Just down the river was our next destination – the O2 – and we travelled in style on the speedy Thames Clipper to get there. Sophie and I headed into the dome to watch “In the Night Garden Live” – a surreal, but really enchanting production of her favourite tv programme. She loved it and was totally entranced – her face lighting up every time the characters appeared.
Alex and Matt opted to miss the show, trying out the gondola over the Thames. I do find it quite a bizarre, and inefficient way to cross the river – but if you’re four years old, it’s very exciting! He panicked the other passengers on board by shouting “We’re going to crash! We’re all going to die!” as it descended to the finish. Oh dear. His imagination is quite something!
On another weekend trip to the river a couple of weeks ago, we decided to visit HMS Belfast. A real river landmark, and very nearly the site of our wedding (had Matt not been too tall to fit through most of the doors and stand up in the key room!), we’ve been wondering if the children were ready for it for ages. And based on our experience last week, I think they just about are.
They were so excited that they were finally going to get to explore the big ship on the Thames:
And quickly got into character!
There was loads on desk to interest them – things to turn and climb on:
But best of all was exploring under the decks – with steep ladders galore! Perfect for climbing mad pre-schoolers (although probably quite annoying for people trying to follow us around).
We didn’t have enough time to see all of the ship – and some parts deep in the ship were marked as not suitable for small children – but we thoroughly enjoyed the areas we did see. We’ll definitely be back with a bit more time to see everything.
With Sophie ending the week a bit under the weather, we weren’t sure what to expect from Saturday – so we kept our diaries clear and waited to see what the morning brought. Thankfully, it brought a happy, healthy pair of children – and a dose of sunshine – so we decided on the spur of the moment to explore a part of London we’re not that familiar with: Bloomsbury.
It’s a while since we’ve been on a London adventure – and we started this one in dramatic fashion in the impressive surroundings of the British Museum. The Great Court never fails to impress, and the children were thrilled at the large, open space and wide staircases to explore and run wild in (although not sure running is quite the done thing in the British Museum!)
Sophie wasn’t particularly impressed at being asked to stop running around for a photograph. And how grown up is Alex looking here?!
We decided to check out the Egyptian Gallery as our first foray in the Museum with children. While, of course, impressive and fascinating, I must admit I found it highly stressful as every artefact on display was easily reachable by children and sporting a DO NOT TOUCH sign. So I spent most of the time prevent the children touching ancient pieces! We enjoyed spotting things we recognised in the hieroglyphics before escaping (I promise Alex didn’t actually touch this sarcophagus!)
We quickly gave up trying to view the proper exhibition rooms – they’re just not geared up to inquisitive toddlers – and instead wandered back around the Great Court, loving the vivid colours of the contemporary totem poles on display there.
We didn’t stay long, escaping to the grounds for a quick hotdog stop, before wandering over to a park I’ve wanted to visit for years – Coram’s Fields. A 7 acre park dedicated to children’s play – where adults aren’t permitted unless accompanied by an Under-16, I can’t quite believe we’ve never been before! We thought we’d stay for an hour, but ended up stopping for three!
It felt so safe and secure, that the children were able to roam free, exploring the various playgrounds, sandpits, water play and even mini-farm. They loved their first splash in a waterplay of the year, immediately getting soaked and sandy (the sign of a good day out, I think!)
They slid down countless slides
And climbed and climbed
and dug as if they were back on the beach in Wales! Alex immediately befriended all the children he came across, digging a vast trench around the sand pit with his new playmates:
It was such a wonderful place to spend an afternoon – complete with fabulous ice creams, a relaxed picnic and some time for us grownups to relax on a bench in the sun. And it didn’t cost a penny (well, apart from the ice cream!)
I took the opportunity while the children were contentedly playing to pop round the corner to The Foundling Museum for a few minutes. I’d seen the Museum, which explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and first public art gallery, on a documentary a while back, but never been there before. I’d read they were celebrating the history of The Foundling Hospital Boys’ Band on Saturday with live big band music – and I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the colourful deckchairs and bunting – it felt like a very British occasion!
I didn’t have time to pop into the museum, but I’ll be back as it looked fascinating.
When we finally persuaded the children to leave Coram’s Fields, we walked up to St Pancras to catch our train home.
We didn’t get home till 5pm – all completely exhausted but smiling from a wonderful London day together. These are my favourite times in the capital – picking an area and checking out what we find when we get there. Wonder which neighbourhood we’ll try next…
Just time for a quick post to try and catch up a bit. A couple of weeks ago, I ended up hosting a bit of a girly weekend in Herne Hill. It wasn’t quite the same as the girly weekends I would have arranged of my youth, but there was still music, dancing, lots of yummy food and plenty of laughing!
My uni friend, Katharine, came to stay with her daughter Emilia. It was a flying visit, but it was great fun catching up with Katharine – and better fun watching a friendship between our daughters develop! Can’t wait to see them as they get older!
Sophie took her little friend to one of her favourite music classes – Bea’s Baby Bop – for a bit of a dance and sing. They loved the shakers and musical instruments, and Sophie impressed us with her knowledge of all the songs and actions.
We then headed up to the Horniman Museum – one of our favourite South London spots. Our little ladies loved the aquarium, although a bit of an Alex tantrum curtailed our visit somewhat!
But things went better in the wonderful music garden where we enjoyed the far reaching views of London and listening to the children being creative.
After an afternoon trip to our local playground and a pizza making session, Katharine and Emilia headed back to Hampshire leaving us to enjoy a quiet family Sunday. Or so we thought…
Very early on Sunday morning we had a call from a the mother of one of the children who share our childminder. Due her second child, and with us as childcare backup in case of the sudden arrival of the baby, she was calling to say she was in labour! So we collected Anna and adjusted our plans so we could look after her for the day while her mum went to hospital.
Alex and Sophie were delighted to have their friend over to play – and while the boys went to Brixton for Alex’s swimming lesson, us girls had a lovely time at the Brixton softplay and on the bus!
We stopped in at Brockwell Park on the way home for a ride on the miniature railway – here are the girls sharing a seat on the train! They were so proud of their tickets!
We had a quiet afternoon at the local park, in our garden, and chilling out in front of “Frozen” with cookies. Here’s my favourite picture – I love the drama on their faces (they’re watching the opening sequence of “Frozen” with the shipwreck!). So engaged!
So it turned into a very busy, but very fun girly weekend!
And we were thrilled to welcome baby Patrick into the world at the end of the weekend, and have the privilege of telling Anna she’d become a big sister. What a day!
Just catching up on last weekend before this one gets underway properly!
We had a very chilled out weekend for Mother’s Day. We started the weekend at a couple of local clubs. I took Alex to the BMX club in Burgess Park for their track session. I think he was the youngest there, and certainly the only one there with spokey dokeys on his wheels – but he held his own for the first half of the 90 minute session. He got a bit too cold and tired to carry on, so we snuck away for a warm drink in the cafe and a quick stop in the playground, before heading to pick up Matt and Sophie who were enjoying toddler gymnastics in Camberwell!
We then spent a brilliant couple of hours at a 3rd birthday party – with a Sri Lankan dad, we enjoyed a wonderful curry lunch while the children played with their friends. Win!
With the weather a bit brighter and warmer, we spent most of the rest of the weekend pottering around the house and garden. Alex and Sophie whiled away half an hour playing with a cardboard box – best toy over:
And we got the bubbles out and hit the garden. Sophie’s finally learning how to actually blow bubbles rather than just tip the mixture all over the floor.
And we made lots of mud pies and “hot chocolate” – in my baking bowl 😦
Mother’s Day was lovely. I got some very nice handmade and handpicked cards – with a handwritten note inside the robot one from Alex!
We had a pancake breakfast, family trip swimming and absolutely delicious tapas and cava lunch in Brixton before heading home for a vague attempt at a family picture in the garden. Not entirely sure what Alex was doing!
The kids had lots of fun playing with waterbeads making a marine world for their Octonaut toys. I’m still finding (and standing on) the rubbery beads all over my kitchen floor!
We ended Mother’s Day at The Little Disco Company in East Dulwich. We met one of Sophie’s friends, Anna, there and it was hysterical watching the pair of ladies dancing wildly to a Frozen dance mix (yes, odd I know).
I shall close with my fave pictures of the week. My little star posing on her way to Jacqui’s, and my lovely siblings sharing the morning walk.
Finally, Spring feels like it’s nearly here. The weather yesterday was glorious – beautiful blue skies, light breeze and a warm sun that meant for the first time I didn’t feel an urge to wrap up in multiple layers!
We had a bit of a false start with me having to pop into work for a few hours this morning and Matt deciding to the kids to an indoor gymnastics session. But we made up for it after lunch with one of our favourite activities – wandering along the Southbank. My mum joined us just in time for our jaunt into town.
We started at London Bridge and headed straight to the river to start our walk east. It took us forever to make any progress and the children kept being distracted by the view and various things along the river, including a lovely London Bridge mural.
But we didn’t mind the slow pace – we just meandered along the Thames taking in the atmosphere. As usual, there were a few surprises along the way, particularly at City Hall where there’s a big Mexico tourism installation. The children were thrilled with the huge, colourful dragon that greeted them!
Here they are exploring the art (and ignoring the “do not touch” sign – whoops). I look at these pictures and can’t quite believe how quickly tehy are growing up!
With grandma with us, we even managed to attempt a family photo (note the lack of heavy coats and scarves – yay!)
The children love it around City Hall – the amphitheatre style area offers a brilliant place to run and climb. They raced around after each other, and had a great time clambering back up the many different levels. Here’s Sophie exploring:
Once we’d persuaded the children to leave the Mexico exhibition, we wander over Tower Bridge to the Tower of London. Alex was fascinated by Traitors’ Gate and wondering what naughty things he’d have to have done to be taken to the Tower!
We hopped on the Thames Clipper River Bus and whizzed down the river to Greenwich – the best way to travel to get an ice cream! We paid another visit to our favourite Gelateria there (yum) before heading home for a quiet evening with parents.
Our feet were tired and the children were exhausted, but it was so so nice to get back out in the fresh air and exploring the city. Bring on the Summer!
We enjoyed an glimpse of Spring this weekend – sadly indoors through the medium of music rather than outside in the sunshine! But it was lovely nevertheless!
We headed up to King’s Place to enjoy a family performance called “Far far away” by members of the Aurora Orchestra – the ensemble I sang with in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Playing beautiful Chopin waltzes, the performers moved amongst the children in the audience as they acted out a story about a dragonfly at the beginning of Spring.
There was so much audience participation that Sophie and Alex loved it – they hopped like chicks, made lots of noise to wake up a hibernating tortoise and waved like reeds in a breeze. It was absolutely gorgeous – stunning music, really clever story telling and so, so engaging for little ones. You can see more and watch a little video here. It was a bit tricky to take photos – but here are a couple to remind myself how lovely it was. I love my pair stretched out on the cushions as the performance started.
The peace and calm of the performance passed very quickly, with both my duo having major tantrums in King’s Place foyer – nice! So we abandoned plans to spend the day pottering around the South Bank, and headed back to South London. Thankfully they were both on better form when we stopped for a Mexican lunch in Brixton. Sophie loved her quesadilla platter, and spent a large proportion of the meal dramatically lifting the lid and shouting “Ta-Da!”
After a play in Brixton softplay, we went for a walk in Brockwell Park to enjoy the last rays of sunshine. Sophie sat longingly on the miniature railway platform, hopefully waiting for a train. She’s got about 3 weeks to go till it starts running again…
She soon gave up, and went for an explore around the trees and bushes with her stick!
Today was a very exciting day for Alex – his little friend Rosita’s birthday party! Dressed in his brilliant, caped Superman top, he and I headed to the party after swimming. Alex was delighted to see a bouncy castle in the garden and got stuck in immediately, despite the cold.
Once the rain started, we headed in doors for some brilliant face painting, games, craft and cakes. Here is Alex (or should I say Spiderman) with his girlfriend Rosita.
They are such a pair. They weren’t really separated all party – and Rosita even let Alex help her blow out her mermaid birthday cake! They made quite a couple – Superman and Elsa!
Meanwhile, Sophie was enjoying a cinema trip with her daddy, loving the Peppa Pig feature and behaving brilliantly in the theatre. She’s growing up so fast – I can’t quite believe my youngest is now old enough to go to the movies. We’re contemplating a family trip to see a film next week.
After a series of pretty quiet, local weekends – we woke up this Valentine’s Day determined to have a special day. We’re don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day (although I did have fun buying cards for my three special people, and enjoyed carefully writing a message for Alex that he could read himself – what a treat seeing my boy read my message of love to him!). So instead of doing anything romantic, we went on a family adventure to find out about the sea and stars in Greenwich!
After stopping for a quick fry up in the cafe on Peckham Rye, we got to the London Planetarium just in time for their children’s Space Safari Show. I was a bit nervous about taking Sophie in – but both children had a fantastic time. They loved watching the teddy in the film visit the planets of the solar system, and Alex seemed proud to show off his space knowledge answering all the questions posed by the astronomer leading the show! I love Sophie’s face in this picture (and her tummy!)
After exploring some of the space exhibits, we scooted down through Greenwich Park to the National Maritime Museum – a favourite place of ours and a great place for children. We went straight to the Children’s Gallery where Alex and Sophie tried morse code and radio operations, and clambered all over boats and cannons!
Alex loved operating the crane to load his boat – and was careful to balance it so it didn’t tip over!
About the only time the children stopped running and playing today was a brief ten minute art interlude in the gallery where they had a bit of a sketch and colour! Sophie mostly just emptied all of the coloured pencils out everywhere – ooops.
Alex was very proud to display his “art” on the gallery wall!
After a picnic lunch, the children had a run around on the “Great Map” in the middle of the museum. Sophie rolled and rolled all the way over the map of the world, loving the space and freedom to play
She even did rolly-pollys all across Africa and Australia!
She’s so gorgeous. At the moment, she’s really going through a period of “terrible twos” – throwing regular tantrums, saying “no” to almost everything and generally being quite contrary – but when I look at her like this, I can forgive everything. She’s so precious!
Once we’d exhausted the museum, we wandered into Greenwich centre for a cheeky ice cream in the fabulous “Black Vanilla” gelato shop. I sampled some amazing strawberry and champagne flavour – we’ll definitely be back there!
To top off our lovely family day out, we stopped in at the Goose Green playground for an explore before driving back for a peaceful evening of cooking
and breadmaking!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
2015 is already rushing by. We’ve had a lovely few weeks since our busy Christmas holiday. With the weather cold and damp, we’ve stayed local and enjoyed a series of fun weekends.
We’ve had some quieter times snuggled up at home, doing puzzles and watching moves – Alex’s current favourites being Arthur Christmas (which we had to watch bits of every day for quite some time after the festive season was long gone), West Side Story and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (my musical theatre education is going well). We’ve done lots of swimming trips and Alex even went on a climbing lesson in Crystal Palace.
And we’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time making marble runs with one of Alex’s top Christmas presents (thanks Michele!)
The long, cold January was broken up by some wonderful children’s parties. We all had a great time at Alex and Sophie’s friend Jake’s 3rd birthday party. He’d taken over the Brixton Rec softplay – and my fearless children took great pleasure in taking their friends all over the play structure. Sophie’s not at all phased and I could barely drag her away form the highest helter skelter in the place!
Here they are with some of their friends, with the birthday boy bottom left observing the noisy chaos and his baby sister top right! Sophie’s little friend Anna is bottom right. They’re all so cute!
We also celebrated Sophie’s friend Una’s 2nd birthday. Alex and Sophie enjoyed pinning the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel and lots of dancing and eating. And Una enjoyed her bunny rabbit cake:
Instead of party bags, their mum Caroline decided to do a lucky dip. I think she’ll be finding bits of it for months all over her house as the highlight of the party (certainly from my children’s perspective) was when they got their hands on the shredded paper. it was hard to be cross when they were all clearly having a BRILLIANT time!
Probably the highlight of the year so far for me was going to my first Little Disco with the children. I’d heard talk of a day time disco in Dulwich, and imagined it was probably a lot of fun for children with nursery rhymes and toddler songs and dances. So we turned up on Sunday afternoon at 3.30pm ready for lots of renditions of The Wheels on the Bus.
We couldn’t have been more wrong. It was a fabulous rave-style disco. The room was dark with disco lights everywhere, there was a proper disco ball, foam machine and even glow sticks for the kids. The music was loud and there wasn’t a nursery rhyme in sight – instead proper dance tunes and classic disco tracks.
I danced and danced and laughed and laughed all afternoon. Matt enjoyed a pint or two and the children had a blast. They boogied the afternoon away, loving the foam spray and bubbles. Alex even did his first locomotion. It’s a genius idea and we will definitely be back. Our photos are rubbish as it was so dark and we were laughing so much – but just so I don’t forget, here are a few moments:
Love the “Warning: Dad Dancing” poster.
Diary of a Herne Hill mum 