I’ve been a bit distracted from the blog as I’ve been busy over the past fortnight rehearsing for a Prom with my chamber choir Chantage. But we survived the concert last night, so I’ll start catching up with a recap of last weekend.  After our trip back from France, we had a lovely quite day back in Herne Hill.

The weather was glorious so we spent much of the day in Brockwell Park.  We’d heard there was a children’s theatre performance taking place in the walled garden, so we headed up there to see what was going on.  Turned out it was a production called “Goldilocks and the Three Endings” by a local company called Sixteen Feet.  An “interactive fairy tale”, the children in the audience got to choose how the story progressed.

As soon as we arrived, Alex bumped into his friend, Rex – so they immediately became inseparable and followed the plot together.  The performance took place throughout the garden, and even though it was nearly 90 minutes long and the weather was absolutely boiling, the children were all engrossed:

Even Sophie seemed to enjoy the spectacle (although she seemed to equally enjoy trying to pull all the petals off the carefully arranged flowers!).  Alex and Rex happily chatted to Goldilocks as we gathered for each scene!

The next day we were off for our second mini break of the holiday – a trip to my parents’ new house in Greens Norton, Northamptonshire.  We wasted no time on arrival, and immediately tucked into ice cream in their new garden:

I swear my children are at their happiest when they have ice cream:

The next morning we headed to Salcey Forest just 20 minutes away from their new home.  Alex and Sophie had a great time clambering around the adventure playground, Alex being particularly brave on the high ropes!

But best of all was the Gruffalo Trail around the woods, created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the brilliant story!

We did manage to find the gruffalo, and had a lovely walk in the woods along the way.

A bit of a navigational error meant we struggled to find our way back to the cafe and car park, but Sophie and Alex made the mot of the slightly longer walk by splashing in every puddle they found and getting completely drenched!

Thankfully, we did make it back to the cafe – and enjoyed a delicious lunch and cake.  I can see us making many visits to Salcey in the future!

With Hurricane Bertha making herself felt across the UK, the weather on Sunday was horrendous.  So we headed down to Milton Keynes to have a play on the indoor beach there.  Fresh from their French experience, the children set straight to work building sand castles.  Sadly, the sand was too dry, so Alex got a bit frustrated!  Thankfully there was a little funfair to keep him occupied before the drive home to London.

Back in London, we had a quick turn around to get into town for an early dinner with our Canadian family, Linda and Jenny who were visiting the UK for a few days.  Jenny did a fabulous job keeping Alex occupied for a lengthy meal which got very close to his bedtime!

And we just about managed to get a group shot before we rushed the over tired, ice cream fuelled children home for bed!

Talking of bed, I shall leave you with this little cutey.  Sophie fast asleep with her bunnies.  Gorgeous.

Last week was another milestone in the lives of Alex and Sophie – for the first time in their lives we left the UK on an international holiday!  We hadn’t booked anything for our two weeks annual leave, but on the spur of the moment decided to head over to France for a few days camping.  Some very quick online research found us a campsite called Domaine de Drancourt just over an hour from Calais near a little town called Saint-Valery-Sur-Somme, and I booked us a ferry ride over the Channel as I thought the kids would enjoy the adventure.

I regretted that decision as soon as we arrived in Dover to find horrendous delays on our P&O crossing.  The excitement of travelling by sea quickly became extreme boredom after sitting for an hour in the car and then two hours in a tiny terminal.  But we eventually boarded and things looked up.  After watching on the desk as we sailed away from the white cliffs, we discovered the kids club where Alex had his face painted for the first time in his life:

The drive to Saint-Valery was smooth and easy and we were delighted with what we found at the campsite.  We pitched our tent in our really good sized plot and found it close to the park amenities without being too noisy.  Here we are making the most of the fresh croissants and pain au chocolat that arrived every morning:

Happy children getting to have chocolate every day for breakfast!

The site had loads of quiet, wide roads that were ideal for cycling, and the children seemed to really enjoy having a bit of freedom.

Best of all was the amazing, and free, swimming pool complex where we whiled away much of the holiday!

Sophie was in her element in the toddler pool, exploring the pirate ship slide and flinging herself into the water constantly (a tad disappointed to see she is developing Alex’s photo smile…)

I just love her swimming costume!

I barely got any photos of Alex as he didn’t really stop moving.  He and Matt explored the bigger slides in the main pool, but I did manage to capture the three of them in one spot.  Sophie is so tanned she’s starting to look Spanish!

And here are Alex and Sophie playing together – they are such water babies!

When we could drag them away from the water, Alex and Sophie were mostly running around the little site playground together (which was conveniently located next to the bar and pizzeria!):

They’re getting so big!  Here they are deep in conversation one evening:

Over the three day, we did leave the site to explore the area.  I hadn’t expected much from the coast of France near Calais, but was very pleasantly surprised.  We had a wonderful afternoon at one of the many local beaches.  I’m ashamed to say that I think this is one of the first times the children have actually played on a proper sandy beach, so we had great fun attempting to make sand castles and climbing on the rocks.  The tide was literally miles out so we could barely see the sea – very surreal!

Here we are decorating the beach

We headed over to Boulogne for an afternoon to visit the famous aquarium – Nausicaa – there. Alex was super excited to see sharks – and it was unusual to see them from above as their fins sliced through the water.  Alex preferred the under water view though where he could see their teeth and marval at their size!  We had a nice time, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it – it was pretty expensive and not as big as I’d expected.  I think we’d have had as much fun rock-pooling by ourselves!

We should have stayed in beautiful Saint-Valery.  As I said, I hadn’t really expected to be impressed by the location – but it really was lovely and I’d highly recommend it.  The town itself was picturesque and really easy to wander around.  I loved the old waterside buildings with colourful shutters and beautiful balconies.  The river estuary was packed with boats and birds, and we enjoyed a lovely picnic sitting down by the water.

There was a lovely, flat boardwalk along the river which was perfect for little feet and bicycles:

I will definitely visit this part of France again – there was loads we didn’t see or do (even on the campsite which had horse riding, cycling and other sports available).

We had a wonderful trip – and most surprisingly of all, it really felt like a holiday.  Not a massive fan of camping, I hadn’t anticipated the break feeling like real downtime, but I read a book and a magazine, caught some sunshine, ate vast quantities of cheese and mussels, spent more time in a swimming costume than I’d ever imagined and even enjoyed a bit of a lie in from the kids!

I shall leave you with one of my abiding memories – seeing bright poppies everywhere.  Our visit coincided with the centenary of World War One, and it was really fitting to be on the Somme surrounded by poppies.

After our camping weekend, we had a very peaceful, local week. With our childminder on leave, it was a short working week, and we used first few days off in the glorious sunshine to enjoy the brilliant parks we have close to our home. Starting with Ruskin Park…

Ruskin Park is a transport mad toddlers dream, as a busy railway line cuts through the bottom off it, right next to the paddling pool and playground. So Alex is always happy to visit. To make things even more exciting, you occasionally see the air ambulance land in the space next to King’s College Hospital. Once the patient has been transported on to the hospital, the crew have to hang around waiting for their paramedic to return. And sometimes, they fill the time showing excited children around the helicopter! Alex was lucky to experience this last week:

Once we’d dragged him away from the chopper (and his bike), we had a good splash in the paddling pool to cool off after another boiling hot day. Sophie loved being swung around:

Next park – Brockwell Park. An absolute favourite of ours – with brilliant playground, lido, cafe, paddling pool, sand pit and even a little railway line! On this trip, we took Alex to the BMX track for the first time. He’s so in love with his new pedal bike skills, he was desperate to have a go. We didn’t expect he’d be able to get round on his own, but sure enough, he tanked around the bumpy track only needing a little bit of help getting up the steepest sections!

Not to be outdone by her big brother, Sophie insisted on having a go. She looks so mini on Alex’s bike!

After a picnic lunch, we popped into the water play and sand pit area for some more wet fun. Once Sophie had plucked up the courage to actually go under the sprinklers, so adored it:

Alex was excited to see Amelia, an old friend from his childminder after well over a year. They immediately remembered each other, and soon Alex was joining in the loom band craze with Amelia’s friends! I love the concentration on his face!

Next up was Burgess Park – one we’d not really explored. I was away at a full day choir rehearsal, so Matt took the kids for a recce. And his report was excellent! I can’t believe we’ve not been before – the playground was amazing. Sophie was in her element:

The BMX track, though closed, looked amazing. One of the instructors was there about to run a class. On spotting Alex’s enthusiasm, he invited him along for a beginner class, so we’ll try that in a couple of weeks! Giving up on the cycling, Alex and Sophie sampled the park cafe, and I think their faces suggest it was pretty good!

They ended their day on a quick jaunt around Dulwich Woods:

I love that although I live in zone two, there are so many green spaces we can enjoy as a family. These are just a few – there are also Dulwich Park, Peckham Rye and of course Sunray Gardens on our doorstop.

We weren’t outside all week – we did enjoy a lovely visit from Sophie and Alex’s friend Jake who joined us for a toddler tea:

And here are my siblings happy together just before bedtime. Love their crazy smiles!

With Imperial’s magazine to get to press, a fast approaching prom with my choir and a childminder on annual leave, I’m afraid the blog is suffering again!  But we have a quite few days ahead away from work so expect a few regular posts to get up to date with Agar family life!

A couple of weeks ago was the annual camping weekend we go on with some of our friends.  To be honest, over the first two years, we’ve not had the best of times – with pregnancy discomfort and a vomiting Alex shortening the first trip in 2012 and baby Sophie refusing to sleep under canvas in 2013.  But this year, with Matt and I in the organising hot seat, we were determined to actually stick it out for the full two nights!

Not only did we manage to cope with two successive nights under canvas, but we actually had a jolly good time!  We’d booked a lovely little campsite – Home Farm – near High Wycombe just outside London hoping to reduce the crazy long drive of 2013.  I was a bit worried it feel a little too close to London, but it was actually really quite and in a beautiful, scenic location.

We secured a great spot for our small group and set to work pitching the tents.  Alex rather enthusiastically joined in, immediately breaking one of our tent poles, but Bryony and I managed to fix it and the tent seemed pretty secure.  The girls, Sophie and Aria, took particular interest in the tent pitching.  Aria delighted in removing the tent pegs!

By the time we’d pitched the tents, and realised quite how much stuff we’d forgotten (including gas for the camping stove meaning no hot tea until friends arrived on Saturday!), there wasn’t much left of Friday. The boys explored the local fields on a bear hunt/football match with Pete:

And the children enjoyed a (cold!) pasta dinner before we started getting them to go to sleep.  They were way too excited though and it took a comedically long time to persuade them to turn in for the night.  We lost count of the number of attempts the boys made to escape their beds!  But eventually, they did pass out asleep, just in time for us to tuck into our Chinese takeaway!

Miraculously, Alex and Sophie slept beautifully under canvas. For the first time, Alex had a proper mattress and little sleeping bag, and he seemed pretty impressed! As usual, I struggled to sleep, but at least being snug in my sleeping bag was a big improvement on last year when I spent much of the night sitting in a camping chair with Sophie! Both children were up at 6am and happily munching on shreddies in the tent.

We had a very quiet Saturday around the campsite. My favourite thing about our camping trips is having our urban children roaming wild in the countryside. We started off at the little village playground in the sweltering heat:

Back at the campsite, and after the arrival of Arlo and family, the boys got stuck into mud pie making:

Followed by a slightly cleaner water game:

We explored the farm, enjoying the pigs, chickens and tractors:

Late afternoon, the ladies sent all the boys off for a proper hike in the woods. They seemed to have a great – if exhausting –  walk, even finding time to investigate the local pub and sample some local brew!

Arlo’s family brought a gas cannister, so the children enjoyed a warm pasta dinner together:

Bedtime was a little easier on the Saturday as the children were so exhausted.  We even managed some peaceful bedtime stories which was very cute:

We enjoyed some delicious lamb stew (thanks Jess) and some Brixton beers (thanks Matt) and plenty of catching up in the dark, before we all got too cold and turned in.  Family Agar all had a good night’s sleep, and woke ready on Sunday for the mammoth task of repacking the cars!  It’s amazing how long it takes to prepare for and pack up a camping trip!

The boys enjoyed their last few hours of running around the farm, adding climbing to their list of activities.

All too soon, it was time to part ways again and we all headed back to hot showers and comfy beds!  We decided to stop for a wander and lunch in beautiful Marlow before heading into town.  The children certainly enjoyed ice cream by the river:

To close, here are my favourite Sophie camping pictures – she cracks me up!

We had such a fun time, we made the radical decision to go camping AGAIN only a week later – but more about that in another post…

This weekend marked the highlight of the Herne Hill social calendar – and a particular favourite annual occasion for Family Agar – the Lambeth Country Show!  I’ve adored the crazy event since I first moved to Herne Hill, but love it even more now we have children.  What could be better – a proper country fair with sheep shearing, crazy vegetable competitions, morris dancing and cake, combined with jerk chicken and urban music! It’s perfect for them – and being within an easy walk meant we visited both days this weekend and could take it at a gentle pace (vital this weekend given the oppressive heat).

We were joined for this super fun weekend by Katharine and baby Emilia so we enjoyed showing them our favourite parts of the show.  We started on Saturday sampling some of the scrummy food on offer (I opted for a hog roast sarnie and Matt went for a stunning looking Moroccan tagine) before giving into Alex’s desperate whining for an ice cream!

With that important stuff done, we watched a spot of camel racing (yes, really you read that right)

And then Alex and Matt enjoyed the funfair while the little ladies napped.

Alex’s favourite ride from last year was back – the runaway train.  He firstly went on it with his daddy, and was then brave enough (and tall enough) to ride it alone! He’s growing up so fast!

It was so hot and uncomfortable, we headed home to make the most of the paddling pool. We’re having our garden done up at the moment, and thankfully the guys have left it safe enough for us to still play in it – phew!  Emilia loved the paddling pool and coped well with Alex’s splashing!

Sophie looked gorgeous in her pretty new swimming costume from her Auntie Elaine (thank you!) – she looks so tanned having spent all summer outside.

And then the hose came out!

Sophie was a bit hesitant to start with, but the cool water was so tempting on such a hot afternoon that she soon joined in. I know I’m biased, but she is so gorgeous!

We had three happy and tired children come bedtime!

With today marginally cooler, we headed back to Herne Hill for a donkey ride.  I don’t think Sophie’s helmet was doing much good!

And then explored the animal area, stopping on the way to pet a snake!

Emilia saw her first farm animals and loved them

And Alex got stuck in too.

Our normally animal mad Sophie suddenly got cold feet, and wouldn’t go near anything in the petting zoo (perhaps she was put off watching Alex getting bitten by a rabbit!). But she was all smiles again when we headed to the merry-go-round.

Emilia seemed to enjoy her first fairground ride too!

Sophie and I enjoyed the tea cup ride together:

And Sophie looked longingly at the Helter Skelter as Alex whizzed down it – I’m sure she’ll be up there in 2015!

With scrummy churros to top off a great time in Brockwell Park, we headed home for a quiet afternoon and evening. Exhausted.

It was a really wonderful weekend. Alex wants to go back to the show tomorrow – hope he’s no too disappointed in the morning!

Just a quick blog this evening as I’ve got loads to do before another week gets underway.

After a pretty dodgy looking weather forecast, this weekend has turned out rather wonderful – hot and sunny, meaning lots of outside time for Family Agar.

But Alex and I started the weekend indoors with a long awaited trip to see The Elephantom performed by the National Theatre.  We went with my friend Katie and her son Jake on their final days before they emigrate to Australia next week!  Alex was super excited about seeing ghost elephants – and he wasn’t disappointed.  It was am impressive performance, beautifully choreographed – probably a bit too long for our fidgety duo, but they seemed to enjoy it, especially when the elephants were being naughty!

The boys had clearly behaved and sat still for too long, so when we left the theatre, they went a bit crazy as we headed off for Borough Market with Jake’s family.

Pretty much the only time they stopped running, screaming and giggling was when they found a fabulous, old organ decorating a restaurant wall in Covent Garden.  Random but cute:

We took a bus along the river to Borough Market, and Alex passed a little milestone rather quietly.  We grown ups were chatting, while Alex and Jake were engaged in a pretty surreal conversation, when suddenly Alex told Jake that the seats they were sitting on said “bus” – and sure enough, he’d managed to read a word himself and share it with his friend.   Small steps, but the start of the journey to reading books!  We’ve been trying not to push him with reading and writing, but it’s nice to see its beginning to go in.  He almost wrote his name the other day (he’s struggling with the letter “e”!).

We met Sophie and Matt at Borough and had a quick lunch while the boys explored The Golden Hinde “pirate ship”.  After bidding a sad farewell to the Cox family, we headed home for a quieter afternoon involving a family bike ride to Dulwich Village for some children’s shoe shopping and a trip to the park.

Today we stayed very local, visiting the Horniman Museum after our Sunday swim.  We loved the live music and dance that were part of their Curious Tea Party weekend  – and particularly enjoyed a fleeting visit by my old friend, Eve, who was visiting Forest Hill for the weekend.  After not seeing her for a couple of years, we managed to fit in lots of catching up into an hour!  Fingers crossed she comes back soon with her family…

This afternoon, Alex made a complete mess making ice creams with his beloved play doh (not sure I’ve every forgiven my brother for giving him so much!).  He made some impressive ice cream sundays, and alarmingly tried to eat them

The highlight of the afternoon came at the park when Alex continued to improve his cycling skills – and this time I captured it on camera.  He may not be able to entirely write his name, but my boy can ride:

I still can’t believe my baby can do this:

Already feeling excited about next weekend – it’s the social event of the South London calendar – the Lambeth Country Show in Brockwell Park.  And to make things even more exciting, I’m hoping we’ll be joined by Katharine and baby Emilia for a weekend visit.  Expect photos galore…

Just realised I haven’t blogged about the last couple of weeks.  It’s been a fortnight of contrasts, with some frustrating illnesses for Alex and Sophie and some surreal experiences for me.

Last weekend started off with me heading back to Wokingham in Berkshire for a day at my old secondary school.  Our two wonderful music teachers are both retiring this summer and so had organised a final school concert – to which they invited their old pupils to joined in.  So, feeling very apprehensive about returning after 18 years, I joined a couple of very old friends for a thoroughly wonderful day.  Once I’d recovered from the realisation that (a) every single current pupil in the school was born after I left, (b) I was the oldest “old girl” present at the reunion and (c) the headteacher (formerly my sport teacher) chatter to me like a colleague and not a pupil, I had a complete blast!

It was a really moving occasion – and given the enormous impact Mrs Scotchmer and Mrs Pearce made on my life – am so very glad I went.  Here are a few snaps of the day – including some of my fellow old girls nearly two decades on from leaving!

Meanwhile in London, Matt was having a busy day with Alex and Sophie. He took them on an adventure to Greenwhich where they saw the Cutty Sark and explored the brilliant Greenwich Park children’s playground and had a picnic. They then took the Emirates Airline cable car over the river, and took the driverless DLC home. Very ambitious, but they clearly had a brilliant time.

It was all too much excitement for Sophie, and poor Matt had to cope with a poorly toddler at bedtime. Lots of laundry later, and after a thankfully really good sleep, she seemed to be much better on Sunday.

But to be safe, we stayed close to home, spending the morning in Brockwell Park with my parents who were visiting for a couple of days.

While Sophie was napping, we managed to squeeze in a spot of Tour de France viewing on TV – the only way we could manage it with Alex was to plug him into the iPad with some snacks. Not my finest parenting hour, but a very peaceful 30 minute break in front of the cycling in Yorkshire! Alex was even interested enough to watch a few minutes before complaining it was boring – I love that he watched it through his binoculars!

We then all headed down to Sunray Gardens for an evening play in the sunshine, although it was tricky to get Sophie there as she insisted on walking and befriending every cat she passed:

But we did eventually make it. Sophie had fun with Grandpa:

And Alex rode a pedal bike on his own for the very first time! He suddenly clicked with his balance bike last week and is cycling everywhere – but within 2 days of figuring that out started begging for some pedals. So we brought an old bike some very kind neighbours gave us for the kids, and let him have a go. To our surprise (and pride!), he picked it up ridiculously quickly. Frustratingly, every time I tried to film him, he struggled, but this is the best clip I got (which I will keep just in case he wins the Tour de France someday). Will try and get a better clip this weekend.

With both the kids on great form on Sunday, we thought all illness was passed – but sadly we had to collect Alex early from Jacqui’s on Tuesday. He had a temperature and was really sleepy and achy, so he slept all afternoon and all night. And then, to make things worse, Sophie was sick again at bedtime! So, Matt and I had to divvy up childcare duty on Wednesday while we had them at home getting better! Thankfully, a quiet morning under duvets saw them start to feel better, and by the afternoon they were eating ice cream in the garden.

They were thankfully back at their childminder on Thursday, which meant I could get up to Manchester with some of my team at work for a major awards ceremony for Higher Ed comms and marketing. Turned out to be totally worth the trip, as we came away with the Gold Medal for Best Postgraduate Prospectus. Such fun to go out to a black tie do in a posh frock – just regretting not getting a pic of me all dolled up since it pretty much never happens! But here we are with our prize 🙂

And, since this blog isn’t really about me, here’s one last snap of the kids having a very splashy time in the bath tonight.

Just time for a photo post as the weekend draws to a close. It’s been a bit of a drizzly one but we’ve managed to have some fun. We had no plans on Saturday, so on the spur of the moment – and feeling decidedly optimistic about the forecast – we chose to visit the 2012 Olympic Park (now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park).

Our optimism was rather unwise as the heavens opened as soon as we parked up, so we amused ourselves in the Westfield Shopping Centre children’s play area and then having a rather damp picnic under an awning outside!  But thankfully things improved, and the sun came out just as we were running out of things to do.  So we took the familiar route we took so many times back in 2012, and took our children into the Olympic Park!

It still gives me a complete buzz to see it all – and I was delighted to see how well the park has been adapted since the games.  The Aquatic Centre looks stunning in its reduced form and the velodrome is still one of the most gorgeous buildings around.  It’s sad to see the stadium losing some of its scale, but the Orbit tower looks dramatic and is a fab reminder of the Games.

Alex has finally clicked with his balance bike, and the wide open paths in the park were perfect for him to get up some speed and confidence.  There was a huge live concert going on on the site for Holi, the Festival of Colours, so we had a very funky soundtrack to accompany our exploration.

I’d been keen to visit Tumbling Bay Playground with the children – a new outdoor play space near the Velo Park.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  The kids got stuck straight into the sand and water play.

Sadly their playtime was curtailed by a massive torrential rainstorm which saw us huddling for shelter in the little cafe next door.  Thankfully it didn’t last too long and the sun came back out.  Matt was keen to have a look at the VeloPark so we wandered off in the direction of the velodrome – and discovered even more play space.  Alex was delighted to find a huge network of bridges, slides and a very tall treehouse.  So cool!

He climbed up to the top immediately and loved the high rope bridge.

Sophie scared me a bit by insisting on running around the bits she could reach – very relieved she didn’t fall off as it was pretty high!

It really was excellent – and very quiet (perhaps because we were the only crazy people to venture so far into the Park in a rainstorm!)

After a quick peek at the BMX track and velodrome, we made our way back to the car and home.

We popped down to Herne Hill to pick up some new bedtime stories at the children’s bookshop – and bought Alex a joke book.  We’ve all been a bit tired of his single joke (What do you call a train with a cold?  A choo-choo train!) and decided we needed a bit of variation.  We spent the rest of the day giggling at the silly jokes.  Alex laughs hysterically after each one, even if he has no idea what the joke means.   He has three memorized ready to dazzle Jacqui tomorrow!

After our Sunday morning swim today, we headed back to Herne Hill for a delicious bbq at Alex’s best friend Sam’s house.  The sun held out long enough for us to enjoy a leisurely lunch and glass of wine in the garden while the children played.  Alex and Sam are so similar – they had a great time in each others company.  I’m sad they won’t see as much of each other in this coming year as they will be at different nurseries, but hopefully they’ll be together when they start school.

After the BBQ and Sophie and Una’s naps, we headed to Sunray Gardens for more playtime.  Alex, after his balance bike success yesterday, was desperate to try a bike with pedals – so Matt tried him out on a little bike given to us by a neighbour.  We have no photographic evidence, but he actually did really well on it.  I suspect if we keep trying, he might master it sooner than I expected!  How can I have a child old enough to ride a bike!?

We ended our day chilling out at home and watching Glastonbury.  Both Sophie and Alex seem to love music (they both loved Dolly Parton!).  Sophie bopped along and Alex sat really engrossed for a while.

I am hopeful they’ll both be musical (am not a pushy mum at all!)

I’m about to head to bed, but just wanted to share some pictures from a really wonderful weekend.  The sun has shone throughout and we’ve spent almost every minute outside with so many family and friends.

Yesterday we headed off to Reading for a fabulous family party.   My grandparents and aunt were visiting my parents for a week, and so we all got together at my brother’s place for a garden party!  Four generations of one family all together in the sunshine – and all four of my parents’ grandchildren!  Quite a treat given how far we all live apart – and such a pleasure to see my grandparents meeting their newest great-grandchildren.

Alex and Sophie were in their element having a huge garden to run around in.  And coupled with homemade cupcakes and lots of attention from their doting relatives, they were on cloud nine!  I even got Sophie to wear a dress for an entire day (usually she protests after 10 minutes!).  Here are my happy children:

Despite the dress, Sophie had a great game of rugby with my dad!

Here are my grandparents enjoying their very first cuddle with baby Rose!

And here we (almost) all are – keeping cool under a canopy.  Baby Lucy was napping in her cot, so it isn’t quite the entire family, but it’s the closest we’ll get for a while!  Such a treat – I’m so pleased my children know their great grandparents, we really are very lucky.

But that wasn’t all the family we managed to squeeze into Saturday.  We stopped in to Matt’s dad’s house on the way home for some supper and more running around a garden!  They enjoyed cuddles with the dogs and spotting all of Grandad’s fish!  Here’s Alex showing Grandad lots of photos on my phone:

We were all pretty tired this morning after such a packed day yesterday, so we stayed local and had a really lovely time.  After a leisurely morning, we popped to Brixton for our first family swim in a while which was great fun.  After a massive pizza in Franca Manca and some frozen yoghurt, we headed out to Windrush Square to watch a carnival go past (for the “Prams and Poppies Festival” taking place down the road today).  We all loved the samba drumming.

The boys then headed to Brockwell Park for some water play in the fountains there, and on to Herne Hill market where they made their own smoothies using pedal power on a bicycle powered stall!  And Sophie and I popped to East Dulwich to stock up on a Summer wardrobe.

We ended our weekend in Belair Park where a huge group of families had gathered to bid farewell to our friends Katy and Tim (and their children Jake and Emily) as they are shortly moving to Sydney!  Our children are exactly the same age, and we’ve shared so much over the past three years, so we’re all v sad to see them go – but we had a lovely last afternoon together in the sunshine.

It was so relaxing catching up with old friends in the beautiful grounds of Belair House – and there was even a fabulous children’s entertainer keeping the little ones occupied while we chatted!

Sophie and Emily looked beautiful in their Summer clothes together.

Sophie is currently obsessed with shoes so she spent most of the time stealing shoes that had been abandoned by their owners and trying to put them on

The boys ran wild together, exploring the bushes and lake, running away from their imaginary monsters and chatting on a walkie-talkie!

But there were moments of calm – although you can see from Alex’s face that he wasn’t really interested in hanging out with us!

I wish it was a Bank Holiday weekend – would like to do this one all over again.

Looking back at our photos, I realise I didn’t blog about last week.  It wasn’t quite such a stunning weekend as it began with Sophie being horribly sick on the Friday evening.  Nothing like having to deal with toddler sick after a very long and tiring week at work!

But thankfully it was shortlived and no-one else caught her bug.  We had a quiet Saturday to make sure she was better, sticking to our local park and Herne Hill.  On Saturday afternoon we went along to the local church hall where there was a very cute Summer fair.  Alex got to hold a real fire hose and see a fire engine, there were loads of old fashioned stalls and a bouncy castle.  And best of all, Alex’s best friend Sam was there too (along with his baby sister Una!). Lots of sweets were had by all and we had a brilliant time.  Here’s Alex taking part:

On Sunday, we decided to pop up to the Marylebone Summer Fair – and we were so glad we travelled there – it was fantastic.  I guess that’s what you get when you hold a family fair in a very affluent part of town!  The entertainment was amazing (such brilliant new musical talent performing live all afternoon), the food was delicious, the fun fair really high quality and the atmosphere safe and buzzing.  We’ll definitely be back next year.

We love a good fun fair!

So we still had to get home from Scotland. Instead of driving home ridiculously early as we had on the way up, we opted for a mostly night-time drive home, aiming to drive from Newcastle back to London after the children’s bedtime. But first we had to get to The Toon…

We left Queensferry mid morning in the glorious sunshine for the short, but scenic drive to North Berwick – somewhere I’d never visited and had always wanted to. I wasn’t disappointed – it was absolutely gorgeous and is fast becoming one of my favourite places! It looks quite Mediterranean in the warm sunshine and I was sad we only had time to stay for a few hours.

We packed lots in though – enjoying the brilliant Scottish Seabird Centre which managed to squeeze so much into its tiny frame.  We loved moving the cameras on the outlying islands, to zoom in on nesting birds and to watch the Gannets fly and dive around Bass Rock (even now, a couple of weeks later, Alex loves talking about the Gannets!).  We watched through telescopes and did brass rubbings of various birds.  The children even got to enjoy a mini softplay area.  I was sad that the timings didn’t work out to go on a boat trip.  I’d highly recommend a visit if you are passing through.

We couldn’t stay inside on such a stunning day though – so we found a nice spot on the harbour and enjoyed a picnic.  It was so colourful and bustling.

We didn’t stay put for long though – not when there were lots of rocks to climb!

Here’s Bass Rock – coloured white by all the bird droppings!  You can’t really see in the picture, but gannets were literally swarming around the tiny island.  North Berwick really was beautiful – and I absolutely have to go back, not least because I frustratingly found myself without a penny of cash on me to enable me to sample the scrummy foot at the Lobster Shack in the Harbour.  Already looking forward to that!

Here’s we are standing by the lido – next time we’ll bring swimming costumes (although I’ll be amazed if we get so lucky with the weather next time we’re there!)

All too soon, it was Sophie’s nap time – and that cued the next bit of the drive.  So we jumped back into the car and headed for Newcastle, admire the stunning coastline as we went.  It was funny passing St Abb’s Head – the site of a University of Warwick diving trip from 15 years ago where Matt and I first became friends.  I can’t imagine what I’d thought if you told me I’d next pass by over a decade later, married to Matt and with two children in the back of the car!

We had planned to visit our friend Tracy in Newcastle, but as we arrived in the city we received the sad news that she was sick – so we made a detour to the brilliant Baltic Arts Centre (and made a note that we have another reason to visit the North East again as we simply have to meet her puppy and bunny rabbits!).

It just so happened that there was a big CBBC festival going on there, so there was lots to see.  Alex got to share a lift with the Cookie Monster, and make some artistic suggestions to a cartoonist working on a massive dragon cartoon around the building!  We whiled away an hour in the workshop space, decorating parrots in the pirate themed corner, learning about the human body from the BBC Horrible Histories team and doing a great treasure hunt around the gallery.

After a delicious pizza dinner in the city, we got the children into their PJs in the car park and hit the road South!  Super Matt drove the entire way home, and we were all tucked up in bed by 1.30am.  Exhausting – but a fabulous day!

I’ve struggled to find time to write up our lovely little holiday to Scotland – this will probably be a bit long.  But we had such a lovely time I don’t want to forget about it!

I’d been eye-ing up this little cottage in South Queensferry, just outside Edinburgh, for ages – and with the May half term week booked off as annual leave, I managed to persuade Matt to let me book it for a few nights so we could get away 🙂

But first we had to get there…  With the flights for the four of us reaching hundreds of pounds, and my children too hyperactive to consider hours on a train, we opted to drive!  Even breaking the journey at my parents, we still had a long distance to cover in a day.  We debated loads of options for when to travel and where to stop, and decided to leave super early in the hope the children would sleep for the longest part of the drive.  So at 4.30am we pulled out of my parents place in Northamptonshire and headed North.

Sophie fell asleep relatively quickly and snoozed all the way to Southern Lake District where we’d planned to stop for breakfast.  Alex on the other hand was so excited that he didn’t want to sleep – instead watching the sunrise and chatting excitedly all the way!  We spent probably the longest Matt and I have ever spent in a service station at the brilliant Westmoreland services on the M6, eating a yummy breakfast of local produce, looking at the ducks, playing in the soft play area and having a nice walk around the grounds.

We eventually loaded the children back into the car and drove into Scotland.

We’d planned to stop a couple of hours later at the David Livingstone Centre just South of Glasgow for a long break so we coud run around their extensive grounds and enjoy a leisurely lunch.  It didn’t quite go to plan.  Whilst the house looked lovely and the grounds and play area had huge potential, the heavens opened soon after we arrived and the cafe only offered vegetable soup (not even with bread!).  So we ended up having lunch in the local Asda and heading to Edinburgh a little quicker than planned!

Thankfully the weather cleared up a bit as we neared Edinburgh.  We were too early to check in to the cottage, so we headed to Cramond for some ice cream and a walk along the sea front.  Sadly both children were a bit grumpy from naps in the car that were too short so it took a while for us to start enjoying ourselves, but eventually we all appreciated our lovely surroundings (and the yummy ice cream on offer there) and the start of our holiday!

I was so excited to finally pull up at my dream cottage – and I wasn’t disappointed.  The view over the Forth was incredible.  Sitting at the highest point in South Queensferry, we had uninterrupted views of the two beautiful bridges and rocky beach.  It was stunning.

The cottage itself was upside down, so the main living room were on the top floor and the children had to go downstairs to go to bed.  Alex found this fascinating and wouldn’t stop talking about our upside down house.  Both Alex and Sophie quickly realised they could sit in the cottage and spot all the trains travelling across the Forth Bridge, so that was entertainment sorted!

It was soon time for bed – we were nervous as Alex and Sophie were sharing a room for the first time – but we didn’t hear a peep out of them.  Given how tired we were that was quite a relief!

So what did we get up to on the few days we were North of the border? We made our obligatory trip to the amazing Edinburgh Zoo.  We had a glorious day for it and managed to cover most of the park.  Highlights for the children were the pandas, penguins and zebras.

We spent a very wet day in Edinburgh, spending most of our time in the Museum of Scotland.  The children love all the interactive exhibits.  Here’s Sophie exploring while Matt and Alex enjoyed the story corner!

And the pair making a Chinese dragon move – and Alex trying to generate some electricity!

We made a vague attempt to visit the Castle, but it was a bit too damp – so we headed back to the cottage, wrapped up and went and played on the beach!

On our penultimate day, we headed to the brilliant Falkirk Wheel to watch the canal boats on the surreal lock replacement.  Alex and Sophie weren’t that interested in the flying boats, and instead loved exploring the extensive adventure playground and park land.

They absolutely adored the water play park, getting completely drenched as they explored and played.

The highlight of our week was, of course, getting to spend some time with my family.  We’d enjoyed some lovely visits to my Grandparents when we were up in Scotland last year, and it was wonderful to see Alex remember his previous visit and settle right back in.  He immediately found my brother’s old toy cars and got to work playing with them in the garden.

And when they were tired of the cars, there was a handy watering can. I imagine some of my grandparents’ plants were well and truly drowned by the end of the day!

Sophie frustratingly pretended to be super shy for most of our visits which was a shame, but by the last time we dropped in, she was more confident and stopped clinging to me to play with her great grandparents and great aunt.  We didn’t get many good photographs unfortunately, but here are a few.  Here’s Alex looking very chilled:

And Sophie being brave!

We had such a lovely stay in South Queensferry – I am confident we will be back.  It really is the perfect place to stay for us – easy journey into Edinburgh, 10 minutes from my family and right on the beach.

And we made sure we made the most of being on the beach! I’ve become quite a fan of pre-bedtime beach combing.  Turns out we weren’t very good at finding things in rock pools or skimming stones into the sea, but we had a good try nevertheless!

I’m going to finish the holiday write up in another post about our long journey home – so for now, good night! Well done those of you who reached the end 🙂

My poor washing machine – it’s been on almost constantly this weekend.  Not because anyone is sick, but because the children have had to get changed several times a day as a result of the ridiculous amount of water play we’ve done.  The sun comes out, the temperatures soar, and we seek out fountains to spash in!

The weekend didn’t start out sunny, so we spent an hour on Saturday morning at the lovely Carnegie Library for their Bear hunt activity morning.  Sophie and Alex made and coloured bear masks, potted little plants and went on a real bear hunt around the library.  “We’re going on a bear hunt” has been one of Alex’s fave books for years, so he anticipated each scene as we swished through tall grass, sploshed across a river (paddling pool), squelched through mud, stumbled through a forest and crept up on a bear gave – all in the little library garden!  Sophie got really into it, walking right up front with the group leader!  She was momentarily scared when the older children screamed when seeing the bear, but she soon recovered and was desperate for a bear hug!  You can just about make her out here in her pink tshirt trying to get close!

With the weather picking up substantially, we made a snap decision to head into town for a river walk.  So we headed to Rotherhithe and wandered slowly back to London Bridge along the Thames path, stopping to look at boats, eat ice cream and of course, get drenched in the fountains near City Hall.

Sophie was very popular as loads of Japanese tourists asked to take photos of her paddling – very odd!

We woke on Sunday to sunny and hot weather, so we packed a picnic and headed to beautiful Hever Castle.  It’s two years since we’ve been, and it’s as stunning as ever.  We didn’t experience the most welcoming start, with scooters banned and loads of “keep of the grass” signs everywere – not great for my pair of explorers.  But thing swiftly improved when we headed out on the lake for a boat trip, complete with Captain hats.  Here’s Captain Alex!

Sophie wore a little bowler hat (not sure why that was on the boat, but she loved it anyway).  She looks like a jazz baby – maybe I’ll see her dancing some Fosse moves in “Chicago” one day?!

We settled down for our picnic in the rhododendron meadow. It wasn’t long before both our pair were off running around.  Alex made friends with some slightly older boys and ran around like a maniac for half and hour – he got so red I was worried he was going to pass out!

So, after a successful attempt at the castle’s traditional maze, we went to cool off in the water maze – a thoroughly brilliant innovation that soaks you if you take a wrong step!  Alex quickly set about getting as soaking as possible

I love him here – look at that face!

Sophie was much more cautious, prefer to stay dry to begin with and jump over the problem stepping stones!

But it wasn’t long before her brother tempted her in!  And of course, then, I could hardly get her to leave!  Thank goodness I had spare clothes with me…

The water fun didn’t stop there.  Back home in London, we got out the paddling pool and water table, and had another very splashy session – this time with the children’s friends Sam and Una who popped over for a play date!  Sadly no pictures, but suffice to say, I had two VERY tired children this bedtime!  Happy days.

p.s Scotland blog coming soon…

Next installment in my attempt to catch up – I’m now going back two weeks to jot down what we got up to just before our holiday week.  And it involved even more cousins!

I love that the children have so many cousins (8 between Matt and my brothers, plus another 4 if you include “step-cousins”!).  I grew up having two cousins on another continent (hello Ian and Joanna) who I sadly didn’t get to see very often.   All of Alex and Sophie’s cousins live pretty close, so we manage to see them relatively regularly – although probably not as often as we should.

We had a good excuse to get together a couple of weeks ago, as Matt’s Auntie Joan was visiting the UK from her home in San Francisco – so the Agar clan gathered in the Surrey Hills for a bit of a family get together.  As an aside, Joan’s visit caused an incidental milestone in our parenting experience – she invited Matt and I, together with his brothers, to a wonderful grown up dinner in Primrose Hill.  So for the very first time since having Sophie, we left the children for bathtime and bedtime with their grandparents.  And it went brilliantly (cue Matt and I booking lots of date evenings and maybe even a trip away… my parents will probably wish it was a disaster!).  Here’s grandma encouraging a good game of peekaboo:

Anyway, back to the cousin reunion.  We headed down to the Surrey Hills nice and early so we could have an explore of Newlands Corner.  It was a bit gloomy and threatening rain, but we headed out to look at the view.  Sophie, wearing a skirt for the first time in months, loved having a run around – although the cold wind made her nose go red!

As the sun came out, I managed to get a lovely shot of my cute little family

After a quick cup of tea and some chips to warm us up, we headed over to Matt’s brother’s house to meet the rest of the family.  Matt enjoyed reading a story to his newest nephew, William, while Alex disappeared upstairs for ages with his cousins Thomas, Edward and Max.

Sophie took a liking to her only other female cousin, Jessica, and spent ages running around the garden with her and the resident dog, Monty!

On Sunday, we began our drive up North – with the first stage to reach my parent’s house in Northamptonshire.  We stopped in at the Bekenscot Miniature Village again as it’s a perfect half way point in the drive.  Learning from the last trip, I took minimal stuff and left the buggy in the car, so we could let the children lead the way around the narrow paths.  And, like last time, they loved it.

Alex even tried his hand at some photography – he looks quite the pro here!

We had a sunny picnic and then whiled away some time in the brilliant playground.  Alex is getting really good at climbing and has announced that when he is four years old he will start climbing lessons!  His favourite thing was soaking the pirates again with the waterguns.

We arrived in Blakesley mid afternoon and wandered over to the playground – only to find a football/cricket club open day.  Its such a friendly village, no-one minded when Sophie and Alex got stuck into the activities!  Alex was so excited to take part in a real tug-of-war.  I’m pleased to say that the village girls beat the boys – despite Alex’s attempts to pull as hard as he could!

I was a bit concerned to see my dad attempting to put Alex in the stocks –

but highly amused to see the position swapped, and Alex pelting his grandpa with wet sponges!

It was a beautiful afternoon – I just love getting out of the city (for short trips!).  Very pleased my parents have chosen to settle in such a nice part of the country.

Alex clearly hasn’t seen the sunshine for a while as he was quite confused by the shorts I dug out for him on the first day of the current mini heatwave in London – “Mummy, I think my trousers are a bit small….”

What a glorious few days.  The weather looks like it’s turning now, but we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed spending loads of time outside soaking up the rays.  It’s so much easier getting out of the house when there aren’t coats, jumpers and shoes to contend with.  Keeping everything crossed this cooler spell passes quickly and we can properly get on with Summer!

So what have we been doing to make the most of the sun…?  Matt had a fun few hours with the children on Saturday morning while I was off doing my first performance with my new chamber choir, Chantage (finally, getting some hobbies back post children!).  Feeling brave, he took them up to the Southbank for a play in the fountains at City Hall and a walk along the river to Rotherhithe.

Clearly, the children got promptly drenched, but had a brilliant time!

When he finally dragged them away from the water, Sophie and Alex explored the space, loving the chance to climb all over the architecture and run wild!

Even Sophie’s bunny, Macy, got to see the sights – until she was abandoned in favour of some complicated steps to navigate (don’t worry Tracy, we brought Macy home!)

After a picnic by the river, and a swift half in a Rotherhithe pub, Matt handed the children over to me for the afternoon!  We promptly headed to Dulwich Village for a big ice cream and then into East Dulwich for a spot of summer sandal shopping.  Alex was desparate to by a brilliant pair of bright orange sparkly shoes, but sadly they were only in larger sizes (phew!) so he settled for some navy with an orange trim!  He has style!

Sunday was so sunny, we decided on a more ambitious (and probably foolish) day trip – heading off to London Zoo.  I was a bit worried that most of London would decide to do the same thing, so we left early and enjoyed a super quiet stroll along the canal in Camden. Alex was fascinated by the locks, but I’m not sure he quite understood my description of how they work.  Taking him to Falkirk Wheel in Scotland next week is going to blow his mind!

At the zoo, we headed to see Alex’s favourite area – Penguin Beach.  Sophie – who seems to adore animals – was so excited about seeing so many penguins swimming past her and Alex did lots of penguin waddling impressions!

The zoo wasn’t as busy as I’d feared and we managed to see a lot, including the butterflies, tiger, gorillas, komodo dragons, flamingoes and loads more.  Both the children adored seeing the monkeys – and Sophie in particular loved the assault course proving she really can climb like a monkey (how lovely is her outfit?!)!

She found it exhausting, and in the middle of the komodo dragon house lay on the floor and started looking very sleepy indeed!  I just love her little chubby fingers!

So we packed up and headed back home for the rest of the day!

A nice long nap gave Sophie her energy back, so we decided to make the most of the last heat of the day and unpacked the paddling pool!

A fun, if very wet for all of us, end to a brilliant weekend!  Alex and Sophie are really starting to play well together – it’s such a pleasure to see their relationship developing.

We’ve got a busy week coming up with a trip to Scotland and lots of family visits planned – expect lots more photographs next week!

I shall leave you with some lovely snaps of my duo last week – I love the pair of them in the swing together.

And perhaps my proudest photo of the week – having shown no interest in drawing/writing, Alex is suddenly developing much better pen skills and for the first time in his life drew a family portrait.  Here is Family Agar by Alex at 3 years old (I’m the one on the right!)