SeaLife Centre

A trip to the Sealife centre with a big group of friends, 4 adults and 14 children! Scarily, all children belonging to the 4 adults. A good day was had by all and the sun shined.

Bethany sharing her love with the seal, along with Jacob, Rebecca and Louis.

Bethany and I just landing at the bottom of the crocodile flume, pretty intact but a little wet.

Rebecca went down with Libby, partly because she is an adoring fan of the older female, but mainly because Libby had a raincoat which she promised she would put over their heads so they would not get wet! Rebecca was suitably impressed.

Oliver and Libby contemplating the view from on high.

Jacob joining in with the big kids. Guess which friend was flavour of the day?!

portland

The children and I went to Portland today. We visited Portland Bill Lighthouse and Tout Quarry. It is a disused quarry which Mum told us about. It's maybe where the stone that built our house came from. I liked to think that anyway. The quarry is open to the public as a sculpture park and they also offer stone masonry courses and tuition in sculpting. I took the picture below just before the camera ran out of batteries, so you'll have to wait until we visit another day! We did have a fantastic time and the children loved the freedom to run around without a car or another soul in sight, for 2 hours, until they were so tired they couldn't run anymore! They climbed everything in sight, we found a couple of caves to look in, walked along the cliff top with the most incredible views and found a pile of slate.The slate was clearly very exciting when I explained that was what children used before paper! All four of them brought a big piece and a little piece home with them so they had something to write on and with, until they found the chalk box and used those instead with much more effect. So thank you Mum for the tip off- it is now our new favourite place and we will take all members of the family there when you come and visit next!!!

Half term

Rough and tumble time! The children desperately wanted to stay in this morning and this was the result. Probably quite dangerous and maybe not a great idea but they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Just in case you were wondering, no child was hurt in the taking of these photos.

Bethany decided to opt out of the rough and tumble declaring that of course someone will get hurt! Instead, she moved a chair into the kitchen with me and absorbed herself in stitching a pattern onto a greeting card, courtesy of Auntie Rachel for Christmas. Whilst sewing away merrily she sang a song " Granny is sitting, stitching in the kitchen, how many stitches can she do?" I thought this was an amazing rhyme that she had made up, but it turns out it is a skipping rhyme they sing in the playground at school!

Surprise 30th Fancy Dress

Last night we were invited to our friends Vicky & Daniel's joint surprise 30th birthday fancy dress party. The theme was music through the ages! Location was the local school, so Oliver & Bethany were a little confused about going to school at 7pm.

The Surprise couple

Rebecca in her music theme of incy wincy little spidy

Oliver in Ninja Stealth outfit. Not one for dancing.

Our Vicar about to a version of Bros " Drop the Boy"

Daddy being convinced to Dance his funky stuff

The fashion has to catch on!

Bethany with her glow in the dark balloons.... one thing missing .. the dark!

Vicky & Daniel in there first of many outfits.

Jacob enjoying the birthday puddings

The Hammonds chasing disco lights.

Birthday couple in fever mode!

"Play that funky music white boy!"

Kingston Maurwood

With the sun almost shining and spring almost around the corner, we decided to use our season ticket for Kingston Maurwood.

Jacob found a friend who did not want feeding, it was so sweet.

These tame rabbits only wanted to eat little pinkies! ouch!

A little Pixie in the distance.

It was also time to release Rebecca's birthday lady birds.

Valentine Weekend at Lymington

At Christmas we met up with Alison and Darren who invited us to stay for a weekend, so we choose Valentines weekend, because we have so much love to share. After ignoring my own instinct when it came to travelling directions, I decided to let the Hank's (the Mazda) Sat Nav direct me, only for it to be over ruled by my wife. So after endless driving through Bournemouth and Christchurch we finally made it to Lymington. The house was a amazing and was kept in amazing condition, but with four children staying for the weekend, this was about to change. After the children went to bed Saturday, the adults had a grown up meal which was cooked by Darren, and then we proceeded to drink to the early hours. Sunday consisted of a rainy, windy walk followed by a coffee in Lymington town centre, then another struggle with the directions of travelling home. As for the photo's below I felt it was a bit inappropriate to take photos of someones house to place on the blog, so I let Bethany have the camera for a while.

Oliver, Rebecca & Jacob trying to watch T.V.

Grown ups struggling with the morning after

Jacob with the hand held Dyson cleaning the bits!! His mummy has taught him well.

Below is Bethany's photos shoot of her model.

Tooth & Tartan. Not for the faint hearted.

A special occasion occurred today! Finally the tooth that spoilt Bethany's smile has finally come out with a little help from a Dentist and some pliers. Most of our Blogettes know that when she was 3 Bethany collided with a metal railing while riding her scooter. Her front tooth went dead but after talking to the dentist we decided to leave well alone. The tooth in question has steadily got blacker and has caused some teasing at school, but with her usual confident matter of fact manner, Bethany told the other children that at least it was NOT caused by eating too many sweets! However, on Friday she said it was hurting and we found that the root was sticking out of the top of her gum, clearly causing some discomfort. The dentist said he would see her today and no amount of wiggling over the weekend would make it fall out. As he tentatively suggested he should take it out today, Bethany said "Yay I might get some money tonight"! She was the bravest little girl in Weymouth today as some local anaesthetic gel and a good yank pulled the offending tooth out in a jiffy. There was blood, but it had stopped by the time we had spent 15 minutes driving home and then we spent the afternoon snuggled on the sofa watching 'Barbie Rapunzel'. The hot topic of conversation over dinner was how much the tooth fairy will give bethany.So now we have one happy girl, painless mouth and a penniless tooth fairy.

The bad tooth or is it a sea shell?

Dentist's now provide a fairy tooth bag! How sweet ! I wonder if they supply the fairy coin as well?

Happy Girl.

While Bethany was having her mouth operation, Oliver was busy at school trying to find the Hammond tartan! Scott by name! but that's as far as my family tree goes!

Hammond Tartan

Happy Family

Bethany loves to draw and create so much! as soon as she received her new stickers in the post from Auntie Laura & Uncle John, she was off to the table to create her next masterpiece.