Thursday 31 December 2009

..... And a Happy New 'Ear

Today's blog title is thanks to Caitlin, taken from her recent rousing renditions of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

So a happy new 'ear to everyone. We hope 2010 is good to you all.

These occasions give us an excuse to post photos from the "unclassifiable" folder, or in other words, let you see a few of the things we've been up to here and there in Blighty. Hope you enjoy.


First day at school. Caiti looked pretty excited (before leaving home at least).


But she didn't seem so cheerful once we arrived at school itself and took a couple of family shots....


.....if looks could kill - is she trying to tell us something here?


Here we are at Winkworth Arboretum. We've been here before in early spring, but it's also a spectacular place to visit in autumn when the trees turn very colourful.




Lots of reds and yellows.


The vista from the hill.


Ready for trick or treating on Halloween.
In our old street the local urchins used to knock on the door all evening, but we were wondering why we didn't have any visitors at our new place. After we ventured out into the street ourselves, it soon became apparent that you need to have a pumpkin (preferably hollowed out with a candle) on your doorstep if you're offering "sweeties" for trick or treaters. We'll try and remember that for next time.



A spot of baking


Less talking more mixing


Yummo!



Lucy at Tonbridge Castle, in Tonbridge (funnily enough), which is in Kent. A nice town, but a bit of a drive to be honest.


OK, everyone say "cheese"


Tonbridge shops can be very Tudor


Tonbridge Pizza Express - Jo loves Pizza Express. She took the photo.


And here's the gang at Lucy's 7th birthday party. We had an afternoon tea with a few friends.
Note it's dark outside at 4.30pm - you gotta love winter.

Thursday 24 December 2009

Merry Xmas - it won't be white, but it was close!

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope you're all having a happy and festive day - we know we will be. To kick us off for our Christmas edition, we thought we'd share some of the usual antics going on at ours in the lead up to the big day.


Given the girls didn't manage to get out of their 'jamies, this photo was deemed unfit for the yearly family Christmas Card (which we forgot to send again this year). But nevertheless, they did do a good job with their hand-made Christmas Hats.


The tree


For the School Nativity Play this year, Lucy got the role of Camel No. 1 - and yes, it was her usual Oscar winning stuff.


And of course it was Caiti's first Nativity Play, where she was part of the Twinkly Star chorus. From all reports her singing voice is not only superb, but she rules the mic like Shirley Bassey.

Well, it doesn't look like it will be a White Christmas this year in Woodham, although we have had a few nice blankets of snow over the last week or two - but unfortunately it's all melted away over the last couple of days. Not to worry cause we managed to take dozens of photos (as we do) to capture all the excitement.


Snow at school - it doesn't get any better than this!


Actually the only thing better is when school gets cancelled because of the snow - no luck this time.



Yep, it's all smiles for snow at school.



Actually standing around smiling does start to get a bit chilly after a while.


Snow at home - it doesn't get any better than this.


There's only one thing for it: snowball fight.


Don't ever turn your back during a snowball fight.


Keezee has been working in Scotland, and enjoying the snow up there (mainly from the airport window, whilst waiting hours for his flight....) so his snow man building skills could not be utilised on this occasion. Not to worry, the girls had a go all on their own and didn't do a bad job really [cough, cough].


Carrot nose eater: caught in the act (again).

So that's it from us - love to all and we hope you enjoyed the pics and have a wonderful Christmas Day.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

We're off to the Polo darling

Here's some pics from Cowdray Park in Midhurst, when we visited with Nanny Dawn to catch a spot of Polo. It was a nice day out - we packed the picnic, paid our £10 then spent half an hour driving through the fields trying to find which one was hosting the next chukka. We eventually made it and settled down on the sideline (if that's what you call it) to enjoy the action. All very la-de-da! Enjoy the pics.


The game was on the No. 1 field which has the nice backdrop of Cowdray Castle behind.


Picnicing... and yes, we are drinking Pimms - the adults at least.


Caitlin shortly before she threw the ball in front of a "pony" warming up on the sidelines. The ball was obviously barred after that little incident.


Some of the action. You wouldn't believe it but our old mate Ruki Baillieu was in the losing team. He scored a nice goal early on, but was a not at his best on the day for mine.

Sunday 20 December 2009

Out and About with a Few Visitors

Before we download all our recent pics from the camera - and there's lots, so here's hoping Keezee gets the motivation to post them all - we have some more from Nana's camera that we hadn't shared yet. So here goes...

By the way, we get asked quite a bit what the weather's like where we are, so we posted a little widget on the right of the page so you can see for yourselves - Woking is just down the road. But please don't brag!



Here's Chriso and Alainya making their first blog appearance on Guildford High Street with Nana & co.


Lucy and Nana went to see The Lion King while Nana was visiting. This was their second visit to the West End - you may remember The Sound of Music. The other Keezee's haven't been to a proper London show yet (school nativities, aside) and are starting to get a bit jealous!


Before the show. If Caiti was jealous, she didn't show it.


Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth..... Caiti posing outside everyone's favourite pub, The Anchor


Keezee, & Nana, enjoying the nice late summer weather (and a drink), outside The Anchor


Atmosphere shot


Atmosphere shot, in the other direction. All of those long boats were full of punters visiting the pub.


The obligatory family shot, but worth posting to show you how happy the staff were that day - what's going on there?


Caiti getting ready for her modest (but surprisingly noisy) birthday celebrations, back in August.


The girls on their slip n slide in the garden. This is a nice photo to look at, if only because there's snow settled on the lawn as I look out the window today - oh how the seasons change so quickly!