Legoland

Here's some shots of our recent visit to Legoland at Windsor. It's a great place (especially if you like looking at lots and lots of Lego things) but to be honest, it could not compete with our visit to Disneyland Paris, which Caitlin still talks about regularly. Where Legoland did win however, was with the weather - unlike the chilly 2° we had at Disney, we struck a lovely mid 20°'s summer day for our visit. Naturally most of London were of a similar mind, so it was possibly one of the busiest days of the year to visit, which meant the queues for the good rides were rather long. Lucky the Brits love queuing otherwise it could have turned nasty.
Tip: when queuing with young children, make sure they visit the toilet beforehand.


Lego tourists


First ride - floating balloons


The girls in family don't like scary rides, in fact they don't like any rides over 5mph and/or 5ft high in general. But it was happy days on the floating balloons.


The boats looked good, but the queue was fierce


View from the top of the hill -Windsor in the background


The train ride features a Lego dinosaur in the middle - not sure of its significance


This is the jeep ride through the dinosaur jungle. It was a good chance to teach the kids how to drive - Rule 1: hands on the steering wheel.


This is us listening to the God Tlaloc (according to the sign) - not sure what was going on there!


The dangerous Lego Parasaurolophus


Lego Amigos!


Lucy with local hero Johnny Thunder


The girls re-visiting Paris (in miniature)


Lego London


Lego London (from another angle)


Lego Dragon - possibly Smaug


The view down to Windsor, for you castle fans out there.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

We just wanted to wish everybody a very Happy Christmas.

This is now our second Christmas in the UK and we certainly miss everybody back home at this time of year - the cold and dark doesn't help. Nonetheless, it is a fun time of year here with all the Christmas lights, Christmas markets, the endless soundtrack of "classic Christmas songs" on radio and TV (many of which we'd never heard before), not to mention the offer of mince pies and mulled wine everywhere you go.

Our trip to Paris forced us to download the pictures off the camera, and we've got lots to share. So we thought we might share a couple of Christmassy and otherwise non-classifiable snaps.


Christmas Tree 1: Our tree, with assorted mess for good measure.


Christmas Tree 2: This was the tree at the hotel we stayed in Paris.


The girls looking cute at Wisley Gardens (or Wisley Gardener, as Caiti calls it).



A nice shady tree at Wisley Gardener.

A wild Panda at Wisley Gardener.

Big Red Tractor.



A couple of snaps of us enjoying the autumn sun in Windsor Great Park.

Halt, who goes there.


Caiti loves her football.


Lucy was quite proud of the gingerbread man she made.


Lucy and Caiti earlier this month, on the occasion of Lucy's 6th birthday.


The Birthday Cake - that's six candles.


Here's the girls at Lucy's school Book Parade Dress-up day. Princesses were popular dress-up that day apparently.


Lucy performing in her school production of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Lucy had the role of spoilt brat Veruka Salt - and was very good according to a number of critics.


Here's Lucy soon after her school Nativity play. Lucy was one of King Herod's soldiers and sang a rousing ditty called "Herod the Great, he's the ruler of us all".

Virginia Water - not a bad spot for a walk and a pint

You will of course recall the day when it snowed here a few weeks back. Well, we had planned to meet up with some of Lucy's school friends (and their parents) that afternoon for lunch at a pub in Viginia Water, followed by a bit of a walk around the lake from which the town takes it's name (ie. Virginia Water).

As it turned out, the morning snow didn't impact our plans at all - in fact the pub was much more fun, as there was plenty of snow out front for the kids to play, and a nice burning log fire inside to warm up (and dry out the kids) beside. By the time we had finished lunch the snow had all melted and so we headed off to the lake to walk off the Sunday Roasts.

Virginia Water is actually a rather large man-made lake and it's about a 4 mile loop to walk right round. By the time you've covered about 2 miles, you are quite exposed to the wind off the open water and a fair way from your car; so it's really not a good time to start snowing again. To be honest, we haven't really felt the cold too much over winter, because we're usually dressed for the conditions, and when we do venture out it's usually about a 5 metre walk to the nearest heated area (ie. shop). It's a different story though when the wind is whipping across the water, you're trying to keep an eye on six kids riding scooters, threatening to veer off into the water at any second, and when the nearest building is still half a mile away. But when that nearest building turns out to be another welcoming pub, you then forget about the cold pretty quickly. Actually our visit to The Wheatsheaf went a long way to improving Keezee's opinion of warm beer.


Ah, yes... the Rose & Crown.
"Real Ales" - mmmmmmm
"Good Food" - mmmmmmm


Here it is...




Caiti, Lucy and Chanel (Lucy's friend from school) loved playing in the snow (in case you hadn't guessed)


Keezee freezing his bits off at Virginia Water


The girls didn't mind too much


The happy couple by the very romantic waterfall at Virginia Water


The slightly less romantic totem pole at Virginia Water


The flowers were nice.....


..... and the trees and stuff


House on the lake.... nice


Lucy got her hair cut shortly after this photo was taken.