Pigeons and Painting

Ella, Tom and I have just returned from a fortnight with Nanna and Bampa, leaving Karl to manage the kitchen fitting...

The weather was pretty unpredictable while we were there, but we did manage to get to the beach, go to the park and go on a few trips out.

We saw Melissa before she went on her holiday to Rome and Pompeii and we're looking forward to hearing about her trip..

(pictures above : Ella at the beach : Tom and Ella at the dragonfly bench near Nanna's house)

We went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, but unfortunately didn't get to see the mass balloon ascent - the day was too busy and noisy for Ella, so we made an early exit.

We went to the Wetlands Centre for a teddy bear's picnic, a treasure trail and crafts. I took Tom into London to meet up with my friend Treez and two of her girls. We went to the Children's Park at Kensington Gardens. Here is a picture of Olivia and Tom on the fairy tale chair.

We also went to visit Great Nanny and Auntie Margaret.

We got home to a beautiful new kitchen and a couple of other nice surprises.. The sunflower had flowered while we were away and a lost homing pigeon had moved in.

Ella has enjoyed feeding the pigeon daily and a week on, it's still with us.

Karl spent the entire time painting and did a super job getting everything ready for the kitchen to be fitted.. (Here's a before and after pic... )
Yesterday was Karl's birthday, so Ella and I made some cup cakes and we had a lovely birthday brunch.

Tom is getting close to walking - he's taking 2 or 3 steps on his own, but then he gets over excited and falls over or throws himself at the nearest person. Ella thinks he's hilarious, although she would still like his name to be Phoebe...