Where do babies come from ?

Of course we knew this conversation was coming... We've been watching video tape from Tom's first few days, and Ella was asking lots of questions while I was upstairs. Predictably, Karl said "ask your mother when she comes back down". By then Ella had formed her own conclusion that Tom shot out of my mouth and the midwife caught him. That'll do for the next ten years or so...

I had a super time at the Bristol SunWalk at the beginning of the month. Nanna and Bampa braved the elements with Ella and Tom while I pounded the streets of Bristol with lots of ladies (and some men) wearing pink bras and hats.I met lots of very inspirational people and raised lots of money for a great charity, so thank you for everyone who supported me. Last weekend, Ella and Karl went to a concert at the village church - they saw the Yehudi Menuhin school orchestra play. Ella thought it was "enchanting" and managed to sit through all the first half and some of the second.

Tom is on great form at the moment. He is extending his vocabulary slowly - favourite new words are "man" (applies to men and ladies), "dacta" (any farm vehicle) and "NO !"

Mr Pheasant is back again this year. He knocks on the window each evening and Ella rushes out with a handful of corn for him.

Auntie Jules came over a while ago and brought the head dress she wore to the carnival in Trinidad. Here's Ella wearing it....

Now where was I ???

Sorry it's been a while... Much has happened since I blogged last - Nan spent Easter with us and Nanna and Bampa visited Easter Weekend. We have been to Wales - spent a lovely week going swimming, visiting Great Nanny, a day at Barry Island and the Wetland Centre.

Karl spent the whole week painting, bless...

Our vegetables are doing well - although Tom keeps pulling the onions out and I keep replanting them. We're going to have a good crop of strawberries this year and the autumn raspberry canes are doing well.

Sadly we lost our lovely hen Clarabel to a cunning bushy tailed gentleman a couple of weeks ago. We were lucky not to lose more - someone in the village lost all six of theirs on the same day.

Ella and Tom are on good form - they make lovely little playmates as long as Tom isn't taking her train track apart.. Every now and again, Tom remembers there is a gap at the bottom of the garden that leads through the ditch to the crop fields. He suddenly stops what he's doing and jogs down the garden towards the ditch. It reminds me of the scene in Forest Gump where he starts running and doesn't stop until he reaches the other side of the country.

The pheasant is back again. He's become so familiar with us that he feeds from Ella's hand. We also have nesting blue tits and a blackbird nest in the hedge behind the shed. We did have a nest in the lilac bush, but Karl sawed it in half with the hedge cutter. Muppet.

The builders are back again - hopefully the last of the structural work - building a new fireplace and lowering the ceiling in the front room. All ready for Karl to do some more painting !

Finally, here's a picture for grandad... Apparently there's an important match on at the weekend. Wrong shaped ball, if you ask me :)

Spring is here !!

We've been enjoying the return of the sunshine for the last couple of weeks. We've been in the garden planting wild flowers, sugar snap peas and snowdrop bulbs. We've also been preparing our vegetable pots for kohl rabi, carrots, cucumber, courgette and potatoes. Our daffodils are finally flowering and our tulips have just about survived the battering they got from the wind at the weekend.

We've been visiting our neighbour's pond, as they have a pair of toads and a huge clump of toad spawn. We're waiting with interest to see how the tadpoles progress when they hatch.

Last week we did some more pottery painting at the Lilac Ladybird and Ella made some new friends in the park.

This weekend Uncle Steve, Auntie Caroline and Melissa came to stay. They went to see Cirque du Soleil at the Birmingham NIA then over to us for a night. The girls enjoyed playing on the trampoline and Tom enjoyed asking Auntie Caroline "wasss DAAAAT ??!??" about 500 times.

This weekend we're off to Reading for my Reiki course, so Karl will be in charge of entertainment for the weekend.. Nannie is celebrating her birthday this weekend, as is Auntie Caroline, so Happy Birthday to you both.

Jules' mum and my friend Tig are recovering from surgery, so we with them both a speedy recovery.

Geese and Grandparents

We've just come back from a lovely weekend with Grandad and Nannie. Karl, Grandad and Uncle Steve went to watch Everton on Saturday, so Tom, Ella, Nannie and myself went to Martin Mere Wetlands Centre to see some birds. Ella had great fun feeding the geese.

Tom was woken prematurely from his sleep, so had a bit of a face on (as you can see)...

Only joking - he had a good time too... We stopped in to see Nan on the way home and Ella and Tom made themselves at home, met some neighbours and ran about on the dancefloor in the coffee room.

Nan is staying with us at the moment while Bampa is on a course, so it's been a week of grandparents !!! Ella enjoyed pottery painting yesterday and today we went to Draycote water, so I could do a bit of training for the forthcoming London Playtex (half) Moonwalk..

Snow and Special Birthday

It's been so long since I did a blog entry, I've forgotten what we've been doing !! Still, we'll struggle on.. Nanna and Grandad celebrated special birthdays this week (I won't say too much, but they were both Oh ! birthdays). Nanna is off to London at the end of the month with Bampa, so Uncle Steve, Auntie Carrie, Melissa and ourselves got them tickets to see Hairspray. Nanna is a Michael Ball fan, so we're hoping it's a good evening.
We had a visit from Andrew a couple of weeks ago, so it was lovely to catch up and Ella enjoyed the visit enormously. We've had a good snowfall this week - about 5 inches in total. We build a variety of snow people/animals, but probably the most enjoyable for Ella was the snowhen. Our hens were very bemused by the snow, and it took a while before Bluebelle and Annie would leave the henhouse.

We were snowbound for the most part of this week, so spent most of the time playing in the snow and sledging with Eddie and Joy next door.

Ella is still chattering, drawing, chattering, drawing and chattering some more, all day long.

Tom is, as ever, enjoying life and seeing the fun in everything.

Santa and Snow

We all had a super festive season - Santa was very kind to Ella and Tom (and Woody and Wendy). He brought Ella a dolls house and Tom a book and a rubber duck (!). It wasn't that Tom was naughty, just that Ella discovered Tom's Santa present so we had to switch presents at the last minute. Luckily Tom's too young to know or care and was quite happy with his lot.

Ella also had various accessories for the dolls house from other people, so by the end of Christmas Day, Woody and Wendy were fully set up. Ella also had lovely books, colouring pencils, puzzles, games and wooden toys.

Tom has had fantastic fun with his trains, stacking toys and push along cart. Nanna made some lovely bean bags too, which are loaded into the cart to make a comfy seat for Tom to sit on.

Nan stayed with us over Christmas and as usual, worked like a trooper. Nanna and Bampa visited on Christmas Eve laden with minced pies and Christmas Cake. Sandra and Brian also paid a visit and Ella had lots of fun playing with them both. We went for a refreshing and breezy walk to Draycote Water before Brian, Sandra and Nan headed home.

NYE we went to Rod and Joy next door. Tom slept in their bed and Ella managed to stay up until just after midnight.

We've had a slight scattering of snow these last few days. Barely enough to cover the ground, but enough for Ella to want to make a snowman. We scraped snow off the patio for an hour for Ella to make this little chap.. Ella has been enjoying drawing pictures lately. They usually involve Woody and Wendy and have very complex themes... For example, "this is Woody and Wendy on the way to the circus with their pet beetle, Alexander. Woody is carrying his chicken in the shopping bag and he's whistling a cheerful tune. Wendy is pulling her mesbile (??) cart with Alexander Beetle and an exploding pineapple inside. this is the circus big top with the ring master and his megaphone. It's a bright sky and the sun is shining".

Hmmm..