Lydia & Neil Wedding

I went to Harrogate in May for Lydia & Neil's wedding. Lydia is one of my oldest and closest friends from school, and it was a lovely wedding in a fantastic setting.

It was also a good chance to catch up with some old school friends. Bec and the kids stayed in Dubai becuase it was too far to go with the kids for just a long weekend.

The Harrogate institution - Betty's Tea Rooms

Neil and Best Man looking relaxed before the event

The venue - Allerton Castle

Neil and bro - still relaxed

Here we go!

Lydia with dad and bro

Chris, Neil, me and Dave

Chris and Lydia's Dad

Speeches!

Lydia and Dave

Chris - getting down!

Jason K, Rachel & Caroline

Jason T & Jacqui

Dave & Nigel

Splish splash

I have lots of blogs and photos to catch up on but in the meantime, summer is here (mid to late 40's during the day) and that means one thing, pool time!

Bx

Anzac Day

Zach whips his top off for some pre afternoon tea dusting.

George and Zach give Dajon the baby gossip.

Food!

Up close with the pavs.

The green green grass.

Leo and Zach.

We had friends round for afternoon tea on Anzac Day. I'd had much fun baking up a storm of kiwi classics such as lamingtons, afghans, anzac biscuits, savoury tarts and pavlovas. Predictably, the aussies in attendance tried to claim the pavs. And Crowded House, the cheek of it. It was also fun putting together a playlist, lots of old classics from The Exponents, Midnight Oil and INXS to name a few.

Bx

Growing up and growing attitude!

He's off!

Nice balance.

And down. I wish I could fall over with such poise.

Wrong way!

That's better.

Ready...

...set...

...gone!

Starting off all smiles.

Pretending to be cross.

Not pretending anymore. This is a often used faced at the moment.

Reflecting on injustices.

Sulking!

It's been a busy few weeks for Zach. He's now walking on his own and he's definately a little boy rather than a baby. He can climb to the top of the slide on his own which makes him very pleased. He is also asserting himself more and even shouted at me 'Don't do that' when I was annoying Daisy by tickling her recently. He mimics everything Daisy does so is learning naughtiness at a great rate.

Daisy has always had a lot of attitude but now now she's three she seems to have upped her game even more. She can quite happily turn on big innocent eyes while making bold faced lies. She constantly tells me to go away, stop talking, that she doesn't care, and that I'm not her friend. Her best insult so far was after I told her off and she retorted that a witch was going to take me away. Delivered with a furious glare. Yikes!

The kids are definately keeping us busy and it can be quite challenging at times but it's still huge amounts of fun. Watching their personalities develop day by day is facinating, even if some of the developments are hard work!

Bx

Happy Birthday Andy!

Andy is 39 today, hurrah! We did the cake before he went to work which was VERY exciting for the kids. We are going to Verre, Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, tonight. Let's hope they don't serve ready meals like in his London restaurants....

The photos from this morning are awful, fuzzy and backlit but I thought I'd put them on anyway. We were in a rush as Andy was dashing out the door as he has seven meetings today. What fun of his birthday.

Bx

Eggtastic

Filled with woe Daisy. She barely made it off the couch for two days.

Filled with woe Zachy. Wasp bites hurt.

Oi you, more Easter egg!

Mmmm.

Egg decorating.

Zach was only allowed plastic eggs after a few hard boiled ones hit the floor.

The offending wasp. Ouch.

We had a very low key Easter weekend as Daisy had a nasty tummy bug. Just as she was recovering Zach came down with a cold then this morning (Easter Sunday) he got bitten by a huge wasp. A quick dash to the doctor followed where we found out that his cold was actually tonsillitis. Woe. We've had to spend the day in but are still having a nice time making hot cross buns, having easter egg hunts and decorating eggs. As Easter's not a muslim holiday Andy is at work. Poor Andy.

Bx

Not much going on.

Daisy reads Zach a story. Ahhh.

Then plants him with a big kiss.

Daisy and Sponge Zach Square Head.

Zach's prefered mode of transport round the house.

Chocolate juice!

Zach pulls out a fake cry. He thinks it's sneaky and tragic. We think it's funny.

Daisy hits the dress ups.

Things are ticking along nicely here. It felt like summer was on it's way then we had 10 days of really weird weather which was all a bit exciting. Huge lightening storms night after night, howling wind, rain, grey skies, and on one occasion, hailstones the size of Andy's thumbnail. Drama!

Bx