Warwickshire

Its crazy to think that we actually suggested to James and Beth that we altered our plans for this weekend because the weather looked so awful! In fact, the weather was wonderful for a spot of camping!

We met up near Stratford upon Avon as it is between the two of us (silly country with no good landscapes equidistant and not far from York and Basingstoke!), at a campsite that allowed campfires and no cars near the tents. Wheelbarrows were provided to move around you stuff and to play in ad infinitum!

This made everyone happy, even those too small to really appreciate the fun of wheelbarrow races.

It was a lovely campsite and pretty much empty so we had acres of space to ourselves and lovely clearings in long grass to pitch. Its no wonder that we spent most of Sunday playing around the campsite in the warm sun and only ventured out for a short walk down to the airfield to watch little planes take off and land.

The best thing about a campfire isn't a fire after dark with marshmallows, its actually breakfast. There is nothing better than rekindling a still warm fire and making breakfast on it while it warms you up in the cool morning air.

We had bacon and eggs and toasted bagels. Perfect!

Then we spent the day at the Heritage Motor Centre which Nathaniel thought was amazing. He looked at pretty much everything, and played with all the hands-on exhibits, but unsurprisingly, liked the couple of vintage cars that you were allowed to climb on the most. Thea thought they were pretty good too.

Nathaniel's next favourite was an MG Midget which had been taken apart so that you could look at cross sections of it all. We spent a long time here......

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. We got to sit and chat for ages and the kids all amused each other, each thinking the older one was amazing, and Nathaniel delighting in playing in Beth and James' tent.

Making flower wheels

More movement

We are all go for commando crawling, and the occasional bit of conventional crawling.

This area of the room was totally tidy when I left her.

Its fun to remove every item off the shelves!

A very ordinary picnic

It wasn't forecast to be a particulary sunny day, but it seemed like a good day for a picnic, so we packed ourselves into trailers and headed down the solar system.

First, an obligatory stop at the bumps by the sun for some wizzing;

and some scooting;

and some watching;

Then we scoured the sides of the cycle path for an area where dogs hadn't been allowed to make their presence known, and ended up sitting on the bridge where we ate, trying to persuade the kids to stay sitting down and not stray into the paths of the bikes that were constantly zooming past.

Then to a playground that we'd never visited before, an ice cream, and swinging;

and playing in the sand.

It wasn't a new or exciting adventure, but it was exactly what the day called for.

NB. You may wonder what on earth Nathaniel is wearing! Someone gave us a Bob the Builder dressing up outfit, complete with a hard hat, and Nathaniel has just discovered it. He doesn't really know who Bob the Builder is (though he sings the song at nursery), but he does know that he likes the outfit. He tells me that it is his fire engine outfit. Go figure......

Books

Thea has become mildly obsessed with books. Put her down for more than a minute and you'll return to find her somewhere like this:

Give her another minute and she'll be carefully trying to turn pages. Her success rate depends mainly on the position that she has ended up in!

Raspberries

Even though the weather hasn't been condusive to the growing and picking of soft fruit, it would be a crime not to stock up the freezer with raspberries. Especially as picking them is so much fun.

There is basket carrying to be done:

Though that gets harder work as you go on.

Its a good thing that there is a ready supply of sustinence on the way.

Good thing they didn't weigh him in and out!

Auntie Nimmy is always game for picking

And then there are broad bean jungles to explore.

It's so exhausting that lunch in the pub is the only way to go afterwards. And where there is a pub, there are swings!

Its a good thing that there is always someone around to lean on!

Friends

Who cares about Newton?

Nathaniel and I got out cornflour and water for the first time. I was looking forward to introducing it to him and watching him play with it. It never ceases to amaze and sadden me, how many of my friends have never played with this goo and found out how wierd it is.

Nathaniel may well turn out to be one of those friends.

He wasn't in the slightest bit interested in the bizarre physical qualities that it exhibited. He enjoyed colouring it pink and adding glitter, but then found that it irritatingly wouldn't easily be shovelled up by his construction vehicles, so he added more water until it would. And then he played saving vehicles from flooded fields.

Oh well, you can't say I didn't try!

And at least Dorothea enjoyed herself:

Movement

All of a sudden, Dorothea has decided that it would be nice to be able to move around by herself and she is trying her hardest to make this happen.

She rolls and swivels and pulls herself up and really wants you to sit and hold her hands while she stands for hours on end.

And nothing is safe

Summer

Thea has been sleeping a little better this week, and coupled with the fact that we have been in bed by 9pm most nights, we almost felt refreshed when we got to Saturday! So as it was sunny for the first time since 2011, and everyone had woken up late, we decided to take a chance on the Pig and Pastry for breakfast.

The Pig and Pastry is the most amazing place, but it is so hard to get a table, that we hardly ever go these days. We need more seats now, and it is harder to hang around patiently waiting when you have two children. But 10 minutes before it opened we were there, waiting for our table. Along with the other people who had had the same idea! Yes, people now queue at the P&P at 8:45 in the morning!

But we were in luck and got the last seats which made us all very happy.

And we ate tasty bacon and eggs and drank apple juice out of co-op bottles which made us even more happy!

Then we did a bit of shopping on Bishopthorpe Road and ran into Jim and Vicki, so headed to the park for some trampolining, swinging and trying out the new park "reading cafe" which is just code for a tiny little library with a cafe selling good coffee. And just when we thought Rowntree park couldn't get any better!

A fine morning!

Food

Thea's enthusiasm for food has not wained, and she has now added using a sippy cup to her list of skills. Some how she managed to work out how to do it before offered the cup, so there was no learning curve noticed at all - she picked it up and drank from it! Here she is with some recent favourites:
Lasagne and broad beans


Lentil and spring greens jalfrezi and for simultaneous desert, gingerbread babies.

How they are now

Nathaniel at 3 years and 8 months

Dorothea at 7 months