Vice squad

Realised we were on a downward spiral - heading rather quickly towards being the family in the BBC show 'Outnumbered' - when the other day I uttered the words,

"Sonny, how many times have I told you not to put snails in that vice?"

'as x as y' similes

Anya is exploring the wonderful world of similes and is peppering her language with a wide variety (all her own inventions of course... none of this widely-used rubbish for her..)

Here is yesterday's collection:

As white as a snowbear

As sweet as a cherry tomato

As cold as a horse

As hot as a cow

As tired as a moose

As hungry as a caterpillar

As happy as a rainbow (I like this one!)

As sad as a baby

And a new one this morning; as comfy as a house.

I asked her if houses were particularly comfortable and she said that they were because you could sit down or lie on something soft if you wanted to and therefore they were comfy!

She came in from school this morning and announced that the sun was making her skin too hot. She disappeared into the house to 'do something about it' and came out like this....

Not sure how effective it was at cooling her skin down!! I noticed that all but the sun hat had been removed about 10 minutes later.

A very Sonny picture

Pic says it all really... I love this picture of him. Taken last Friday by the Ogwen.

One of my favourite pictures of Anya is from when she was a similar age. She's in Llyn Padarn.

I just need a little...

Sonny (on the sofa): "I just need a little..."

and then this happened:

The boy really has inherited his father's sleeping patterns!

Vintage steam fair and other weekend-y gubbins

Took the kids to a vintage rally at the weekend so that Ian could get out some of his old car enthusiasm and the kids could look at steam-y things. To be fair, it wasn't as geekish as I'd imagined. Spending over half an hour watching the tractor pulling competition was just about to wear me out but managed to persuade them to move on with the promise of an ice cream. Anyway, the bit they loved most of all was of course the fun fair and the fact that they got to eat candy floss at the end. I did try to convince them it was pink wool and that they'd poo a pair of socks but they didn't believe me.... pics below.

We then went to Karen and David's for a bbq to celebrate Karen's 40th. Had a great time, kids loved it, playing in the tree house and spending hours with a bunch of other kids chasing the poor chickens and dogs round the fields. They finally crashed about 8pm which, considering that neither had had a nap, was pretty good going considering how much they'd done. Tummy aches ensued all night unfortunately.... think ice cream, candy floss, fizzy pop, sausages, copious quantities of olives and crisps, grapes, strawberries and cake.. mix it all up by running round and round a field until you are so exhausted you fall asleep in your clothes... not surprising they had tummy aches really is it???

Greenwood Forest Park

Now that we are the proud owners of a season ticket, this afternoon saw the first of hopefully many visits to Greenwood.

Some pics...

Big boys racing... Ian and Torquil getting out their competetiveness

Fairy power!!

Rufus couldn't quite manage the pedals, so they resorted to the nest best thing - Sonny power!!

Anya and Rufus in the den wood

Anya den building

Rufus, Anya and Sonny in the sandpit

The Big Green Slide - Sonny, Ian and Anya. Anya reckons Nan would love this slide!!

A sociable weekend

A few pics from the weekend, all spent with good friends in glorious sunshine...yippee!

Spent yesterday with Lisa, Megan and Lauren in the morning then we all went to Seiont to meet Marion, Grace and Alex in the afternoon for ice cream, playing on the park and coffee. The kids played so well together. For the most part, Sonny, as usual, shunned the option of boy-of-his-own-age (Alex) to play with and went for the big boys on the campsite. Found them playing planets in the willow stand; some big kid was the sun, Anya was Mars, Sonny was Pluto etc... the game smelt distinctly of Anya but they were all very happy running around this boy at varying speeds depending on whether Anya thought their orbits were fast enough!

Today was spent with Tamsin and Mabli, or Mabsin as Sonny calls them both. I've never has friends with a collective name before! Had a lovely picnic in the sun by the lagoons, then a bike ride and an ice cream trip. Was really nice to see them, they both (but especially Anya) really appreciate spending time with Mabli, she's just like a big sister to them. It's also so nice that they are now of the age where Tam and I can sit and talk and eat while they all play - they're getting very good at tree climbing and the lagoons it just the perfect place to do it as the trees, for some reason, all have really good low branches so the kids can get started. Few pics below, all from today as I was camera and phone-less yesterday...

Big cuddles...

Poor Mabli had to do lots of these!

I love this picture.

Sonny emerged from his dressing gown this morning (it was his chrysalis) and turned into a butterfly, hence the wings - which he wore all day - and got very cross with random strangers who asked if he was a fairy!