Callum's First Haircut!!

After 788 days Callum has his first haircut today. He no longer looks like our little baby, but more like a proper little boy. Very smart though!!!

Castles and Long Walks

This weekend we took full advantage of the fantastic weather and headed into the country. On Saturday we packed a picnic and went to Bodiam Castle.

The moat is full of carp and ducks so you can imagine how excited Callum was to feed them with his leftover sandwiches. There is an organic vineyard just behind the castle but unfortunately we could not buy the wine at the castle. However, after a little bit of investigation we discovered that Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard was just down the road. Naturally we popped in and picked up a couple of bottles including a delicious sparkling wine.



On Sunday we headed out early for a three and a half mile walk through beautiful woodland. Callum walked virtually the whole and Charlotte was as good as gold. We stopped for a pub lunch on the way back and were all absolutely exhausted by the time we got home. It did not stop Callum from waking up at 6:30am as usual though!!!

All these pictures were taken on my phone so the quality is not great!

Dat's Funny!..................

On Saturday the four of us joined up with the rest of the Richardson's for Susie and Ryan's wedding near Henley. Susie is the daughter of Merv and Val Hall, very old friends of Mum and Dad's.

The children were brilliant. Every time the guests laughed during the speeches Callum said (in a voice that everyone could here!) dat's funny. Charlotte fell asleep in the bottom of the buggy and Callum partied hard long into the night, finally falling asleep just before 11:00pm.

We took Norma's camera as ours had run out of battery (and I have no idea what has happened to the charger!). I clearly did not master it, but there are some wonderful pictures here.

It's been a while!

Here are a collection of photos taken over the last couple of weekends. The lously weather was the weekend of the 2nd September and the stunning weather was last weekend. You would think they were months apart rather than one week!!!!

The winter hat photos were taken at the Forgoton Village of Tide Mills near Newhaven on a very windy day.

This weekend my Mum and Dad stayed with us on Friday night and had lunch with us and Laurrie and his son Aiden on Saturday.

The Last Few Days

Quick disjointed (and badly laid out!!) update and some photos to go with it. Summer is fading fast so we had a "last picnic" on Friday to celebrate Dan's great success in his marketing diploma, complete with my mother and Dan's favourite drink. It is Callum's favourite type of meal. Dan had a curry - which is his favourite type of meal - (home made - so maybe it's not quite as bad as it sounds) for breakfast at the weekend. Odd - very odd.

The park behind the houses has a new attraction - proving difficult to get away from there fast now.
Charlotte is smiling lots - despite her reflux and terrible cold which I think Callum must have given her.
Sadly missing pictures of Dan's most recent kayak adventure - stormy seas, riding the waves - fear of capsizing - "awesome dude!" I was planning on getting down to capture the event but driving rain brought the intrepid explorer home faster than I could get two little people waterproofed and out.

Stormy Weather

Today has developed into a windsurfers paradise with high winds and high seas.

We had an early lunch at the Pizza Express in the Marina which was delicious, before coming home and everyone falling asleep!

To rid the sleep from our eyes we took a walk along the front. As you can see, it was pretty blowy.


There are some other pictures taken today below this entry.

Three Generations

Brother and Sister

Charlotte

Saturday

Lally flew down on Wednesday night and is staying with us for a week. Callum was very excited when he woke up to find her here and was quick to introduce Charlotte.

Iona, Juliette and Hugh came for lunch today and we had great fun playing football in the park and with the Callum's cars.

I think Spurs could have done with Hugh today!

New Photos

Vic took these today - I love the T-Shirt!

Heathrow

It has been a little while since the last post, mainly because I have been at work and Vic just does not have the time at the moment to think about blogs! But all is good with us, and the children are brilliant.

I have had the last couple of days off work as Bleue and Saige were supposed to spend a few days with us before their flight back to LA tonight. However, because of all the chaos at the airports lately their flights kept being cancelled (the first one being on Saturday!), so in the end they flew into Heathrow at 10:30 this morning and flew out again at 5:19 this afternoon! We had originally planned that I would go up and spend the hours between flights with the girls, leaving Vic, Callum and Charlotte at home. We had no idea what the airport would be like and thought it best to keep things simple. However, we changed our minds at the last minute this morning and all went! Thankfully there were absolutely no problems at the airport and Callum was very excited about seeing his cousins again (as were we!).

Rather than spend all the time at Heathrow we drove into Chiswick and had lunch at an Italian place on the High Road.

These pictures were taken on my phone so are a little fuzzy!

Sunday Lunch

Today Adam and Bee, Laura and Ruby came for lunch - a delicious fish pie which Bee very kindly brought with her, thank you Bee!


We ate in the back garden as it gave us a little more room and although it was overcast the temperature was still warm.

We took a stroll down to the beach after lunch where Ruby dipped her toes in. Luis and Yvonne popped in for a cup of tea late afternoon to meet Charlotte. Callum for some reason called Luis People to begin with - no idea where that came from.

I'm not sure what Adam is looking for here, but if I'm right then I think the shout is......
.........it's behind you!!!

Another Week Older

Thankfully my first week back at work has flown by and it is once again the weekend. Mum came down last Sunday and stayed with us until Wednesday which was a big help. We are very lucky that both sets of Grandparents are able to come down and give a helping hand. It is very much appreciated by us both - thank you. On Thursday Vic took Callum and Charlotte on the bus to the SeaLife Centre on her own!! I thought she was crazy but the whole trip was a great success!

Tessa arrived this afternoon and will stay for a few days before heading back to Dubai. This afternoon we hung out in the park behind the house where a random fridge had appeared overnight!

New Buggy

We took Callum (, a birthday balloon left over from yesterday) and Charlotte out in the new buggy this afternoon for a stroll along the seafront.

Whilst the sun still shone, the wind really picked up today creating ideal conditions for the wind/kite surfers who were out in their droves.

Party in the Park

Lots of small people turned out yesterday to celebrate Callum's second birthday in the park behind our house. There were six who could walk and four that could not!

Callum had a lovely time and received lots of wonderful presents and cards. Vic made a cake and we made sure there was plenty of food for adults and children alike.

By the end of the day we were all absolutely shattered but had a good feeling of a job well done. We only decided to do the party at the last minute as we weren't convinced that we were going to have the time/energy to sort everything out.



This last picture is Callum dancing to his personalised happy birthday CD which he thought was really cool!

All Aboard!

Just after 7:00 this morning the SSS Codfish set sail on her first commercial voyage taking two passengers on a pleasure cruise along the south coast (well, a small beach in Hove really!). The journey was not without incident however, and in turbulent seas (okay, so the sea was like a mill pond) we managed to capsize a total of four times.

Luckily we left Callum on the beach with Grandma, but in fact the tide was so far out that the water was very shallow anyway.

Chris and Norma and the girls left this morning for Scotland via Derbyshire. Vic and I spent what felt like the whole afternoon in Tesco buying bits and pieces for Callum's Birthday party tomorrow. We are going to spend the afternoon in the park behind our house and Callum has six little friends coming - there will also be a further four babies - it really is funny how everyone had babies around the same time twice!

It's Only Jelly

Today we celebrated Norma's Birthday at Barcombe Mill which is just a few miles the other side of Lewes. We had a picnic on the banks of the river Ouse where we also fed the fish, played football and watched the cows. It was another beautiful sunny day so we positioned ourselves under large tree with plenty of shade.

This afternoon involved anther swim in the sea and a BBQ for supper.

Charlotte spent most of the day either asleep or happily watching the world go by - she really is a joy.

Swimming in the Rain

Only in Britain would you find the beaches packed and the sea full of swimmers when the sun in hidden behind a thick blanket of heavy cloud. However, as the temperature was still in the late 20s the sea was an ideal place to cool off and have some fun.

It must have seemed especially odd to Bleue and Saige who arrived today from California. They are here on holiday (or is that vacation?) and are spending a couple of nights in Hove with Chris and Norma before they all drive north on Friday. Callum went to bed absolutely exhausted as he was very excited at having his two 'girl' cousins to play with.

The picture above was taken shortly before the rain started to fall, at which point everyone ran for cover. It was most strange walking home in the rain with steam coming up off the pavement!

Tonight Vic and I went out for dinner while Chris and Norma babysat four grandchildren. Believe me when I say that they were as happy as we were about that!!

We ate at Okini which is a wonderful new Pan-Asian (?) restaurant in East Street. The food was absolutely delicious and we would highly recommend it to anyone.

Tomorrow is Norma's Birthday and we are looking forward to a great day of family fun!

Canada Goose??

We thought this morning that we might pack a lunch and head to the sandy beaches at Littlehampton, but then remembered that Charlotte had an appointment with the doctor at 11:00 - Just a check up and everything is fine.

Instead we spent the afternoon at Stoneywish Nature Reserve near Ditchling. We took a picnic and had the whole place to ourselves (the school holidays start tomorrow!). The only other sign of life was what looked like a very friendly/hungry Canada Goose.


Callum insisted on wearing his wellington boots even though it was about 26 degrees!