Conforming to stereotype!

Now, I don't want you to think that all we do is swan around beautiful country estates, stately homes, and quaint towns; eating out in little organic cafes and delis, and shopping in small, independent boutiques.

That being said...........
While the Daddys were having their off-road experience,
The Mummys and children had found a lovely little place to have lunch!
And a little independent toy shop which specialized in Playmobil!

We then checked in to our Hotel
We unpacked and made ourselves at home,
Had a quick walk around the town
Can you see the names of the shops?
I wonder which one was there first!
Hmmm?!


We had the hotel pool to ourselves!
We had a lovely dinner! And the next morning, a full cooked breakfast, where Phoebe embarrassed us hugely by demanding tomato ketchup with her smoked salmon (oh well!).


And back to Oxford just in time to have an impromptu birthday tea in the garden with Evie!
Here's Guy with Auntie Kelly. Only another 15 years to go, Honey!

Cat Nap!

My favourite place to be!

Busy day!

Well, everyone was up at the crack of dawn yesterday, so as a treat we had a second breakfast at the petrol station.
It's not as bad as it looks! The children shared a blueberry muffin and some juice. However, Mummy caved in and had a coffee and an almond croissant!
Then on to meet Anastasia (in honorary Granny/Auntie mode) to cut some pussy willows to decorate the church.
Despite it being Lent, Anastasia had brought chocolate biscuits for elevenses, thereby securing the childrens' affection for eternity!
Then off to Blenheim Palace for a picnic lunch. Here we are just before our friends turned up.
Then to Phoebe's favourite tree.

I can't really explain how big the tree is,
But you get the idea!
Then down to the ice-cream shop.
Rachel's doing a dance because she's creative and spontaneous like that!

A day at the park and a trip to the hair-dressers!

Here's all of us playing in the sand


Phoebe with a sand mermaids' tail!

A brief stop to admire the early blossom

And on to the ice-creams!


And here's Phoebe at the hair-dressers




And here we are in the cafe afterwards!
So it works! You get a new hair cut, and straight away people start buying you drinks!

Toads, Husky puppies, and a visit to the garden centre

The week started with a trip to the garden centre.

Ladies who lunch!
Two little witches!

Our friends have recently got a husky puppy.
This is Orca. He doesn't stay still much!
But isn't he pretty? We're all in love!


Today, on getting out of the car, Phoebe found a toad hiding under the wheel of our neighbours' bike.




Phoebe did some colouring. She said it was so that people would be careful and watch out for the toad; and also so he had something nice to look at!

The benefits of lace-up tops!

This is us walking to the church for our wedding

And this is the wedding:


Seven years later

And this is me getting ready to go out last night to an event that was part of the Oxford International Womens Festival





Phoebe did my hair. Can you tell?

You know it's Lent when....

Phoebe's lunch box looks like this:-

From top left hand corner clockwise, we have; carrot and cucumber sticks, dairy-free (home-made)biscuits sandwiched together with (home-made) jam, charity benefiting water, houmous and falafel sandwich in wholemeal pita bread and two mini vegetarian spring rolls, halved grapes.

And the funny thing is; she ate almost all of it!

The spring is sprung, the grass is riz. I wonder where the birdies is?

Once upon a time, two lovely friends of ours got married.

In fact, she proposed to him by having the cinema show this picture before the main film. Isn't that sweet? (Not to mention resourceful!)
On the tables at the dinner after the ceremony were these seed sticks.


Now that spring is here and it's warm enough to play in the garden, Phoebe reminded me that we had some seeds to plant. So here we are, a year later, sowing the seeds!



This is Ita, one of Guy's very best friends. She is very funny!
On walking through town today she saw a guide-dog. 'Look! Guy-dog! Guy-dog!'
Then, hopefully, 'Ita-dog?!'