Heath Park

As a prize for managing to go two whole weeks without waking up in the middle of the night and calling for Mummy, Hannah got to choose a "special treat" for herself today.

She could have chosen anything - a new car, a trip to New York, a round-the-world cruise, but she chose big and asked to go to Heath Park to fly her kite!

Even better than that, Uncle Mike, Auntie Jan and James also came, and we had lots of fun in the play park, flying the kite, playing 'pitch-and-putt' (which was more like 'pitch-and-duck' with the standard of golf on show!), and then a visit to the model railway!

And, to cap it all off - Daddy, after managing to survive a whole summer without getting sunburnt, got sizzled and turned into a beetroot! Even though it was cloudy nearly all day!

Happy Birthday, Grandma

It was Grandma's turn to have a birthday today, but we won't let you know how old she was!

(Well, OK - seeing as you asked nicely! Grandma is remarkably close in age to Grumpy!)

Mark & Tracy's Wedding

We went to Andy's cousin Mark's wedding celebration this evening at Cardiff Castle - which is a fantastic place for a wedding reception, if anyone reading this is thinking of getting married!

It was great surroundings, and there was a brilliant soul band playing, too!

Our only regret was that we didn't get invited to the wedding itself. Mark and Tracy got married in St. Lucia in the Caribbean! We'd have been quite happy to fly that far to throw a bit of confetti!

Rest Bay

While Daddy was hard at work, Mummy, Hannah and Thomas headed to Rest Bay with Grandma and Grandad for a spot of sunbathing!

OK - it wasn't really sunbathing weather, but that didn't stop Hannah and Thomas playing in the sea and building sandcastles!

Happy Birthday, Grumpy

Grumpy hit the big '59' today. 1 more year until he's really past it!

We were going to have a barbeque at Uncle Mike & Aunty Jan's, but the weather didn't want to play ball, so we just sat around and stuffed our faces inside, instead!

Crash-Test Dummies

If you're going to have a wheelbarrow race, then you might as well do it properly!

Mohair Centre

Looking to make the most of the last few days of Andy's holidays, we headed for a mystery trip to the "Mohair Centre" in Gloucestershire today. We had no idea what to expect when we got there, as we'd only found it while surfing the 'net, but we were very pleased with what we found.

It's basically a farm, with the usual pigs, sheep, rabbits, ducks, etc., but with plenty of things to do for children - a huge soft play area (where we spent most of our time!), a giant sand pit, tractor rides, even pedal-powered go-karts.

We had lots of fun, on what was an absolutely scorching day!

Chutney Making

Following on from Friday's huge success in collecting plums, Ruth has been hard at work yesterday and today boiling up the plums to make her delicious plum chutney (with lots of help from Hannah!).

The house stinks of vinegar now, but the chutney is looking tasty, so place your orders now! We've still got a pile of plums left if anyone wants them!

Barbeque

It was looking like a warm night so we held a quick barbecue this evening, and invited Nanny & Grumpy and Mike & Jan around.

It was actually only a ploy to get some helpers to come and perform the annual plum-picking extravaganza from the plum trees at the bottom of the garden. Some pruning in recent years led to a bumper crop this year, and we needed all kinds of extra tools and techniques to gather in the plums - including a fishing net for reaching those 'hard-to-get' plums, and a paddling pool to collect them in!

Gower

Still enjoying Andy's two weeks off, we went on a day trip to Caswell Bay in the Gower.

Despite the fact that it torrented down as we were driving through Swansea, the weather was warm enough to go paddling, and sunny enough to give Daddy sunburn!

Oakwood

Andy's got two weeks off work (hooray!), but instead of going away on holiday, we're going to spend some fun-time at home, and maybe go on a few day trips.

Our first day trip was with Nanny, Uncle Mike, Auntie Jan and James to Oakwood. We had great weather, and a great time. Hannah's favourite bit was the 'Tree-tops rollercoaster', even though she said that it was scary and it made her "tummy feel funny"!