Fforest Fawr

I think there has been a post about this place before, but on bank holiday Monday we visited Fforest Fawr (which is "big forest" in Welsh - I do pay attention in class!) to get out of the way of our cleaner. It was a long and tiring walk, but I think we all enjoyed it. Although perhaps not as much as we enjoyed the drinks when we got back to the car!

But you should have seen Will's face when he realised that we weren't actually going into Castle Coch!
Will: "But you can do colouring!"
Oh, I can't believe I missed out on the colouring!

New Blogger

Hi, Hannah Hurley here. Although there aren't many regular visitors on this blog (to be honest there probably aren't any at all), if you are one, you probably know who I am from the many photos of me up on this site. I haven't looked through the previous posts yet, but I can assure you that when I do, you'll be seeing your favourite picture of me vanishing mysteriously.

I heard that dad/Andy (depending on your point of view) was having a bit of trouble finding time to post on this blog, so I kindly offered to give up my valuable time, and take his place as "blogger" on this site. Well, I suppose you could say, from a certain point of view, that I begged to be let on. But I don't really like looking at it in that light.

Anyhow, now you know why there will be a slight (but definite) increase in the quality of the jokes on this blog, which was the main point in this post. So, seeya!

Shock horror - blog updates!

It's been bugging me for months that I hadn't updated this blog since December 2010, so I'm having a bit of a sort out of old photos and will hopefully bring the site back up to date before the year is out!

That way, you'll be able to see how tall we've all grown, and how much balder some of us are...

DIY proof!

For 6 years now, since our house extension was built, we've been meaning to place laminate flooring in the cupboard under our stairs. And, finally, we've had the chance and the willingness to get around to it!

Since it is in the cupboard under the stairs, and very few people will ever actually see the craftmanship, here is photographic proof that it actually happened...!

 

Garden intruder

We had a night time visitor this evening, in the shape of this prickly hedgehog.

 

 

Hopefully it'll do a great job of removing some of the slugs that seem to enjoy our garden so much!

Chess grandmaster

A New Year's Day game of chess - that's how sophisticated we are in the Hurley House!

 

Good to see Will giving his big brother advice on which piece to move next!

Boys and their toys

We're huge Lego fans in the Hurley House, but all of our Lego has got so mixed up over the years that it's really difficult to build any of the original models that we'd bought. So, we decided to make good use of our Christmas holiday, and try to build as many of the models as we possibly could.

We started, in a very organised way, by sorting all of the Lego bricks by colour. The idea was that it would help us track down the pieces that we were looking for.

 

Well, the idea was there...

Snow fear!

We headed out to the 'slopes' with our sledges and surfboards(no, really!) to prove that a bit of white, fluffy snow wouldn't scare us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we spent most of our time lying in the snow, rather than flying over the top of it!

 

 

 

 

Christmas presents

After the delicious dinner, it was off to Grandma & Grandad's house for a delicious tea, and to open even more presents.

Clearly, the biggest plus to having children is the fact that they get some cool presents for Christmas, and parents get to play with them!

 

 

 

Christmas dinner

After a fairly reasonably-timed start to Christmas day (well done kids!), we broke open some presents, then headed to church, and after that it was time for a delicious dinner at Nanny & Grumpy's house, with Auntie Jan, Uncle Mike, James, Bethan & Rebekah.

Nanny has had lots of practise at cooking for so many people, and served up some fantastic food.

 

 

The only problem is, it's our turn next year! Gulp!

Masked ball

Uncle Tim, Auntie Abby, Chloe and Anya came to Cardiff for Christmas, so it's been great fun partying with them.

The Christmas Eve Masked Ball looks like it was a hit!

 

 

Hundreds & Thousands (& Millions)

We were decorating Christmas tree gingerbread biscuits today, and the children got a bit carried away with the Hundreds & Thousands.

 

Yes, Will has got them stuck to his runny nose. I think I'll leave these ones for the kids to eat...

And we certainly weren't expecting this...

After the taster of snow a couple of weeks ago, it came back again this week - with a vengeance.

We woke up, and it was deep...

 

...and it got deeper...

 

...and deeper!

 

That's proper snow!

Tattoo artist or graffiti artist?

Will walked down the stairs with a guilty look on his face, and a felt pen in his hands...

Having already experienced the artistic qualities of a pen-covered wall in the past, we prepared for the worst and asked Will where he had been drawing.

He showed us...

 

The Promise of Christmas

Hannah was lucky enough to take part in a children's choir this year, and perform in St. David's Hall. Lots of rehearsals, two full performances, and a very late night, but they all sounded amazing. Just the thing to put you in the mood for Christmas.

 

 

If you're looking for Hannah, she's third from the left, in the front row.

We weren't expecting that...

Almost from nowhere, white fluffy flakes began to fall from the sky yesterday, which got the children away from the TV and outside into the garden.

 

 

 

And, by today, there was even enough snow for a family snowball fight and a (small) snowman.

 

 

Is it dark out?

Will was taking extra precautions tonight to ensure that he wasn't blinded by any bright fireworks...

 

Scary bikers

We took the bikes to Llandaff Fields today, to give the children (and parents!) an opportunity for exercise and fresh air. We probably should have warned people that we were coming, as both Thomas and Will are on their "swerve crazily from side to side as you cycle" stage!

 

We managed to get as far as the play equipment without hospitalising anyone, though!

 

 

 

 

I am a music man...

Tom's piano lessons are going well, but (like most boys) the hard part is encouraging him to practice at home.

Here is proof that he does do some practice!

 

This is what fingers were made for...