Cornwall - part 2

Seeing as Oliver didn't get a bath last night, he had one this morning! He laid down in the bubbles and when he sat up, this is what he looked like! LOL

This is Tricia and Paul's lovely house. We are staying in the room with the window open.

Their house is just gorgeous and Paul helped to build it. They aren't 100% finished and the front needs landscaping but the have done so much since we were last here.

Dinner time for Oliver and boy was he a grump today. He woke up early considering he didn't get to bed until very, very late so that naturally means grumpiness!!

We are all sitting down to a lovely meal while Oliver is running about - LOL. I'm not sure from the photo you can see just how big this table is. All I could think of was 'what a great craft table'!!
Paul loves to play his piano and Oliver wanted to join in too. Oliver is a two finger player and he did pretty well too.

Cornwall Weekend

We arrived at Tricia and Paul's around 9:30pm. We knew this would be a late night for Oliver and I think it was after 11pm before he fell asleep!! Not good. We went to check on him as Tricia thought he was soooo cute asleep so she laid down next to him - Oliver didn't move!

Here they are together. Oh bless!

Tricia is Oliver's godmother.

Passport Is Back

Yes, Rob's passport has safely arrived back in the Swain household. I must say that the visa stamp isn't impressive - actually it is quite boring. It cost enough though! LOL

We are off to Cornwall tomorrow afternoon for a long weekend as tomorrow is Rob's last day at work so we will come home on Monday. We are visiting Oliver's godmother, Tricia and her husband, Paul. They built the most gorgeous house in Tintagel, Cornwall which is located in the south west of England. From their house you can see the ocean as they are so close to it. It really is beautiful as the sun is setting sitting in their front garden having a drink! This may be the last time we see them before we leave but they plan on visiting us next year (I think).

We met Tricia and Paul at our 'marriage preparation day' in the UK back in 2003. We hit it off instantly and became friends. Our first get-together resulted in Tricia pouring red wine over her white skirt, yes I said 'white' skirt but she was more worried about our table cloth!! LOL. I must ask her what happened to that skirt! Anyway, they thought they would never hear from us again! 5 years on, we are still friends and still have a great time together. Tricia was so pleased to be Oliver's godmother (my brother is his godfather).

Party Time

After my mix up with dates (I thought we were supposed to be away this weekend visiting friends), we were able to attend Kyran's 3rd birthday bash.



Here is Kyran (with his face painted) and his two cousins sitting behind him. He had a MR Men party as that is what he is into at the moment. LOL



Oliver was having a ball running around the obstacle course. I think if we had a room at home like this, he would spend all day in it. That would wear him out!! LOL




Lunch time and while he didn't eat a lot, he did eat a cheese sandwich and some cake (of course!).




Ruth, Henry and their two kids, Fred (pictured here with Oliver) and Daisy drove 2 hours to be here today. Kyran, Fred & Oliver were swimming buddies. Oliver was so pleased to see Fred and they get along so well together they gave each other a hug when Fred arrived. LOL They were then joined at the hip for the rest of the party.


So here are all the boys sitting on the parachute while the adults and the girls walked in a circle turning the parachute. You can see Fred waving at me while taking this photo.



As Ruth & Henry had driven so far, and they had only been at the party for 1 1/2 hours, we decided to go to the shopping centre to grab some lunch for us adults and sit and catch up with them. We went to Nando's and had a great time. Ruth is pregnant again and baby #3 is due in February so I cannot wait to hear the good news and find out if baby is a boy or a girl.


I almost forgot, here is Daisy!!

I cannot believe it has almost been 1 year since we saw each other at Disneyland Paris!! Daisy was crawling, now she is confidently running around and she also eats better than Oliver!!

K.

Pond Swimming

.....and so it begins.......I think the time has come to say "Like Father, Like Son".

While Oliver was at his grandparents house today, he went for a little swim in the pond - by accident!! My FIL has Koi fish and Oliver normally helps feed them bread or if Dennis digs in the garden, worms! So today was the same routine feeding the fish except that Oliver went into the pond along with the bread! OMG! Now, when I say pond, I don't mean a small shallow one, but one that is shoulder height deep and 3m squared. Dennis was just about to jump in after him when Oliver resurfaced (those swimming lessons paid off!). He wasn't frightened at all - just cold.
When Rob arrived home with Oliver, he told Oliver to tell me what he had done today - I saw that he was in different clothing so I jokingly said "have you been for a swim in the pond!". I then caught sight of Rob face and his expression told me yes. LOL

So as my first line says "Like Father, Like Son" - Rob did the same thing when he was young.

K.

Visa Approved!

Yes, finally!! Actually, it didn't take that long to process. After being told it could take up to 5 months on our initial conversations with Australian Immigration, we decided to go through a visa agency. That was back in April! You could say it has taken us 4 months from start to finish but in the end our application was only lodged only a few weeks ago and today it was approved! Woohoo!
Now comes the move!

Godstone Farm

These photos are from our day out to Godstone Farm. Vicky was taking Kyran and also the boys she is a nanny to here and wanted to know if we would like to go too.

So the first thing we saw were these gorgeous little chicks. The kids were allowed to sit and hold one. Here Oliver is stroking the sleeping chick. Truly, it slept the whole time he had it. Oliver wouldn't look into the camera for this shot.

Here is Oliver and Kyran standing in front of some goats!

Don't ask me what Oliver is doing with his hands!! LOL
Turkey anyone?!

This is where Oliver spent most of the afternoon. He absolutely love this enormous sand pit. He was literally kicking and screaming when I said we had to go home. I even walked off saying goodbye to him and he didn't look back for me. He was just happy to stay no matter what!

In the middle was a wooden play area. All the buckets and spades were provided so you didn't have to take a thing.

K .

Happy Birthday

I just wanted to post some birthday cards I made for my parents.


They are non-SU! products and I have decided to not to post any to my stamping blog Blossom Designs but keep them here.

So here is the one I made for my dad. I used the stamp set Father Knows Best from Papertrey Ink (USA). This is the set that I inspired Nichole to create.

I must admit, I'm not the best at watercolouring but for this project I did really well. I followed a colouring tutorial from another stamper.

Here is the card I made for my mum.

Again it is a Papertrey Ink set (Spiral Bouquet). If you cannot already tell, PTI is my second favourite stamp company!!

The photo isn't the best (sorry).

Eat Cake

I thought it might be nice to make some chocolate chip muffins with Oliver (for Oliver!).

He tipped the packet mix into the bowl as well as the milk while I cracked the egg and mixed it with the hand mixer.

Oliver couldn't wait for me to finish mixing!! Gee, I wonder why?! Here he is licking the chocolate off.


Next came putting the mixture into the cases which I thought best I did that!! LOL No sooner had I finished using the spatula, it was gone and this is the result!! He licked and licked and licked ........

...... 'till there was hardly any chocolate left. LOL

He did have a ball and I put the timer on so he would know when the muffins were ready! He stood watching the timer for a few minutes even though we said he might as well play with his trains as the muffins wouldn't be ready for 20 minutes. LOL So off he'd go playing and every so often come back and check the timer until it went off and he shouted that the muffins were ready!

I set them on the tray to cool and put one in a bowl for him to eat (forgot to take a photo of that!).

Oliver Made Pizza

Yes, this is the dinner Oliver made himself tonight. Actually it is french bread cut up with a pizza base sauce and some cheese but he helped daddy make it so he ate it!!

What a clever boy!

Close your mouth Oliver!! He does have some food in his mouth but luckily it was nearly all gone so I don't think you can see it (thankfully!). I wonder where he gets it from?? LOL

Visa Processing

Well, finally Rob's visa is in the queue at Australia House for processing. While speaking to Lauren at the agency, she said her colleague had sent off a spousal visa application and it was approved in 3 weeks!! OMG. Could this really happen to us?! Here's hoping it does. It won't mean that we will leave in 3 weeks but it does mean that we will be leaving sooner rather than later. We had been told it was going to take over 3 months to process due to staff taking their summer holidays (which would cause a backlog) but I am feeling optimistic that ours will take weeks rather than months. Keep your finger crossed for us!

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How Shall I Sleep Tonight?

How about this pose? LOL

After I got home from my exercise class tonight, this is how I found Oliver. Dribble on his pillow and his legs hanging over the side!! Hilarious.

I can see some of these photos being used for his 21st collage, can't you?!

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Potty Time

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I had to take this photo of Oliver. Without taking his eyes off the television, he moved his potty up against the couch (he has to place it in the same spot every time!). He also has to hold his shirt up around his armpits - why, I have no idea! I think he sat here for 5 minutes and when he got up, he had a red ring around his bottom from the seat!! ROFLOL. Like father like son!

Here he is watching the television!

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Boy In A Bucket!

I thought I would get a head start on cleaning our garden furniture as we are having visitors this Saturday and we are hoping to have a BBQ!!!

Someone had to help me (he started fully clothed!), and this is how he ended up - in the bucket of clean water I used to wash the soap suds off. Can you see the green and red thing behind Oliver, well that is his slide which should be gleaming after he spent an hour washing it. LOL

Here is a close up of the boy! Enjoying the sun.

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For Poppy

Dad has had to go back into hospital again as he has had some more 'turns' and his Dr wants to put more stents in to stop these 'turns' from happening again and causing a major heart attack. I didn't know until afterwards, but he had 6 stents put in and even had a bit of a turn while on the table!!

Oliver wanted to do some painting so I said why not make one for Poppy. This is what he came up with. The eyes and mouth in the top right corner is an octopus!! LOL.

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Where Am I?

Can anyone see where Oliver has gone?!?!

You can also see his train track going under the couch. He puts the track together and for some reason always goes underneath and then comes out the side of the couch.

And this is the mess he made!! LOL Now that I have moved my crafting table up stairs into the spare room (I have my own studio now!), it makes the lounge room much bigger and Oliver is able to spread out more and not get under our feet - well under Rob's chair and the computer!!

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And Again!

Why did we bother buying him a bed I ask you! LOL

He says his bed is "rocky"!? I think he is talking about his mattress which is not the one I wanted to buy but because the 'other' boy in our family hates shopping at IKEA and the mattress I did want was out of reach, Oliver got stuck with the one we bought. It is fine but it is not a spring mattress which is what I think is the problem. It is not like our mattress!!

So, I guess we just keep picking him up and putting him back in his bed! It is funny thought when you go up stairs to check on him as you never know where you will find him!

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Where Is My Bed?

Look at where Oliver fell asleep tonight - on the floor!!

I don't know if you can see but he has his 'blanket' with him (look between his hands). Poor Piglet and Rabbit are left out in the cold - not with Oliver nor on his bed! LOL

He had just fallen asleep when I took this photo so I left him on the floor for a while so he was well and truly asleep before moving him back to his bed.

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Baby Ollie

No, not my Oliver but Bartholomew (Ollie).

This is little Ollie at only a few weeks old. Ollie and mummy Kath came over today for a visit but I forgot to take a photo. I will do next time. He is much bigger now and practically slept the whole time they were here (except for a feed!). As I am so used to Oliver's weight, little Ollie is so light but Kath can notice the difference in him. I remember carrying Oliver around and then not being able to carry him for too long because he was getting fat!! It was a beautiful 'fat' though!

This was the 'nappy cake' I made for them when we went to see Ollie for the first time (the photo above). I got this idea from a talented stamper in the USA.


This was the matching card I made to give to Neill & Kath.


BTW - Neill was our best man at our wedding.

Neill is on the left.


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