Moving - Day 2

On day 2, all our boxes were taken outside to make more room inside for the rest of our stuff to be packed.

The container was delivered early so the driver slept in his cab until we were ready to load everything inside. This is a 20' container, one of the smaller ones.

Oliver loved watching everything going on. So naturally, he was only too happy to stand in front of the container and have his photo taken. You can see it is half full.

Here it is full (well almost). Those boxes you can see are empty but they put them together so our stuff wouldn't move about during the journey.

See you on the other side.

Moving - Day 1

The start of our move! This is (or was) our living room! The movers have done a great job of packing up the house and have done quite a lot. I just kept feeding them coffee and they were happy!

These boxes are in front of our lounge room window. You can just see light coming through.

This was the only way to feed Oliver his tomato soup! Otherwise it would have been very messy indeed! LOL

We have moved to a hotel because our bed is packed away and there isn't a great deal of room to move about.

Our Last Curry!

We went out for dinner tonight with Neill, Kath and baby Ollie to our local curry house. This will be our last curry before we move (boo hoo). They guys there love Oliver and and look forward to seeing him each time. He is spoilt whenever we go. LOL

The movers are coming tomorrow......yippeeee!

Lunch

Helena took me out for lunch today with a couple of other ladies who help out at her classes. We went to Chapter One in Orpington and it was lovely.

I got on the scales tonight and it was not good! LOL I blame the lunch! *wink*

Moving Quote

Today we had a quote from a moving company. Our original movers may not be able to do it so I need a back up in case.

Bourne's rep was really nice and friendly and we were both happy with what he was telling us. He is also saying that it is no problem at all to move us with short notice. Phew!

Normandie, France - Day 4

Our last day in Brehal and we went to the beach. Not exactly swimming weather but the sun was shining so off we went.

Oliver loved playing in the water and even fell over on his bottom! His bottom was wet but he kept on playing. LOL

He ate most of this ice cream and his face was covered in it. LOL. See the bruise on his forehead? This is what happens when your son has two left feet!!

There was a supermarket just down the road and they had trolley's for kids. Every time we went there, he had to take a trolley around the shop. LOL

Our journey back to England was much better then the one over. The ferry was smoother so I wasn't ill and we made it in pretty good time.

I would highly recommend Brehal to anyone wanting to visit France.

Normandie, France - Day 3

Today we went to Mont Saint-Michele.


Here is a view from the monastery. It was fabulous but it was also very windy and rained for a bit. By the time we climbed the stairs to get to this point we were hot and took our coats off to cool down.

Normadie, France - Day 2

It was a miserable morning with rain but we decided to still go out to Champrepus Zoo. I wasn't sure what to expect but I must say, I was thoroughly surprised. They had 2 parts to the zoo which was separated by the main road!! One side was a kiddy part where the little ones could pat the animals. As you can see with this photo, they had a fake cow which you could milk. Oliver went straight up to it and pulled on a teat!! LOL I think he has done this before! *wink*

As you can see it is still raining but only ever so slightly now. This bridge takes you to and from the main entrance and this is us leaving the kiddy part to go to the main part of the zoo.



The zoo also had a play area for the kids with a great big ball pit. Here Oliver is jumping in by himself but later on daddy and grandad threw him in too!! He loved it.


The slide was wet, but Oliver didn't care! He slid down and had a wet bottom and proudly showed it to us with a little wiggle.

There were two jumpy castles but this one was covered so we said he could play on it. He basically had the whole place to himself - there were no other kids about. I guess it helped that it was a Thursday so school was in.

Normadie, France - Day 2......continued

So, as we went to the zoo, I'd better show you some of the animals we saw!! LOL

Mr Tiger.

Mr Chimpanzee.

Mr Lemur.

Mr & Mrs Giraffe - actually, I don't know if they are both boys or one of each! LOL I didn't take that close a look!
And Mr Lion.

Normadie, France - Day 1

This was our ferry ride across from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, France. I have only ever been sick once on the water but for whatever reason today, I was not well. I have a funny feeling it was to do with the croissant I ate (as we didn't have breakfast) after boarding the ferry. Their was a plain one and a chocolate one - I stupidly ate the chocolate one as well and I knew after the first mouthful, that I shouldn't.


We arrived in Brehal just after lunch time after getting up at 5am, UK time to catch our ferry across. It was a lovely day and even better in the sunshine. We took Oliver bike with us as we knew there would be plenty of room for him to ride it. He is very good with his helmet too and always asks to put it on when he knows he is going out on his bike.


What a cheeky grin! He is actually saying 'cheese' !! LOL This was after his bike ride and had a well deserved drink of water.





This is the cottage we stayed at.

Here is Dennis trying to read Oliver his bed time story!! I say 'try'. The lounge room was directly below out bedroom so you could hear everything that was going on!! LOL I think it took Dennis twice as long to read this book than normal!!

I ended up lying down with Oliver and promptly fell asleep with him. It was only early but I certainly needed an early night.

Brother's Birthday

My little brother, well he is not so little anymore, is having a birthday today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO !

I went with the same stamp set as yesterday's father's day card and as there are 6 stamps in the set, I just used a different tree.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day dad!!

This is the card I gave to dad this year.

Cornwall - part 4

This is our last day here in Cornwall with Tricia and Paul.

Just a few more photos of the inside of their house. Clearly this is their lounge room. Ignore the white cushions - Tricia spilt red wine on the one she was sitting on so it went in the wash. Then she thought she better wash the rest of them so they all looked the same. LOL

This is the other side of the lounge room where Paul plays his piano.

Here he is keeping quiet watching television.

Cornwall - part 3

This was our trip to Boscastle. Right where Tricia and Oliver are standing was under water when the floods hit a couple of years ago. You can see the digger in the background still doing some work.

The two boys together. If you are wondering where I am - behind the camera of course!

Have a look at this face! He usually smiles when the camera comes out and on a couple of occasions he has asked me to take a photo of him! Oh bless him!!

The gang on the bridge, a brand new bridge.

Cornwall - part 3...continued

Here is Tricia in her lovely HUGE kitchen area. I so did not want to leave their house. I always love visiting them.

Tricia is reading Oliver a story and after this one it was time for bed so she went up and read to him another story. She tried missing some pages to finish quicker but Oliver was onto her. He kept saying "No, no, no, you missed a page". He doesn't miss a trick! LOL

I just had to show this photo - obviously a funny moment!!

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.