Liz & Mark's Wedding

Sasha and Katie are two of the people I used to live with when I moved to the UK back in 2000. It was great to catch up with them again.

How spectacular is that view (not of me!). It was a little overcast and according to the photographer, the best kind of day to take photos. The red dress I bought especially for the wedding and it is a size 10! Woo hoo.

I had to borrow the wrap as it was a little chilly outside. I didn't have anything appropriate to wear as it was in our container.

One of the rare occasions Rob and I have a photo together. It was a little strange not to have Oliver with us as where ever we go, he goes! LOL. Nanny and Poppy were in charge of getting Oliver to sleep tonight.

Liz and her Dad walking towards the groom (Mark). I also lived with Liz and Mark in the UK. We had such a great time together.

The happy couple saying their vows.

Congratulations Lix & Mark. I'm so happy I was apart of your special day! xxx

Light Up Camden

Have a look at Oliver - chatting the girl up! LOL. He cannot just sit there and enjoy the ride, he has to talk to whoever is near.

One of his favourites things to be on is the jumpy castle or dinosaur in this case. He just runs from side to side with the other kids, laughing away.





We managed to eat at the pub restaurant. I have no idea what Oliver is doing here! LOL




On the tea cups, sharing his cup with 2 girls!

Pre-School for Oliver

OMG - how does time fly like it does??

We took Oliver to a pre-school today to have a look around as he will be going next year and then big school (kindergarten) the year after. I must tell you that this has come around far toooo quickly for my liking! LOL Anyway, we already know good things about this pre-school as our friends twins go there but we wanted to have a look around and ask any questions we had.

Naturally, Oliver helped himself to they toys and was playing while we were chatting away. Then, when it was time to leave, Oliver didn't want to. LOL He was upset and wanted to go back again tomorrow! He wasn't impressed that we said it was next year.

Halloween

I decided to have a halloween party the week after we arrived so Oliver could meet and play with my friends kids and also so Rob and I could get together with them. Kind of an all in one go thing. Much easier than having to do something every week plus as we are staying at mum & dad's house, it is a little different.


I made these halloween cards for the kids from Oliver. I think they were a hit.

This was such fun (and hard work) to make. I bought some colouring from the supermarket so I really was limited in what colour everything was going to be. I borrowed a cake book from Karen and went to work.

Everyone loved my spider cake and it was the very first time I have ever made a cake like this. As Oliver is older now, I think I will do something each year for his birthday - that is until he starts telling me "he is too old for 'kids' cakes mum". Please let that be a few years away!! *sob*

Australia

Sorry, no photos of us landing in Sydney. We actually thought that we went back to the UK because is it sooooo freezing cold. Either that or we bought the English weather with us. Apparently, it is the coldest October day in 60-odd years. Oh great, thanks for the welcome Sydney. LOL

We got in early and my parents were no where to be seen! They thought we would be a while coming through customs and getting our baggage but we sailed through nicely. We waited for them to arrive outside and froze to death. It was really windy so that made it feel colder.

We are glad to be back on Australian soil again but we hope the weather is better tomorrow! LOL.

Bye, Bye UK

Oh yes, we are on our way to Sydney, Australia!! Woo hoo!

This is Oliver watching some television on the plane. He had a pretty good flight over with the television keeping him occupied for quite a bit of the journey. Thanks goodness! LOL

Speak to you on the other side!

Moving - Day 3

We are spending the next few days clearing and cleaning up the remainder of the house. We are leaving the shelves and couch so whoever uses our house can either use them or put them in the garage for storage.

We needed to keep Oliver occupied so we bought our laptop and a few of his DVDs with us. he parked himself on the couch and made himself comfortable.

This is our hotel room. The hotel has a pool and spa so Rob and Oliver enjoyed a couple of swims.

Bath time for Oliver. He certainly loves his time in the bath - especially the bubbles.

Oh, it was all too much for him! LOL

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.