in an english country garden

Just some photos of our lovely day with the Prangnells on Bank Holiday Monday. I'll be back once the move is done.

and it begins.......

the first of many trips to the DIY shop! We completed on the house yesterday and spent a few hours checking out the place, prioritising our very long list of renovations and redecorations and meeting with a painter! So here it is in its full glory, our new home. I'm posting all these in the hope that we will have a lovely set of before and after pictures to present in the future.

The exterior (don't be fooled)

The lounge (spot Mummy's little helper here?). This room actually looks not too terrible in this photo but you should see the carpet in real life!

A close up of the fireplace, and yes, that is all dirt.

The dining room. the reason this room looks a bit gloomy will be revealed below.

The kitchen, which we hope to extend in a few years, but until then will be as seen here but hopefully painted..

Bedroom 3, which Katy has chosen for her room.

Check out the wallpaper and curtains! this room is being painted this week, unsurprisingly.

And the reason many of the rear facing rooms are a bit dark: the jungle, sorry garden. The hedge on the left is actually about 2m wide, and its days are numbered. As is that giant tree.

Bedroom 2, probably spare room, craft room, office and clothes storage room.

The toilet and bathroom.

Bedroom 4, another spare.

And bedroom 1, up in the roof. This room is also being 'done' this week.

The ensuite (shower is to the right)

So that's our project. I'll post more pictures as we go, at the moment we're both feeling quite positive about having such a blank canvas. The plan is to fix with paint etc for the moment, then look into the kitchen and then slowly redecorate properly over the years. Thanks for looking!

museums

Katy and I had another London day yesterday, we went to the museums. We started with the Bob the Builder show at the science museum. Katy put her helmet on and helped Bob with the guttering (seriously). We had a worrying moment when we realised that the show was very interactive, and that the kids would be working with giant Bob and Wendy characters. After a minute or two of wobbling bottom lip (Katy does not 'do' characters) she was a big girl and got on with it, and enjoyed herself.

She really loved the museums, especially all the interactive stuff in the science museum.

She loved the 'pattern pod' in the science museum, and especially this computer which projected her designs onto the museum wall. We also went into the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur bones, which really impressed her too, especially the moving T-rex. Her stamina for looking at stuff far outstripped mine, she kept spotting things to look at and would disappear around a corner shouting for me to follow. I had to bribe her with sweeties to get her to come home at 4pm.

Needless to say we've had a lazy day today!

And relax

Katy's in bed and sleeping soundly, lovely! Sunday nights are 'my' night- as George goes out to play badminton I have the house to myself. tonight after Katy had her bath she wanted her hair like 'you do it mummy' and this was the result! My happy picture for today.

After she was asleep I had a couple of hours playing with my paper and photos, I managed to finish five layouts, four using my LRS kits and this using the Love, Elsie line and inspiration from many others' creations. It was really fun to use.

Katy and I had a lovely day in London on Friday. We went to Borough Market and met George for lunch. My girl and I then explored all along the river between London bridge and Waterloo.

As ever for Katy, ice cream was essential! St Paul's cathedral is over her right shoulder.

She loved the street entertainers, did her ballet to three classical musicians, sat down to watch a dance performance, was amazed by some skateboarders and posed for this with the 'gold people'. Every few minutes she would announce 'I love London'. We really need to remember what a lot there is to do for kids in London and make the most out of living here, it was so easy getting around and she liked it so much. Tomorrow we're off to the science museum, she also wants to see the dinosaur bones in the Natural History Museum so we'll have to see how much time we have.

Check out my Slide Show!

These pictures were taken at Woburn Safari Park on Thursday- we had a great day there with the Ingles. Katy had a great time with Emma and Thomas and it was lovely to catch up with Sally too.

Well hello there.....

..... after thinking about it for months, we finally have a blog. We being she (Katy), he (George) and I, chief family photographer and no doubt chief blogger. We hope it gives you the chance to keep up with what we're up to. Please feel free to leave us a comment or just say hi.

As I'm new to this, I'll start with posting a few recent photos. Katy in Athlone last week feeding the ducks (a daily activity when over there).

Let's try another

And this one from the end of an era, Katy outside nursery on her last ever day there. Our big girl is off to big school really soon!

I remember when I used to carry her through that gate as she couldn't walk. She looked like this then, what a cutie!