Happy Christmas

Courtesy of Elfyourself.com here's a little seasonal animated video.

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Merry Christmas and a happy new year

What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?

Thomas joined the under 7s at Braintree Rugby Club in September, he played his second game of the season on 30th November away at Sudbury RFC. You can read the match report, written by yours truly despite what the byline says, here. Thomas played for Braintree Black team.

Here's a pre-match picture



During the game, Braintree's defence covering a Sudbury attack



Another one of the team acknowledging the opposition at the end of the match

Hymn (and her) of the big wheel

On the Tuesday of half term we went to London for the day, mainly to go on one of the London Eye's Secret Spell flights where children have to cast a spell to help Wizard Belvedere protect London from evil spirits - check out the video to see them in action.

Before all that we went to St Pauls cathedral - a bishop was being consecrated so we couldn't go in



We walked most of the way across the Millennium Bridge before getting a bus down the Strand to Trafalgar Square



After lunch we headed to Buckingham Palace via Green Park, the Queen was in according to the flag.



The flight on the Eye was great and the member of staff who dressed up as a witch really got the children into it.



We returned on the 18:12 train to Braintree tired but happy!

Ruby sunday

The weekend of October 4th saw us in Lydney for a three fold celebration - the centenary of Lydney United Reform Church where we were married, Rachel's mum & dad's fortieth wedding anniversary and Martha's fourth birthday. We went to a lovely celebratory afternoon at the church on Saturday and Martha had a properly chocolately birthday cake back at nanny and grandad's while dressed in her new favourite clothes - the Disney princess outfit.



We had a really good Sunday lunch at the Ugly Duckling restaurant in Lydney the following day.

Summertime news

In roughly chronological order and in the absence of individual posts about them, here's a roundup of what went on over the 'summer'.

Thomas's birthday party was at Walton on the Naze, rides on the pier, games on the beach, all the usual.





We also helped Jamie and Claire celebrate their wedding at Hedingham Castle





We spent the weekend with Great Britain went gold medal bonkers in Beijing atWaxham Sands.

Rachel, Martha and Thomas rescued a starfish which had been washed up on the beach.





Obviously it rained . . .



There was one sunny day when we went for a sail





That's about it, autumnal updates to follow.

Young at heart

We went and stayed at Rebecca and Rick's on the weekend of the 17th May and gave Nanny Baldwin a bit of a surprise by turning up en masse on her birthday. We all got fish and chips for lunch and went to Blakeney Straights to eat them.



Lunch could only keep the children's interest for so long when there was the competing attraction of a stream to play in.



Thomas found a rock



It didn't always go entirely to plan but no one got really wet



Grace found something to amuse her, she's still a bit little for streams!



After the stream we walked up to some different woods where the last of the bluebells for which the Forest is justly famous were still in bloom.

Village fayre preservation society

Perhaps dubbing ourselves the village fayre preservation society is a bit strong but we did contribute a bottle to the school tombola and Rachel did the 5 mile 'Fun Run' in under 50 minutes so we chipped in.

Bad weather had blighted the previous two Bocking Village Fayres but this year was different, the sun shone continuously. The Fun Run started at noon so we went a bit earlier than usual and while Rachel made her way round the fields of the Fennes Estate, Thomas and Martha with Nanny, Grandad and Daddy in tow visited Thomas' school, and the other attractions. Here's Martha on the roundabout



Both Thomas and Martha took advantage of the face painting on offer, Martha opting for fairly simple butterfly while Thomas made sure Nanny got her money's worth by opting for a time consuming Spiderman design. Here he is being worked on, the phenomenally loud samba band are just out of shot



The finished article



Martha took about half the time, but she was happy with the results



What better way to round things off than with a pint?

Let it snow

Easter weekend was partly spent in the company of Rick, Rebecca, Amelia and Grace who had braved the arctic conditions to drive all the way from Wales (although white Easters are more common the white Christmases apparently). If it snows, you've got to go out in the garden and make a snowman, it's the law. Of course, it didn't take long before everything degenerated into a snowball fight and no prizes for guessing who started that!







The next day we went for a rather long (3 and a bit miles, it's Rachel's new running route) and muddy walk, as you can see here.



Thanks to Rebecca for the photos

Pan's people

A combination of World Book Day (see here), Peter Pan Week (see here) and a visit to Braintree District Museum (see here) meant a veritable frenzy of dressing up for school and nursery.

First, on March 6th, came Thomas's visit to Braintree museum where he saw a Victorian classroom, wore the back straightening device and came home with a slate to write on. As that was also World Book Day Martha went to nursery dressed as one of her favourite book characters.




Then on Friday 7th, as part of Peter Pan week Thomas's school took part in the Big Time Rhyme and the whole school read an extract from Peter Pan in Scarlet. So, everyone at school was encouraged to dress up as a character from Peter Pan - Thomas chose the eponymous hero and Martha stuck with Tinkerbell.



P.S. Don't forget to click on the button at the top right of this page to sponsor Nanny Crisp in the London Marathon.