Paint it pink

For some time Martha had been getting a bit too tall for her little bed that was halfway between a cot size and a normal single bed. But with her having such a small room how a single bed fit in her room as well as all the other no doubt vital 'stuff' a five year old girl accumulates?
After much consideration a raised 'mid height' bed was decided upon. Trouble was, the room itself needed with a lick of paint as well as it hadn't quite been finished when the extension was done.

Funnily enough most of the possible colour combinations Martha chose were variations on a theme of pink. Here she is trying out the colours with some tester pots.



A bright pink and a sort of pinky violet were the choices - the bright pink on one wall and the violet on the three others. Thankfully it all got done before the bed arrived and the small amount extra it cost to have the lot assembled proved worth every penny. Here she is in the new bed complete with new duvet cover, pillow case etc.



We also got a new roller blind for the window, trouble is that it lets in much more light and so she's waking up a bit earlier than before.




She seems pretty happy with it and thanks to the various pockets and shelves attached to the bed she's got everything she needs to hand when she does wake up at the crack of dawn.


One final thing, you can now access this blog using the slightly more catchy web address www.bockingkellys.co.uk

Back to the (sea) front

After leaving it to fend for itself during one of the coldest and wettest winters for ages we thought we'd better go and see how the beach hut looked. Thankfully all was well, although the decking is showing the signs of the hard winter.

Martha and Thomas seemed happy to be back, even though they had to run up and down, just to stay warm.



It didn't take very long for your tea to get cold!



As it was high tide and quite windy some of the waves were crashing over the sea wall quite impressively.



As we parked on the promenade I could do with washing the seawater off the car! Hopefully as the weather improves we'll be out there some more, last summer seems like a long time ago.

First day at school - part 2

Martha started school on 3rd September, like Thomas she's attending Bocking Church Street Primary School. After a long summer without seeing her friends from nursery she was happy to have the chance to meet up with some of them who were starting school at the same time.

Here she is in uniform



Obviously she'll have Thomas to show her the ropes if needed.



Here she is, complete with coat ready to go.



She's settled in well so far. It's been half days up to now with her first full day after two weeks.

Yat's the way (I like it)

Over the Easter weekend we were at the Warrens in Chepstow and on the Saturday went out for lunch with Rachel's Auntie Anne and, since it was such a lovely day, ended up at Symonds Yat. The views over the river Wye are quite spectacular





Sometimes it's just best to hang on to the children when you're at the top of a very tall cliff!

Out on the ice

Christmas was spent in Braintree and Lydney. Martha was happy enough with her empty hutch and at the prospect of getting guinea pigs at some point in the future (more news on that soon).



We had a lovely dinner topped off with home made Christmas pudding - we've still got 2 left!



While in Lydney we went ice skating (on synthetic ice unfortunately) at Beechenhurst Lodge in the Forest





There's also a great play area at Beechenhurst with lots of fun things made out of wood. Here's Thomas, Martha, Amelia and Grace perched on a wooden horse.

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.

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.

Mary's boy child

Contrary to the media reports regarding its demise; the nativity is alive and kicking at Bocking Church Street school. If not as a play then in the form of a nativity tableau during the school carol concert. Coming as he does from a long line (actually pretty much limited to his great grandmother) of people who can't resist the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd Thomas was handed a key role, that of Joseph. There was no lines to speak as such but he did need to carry a sheep.
Mummy, Martha and Nanny all went along to watch, Martha was so keen to see her brother in his first starring role that she decided to go up and see him during the event.

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it!

Rick, Rebecca, Amelia & Grace came to visit on the weekend of November 3rd. Although it was a bit late for Halloween all the children made lanterns out of some of Grandad's home grown pumpkins. Here are the results.



We also went for a walk up to Doreward's Hall farm and fed some of the animals. Amelia wasn't too keen on the goats but Thomas and Martha have been there several times before and seemed OK with them.



For some reason the children decided to go all Freemans catalogue on us for some photos taken on the walk back.



We had fireworks on Saturday evening, complete with sparklers for everyone





All in all a very pleasant weekend.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin lanterns and dressing up in seasonal costumes, what's not to like?

Bear Necessities

Saturday 6th October was the occasion of Martha's 3rd birthday party. There was a theme running through the event - Teddy Bears. Everyone made a teddy bear out of cardboard, material, pipe cleaners and anything else that came to hand.





Then it was outside for a bear hunt, chocolate bears cunningly hidden by Kate and Dan.





Martha got lots of lovely presents, here she is opening one of them.



We even managed to record the rugby and watched it 'as live' afterwards.
Thanks to everyone who came along, especially Pauline for making the teddy templates.