Walking Like Egyptians

We had a fantastic half term break in Egypt. It was a bit of a last minute booking which made the holiday even more enjoyable as I had hardly anytime to worry about what to take. I basically through a few some summer clothes into a bag and off we went.

We stayed in a very nice hotel in Sharm el Sheike. http://www.millenniumhotels.com/eg/millenniumsharmelsheikh/index.html Our days were spent relaxing by the pool or snorkelling in the sea, where we saw the most beautiful coloured fish. I was really pleased that Isabella took to snorkelling very well and enjoyed looking out for Nemo! Each day, just as the sun was beginning to set I would go to a Yoga class over looking the beach it was bliss!

One day we flew to Cairo to see the Pyramids which were just as amazing as I thought they would be. That day we also went to the Egyptican museum which we could of spent hours in and had a boat ride along The Nile.

During the holiday we also went camel riding, drove a 4 x 4 through the desert, went star gazing in the desert one evening and the girls and I even had a belly dancing lesson! All in all good fun.

Summer

So the summer holidays are now well and truly behind us. It's raining, it's cold, the winter clothes are starting to make an appearance, the heating is back on and people are already starting to talk about Christmas. So let me update you on what we've been up to during the Summer.

We had a lovely couple of weeks in Spain, where it was hot and sunny. We did a mixture of camping and staying in hotels which worked really well. Jason did a motorbike race known as the "Pyreknees Up" for the first weekend we were away. Whilst he rode up and down mountains looking for check points the girls and I relaxed by a swimming pool - can't be bad. We found some really nice campsites and the Pyrenees are beautiful. We then spent a day in Andorra stocking up on supplies (beer, wine, beer and more wine) before heading to St Emillion to buy..... some more wine! I have to say that it was really tough coming home. Whilst away Isabella lost her first tooth and turned 6 years old and Claudia learnt to ride a bike.

During the holidays we also spent a lovely weekend in Devon with our friends Jill, Andy and their little girl Lottie where we watched lawnmower racing (I guess that's the sort of thing they do in Devon)! They have a beautiful house overlooking fields and farmland - we were very jealous of the view.

I took the girls to the Natural History Museum which was good but very busy. We did quite a lot of cycling mainly around Black Park with Oscar and picnic in tow and swimming. Isabella had a birthday tea party with 6 of her friends where they asked if I could do some facepainting on them - the pictures speak for themselves, I don't think I will be making a career out of facepainting! Now its back to normal again, walking to school and pack lunches to make (I hate packed lunches).

I've put together a selection of pictures taken over the summer - enjoy.

Salsa so good

Jason will be really cross that I've put this on my blog - but I thought its only for fun. Here we are doing a little Salsa dancing!

Odds Farm

Just thought these pictures were so cute of Claudia and her friend Sophie having fun at Odds Farm.

Birthday Week

My 'baby' turned 4 last Monday. Where have the last 4 years gone?

Claudia celebrated her 4th birthday not just on Monday but for the whole week. The day before we had all the family over. On her actual birthday she had friends over in the morning then teatime was spent with Mummy and Isabella in Cafe Uno, Friday we went to Odds Farm with friends then a party on Saturday morning - phew! Exhausting but lots of fun, I think Claudia had a really lovely week and so many wonderful pressies - yes that really is a picture of a giant cuddly pony - thank you sooo much Uncle James!

More Fun In The Snow

It was with great excitement when we woke up a couple of Sundays' ago that the village was covered in snow. I'm afraid we missed church for fear that the snow would of disappeared by the time we came out - so hats, gloves and warm coats on we took ourselves over to Stone Meadow for a snowball fight. I think Oscar our dog seemed to get hit by most of the snowballs for some reason he became the target - but he jumped and barked with glee. After about an hour of rolling around in the snow and laughing a lot we decided to head home for some hot chocolate and as predicted by lunchtime the snow had gone.

Finally some pics from our ski hol

Herriotts Half Term

Last week was half term, goodness don't they come around quickly! Anyhow we booked ourselves a weeks ski holiday in Colorado.

The plan was to fly Heathrow to Washington, Washington to Denver (that was the plan) what happened was we flew Heathrow to Washington missed our connection due to imigration taken so long, ran the length of the airport (that's what it felt like) to get a flight to Railey waited there for a couple of hours then finally got a flight to Denver. It felt like a very long journey, luckily the girls were just brilliant at travelling and the bag full of magazines, puzzles, dot to dot and sticker books kept them amused.

We had a great week, the girls went into ski school everyday and really enjoyed themselves, especially Isabella, she is just like her Daddy. We watched her one day skiing through the trees and doing jumps which nearly gave me a heartattack! Claudia was not so daring and although had a good time, spent most of it on her bottom!

Anyhow a good week enjoyed by all and thankfully not such a long journey home. Unfortunately for Jason we all got home on Saturday and he left on Sunday for Bahrain until Friday, poor thing I think his body clock will be so confused. First he was 7 hours behind in the USA now he is 3 hours ahead. Jason has the camera and all the ski photos so I'll post photos on his return.

A Selection of Pictures from our Greek Weekend

Very coloured coordinated.
Jason has a go a Greek dancing.
The boys.
Quite a lot of people at the wedding thought Jason was Greek - I wonder why.
Enjoying the beautiful sunny weather at the Acropolis

A Greek Weekend

Jason and I have just returned from a very nice weekend in Athens.

A Greek friend of ours had finally decided to get married and invited us to join in with the celebrations. My mum and dad offered to have the children for the weekend, so before they had a chance to change their minds the flights were booked and hotel reservations made.

We flew out on Friday lunchtime and got back Sunday evening. We had a lovely meal on Friday night and managed to find a couple of good bars for dancing in. On Saturday we climbed a hill which had a beautiful church at the top and a very nice restaurant over looking the city. We had a late lunch then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding took place in two churches, the first a Catholic church (she was Catholic) and the second a Greek Orthodox church (he was Greek Orthodox) then it was off to the reception where there was lots and lots of food and lots and lots of dancing. We had a fantastic time and eventually got back to our hotel at 5am. We had a few hours sleep before going to see the Acropolis then back to the airport for home. Wow, what fun I've now got a taste of weekends away and am planning the next one!

Claudia starts school

I can't believe that my little baby has started nursery school already, but she has and here are some pictures of her in her uniform.

Hello - I'm still here.

Here is a picture of the girls with Father Christmas at The Chimes shopping centre in Uxbridge.

I did'nt think anyone really read this blog - but judging by the number of friends who have asked what's happened to my blog I guess they do. Anyway here we are again - computer fixed and ready to join the world of blog again.

Christmas was lovely although fairly quiet. On Christmas Eve we went to the Crib service at the Parish Church, Claudia played the part of an Angel and Isabella was a Star. Unfortunately Claudia was an Angel with a temperature and ended up spending most of Christmas day either asleep on the sofa or in bed - poor thing I felt so sorry for her, she was really poorly and hardly had the energy to open her presents. Then Boxing Day Isabella went down with it and they were both in bed.

New Year was great we went to a friends dairy farm in Shropshire. There were 11 children and 12 adults and everyone was well - thank goodness. Unfortunately Jason had to work on NY Eve so I went up the day before with the children and Jason joined us after work on NYE. We went for some great walks and the children loved walking around the farm and seeing all the cows. There was an awful lot of eating, drinking and being merry - what more could you ask for on New Years Eve!