The Lady and Her Castle

 Something just seemed so right about this!

Shoulder Ride

 Here is Uncle Simon and Ana on St. Michael's Mount. Behind them, you can see the mounting steps / block for horse-riders of old. Now-a-days it is more commonly used for getting on to uncles' shoulders!

Sandcastles

Building sandcastles on the beach.

Rose on the beach

Rose LOVED the beach. She really enjoyed pottering, moving sand around in the beach streams, and then splashing in the pools and rivers that she made.

Bodyboarding!

We had such fun bodyboarding this year (except for when Simon stood on a Weaver fish and couldn't walk for an hour or two...) Anyway that didn't stop him from going bodyboarding again, and so here he is with Lara, being swept into shore.

Daniel and Esme at Kynance

Daniel and Esme went for a walk on the beach around the beautiful red and green serpentinite rocks.

Beach skidding

This was a great game.

Papa was swinging the girls round and round and round on the body board, hydro-planing on the thin film of water, warmed by the sun and sand of the late afternoon beach.

You can't catch me, waves

There is a timeless enjoyment in wave running. This was on our holiday with Jenny and Nigel in Pembrokeshire, when the girls were given their first wet suits. Prior to this, though, splash suits and wellies were the order of the day.

At the Castle

Here are Ana and Tim at the top of the big, big hill.

Walking to St Michael's Mount

We walked across the sands to St Michaels's Mount, and stayed there long enough to have a boat trip back, which we all enjoyed.

Paddling at Kynance

Ana and Lara took to paddling in the waters at Kynance Cove. And not content with just paddling, they were soon both swimming!

Kynance Cove, Cornwall

This July, we shared a wonderful week with all the Farewells in Cornwall. One of our favourite spots was most certainly Kynance Cove - a location not designed for easy access by families with toddlers, but certainly more than worth the effort. It is stunningly beautiful and geologically facinating.

Wisteria, Roses and Daisies

Crystal and Dom gave Lara a nice wisteria to help beautify the front of our 1970's house... a small but significant start! Here the girls are after planting it and training it up the new trellis.

Ballet girls

Under the tutilage of Miss Lynette, Ana and Rose have begun their ballet careers. Here they are after their first lesson. A term on and they are still loving it.

Baby Samuel and Auntie Lara

A few weeks old and already slightly suprised by his Auntie.

Four cousins

The girls were thrilled with their new cousin and could hardly keep away from him.

Leia's second birthday

Leia turned two this summer and most of the extended family and many friends turned up in Cardiff to consume vast amounts of food to celebrate. Here are the three girls burning off some of the bacon and maple syrup by making a labyrinth out of colourful tunnels and boxes.

And then they jumped upon it.

The girls found a pot of sudocrem

While we were otherwise occupied trying to do some sort of DIY, the girls found a pot of sudocrem... Ana came running through to our room saying "Look at me, Mummy!"

We looked, and saw that it was... messy!

Lara thought that Ana had got hold of Tim's shaving foam. But on going through to Rose's room she found that Rose was even more covered, with her fingers in a half empty pot of sudocrem.

At a moment where parental rebukes should have been issued, we could not help but laugh!

Only one candle this time

Lara organised a really special black tie party for the evening, with many friends and family. If Ana had been surprised that there were only three candles on the cake at lunchtime, I wonder what she would have thought of this! Only one candle... but what a candle!

30th Birthday Lunch

We were joined by friends and family for a great lunch at Zizzis - a restaurant which we all enjoy. The girls love it as they can watch the chefs cook - and often end up with a chef's hat to show for it!

Just look at the size of that pizza!

Help with the candles...

Ana, Rose and Leia helped me blow out the candles on my cake. Ana wondered why there were only three candles on the cake - she wasn't really older than me!

Will and Kate's Wedding

To celebrate the Royal Wedding, Nicola, Claudio, Giovanni, Daniel, Esme and Leia came over. We consumed some pretty little cakes and hung up bunting that Lara made (we still have it up in September!).

A lovely day for the wedding, particularly as it happened to fall on the day before my 30th Birthday, and with a bank holiday on the monday... a four day weekend!

Dom and Nathan...

enjoying father and son time!

Worthing Seafront

We had a great day trip down to Sussex in February, seeing family. We all went down to the seafront at Worthing and the kids rode their bikes along the promenade, while the clouds mounted inland.

Ana's Fourth Birthday Party

This year we had an energetic party for Ana at church. The kids made crowns, had helium balloons, lots of yummy food and played an assortment of party games. Here are a few snaps from the day.

Fairy Cakes

Guess who this cake was for...