more pics from the weekend

Another busy weekend

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here, both Saturday and Sunday we had completely clear skies and 75+ temperatures!!
Friday night we had an impromtu evening with Tia Laurie and Mono Matt...which was so much fun! Saturday morning B.D. went to work and ran errands while Max had a new friend, Tyler, over to play. The boys played with Bob the Builder tools in the garden along with bubbles, frisbee and rockets. Then they ran upstairs to play in the pirate tent, nerf bowling and more Bob the Builder!
After Tyler went home we all went to our good friends' Arun and Renu's home to meet baby Kavi and share a wonderful bbq. Their garden is beautiful and long, so Max took advantage of the big hill in the middle and rolled down it several times!
Then we were off to Jaye's birthday party, complete with the game Musical Cows and loads of arts and crafts.
Both kids were exhausted at the end of the day, so we went to the grocery store then headed home for a quite hour before bed.
Sunday morning B.D. went to boxing and the kids and I went to the Lickey Hills with Sofia and her family for a walk. We all had a great time but the fresh air and the heat must have really taken it out of the kids as both had 2 1/2 hour naps in the afternoon. We took advantage of the sun with more playing in our garden and B.D. made a yummy bbq....and now it's time for bed (gotta rest before the workweek....and someone special's BIRTHDAY!!). xo

Max as Cyril the Squirrel

Book Bash

Today Max and I met up with my friend Awen and her two lovely children (Charlie and Tyler) for the Birmingham Book Bash. We started off meeting the Blue Bookbash Bear, getting henna paintings, then hearing stories. Max was a bit concerned part way through the first story as he thought we were going to get to bash books, although I never got to the bottom of what he thought that meant! We had a great lunch at Pizza Express, then went back to hear a story about Maisy during which Max volunteered to play Cyril the Squirrel....too cute!

more Bunco pics

Bunco night

Saturday night we hosted another fun-filled Bunco night...if we do say so ourselves!! This 12-person dice game is fast-paced and exciting, especially for those who roll the desired numbers. It's similar to yahtzee as you start off rolling as many ONES as you can. If someone rolls three of the desired number they get a BUNCO. In our version the person who gets a BUNCO has to wear the silly birthday hat, and anyone who is playing on the losers table has to wear the fairy princess hats. Matt was the overall winner of the night with the most BUNCOs and the most wins, Rob has the most loses, and Roy won the travelling BUNCO winner as he had the hat when the game was over (although this was disputed by my handsome husband as they both had a BUNCO as the last roll of the game, both with sixes....weird!!).

Who knew Costco was so fun?

Talia had her first ride seated in a shopping cart at Costco this weekend, and LOVED it! We honestly weren't there as long as it appears from the pictures, it was just after lunch and Talia had not had a nap...so both kids were tired and needed some stories to get them through the last little bit.

St Paul's Club

My handsome husband is the (we think) the youngest member of Birmingham's oldest dinner club, St Paul's Club. He has also been recently nominated and accepted to their Board. He is really excited about the tradition of this club and that they have let him in, and as you would expect he has loads of ideas of how to bring more people into it....but that's all for another post. In the meantime I wanted to share the first picture I have ever seen of him at the St Paul's Club (where they all have their own engraved napkin rings, his is from a Birmingham UK mint with my initials, isn't that sweet?). Here he sits with Mr John Ellis, our accountant and good friend (the one on his right)!

Talia versus The Stairs!

Max and Mama's Day Out

On Friday, Max and I spent the day together having several adventures! It was so much fun. We started out taking Talia to school (Max wasn't sure at first if he wanted her to spend the day with us or not, but in the end decided she would be better off at nusery); then we played airplanes at home until Papa got home from boxing. We took Papa into his work then we did some shopping on the Harborne High Street (picking up some snacks along the way)...then jumped onto the bus and went into Birmingham. Our first stop was the library where Max played, read tons of books and got his very own library card! After that we went to Starbucks for a snack (mostly to get out of the rain), then back on the bus for our trip home. We had to stop back at B.D.'s work to pick up the car so Max spent a few minutes with Auntie Deb learning how to photocopy his body parts on the copier!! All kids should know how to do this. Max was so exhausted from all his walking that when we jumped in the car to pick up B.D. from the train station Max was asleep within 4 minutes flat! What a great day!

more pictures from this Sunday

Baddesley Clinton and Packwood House

This afternoon we met up with our friends John, Rachel and their beautiful children Thom and Jaye for frolicking at two National Trust houses: Baddesley Clinton and Packwood House. The weather was surprisingly warm and the Trust houses were really cool...we'll have to go back when the weather is cooler to see the inside of the house.
Enjoy the pictures!

Talia is crawling!!

Yesterday she rocked back and forth on all fours, and moved her hands a bit....but this morning (at Sam and Jodie's house) she started off on a proper crawl.
Home for less than an hour, Talia had already shown me her new crawling skills AND pulled over the plant. Now I'm looking around the living room and realising we are going to have to make a few changes...fast!

Ellie's first birthday

It's usually Max invited to birthday parties, but this weekend was Talia's turn. Her friend, Ellie, turned one during the week so Saturday we went to her house for a little party. The first picture is the entire party gang, the last one is the birthday girl and Talia! Enjoy.

more pictures from the weekend