Jeremy's 5th Birthday Party

The Maclean's had a full weekend of birthday parties at their house, and we were lucky enough to be invited to Jeremy's, Max's good friend.  Max LOVES going to Jeremy's house because he has all of the best toys, and now he has the COOLEST bouncy castle water slide.

  

Zoe's Birthday party

Zoe's celebration of her 4th birthday was at a Wacky Warehouse.  Talia loved exploring all of the soft play areas, and Max (and his good friend Ryan C) had his face painted like Spiderman!

  

Oh How My Garden is Growing

 

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Papa!  Cards, bowling, pitching a tent, horrible macaroni and cheese (from scratch) for dinner, and a pressure cooker to boot!  Who says we don't know how to spoil you?  xx

Portland Wealth Retreat

In his embracing, mentoring and supportive nature, B.D. created a retreat for the newly-formed AMP Wealth family combined with the Portland Wealth extended family.  We all spent the weekend romping around the grounds of a DeVere golf club in Daventry, about an hour outside of Birmingham.
The wealth managers had business meetings while the families went to the park and splashed in the swimming pool.
Unfortunately, Talia had a bit of teething pain and spent Saturday evening full of Calpol.  But Max thoroughly enjoyed playing with the other kids.

 

Spontaneous Dinner Out

The kids were done with Sports Day at 2:30, but the school day doesn't officially end until 3:15, so all of the parents were standing around wondering what to do.  Luckily, they let the kiddos out early, so Max and I joined a couple of other kids and parents for an ice cream sundae and orange juice.  What a treat!  There were four kiddos and they all entertained each other, laughing and colouring; which meant the moms could spend a few minutes talking.

That evening B.D. had a St Paul's committee meeting, so I picked up Talia then took the kids to the library in the centre of Birmingham.  After reading loads of stories, and selecting a few to bring home (The Runaway Dinner, Handa's Hen and another Quentin Blake story) we met up with Jenny, Sophia and Ellie to graze our way through the International Food Festival.  What fun...but how expensive!  Luckily one of my old work colleagues has a stand and gave us lovely Bulgarian sausages and bread for free, then we bought a pretzel, some Italian chocolate and nougat, noodles and churros.  The weather was beautiful and the kids had a blast, and great for us moms to have them out during 'the witching hour'.  

And what a thrill to do something so spontaneously with two children!!

Max's first Sports Day

Another tradition we didn't know about is the annual Sports Day.  At nursery age the kids are encouraged to support and cheer for each other, they are not encouraged to compete or really to win.  But the Dads from the sidelines couldn't help but cheer and yell for this son to "run faster".  Max isn't a fast runner, though, but he does have fun (just like his mom).