Happy Christmas Eve

Yum.  Hope Father Christmas enjoys his chocolate cookies tonight. 

Winter walks

Thanks to a half day at work today, James and I spent the afternoon in the hills in search of a beautiful sunset and some muddy puddles to fall in.  Both obliged us most gratifyingly.  To top it off we made our descent by torchlight, making this James's first proper night hike.

Birthday present fun

James has wanted on of these for ages, and finally, for his birthday, he got his Stomp Rocket.  This morning he was out in the field, joined by Jennifer, Emma, Christopher, then Dave, our postman, all eager to have a go.  Good job we live in the country - even our garden isn't big enough for this game!

Then, it was time for the egg challenge.  Thank you Uncle Jonathan and Auntie Hannah for this fabulous game - unfortunately we have as yet failed to complete the challenge despite a couple of dry runs with the bouncy egg, so we have had to make do with cereal for breakfast this weekend :( 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It's not much, it's almost all melted, and you have to climb the hills to find it, but we've had a small sprinkling of snow.  Just enough to get us in the mood for Christmas!

Happy Birthday James

Six years ago tomorrow, James made his first appearance into the world.  Today he celebrated his birthday with all his grandparents, including the adopted ones from next door.  He was very pleased with his dinosaur birthday cake, complete with yellow claws (the brief was quite specific), googly eyes and spikes.  After a weekend full of treats, he has gone to bed exhausted, having determinedly finished constructing his new lego police boat before bed.

Pre-birthday treats

We celebrated James's coming 6th birthday today with a trip to the climbing wall with friends Ben and Grace.  A great time was had by all, including the mummies and daddies who also got to have a play.  The kids are keen to go again which solves wet weekends for years to come! 

And all this excitement followed by pizza and ice cream, and not just any ice cream - James had his first knickerbocker glory, which despite being as big as his own head, he managed to devour in record time.

Nativity

It's that time of year again, this year James was a townsman wearing the obligatory tea towel and tights costume.  He was still glowing after being chosen to hand out thank you flowers to his teacher at the end of the performance.  Good job James.