Happy Birthday James!

What an exciting weekend it has been for James - a new bedroom with a new carpet and a new bed, a birthday treat at the outdoor ice rink with Charlie followed by pizza and ice cream, followed the next day by tea and Yoda birthday cake with our lovely friends, family and neighbours, who were treated to a spectacular magic show by our birthday boy, keen to show off his new tricks. 

New bed

Today we unearthed Mab's cabin bed from the loft, so James finally gets to sleep in his new bedroom.  Predictably though, there were tears from Jenny who couldn't bear to sleep alone, and so James very generously invited her for a sleepover in his room.

Getting properly settled

This morning the last bit of the kitchen arrived - the island unit on the right.  I look forward to many a happy day baking with James and Jenny on this island.  The next step will be to plumb in the sink, then worktops after Christmas.  In the meantime we have retrieved a small length of worktop Ron has been saving for us in his shed.

After that, plinths, end panels, and a slap of duck egg blue paint and the kitchen will be complete. I still can't quite take in the size of this room - I had no concept of how big this room would be from the plans or at any time during the build.  Our house is now big enough to play pom pom, as tested by James, Jenny, Emma and Christopher today!

 Yesterday I spent the whole day clearing up after the mice.  We have reclaimed the lounge and the only casualties have been the cable to the broadband router and a fair quantity of paper and craft materials which the mice have been using to make a cosy bed.  Now for the carpet cleaners and we'll be all ready for Christmas.

James is enjoying his orange bedroom, now complete with carpet.

Home at last

Finally, after four long months, we moved back into Sunnyside last weekend.  We have no kitchen to speak of, but the cooker is in which means that survival is possible!  The last bits of work (installing kitchen, skirting boards, hanging the internal doors, tiling the shower, finishing the carpeting, and the eternity of painting ahead of us) will happen over the coming weeks and months. 

 After our first week, we have carpeted the stairs, landing, Jenny's bedroom, and our new bedroom, moved into our new bedroom and painted James's room ready for carpeting.  There is a mountain of work to do, but the worst is over and hopefully our stress levels will return to normal before too long.

Elves and Princesses

Two excited children getting ready for the school disco.

Nearly there!

The cooker is in!  We're still waiting for some of our kitchen units, which means that the sink can't be properly fixed into place and plumbed in yet, but even if we have to wash up in the bath for a week or two, we are moving in this weekend!

Kitchen floor

Today I have mostly been scrubbing the kitchen floor.  In fact I have scrubbed it four times with an acid wash to remove the excess grout from the surface, and mopped it four times and hoovered it twice.  Finally, I think they we are at a point where we are able to seal and polish the floor.  That will be a job for tomorrow evening, in the meantime, I am going to sink into the sofa with a cup of tea and a dose of Downton Abbey.

Brighton Rock

We've suffered a small set-back after having to return five hundred ugly terracotta floor tiles.  We now have five hundred beautiful terracotta floor tiles on our driveway, waiting for Geoff to lay them in the kitchen/ utility/shower room area later this week.  In the meantime, we have been spending our weekends painting the house, which is no small task.  The children have chosen their own paint colours and the first coat of 'Brighton Rock', Jenny's bold choice, went on today.  We were all pleasantly surprised by the result, except for Jenny, who knew all along it was going to look fabulous.

Book week

The children have been celebrating Book Week at school.  Earlier in the week, the school had a visit from a pirate who found some treasure burried in the playground.  It was exciting for most but poor Jenny was quite distressed by the presence of a real pirate in school, so it was lucky Mummy came home with a fabulous costume for her to wear today, on dress-up-as-your- favourite-book-character day, which kept the nightmares at bay.  James and Jenny made a great "Scary Bones" and "Winnie the Witch", which they were persuaded were superior alternatives to their original choices of the baby beaver from "Beaver Towers" and the owl from "The Gruffalo".  Thank goodness for halloween, and a local Asda.

Painting the Chapel

The plasterers have been in all week, so today we were able to get the paint rollers out.  Jenny worked very hard and painted almost everything below 3 feet, including most of herself. 

The painting will be a mamouth task, but it's nice to feel that we have at least made a start. 

The Cotswolds

We have been living, eating, sleeping and breathing our extension project for the last few months but last weekend brought a little oasis of calm among the stress as we literally "got away from it all" with a visit to Lizzy in the Cotswolds.  And what better way to de-stress than to visit the beautiful gardens at Hidcote, with it's huge collection of hydrangeas.  I can't remember what this is one is called (Lizzy?) but it was one of my favourites. 

And then on Sunday a trek across the fields took us to yet another place of zen-like calm, Lizzy's ceramics studio.  In true generation game style, we watched the expert at work and then all had a go at "throwing" (which I discovered means anything but, which might explain why I was never any good at this at school).  
Thanks Lizzy for a great weekend. 

First day at school

It has been an exciting day for our little Jennifer as she started school today.  James proudly directed her to her coat peg and book tray before going to his own class (which incidentally made him a little late - oops bad call mummy, didn't look too good walking into his new class still in his coat while all the other children were sitting down chiming "good morning" to the teacher - sorry Mrs Vanns!)  But the rest of the day went well and they both came home full of beans and excited about another day at school tomorrow.

Beautiful house

From the outside it almost looks finished, but the inside is a completely different picture.  Probably another six weeks to go, but we are very excited about how it's progressing, and longing for the day when we can live in it again.

Sweet peas

Many many sweet peas.  Of all shapes and sizes!  Thanks for being a such a splendid friend Lizzy, look forward to seeing you again after sixteen more sleeps!

Caterpillars

 We have new pets.  The nasturtiums are dripping with cabbage white caterpillars, so we have collected a few in a jam jar in the hope that we can witness their magical transformation into butterflies.  Watch this space!

Naked trampolining

They have been out here since 9am.  Where are their clothes?  Where else but in the paddling pool.  All we need now is Daniel and Boo to join them. 

The 'stension

Here's an update on our extension - the tiling is nearly there and it's starting to look like a proper Kentish cottage.  A long way to go yet, but it's good to see progress.

And bedtime stories in the hammock tonight on this gloriously warm summer evening.

Tiddlers

Today must have been the hottest day of the year so far, and although that's not saying much for the summer we have had, today was a bit of a sticky one.  So we headed to Lullingstone country park for some shade and a paddle in the deliciously cool water of the Darent. 

We bought fishing nets and joined some boys fishing for tiddlers.  Next time we'll bring a jam jar to collect them in.  A glorious day.

The Beach

It was lovely to see Lizzy last weekend.  We had fun chilling out in the garden, drinking tea and picking sweet peas.  We even found time for a trip to the beach for a quick paddle, a play in the sand and a fish and chip dinner.  Thanks Lizzy, come again soon.

The 'Lympics

Having failed to get tickets to the games, we took the train to London yesterday to soak up some of the Olympic atmosphere in Hyde Park.  Despite it being the only day so far for team GB not to bag a medal, we had great fun having faces painted, making flags and watching the show jumping on the big screens.  

What a shame for Nick Skelton - so near and yet so far.  But we had a great day and were full of praise for the Olympic organisers and the volunteers who made the day very easy for visitors.  The pink 2012 signage was superb, meaning that even country bumpkins like us managed to make our way to Buckingham Palace

and Big Ben without getting lost.  James and Jennifer walked for miles today without too much whining, so we treated ourselves to pizza and pasta before heading for home.  But not before paying hommage to the Great Lightning Bolt.

The River Bank

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.  And that is exactly what we did this afternoon with Grandpops, followed by ice cream eaten on the castle lawn listening to a brass band. 

Roof!

On returning from holiday we discovered that the roof had gone up, and half of the tiles are on.

Tales from Coastguard Cottage - Thursday 26th July

Another glorious day, and a trip to Shell Bay for some serious sand castle making.  We picked a spot right by a stream running off the heath across the beach and into the sea.  After a series of sand dams were breached, a huge body of water swelled into the moat and eventually undermined the foundations of our castle, which very quickly became a ruin resembling Corfe.  It was truly exciting stuff.  A glorious day to end a wonderful holiday.  Bye bye Kimmeridge, we'll be back.

Tales from Coastguard Cottage - Wednesday 25th July

Corfe Castle was beseiged once more, this time via steam train and after enjoying a slap up cream tea at it's famous tea rooms in celebration of Grandma's birthday. 

Tales from Coastguard Cottage - Tuesday 24th July

A gentle day at the Blue Pool, or more aptly named the Green Pool.  The highlight was the multitude of amorous dragonflies making beautiful heart shapes with their bodies whilst mating. 

We ended the day with a walk up to Clavell tower to watch the sunset with our boys.

Tales from Coastguard Cottage - Monday 23rd July

After a long day at Brownsea, we went for a slow relaxing day at Kimmeridge Bay, just a short walk down the secret path from the cottage.  We spend the day enjoying a bit of snorkelling, followed by a barbeque with lashings of ginger beer, and then back to the beach for some fossil hunting.  

It was all going so well until Grandma took a step too far on the green seaweed.  After a quick trip to A&E she returned with her head glued back together as good as new (apart from a headache and a pile of washing to do)

Another old fossil on the rocks (sorry Grandma!)