Woodrow

My eldest is off on a residential weekend away with her school. It will be the first time that she has been away from home on her own. She is apprehensive and we have to get a long list of stuff in one bag.

The dark brown one

The dark brown one.

Nice log.

Peekaboo!

Mum and child.

Back home

Back home and my wife's mother had made her a birthday cake with our children.

Birthday Trip To Lincoln

In order to celebrate my wife's birthday and to have a break in the gloomy January days we took a trip to Lincoln. We had a lovely meal in Pizza Express, lots of pottering in shops that are not buggy friendly and generally having a lovely time.

Hmmmm. Wine and pizza.
Picturesque cottage and large cathedral.

Getting dark - it was about now that we decided to walk to her Dad's house (where we were staying) It was a very long walk - we got a lot of exercise, had time to chat and were completely worn out by the time we arrived.

Happy Birthday

It is my beautiful wife's birthday today.

These were taken at our local pub/restaurant "The Green Man".

The grey one

Baby Hamsters - The Golden one.

Baby hamsters are quite good fun. They are still tiny, but seem to be getting used to being handled. Each of them has it's own personality which is quite amazing as they must have a brain the size of a peanut.

Vampire Hamster

Our hamster bit our eldest whilst she was "taming" her. There was blood everywhere and it will take a while before she forgives her rodent friend.

Probably we should wait until the babies are gone before any more taming occurs.

Hamster Emergence

The baby hamsters are becomming more adventerous, occasionally one or two pops out of their nest for a few moments before their mother realises and carries them back in.
Here is a photo of the latest escape attempt.

Piano Recital

Out eldest has been receiving piano lessons from a kind friend and today she played a piece she has been practicing to our guests. We are so proud.

Hamster Babies

Finally a picture of the babies, although it is not possible to see how many there are as we don't want to disturb them too much.

Hamster Photo Attempt 1

I tried to get a photo of the new hamsters but this is all I managed to get...

Curry

My wife went out for a curry and left me, the children and the hamster at home. She looked lovely in this photo I took before she left so I thought I would share it...

Emily close up.

Bath Reprise

We popped into Bath on the way home to get our eldest new shoes and for another coffee break. It's so hard to find nice, fitted, lace-up shoes that are the right size and in stock. Clark's are a bit rubbish in this regard if you ask me.

Our children enjoying a cup of froth.

A Cold Bath

We went to Bath for the day. Very cold and lovely memories. (One or two bargins as well.)

Hamster Shock

We took our eldest's hamster to Trowbridge for the weekend as we thought it would be easier than getting someone to feed it at ours. However, the water bottle leaked from the jiggling of the car and made the bedding all wet. Whilst tidying up the cage we found a rather surprising discovery.

A number of pink wriggly things in Emily's nest. We all jumped. It seems that she has had babies. We wondered why she was a bit slimmer and has more prominent nipples. She must have been pregnant when we bought her on the day after boxing day.

Our eldest is very excited and is working out her profit if she can sell them on.

No pictures as yet as it is best not to disturb baby hamsters lest they be rejected by the mother. We don't even know how many there are...

To Trowbridge

We had a long drive on Friday to stay at a Friend's house in Trowbridge. It was cold and slow but it was worth the trip. They had left us a chilli which we ate with chips from the chippy down the road. Yum.

Friday tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Friday. I am looking forward to the weekend. It has been mad this week, what with our car in the garage, the boiler freezing, our youngest starting school, the cold and snow, our eldest being slow in the mornings, accidents closing the roads on the way to work but, as I said. Tomorrow is Friday!

Reading

Went to Reading today to help a customer solve some problems.

It was freezing.

Boiler Trouble

The boiler has gone awry. It looks like the cold weather we have been having has frozen something up. That's weird as we has a freezer that broke when the heater in it failed and now we have a boiler that doesn't like the cold.

At least our youngest is prepared for the worst if the dripping from the boiler gets worse.

Snow and School

It was out youngest's first real day at school today. To add to the excitement it snowed and the hill up to the school was very slippy and slidy. He bounded in to the classroom full of enthusiasm and seemed to have had a great time when his mum picked him up. Our eldest was a bit disappointed to be in school and not sledging.

Holiday End

Today is the last day of the holidays. Tomorrow is the first day of school for our youngest and a new term for our eldest. It's been a great time off. We have mostly relaxed and just had a nice time. The new year looks to be full of the usual challenges of budgets, trying to be good parents and trying to make sense of life. I'm looking forward to it...

As part of the first challenge I went to Lidl to get some value fresh produce. 

Walk in the countryside

This morning our eldest was still at a sleepover at her friend's house. My wife and I decided to go for a run. She ran and I scooted with our youngest.

Back to work.

Back to work today. At least it's Friday!

New Years Day

It's a brand new year and my last day off before starting work after the Christmas break. A perfect time to make dinosaurs and fairies.