Monday, March 24, 2008

March photos


Sandy and Olivia painting.


The following few pictures show us rolling our hard boiled eggs on Easter Sunday outside the house! What fun...!





Below, you see us hard at work, preparing our hard boiled eggs before we rolled them outside the house!





Me, with my beautiful wife!



Olivia, in the garden, making perfume!



This was me, with Owain, from Ipswich, Pascal and Ronald from France, and Nick from Romania, in Bucharest on Saturday 15th March, where I was attending an eTwinning International Conference. Good fun it was too!


The Hotel Grand Rin, Bucharest, where the eTwinning Conference took place. And what a place it was- the biggest hotel in Europe...
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Saturday, February 23, 2008

The days are lengthening...


Sandy, with a false nose!

We have long since past the shortest days of winter, and the sun is beginning to get a little warmer. Today, the temperature reached 13C outside, which is admittedly rather mild for February here. Our conservatory temperature reached 24C for a while around lunch time and early into the afternoon, meaning that it has again taken on the role of heater for the whole of our downstairs! Of course, not every day is like that yet, but I imagine that by the time we reach the end of March, it will be heating the house well enough for the central heating not to be needed much at all again.

Anna and Olivia in the woods, today.


Olivia, talking to Baboushka in St Petersburg, on the phone.

Sandy and Olivia are growing fast. Sandy has started writing his first book! Yes, he announced he was going to write a book the other night, and produced a jotter that he had been given at school for this. So, we sat down and talked about what the story might be about. He was fairly clear in his mind about it all, so he wrote the first page a couple of nights ago! Tonight, we wrote and illustrated the second page. Not bad for a lad who only started school 6 months ago! His story is about a Robin that lays 6 eggs, one of which turns out to be smaller than the rest, and doesn't hatch when the others do...


Above and below, in the woods today.


Meanwhile, Olivia's speech is improving well now. She has begun to start putting sentences together and her vocabulary is becoming more advanced all the time. She still isn't sleeping through the night though- which can be a bit depressing for (especially)Anna, and me.
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Sandy, reciting his Robin Redbreast poem, by J K Annand.

Monday, January 14, 2008

New Year photos

Apologies for not posting much lately! Much work and little time... However, here are some pictures from over the holiday period, up until last weekend, when we went for a walk in the woods nearby.




This was taken around New year, when Olivia was running around excitedly all the time in the house!






Sandy and Olivia!









Who's that hiding there?






Out in the woods last weekend, where we explored this old ruin!







A close up of Olivia...








In the front garden, just after New Year, with a little snow too!







Olivia, in the sledge.








Daddy, posing by the old ruin!



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Saturday, December 29, 2007

A podcasting test!

This should hopefully produce my first test podcast using an embedded mp3 player, as in Wordpress...











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Sunday, November 18, 2007

Recent photos- Oct-Nov 2007


Livvy reading!


Sandy in the autumn leaves near to our home...


Olivia getting ready to go out.


Sandy, painting a neighbour's house!


Both our beauties!

If you're wondering why there haven't been any posts lately- sorry! I've been very busy with school work, including managing several new blogs that link my school to schools in Finland and France. This has left me with less time to post photos of the fmaily- but here are a few of the better pictures from the last month!
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Mini cruise to Amsterdam...


We are just back from a wee break in the lovely city of Amsterdam. We travelled on the DFDS ferry from Newcastle, overnight to Holland. Both Sandy and Olivia loved the boat, which was the very nice King of Scandinavia. It's the second time we have used DFDS, having previously travelled to Gothenburg in 2006, again from Newcastle.


We arrived in Amsterdam early, at 9am and were whisked off from the boat to the city centre by coach. As we were getting off the coach, the driver heard us discussing how we would find the tram we planned to catch to get to our planned destination for the day- Artis zoo. He very kindly offered to take us there in his 55 seater coach, so that saved us a bit of time, and we were at the zoo a bit quicker than we had anticipated!



Despite some negative comments that are sprinkled about the internet about the zoo, we found it to be a most enjoyable day out, with a tremendous selection of animals and different things to keep all the family amused.

By 4pm we were back near to Central Station, having returned from the zoo by tram, which of course, Sandy had been keen to do! We were then transported back to the boat, and at 6pm, it was time for the return sailing to Newcastle. We had had a tremendous day out, and the icing on the cake was the absolutely superb weather!














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