Saturday 17 May 2014

Hello Summer

    
     

     

     

Wednesday was the first day of the year that really felt like summer, so me and a friend packed a picnic, plus our babies (and many bags - having a baby means carrying many bags at all times) and headed for the beach. The sun shone, Arlo ate sand and I realised my sandcastle-making skills need a bit of a polish. The first of many beach trips this summer I hope. 


Sunday 11 May 2014

Baby love

      

My little sis is about to pop with her first baby (D Day is actually today!), and I am just so excited! I couldn't resist throwing a little baby shower for her to celebrate, mainly as an excuse to get all her lovely mates together for prosecco and cake. My main aim was to give her a relaxed, fun shower that wasn't overly-cheesy - we didn't particularly fancy sniffing melting chocolate in nappies (!) so I searched for some alternative games that would help break the ice while actually being a laugh at the same time:

    

1. Please don't be alarmed, these are not actual babies. They're our predictions of what my sister's baby (Baby Woods for now) will look like. We printed off a selection of pics of generic babies, and a load of different photos of my sister and her boyfriend so that everyone could do some good old cutting and gluing and make a merge of the two of them. The results were not only really funny (I seriously hope my nephew doesn't have a goatee as some of the guests predicted) but also mildly terrifying. We stuck them on the wall in a baby gallery for the rest of the shower, and I saved them all in a scrapbook of the day that I made for my sis after so she could cherish / be freaked out by them forever more.

2. The next game required a little prep in advance. I filled a baby vest with lots of little baby things and sewed up the arms and legs so everyone had to feel and figure out what was inside. There were 20 things in total, ranging from a safety pin to a condom (it was all the things a new mum needs, after all).

3. The last thing I did was give everyone a plain white baby vest and a load of fabric pens and let them get creative designing something personalised for Baby Woods. My sister picked a winner at the end of it (we did a blind judging, a la the Bake Off) and she got to take away 12 different mementos from the day which will no doubt come in very handy soon enough!

    

And then we all ate cake. So much cake. I think every guest brought something homemade and delicious with them, so we had more cake than any of us could ever eat, but we gave it a good go! So after the games, and opening of lots of tiny and very cute baby gifts, we rounded things off with cake and prosecco. It was the best day. 

Monday 5 May 2014

Walking this weekend

       

       

       

       

       

We had a friend visiting for the weekend so spent a lot of time out and about showing him the island. We saw woods filled with wild garlic, found hidden bridges and chocolate box cottages. We also managed to find a sunny pub garden, which is usually the main reason anyone goes for a country walk. It was a bank holiday weekend well spent. 

Thursday 1 May 2014

Beachy keen




We made the most of a sunny afternoon and headed down to the beach after Alex finished work a little early one day last week. With Arlo being really teeny tiny last summer he's not actually seen much beach action yet, so we whipped his socks off and let him play in the sand a little. It was a big hit, as was his first ever taste of ice cream - his first paddle, less so as the sea is still pretty freezing! Still, two out of three isn't bad, and the trip got me all excited for the summer ahead so we can make this little beach our regular afternoon haunt.