January 2010

Mrs K/C/KC recovered nicely from her bout of pneumonia that struck her before Christmas, although it was slow going.

Very early on in January, we also had our first snow day of the year and got stuck at home for a few days, as driving was almost impossible (England is not as well prepared for such weather as Michigan).

Myself and Mrs K/C/KC also succumbed to temptation and treated each other to an iPhone, which has changed the way I check the news and how she shops !!

February 2010

In February, we helped our friend Sarah celebrate her 40th birthday party and Mrs K/C/KC and I managed to let our hair down and party the night away.

Flat Stanley came to visit us from Muskegon, Michigan. He was part of a school project for Little T's cousin in a competition to see how far he could travel. Happily his trip to London scored highly for her.

Little O also had 2 momentous occasions this month.... his MMR and his first haircut ! Finally he was recognisable again as our little boy. Not sure that the way in which his hair was cut was particularly orthodox as the photo shows....

At the end of the month, Mrs K/C/KC and I both had birthdays so were another year older, but the less said about that, the better !

March 2010

During March, Little T had her first sleepover (at Little R's house). This turned out to be the first of many and we have reciprocated several times since, to her delight.

The family enjoyed a day out in Portsmouth, with some shopping included (naturally) and lunch also. We were blessed with good weather that day.

I spent a weekend at the Lake District in preparation for my 3 Peaks Challenge, which was to be held later in the year. Good weather and stunning scenery were much in evidence. Unfortunately, I did sustain a slight injury to my knee which prevented me walking properly for the next few weeks. Didn't bode well for the main event !

April 2010

In April, the family spent a week in Lourdes with Group 2 of HCPT. This is a charitable trust with which we are involved, both in fundraising and also participating in the event itself.

We all travelled out to Lourdes with the children that we took and Little T and Little O settled in nicely to the routines. This is Little T's 2nd trip with Group 2 and due to her brother coming along, is no longer the youngest helper !!

Unfortunately, Little O had a somewhat unfortunate collision with a collection of sharp rocks and sustained a rather nasty laceration through his left eyebrow. Despite myself and the Group's nurse trying to calm him and treat it, he did need more medical input. Happily, though, he got away with some medical glue rather than sutures. His residual scar only adds to his charm !

On a more positive note, we were all delighted whilst out in Lourdes to be given the fantastic news that our good friends Jude & James were engaged !!

May 2010

We were blessed in May with some early summer weather and Little T and Little O enjoyed the heat and playing out in the garden. There was plenty of fun in the paddling pool (although the water did not remain in the pool very long) and they both helped with the gardening by watering the plants (likely explains the pool water deficit !).

During May we also traveled up to Liverpool to see the family and spent a weekend at Grandma's and Grandpa's.

June 2010

The family were all keen to see the England football team in action over the summer and our expectations were completely fulfilled. Yes, England were knocked out early on with some dismal performances (the 4-1 defeat by Germany was hard to take, especially in light of the dubious refereeing decisions).
Mrs K/C/KC and I couldn't even support our other team (USA) as they were knocked out at the same stage !

The kids were happy to join in the football frenzy in the early days...

Little O also started to develop his love of purveyors of fine beverages, in keeping with the rest of the family. I really should have bought shares....

July 2010

July was an eventful month for the family. We spent 4th July in Greenwich park, having a picnic with friends (ok, not particularly patriotic, we admit !).

We also had a wonderful visit with Little H, who came with her parents for lunch and was great to catch up with them all.

Little T 'graduated' from her nursery class and was already looking forward to starting at school in September from that moment onwards.

Of course, the main event of the month (and the summer) was our trip back to the USA (extensively covered on our blog). We started in California, beginning with a few days in San Francisco. We stayed at Hotel Diva, which had a great location (and free green tea on offer, much to Little T's delight).

We covered most of the usual sites of SF, incl fisherman's wharf, shopping, eating, cable cars, more shopping. Some cable car shots :

Next, we traveled East, stopping at the Jelly Belly factory, which for a certain 4 yr old girl was a dream come true. After this, we then headed over to see our friends, the Californiaghans. As usual, they were such great hosts and we all had a fantastic time (the kids got on like they hadn't been apart for more than a few weeks). We were very sad to say goodbye.

August 2010

 A large part of August was spent in Michigan, with our family in Manistee. We had a wonderful time catching up with everyone and relaxing as a family.

Little O certainly developed a love of the beach and digging holes in the sand became a hobby of his.

We also spent our usual amount of time downtown at the best (and now only) coffee shop in town, Goodies. We were happy to find out that the ice cream shop (also a Jelly Belly retailer !) was still in business, and we dragged Aunt Karen down for a treat...

We almost made it to our friend Nadeem's wedding in Canada, which just so happened to coincide with our stay in Michigan. Unfortunately, it would have been somewhat difficult to get there and moreover, we had a family get together out on Bear Lake at Janet & Greg's place.

This is where we got some beautiful photos of Little T jumping off the pier into the lake (admittedly, the water was not particularly deep, so she looks perhaps a little more fearless than in reality)

It was so nice to spend time with the extended family (including a fun few days in Muskegon with the cousins, who were very kind to let us stay). Little O certainly enjoyed himself and took a real shine to Uncle Mike (although perhaps was slightly biased as he was allowed a tractor ride or two !!).

Manistee was also undergoing a lot of construction work, but rather than being a negative aspect of our stay, was good for one little boy (not me !) who could stand in the street all day, just watching the large diggers at work.

We were as distraught as ever when we had to leave and say goodbye to Manistee, Michigan. Until next year.....

On our way home, we did stop again in San Francisco (don't ask why.... the peculiarities of air flights !!). During this brief visit, we had a look around the Museum of Modern Art, which we all enjoyed. Little T wanted herself photographed in front of her favourite piece.

September 2010

After the relatively busy month of August, one would have thought we had a quieter September. Not us, though.... things were pretty busy for 3 reasons :

1. Little T started school. She was very excited and started straight in with full time attendance, 5 days a week (as she is one of the oldest in her class). Her new teacher is called Miss Till and seems very nice. Little T has made a lot of friends and seems to have settled in well.

2. Little O turned the ripe old age of 2 !! He had a great birthday and a wonderful time with some friends who came over to celebrate. He certainly has changed over the past 12 months and now has a very strong and humourous personality. His vocabulary has dramatically increased and it is wonderful watching and listening to him and his sister interact. We hope and pray that they remain such good friends for many years to come.

3. I took part in the 3 Peaks Challenge. After doing many weeks of training (in my case cycling) to prepare for our mountain climbing event, we set off to Scotland for the beginning of the challenge. I managed to drive the team around the country in relatively good time and we completed our event in the 24 hours that we aimed for.
Obviously the training paid off, as I did not have a recurrence of my knee injury that was a concern for me.
Little T was very sweet and gave me one of her chocolate bars (well, it wasn't one she liked !) for me to eat at the top of the mountain. As a dutiful father, I did indeed eat the (frozen hard) chocolate bar in the pouring rain at the stop of Snowdon !

October 2010

Little T turned 5 on the 1st of October. She also had great fun - a little gathering of friends came over for tea and cakes. Daddy tried his hand at cake making and seemed to do okay at this (although not planning a career change !).

At the end of the month, there was yet more fun with Halloween celebrations. We had the usual fun carving pumpkins (although not all members of the family are so keen at getting their hands slimy with pumpkin flesh). The dynamic duo went out trick-or-treating dressed up as Little Miss Sunshine and a lion. There supply of sweets / chocolate collected on this outing lasted until Christmas !

November 2010

The autumnal weather changed rapidly from mild to cold in November. As a result, there was a quite dramatic fall in the leaves and therefore plenty of fun to be had outside in the garden.

November was a dark, dreary month. We even missed the big firework display on the 5th, although mainly due to it being fairly late in the evening (which matters more, now that Little T at school).

Little O spent some of his spare time taking up a new hobby of jousting....

December 2010

And so we come to December. It is difficult to believe we are already at the end of another year. We look back and realise that we have been very blessed in 2010.

The month started out with yet another heavy (for us) snowfall. As a result, there were a few snow days at home and the kids (small and big) were delighted !

We would like to wish everyone a happy, peaceful Christmas and best wishes for 2011.