Valentine's Day in Brighton

Well our Valentine's day was very much a family day. Michael and I did get some time together in the evening, which we had been planning on, but Sunday lessons had to come first and it didn't happen until it was very late and we have suffered today as a result of going to bed extremely late, or you might say early. Michael has been asleep now for nearly two hours so should hopefully be back to normal in the morning!

We didn't do much of making Valentines cards this year. I'm trying to do the things that are most needed unless there is time and energy to do more. Rebekah chose to make a card for Sarah, which just did wonders for Sarah, and you could see how much joy Rebekah got from doing that too. Peter knew who he wanted to make cards for and stuck at it until he had made one for each individual that he knows and is special to him personally. He wanted to do every little bit himself. Then he was so pleased to post them and took such great care over doing so, each envelope in the postbox one at a time, the right way up, knowing whose he was posting.

I had made a card for each child the night before, and it meant a lot to them. Michael gave them each a couple of red roses in the morning - all but Peter appreciated that thought (he didn't want his!) He kept coming back to his card through the day though and opening it as though reading it and saying "I love you", "I love you Mum", "I love you Dad" and variations on that. He got what we were saying to him. Words always mean more to him than anything else. It's so interesting that he is hurt so easily by thoughtless words, and strengthened and feels loved so much by kind, caring and loving words. It's definitely one of his love languages.



Michael and I enjoyed a bit of time last Sunday evening after we had been making cards for our Family Home Evening activity, and neither of us had had a chance to do so from ourselves. So we sat opposite each other at the dining table, with all of my special materials out that the children had been delighted to be able to use, and with a low barrier in between us so we couldn't see what the other was doing, we chatted for some time while making each others' cards. It was fun to see yesterday morning how similarly they had turned out!



Well in the afternoon, having spent the morning doing some tidying up, food preparation, etc., we all went out to a couple of different places. It was time to enjoy the childrens' Christmas present from Nanny. I had seen that Swan Lake would be on at one of the theatres in Brighton, and as the older girls had really wanted to see it sometime, and we knew we could never afford to do it ourselves, we surprised them by spending Nanny's Christmas money on tickets to go and see it - the matinee on Valentine's Day. The seats we managed to get were in the top balcony, as I had been delayed in buying them until after getting over the worst of the flu around Christmas time. The cheaper seats did allow them to have a program each as well though.

I have not been in a theatre before that was so compact! It goes up rather than back and so each balcony is very steep, and quickly becomes very high. You might be able to see from the pictures I took after the performance quite how high we were, although the light wasn't great. I was scared in moving around it was all so steep! We were level with the chandelier on the ceiling, and the ceiling then sloped up more from where we were so the rows behind us could see properly too. The main disadvantage of being high up was that as the ballet progressed it got hotter and hotter in there, and the heat just rose to where we were! Hannah and I seemed to suffer with that the most. Having cushions round their feet (that we didn't need in the end because of how steep it was) I think added to the problem a bit too! We know what's it's like for future though and plan to go for the royal circle if we get to go there again to see anything.





It was still a lovely experience, which is the best kind of gift. Sarah sat by me and was turning to me almost constantly with bright shining eyes and a huge smile. Lots of questions to begin with too, so that she properly knew who was who. We read about the different scenes in the interval though and then she understood better. I cried at the end - I found it such a sad and moving story! The girls thought I was funny for that. :o) Rachel was clearly over the moon too. It was just great to watch such fantastic dancers (a Russian ballet company) and the costumes were fantastic too. Hannah did enjoy it too, but was clearly feeling too physically down to feel so by the end. She looked very different during the first act, and was just as captivated as we were. She feels she has had enough now of theatres/ballet though, and is 100% turning her attention to her love of horses and horse riding, and is saving every penny she gets to be able to have horse riding lessons as soon as she has enough. It is likely to take quite a while, but she is certain that all she wants for her birthday is money towards it - every penny gets her nearer to her dream. :o)

This picture is taken just inside the entrance to the gardens in the Brighton Dome which is a very Indian looking building right in the middle of Brighton. We had a little wait before Michael came to pick us up, so popped in there to see what it was like.



Rebekah and Peter meanwhile, ably assisted by Michael, enjoyed a part of their Christmas present from Nanny - a visit to a ball pit/soft play place (Rebekah's choice) while their sisters did more grown-up things! That's something else that money doesn't stretch to, so is a big deal to them. We found what turned out to be a really nice one in Lewes that they spent a good hour and a half playing at with Daddy before coming to pick us up again. Michael wished he'd had the camera with him as he could have taken some great pictures, but I had it with me so no such luck. Peter warmed to it in the end and didn't want Michael's help after that, although it was big enough on all levels for Michael to do everything with him. We didn't have a problem for once with him getting in the car to go to church this morning - apparently he thought he was going back to the ball pit!

Who Do You Love?

Who do you love?

We all love YOU!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Lots and lots and lots of love from

Michael, Ceri, Rachel, Hannah, Sarah, Rebekah, Peter and bumpety Bump!

X X x x x x x

The real thing!

We'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. He is as big as Rachel, bigger in some ways, and came to us today with only a scarf to his name. He is very lovely, and hopefully will be here for a little while.

Please meet Snow Bear. :o)



It started snowing yesterday, and clearly did a lot over night (a lot for here anyway) as we woke up to 15cm of snow this morning. The thing I noticed straight away was the beautiful silence! Even in the very early hours of the morning there is no silence here - always cars going past on one of the nearby main roads, or all three. There was traffic apparently, but it was going so slowly I couldn't hear a thing - how lovely that was (for me at least)! Michael saw one lorry backing down the road outside. Presumably it hadn't been able to make it up over the hill at the top, as it gets quite steep there.





The children were very excited and of course couldn't wait to get outside. Michael would have been out playing with them, but had to go to uni so walked in today (not suitable weather for riding) only to find it was closed. He was disappointed art first as he enjoys the computer programming-type class he has on a Monday (biological modelling really but near enough he same!) When he got over that though, and explained a few things to me he's been learning about, we went outside to build a snowman at the front. The children had exhausted themselves playing outside the back in the morning - mostly a big snowball fight that well and truly trampled the snow down in the back garden. Peter was so funny to watch joining in with that. He had snowballs (or snow piles) just as big as the others and was throwing them at everyone, and laughing loudly when other people hit him with theirs. He had told me while watching the snow yesterday that snow is really nice. He clearly does enjoy it.





So with everyone sort of snowed out really, we were joined by only Rebekah to start with , followed by the others one t a time as they realised what fun we were having. :o) Once Rachel was outside she started with the snowballs again, but she did help us to get the snowman head and body we had rolled from the driveway up a wooden plank ramp and down into the garden where he would be nice and safe. The three of us together couldn't even get the body off the ground it was so heavy, but the seesaw-type ramp worked nicely. :o)

We decided in the end he looked more like a bear with his big snout, and we gave Peter the last vote (he had just decided to join us). A bear he wanted, so a bear he became. There were a flurry of snowballs flying around - Daddy versus children once everyone was outside. I stayed out of the way and finished the bear's face as I didn't fancy slipping over since we had pretty much packed down the rest of the snow that was left. It was fun to watch though. I was joined by Peter after a while who soon worked out how to add snow to the big bear's body. So he got lots of little lumpy mounds all over him after that, and Peter enjoyed himself immensely helping make the bear.














One thing we wondered about as we rolled our big snowballs was whether the left behind TO LET signs would make good sledges. They seemed slippery enough. So once the bear was made, we tried it out from the gate at the back down the driveway. It goes straight down to the road, but not steeply, and while Michael started people off at the top I stood a bit up from the pavement to stop those who might go a bit too fast to stop. It worked really well and there were several times I had someone hurtling right at me!







Rebekah was the best on it - hurtling down the drive in a straight line on most goes. It was getting quite dark by the time we finished and everyone was clearly exhausted. Nice that Daddy got a play day today. :o)







New Note (Friday 5th February):

We just got back from registering with a new doctor (not too happy with the first one we registered with here). On the way back we saw lots of snowman bodies left over, the rest having melted. Then when we got home, Peter wasn't ready to go inside yet -- he was bothered about the state of our snowbear. So he and I took advantage of the fact that we had made such a big snowbear in the first place, and reshaped him into a little snowman - about two years old I'd say as he's a little smaller than Peter. S snow boy I suppose then, and a happy one at that - probably the smartest in Brighton right now. :o)

Michael's birthday week

Michael's birthday was last week. His Mum came to stay for a couple of days over that time, and the children were SO excited to see her again. The first day Michael and I spent going away, and they were all so absorbed in doing things with Nanny that they didn't care less about us leaving! We went to see my cousin Helen and some of her friends and acquaintances sing/play in a concert/recital in a church in London. It took us about 2 hours to get there by car and tube, and we stayed over in Clapham that night to save traveling home really late. We were so glad we had decided to do that. It was a lovely evening with wonderful music, including Irish harp music which I was so excited about! Helen's playing was so lovely to hear, along with her companion who sang soprano. We hadn't seen her in six years either, so just seeing her, and meeting her boyfriend (who also sang brilliantly) was great. A really nice evening.

That was the evening before Michael's birthday. We had a slow morning, and didn't get back home until Michael was due at Uni in the afternoon, so the children didn't see him until tea time. We had planned to do something as a family on Saturday anyway though to celebrate his birthday. So we had a nice birthday tea, and the young women activity that evening was canceled because nobody could come, so I got to stay home too.







Saturday didn't really go according to plan as Michael went off to pick something up for a friend just after we got to where we were going and didn't come back for 2 hours when the sun was starting to go down! We were all very hungry by that point as he had the food with him, but the children had enjoyed playing in a park we found while he was gone. We managed to get a late game of miniature golf down by the sea, which was lots of fun until it got to tea time and some in the family were fading fast. It was a new experience for all the children though, and although we were trying to beat the sunset a bit, we were the only ones playing at the time, so could take as many hits as we needed to get the ball in. Peter wandered around with his own ball and club, not really playing but having a go. He liked it a lot though and did not want to part with them for anything when it was time to go. He especially liked popping his ball in a choice of holes on the last hole and watching it come out on the green below. He had a little while to do that as it was a bit of a frustrating hole unless you had luck on your side. Something we'll definately do again when we get the chance to, especially as it's not so expensive per person. There was a nice sunset behind Rachel in the picture below, but I guess the flash blocked it out...





We went swimming together for the first time in too many months on the Monday and had fish and chips in town for tea as it got so late. We ate in a restaurant rather than getting a take-away. That must have been the first time in about 3 years that we have eaten out somewhere other than something like KFC. It was a lovely thing to do, despite the cost which Michael decided had better come from his birthday money.

Well as we got back so late on the Saturday and the Monday, we didn't give Michael the present we had saved for him until yesterday. So he had his birthday last across nearly a week in all. Probably more fun that way though! It wasn't all for his birthday really, but the only time we've properly had together since moving here so it felt like a birthday kind of treat because of that. Peter was sad he didn't have a present to open too, but happily helped Daddy open his. (Although he did ask me later why he couldn't have a present too! I said he would on his birthday - unfortunately he's last in the year of all of us!)



I wondered if Michael would think we were silly, but he was truly excited. :o) You can see him trying his present out in one of the videos below. Peter really wanted one too though ("Where's mine?") so we got the little one out of the shed. It's too big for him really, but not if you have a Daddy around to help you out!

Winter at the London Temple

When we went to the temple in the first half of January it was really freezing. A statue of the angel Moroni had been added to the top of the spire over Christmas, but we had been too ill to venture out before. We were hoping all the scaffolding would be gone before we went, but it still isn't (I went with the Young Women last night and it's all still there). So here is a first sneaky view of "Roni" as Peter calls him through the scaffolding.




Hannah was too cold to go for a walk to start with - she wanted to be in the warm for a while. The rest of us went to see the water though. It was frozen quite strangely, with sort of floating blocks of ice on top of the normal level of ice. We liked this leaf that was frozen within the water.





The resident duck (there seems to just be one at the moment) was in the not so frozen stream instead and of course came over to say hello on realising there was somebody around. There was a lovely BIG Robin right there too that kept coming up close, and another much smaller one that was flying around the same area.









We were all pretty freezing so went inside quite quickly and the children first explored the waiting room while we had a snack (no eating/drinking in the visitor's centre). There are two glass tables there which some of the girls thought was perfect for a glass case for Snow White to sleep in! Rachel was a little too realistic! Sarah couldn't quite keep a smile off her face. Peter just thought it was fun to lie down with everyone else, and Rebekah decided being Sleeping Beauty on top of the table was a much better idea! Hannah was being a little too grown up for such play, but I thought she looked gorgeous in such colourful clothes and colours all around her so took a picture of her too. Needless to say we were the only ones in the room at the time!!








Once Daddy went into the temple and we got into the visitor's centre (which they all like spending time in), everyone split to do their own exploring. Peter likes to watch the videos of the apostles and prophets best, so we watched a few of those, with him choosing which he wanted to see from the pictures on the wall. He was repeating a lot of the names after told him who they were, and for President Uchtdorf he said "Elder Dorfdorf" which I thought was fun.

Last week when I was looking at a church magazine as Peter came up to me I showed him various pictures inside, and then he asked me "Where's Duff Duff?" I didn't know what he was saying, but after he'd repeated himself the second time he said "Where's Elder Duff Duff?" and I remembered. We did find a picture of him. When I call him by his real name (President Uchtdorf) Peter now corrects me - he knows what it is really!