Jubilee Family Fun

Just before I tell you all about our extended Jubilee weekend I just wanted to let you know, Mrs Woo is having a give-away of a fab magazine. Head on over for a chance to win!

So, after all of the excitement from the St Barnabus Church Art Competition and the the NAC Kenilworth Show, we still had three days left to enjoy ourselves as a family - they joy of an extra long Bank Holiday weekend!

On Sunday we went to my Cousin's baby boy's Christening at our Village Church with a little tea party at the British Legion Club afterwards.

My sister doesn't sew much and only occasionally makes cards or other papercraft things, (she's perfectly capable but I guess just doesn't get much time), but she does bake quite often. Great for us because she's always dropping samples around to various family houses. (We all live so close together, it would be rude not to! ; D) She baked and decorated some cupcakes for the Christening.

Unfortunately, we had to leave quite early. I still had my assignment to finish for U214 (Linguistics Open University Course) which was 1500 words and, at this point in the day, I had a reasonably detailed plan, but no actual essay yet! I sent myself to my bedroom to finish it, whilst Mr Bogert and the Small People watched The Smurfs Movie and ate all of the fudge up that we bought from the Kenilworth Show.

Monday, the sun was shining which was great as we had planned to visit Kenilworth Castle. We have Heritage passes and as Kenilworth Castle is an English Heritage site we get in for free all year round. They had a special 'Royal Weekend' for the Jubilee.

The Small People went dressed up as Royals. I used Alexandra's costume from the Jubilee tea party at school with a large Union Jack flag for a cape, and Zachary wore a knight's tabbard that I made for Alexandra way back in 2007.

The Small People completed a Royal Trail had loads of fun running around and eating ice cream.

The Small Person had a go on the archery

and the jousting

and then Mr Bogert made up half of Team Newman for the Royal Top Trumps game.

To top it all off, Alexandra was awarded best fancy dress costume by the staff. She won an Usborne Kings and Queens sticker book and a giant lollipop.

We didn't even realise there was a fancy dress competition, so that was pretty good going. With the Small Person on such a long winning streak, we are giving serious consideration to her picking our lottery numbers!

We recieved a last minute email invitation for a Jubilee breakfast at the pub at the end of our road. Mr Bogert is on the Parish Council with the landlord and he helps on the events committee with the landlord and landlady. It was lovely. There was a long table laid out with rerd white and blue and flags. We all had a full English breakfast and Bucks Fizz (or 3!) and orange juice for the Small People. We sat and watched the start of the thanksgiving ceremony at Westminster Abbey of the big screen there with the few other neighbours who were invited. I really wish we could have stayed all the way through, but we had accepted an invitation to a Jubilee tea party for the kids with friends.

The Jubilee tea party was good too though. We rarely seem to have time to see our friends the older we get. We're all busy with work, children and other commitments. We took bits of food and dressed in red, white and blue (well, most of us did) and just had a brilliant catch up and the kids got to play with each other and get the many many toys out. Poor Becky was forever picking things up!

I really wish we had four more days to do things, it went too quickly (and it didn't help that I had TMA03 of my course hanging over my head for half of the time!). Mr Bogert went back to work today, but I do still have the Small People at home with me because of half term.

I hope you all had a great weekend are those in the UK are enjoying the half term break!

Matilda

As promised, the link to Mr Bogert's blog post our recent photoshoot with baby Matilda.

Mrs Woo also has a post with some of their favourite images here.

And because no post is complete without a photograph (or two), here are two of my favourites from day:

Welcome Baby

Last week Mr Bogert and I had a baby photoshoot, which is a lovely thing anyway, but this was even better! Our pretty little model was Miss Matilda Woo - Mrs Woo's sweet baby girl.
This is the first time I have ever met Mrs Woo in person. We became friends after Mr Bogert photographed her wedding back in 2008 (? - correct me if I'm wrong!) but we have never actually met.

Matilda is just the sweetest little thing, and despite being tired, did just wonderfully in front of the camera. I even got to meet Mr Woo. For Rob, it is the first time since photographing their wedding that he has seen them again, and it's just lovely to return for a portrait shoot of their precious new addition.

Now, I say new addition, but anyone who reads my blog regularly will know that Matilda is now 3 months old. I have only just, at this visit given her the new baby gift that I made and one (ahem*) of the welcome baby cards. I am entirely rubbish, but I'm hoping it's a case of better late than never...

And here it is, the Matilda Blanket:

The time went very quickly, and there was cake and tea involved - but it was such a nice visit (and I was given a vintage Singer sewing machine - Yay!). Mr Bogert is preparing the images for them as I type, and will no doubt write a blog post once they are ready. I will post a link when he does.

I hope they love the images when they see them!

Cause for Celebration!

Celebrations have been going on everywhere around our little Wishes family these last few weeks! Definitely worth reflecting on.

First of all, Mr Bogert's best friend (best man at our wedding, Godfather to the small people, and reason we ever got together in the first place - so pretty important) has finally set a date with his lovely partner. It's looking like it's going to be a lovely intimate wedding, and I'm super excited because Mr Bogert is Best Man, the Small Person is Flower Girl, the Smaller Person is Page Boy, and I was super surprised and happy to be asked to be a bridesmaid :D Really looking forward to it! Ooo! And I've seen 'The Dress'. It's stunning. Look forward to lots of pictures come November time.



Anthony with Mr Bogert at our wedding.



Uncle Anthony and Auntie Charlotte with Baby Zachary on his Christening day.

The next happy news has already been mentioned: Mr and Mrs Woo's Beautiful baby girl Matilda was born on 28th January. Mrs Woo has finally found a few spare minutes between cuddles to introduce her over on her blog. Go take a look - Matilda's a super sweetie!

At the time we heard of Matilda's arrival, we were waiting for my cousin's baby boy to be born. He arrived safe and healthy. Another cutie pie, Baby Harry arrived (after a very long labour - well done Lauran!) on 3rd February. My cousin, Matt, and his partner, Lauran topped off the good news by announcing their engagement a week later. Another wedding to look forward to.



Congratulations Matt and Lauran.

In between the news of new additions and wedding bells, we went to the first birthday party of a sweet little friend of Zacks. The year has gone so fast. It's this time last year we were attending all of the baby showers! This little miss is going to be in charge of all the boys she's surrounded by. She's not shy and she's determined (despite being such a little dot!).


At Mummy Becky's baby shower before this little Miss arrived, just over a year ago.



Very First Birthday!

Today we have been to another first birthday party. Ethan is the son of Zack's Godparents, Auntie Simone and Uncle Ted, and hopefully Zacky and Ethan will grow up as good friends. Another happy time. This party felt even stranger because it has been exactly a year since I was at this house with mostly the same people (many of which I haven't seen for the last year) celebrating Ethan's impending arrival. It's not just Ethan, Zack and Little Miss that have grown; another mum who was expecting at the shower was there with her steadily growing son, another who had given birth the week before last year's shower was there with her one year old son, another couple who were looking forward to their summer wedding are now wearing their wedding bands and settled into married life. How much a year can change things!



Simone at her baby shower waiting for Ethan's arrival.



Birthday boy about to turn 1 this week!

Most of all, these small people grow too quickly! We need to put something in their food to low them down!



Zachary's Christening last May (Zack 7 months, Little Miss and Ethan 3 months) 



At Zachary's 1st Birthday (Zack 1 year old, Ethan and Little Miss 8 months old)



At Christmas, together with baby gang member number four (Zack 14 months, Ethan and Little Miss 10 months, Little Guy 8 months)

What a wonderful way to begin the year! Every year should start this way (and continue for the full twelve months). So, who else is getting married/expecting/found love/acheived something great? Congratulations all round!

Time for Show and Tell

A very happy New Year to you! The celebrations have passed (very sad to say), but we just have a spot of quiet time for me to fit in a little show and tell post.

I had some wonderful gifts. The Small Person chose her own gifts for me: a wooly ear-flap hat and a pair of My Little Pony pants :D I actually really like the pants. They're those boy shorts pants. I have all sorts of that style with different characters and pictures on. (My favourites are a lemon pair with robots all over!)

I had some books I need for my courses. I've started reading one: The Stories of English by David Crystal, and I'm really enjoying it, it's very interesting.

I had plenty of smellies, inlcuding one of my favourite perfumes, Cerutti 1881. There was also plenty of chocolate and some chocolate biscuit tins found under the tree with my name on :D

There were clothes, underwear, a beautiful brooch, a pub quiz game, a dvd, a few bottles of something rather tasty, a steamer and some pirex dishes, a slow cooker cook book and so many other things. See? Truly spoilt!

Of special mention is my lovely watch. Remember the one I mentioned back here? I love this pendant watch.

There were a few homemade items recieved. Heather cross-stitched each of our initials on an oversized jingle bell character for  the tree.

She also gave the Small Person a Fairy Sack which has been quite handy for taking toys to various relatives houses over the holiday. It is a blue drawnsrting sack with a quilted front. I do not know if it is hand made or not, but there is no label, and it's defintiely something I'm considering making a few copies of.

The Small Person was also given a new bag from Auntie Elly and Uncle John (Mr Bogert's Godfather and his wife). It is well made and has yellow butterfly buttons for decor. I don't think it is intended to be reversible, but we have been using it inside out simply because it has a lovely red with white spot lining that's looks very festive.

And of course, I haven't shown you the Smaller Person's stocking yet. Like I said before, it needs to be lined and padded (still haven't made up my mind about the finished result of the name on the cuff), so I will make sure it's properly completed for next time Santa stops by.

In keeping with our theme, he has the Dinsey character Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch). My stocking was going to be Stitch because he is my favourite, but when we were trying to choose an appropriate character for Zachary, Mr Bogert pointed out, Stitch is the only one that reminds us of Zack (at the moment). So I've given up my Stitch stocking for the Smaller Person.

I realised you wouldn't have seen 2 new creations for the tree from last Christmas either (due to my bloggy break). Each of the Small People painted a ceramic tree decoration.

Last but absolutely not least, a Christmas card. Other than the Small Person's (many) handmade cards, we only recieved one non store bought card this year, and that was from The Woo's. I don't know if Mrs Woo made them herself or bought them from another creative soul, but isn't this lovely?

Did you get any lovely hand made cards or gift this year? Did you make anything to give? I'd love to hear about them.