Summer of Love aka Tepstock

We had a huge party over the bank holiday weekend for Al's birthday, but did mummy have time to take photographs? Not a single moment! Can you believe it? The big event of the year and mummy spent most of her time in the kitchen fussing over everything and everyone.
Never mind!

Many thanks to the following for making it such a great day:

Alison
Amanda
Angela
Annabel
Becky
Beverley
Bobbi
Clinton
Dan
Dee
David
Dean
Debra
Dmitri
Grandma Wendy
Jeannette
Jo
Justin P
Justin T
Lorna
Lorraine
Lowry
Maddy
Mark
Martin C
Martin Z
Michaela
Nanna Ann
Neil
Paul B
Paul H
Paul R
Purdy
Richard
Rob D
Rob T
Roxann
Scott
Stacey
Stephen
Sue
Su
Ted
Teresa
Tony
Ursula
Vicky

And not forgetting the kids:

Alicia
Coby
Courtney
Grace
Lola
Rachel
Rebecca
Toby
Tyler
William

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Today is my daddy's birthday! He is having the day off work to spend with me and mummy. He is lucky because his birthday almost always falls on the Bank Holiday weekend. On Sunday we have a big birthday party planned in the garden with all of our friends and relatives - I am so excited!

Martin & Coby

On Sunday we had a surprise visit from Uncle Martin. He drove all the way from Wimbledon to see us and had fun catching up with Coby. Daddy cooked roast beef in red wine gravy for all of us - yum yum! Martin completed the London Triathlon recently and bought along his medal to show us - well done Martin, you're a superstar!

Hatfield House Country Show

On Friday, Maddy and I took Coby and Louis to Hatfield House for their annual country show. We got caught in a beautiful downpour and Maddy was wearing flip flops! We had to park in a muddy field and get the pushchairs across to the entrance but it was worth it because we had a lovely afternoon. We tasted some local cheeses and sampled some chilli and chocolate fudge, which I decided to invest in along with banoffee flavour fudge and maple syrup and walnut.

The babies seemed to enjoy the animals and we saw some prize pigs, lots of ducks and hens, goats, sheep and donkeys.

Pink Champagne

We're spent a fab afternoon with Alicia, Jasmine, Lola, Louis and Olly today and the mums toasted the 9 month old club with pink champagne. We started in the garden with the sun beating down and the babes covered in sun cream, but within minutes the sun had disappeared and the rain took over. There was a funny moment as we dashed inside with a baby under each arm while desperately trying to rescue the cakes, biscuits and toys at the same time - complete mayhem!

"All together now children - doh a deer, a female deer"

Alicia & Lola

Jasmine takes some time out

Mischievous? Me?

Can we have some pink champagne?

Ang, Vicki, Maddy, Paula & Michaela
raise their glasses to our 9 month old babies

9 Months Old Today!

16 August 2006 @8.35am - Coby is 9 months old

3 more months and we'll be celebrating Coby's 1st birthday - wow!

Rip It Up

"We'll have none of these celebrity gossip mags in this house, thank you!"

"Saves mummy doing the recycling this week"

"Ok, bored now - what can I tear up next?"

Mummy's Little Helper

So, mum, we separate the whites from the colours

but don't touch daddy's socks?

This is great. You just put the clothes in the washer
and the machine does all the work!

Ironing??

The Green Cross Code of Crawling

STOP, LOOK & LISTEN

LOOK LEFT

LOOK RIGHT

GO, GO, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends Reunited

After a busy few weeks, we finally caught up with Coby's buddies - Louis, Lola, Alicia and Jasmine all came round for tea and cakes with their mummies and had fun raiding Coby's toy basket...

There were melodies, squeeks and chimes going off everywhere
as well as banging and lots of shouting!

Lola confuses the drum stick for a lollipop

Louis attempts his 'now you see it, now you don't' trick

Organised chaos?

Cup of tea?

Coby tries his first cup of tea with some buttered toast and both go down a treat. He has also recently tried cous cous, spicy mexican chicken and jacket potato with beans. His favourite nibbles are blueberries, raspberries and bananas and from the Hipp Organic range of baby foods, he really enjoyed vegetables, turkey and cranberry. Oh, and he absolutely loves Ambrosia Rice Pudding!

London Calling

Please check out my friend Su's blog - she recently took a helicopter flight over London and has taken some amazing pictures - my favourite is this one of Canary Wharf...

Copyright Suzanne Morris 2006

CAPTION COMPETITION 5 - WINNER!

We had some excellent entries for the last caption competition, however, there is a winner and I'm pleased to announce that Olly's very own mummy - the lovely Vicki - gave us the best suggestion.

Coby: "We'll fight them in the trenches"
Olly: "Yeah sure thing Cobes, but give us a hand first,
this belly is weighing me down"

Thank you Vicki, you made us chuckle. A little gift is on its way for you and Olly. Thank you to Great Uncle Ivan, auntie Su, Nanna Ann and daddy for their suggestions too.

Our Hero

Congratulations to Coby's Uncle Martin who took part in the London Triathlon on Sunday. He finished in 3 hours and 2 minutes after a gruelling swim, cycle and sprint. He came 353rd out of 800 competitors! Martin put a lot of hard work into his training while also studying for his MBA in Business, so we are super proud of him. There are pictures of Martin, as well as footage of him crossing the finish line on the London Triathlon website, use number 6504 for reference.

Bananas & Ice-Cream

On a little outing to The Waffle House at Kingsbury Watermill in St.Albans yesterday, Coby ate nearly a whole bowl of bananas and ice-cream - and given half the chance, he probably would have eaten the bowl too!

We went out with grandma Wendy in her new car and after lunch she couldn't resist treating Coby to a new toy...

Coby with his new wooden xylophone

Crawling, well more like hauling

So finally we have movement...last night for the first time Coby hauled himself across the lounge about 4 feet. Very impressive. He sort of sticks his left hand out in front of him and then drags himself forwards. Occasionaly his feet helps propulsion. His standing skills are incredible...he can hold himself up now and to be honest it is just a matter of balance.

God help us all!