On Her Majesty’s Celebratory Service

This weekend and events leading up to this weekend might be celebrating 60 years of Liz II on the throne but I think Iz I thought it was all for her benefit, after all she is something of a party girl.

Whatever Isabelle thought, one thing was for sure, in her red,white and blue she had a Royal-ly good time.

We’ve all seen pics of our mums and dads at street parties for the Coronation or indeed ones of ourselves for the Diamond Jubilee in 77 or the wedding of Charles and Di in 81.

Iz can now add her own images of celebration to this after her rather splendid Jubilee party at nursery.

All the kids at the party were so well behaved and polite you’d have thought the Queen was coming herself.

I bet it was fun later than evening though when all those kids were full to the brim of all that cake.

Multi-tasking she was also able to juggle that difficult eating and flag waving combo, which strongly suggests she’ll be able to do that old patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time trick no problem.

Isabelle loved each and every aspect of it, and what wasn’t there to love: all of her nursery friends, a bouncy castle, scrummy food and best of all lots of over zealous flag waving.

In fact I’m rather surprised that Isabelle still has the use of her arms left. On this basis Iz could quite possibly be the world’s greatest ever composer.

Patriotic flag waving aside Iz and her pals also rather enjoyed a bit of a good boogie as well…whilst still holding cake (of course)

 

Catch me Iz you can

Hooray for Hockley Woods deh deh deh deh deh Hockley Woods! It was still really hot on Sunday so we sought shade in the rather lovely Hockley Woods.

For Isabelle it was a case of run, forest, run (okay more wood than forest but you catch my drift). Isabelle loved running round the trees, us hiding from each other and getting excited by seeing the meanagerie of dogs on their Sunday morning walks.

She also did her fair share of falling over, her legs carrying her faster than the rest of her body, but she didn’t care and would pick herself up and carry on running again- taking the odd moment for rest on say the nearest tree stump.

I love it when Iz runs as she is always giggling or making an aaaahh noise, almost as it makes her run faster. It would be great if she ended up being an Olympic runner

 

If that wasn’t enough Iz also got to see horses on their daily trot which mesmerised her.

 

My problem was that I was so mesmerised by Isabelle that I almost ended up walking into a tree, Sarah was obviously full of concern…after several minutes of laughing.

Oblivious, Iz continued her run through the woods, zipping back and forth through the trees as if on an invisble speeder bike.

And after tiring of her bike, of her running, of her being carried, Isabelle rather fancied being carried on my shoulders…oh and nicking my cap!

Keep Cool and Carry On

After running round this morning Isabelle decided to take some time out to cool down and  ’chillax’ before going to nursery.

The Meat Is On

Saturday also saw Isabelle’s first ever BBQ, before that all got going she decided to work up something of an appetite playing on her slide that now, rather handily happened to slide right into her pool of water.

It was then pretty much go straight from the pool into the waiting sandpit, caking herself in sand as if they were hundreds and thousands on a fab lolly.

Iz accessorized her new (bought that day after a trip into town by mum and Grandma) two piece swimming costume with a rather fetching sun hat, which of course we all had a go of wearing.

Either side of her slide/ pool/ sand activities Iz could be found looking very dapper as usual, this time in a little romper suit outfit that was the hit of the afternoon (if not the season).

 was on BBQ duty, here looking as if he is doing an impression of Hellboy - one oven mitt making it look as if he has one hand larger than the other – playing a giant organ.

And the food, of course Iz loved it, an ever hopeful Max just waiting…just in case you understand.

Missy was there as well, soaking up the sun until she practically glowed white hot. Earlier in the day she’d taken the chance to enjoy the sun in Isabelle’s room and take a look out the window at the world passing by.

I’m notoriously rubbish in the sun with my pale skin and dislike of the heat, so I found some (rather cramped) shelter in Isabelle’s beach tent along with Missy.

Isabelle cooled down in various ways, or at least tried to, if only mum would leave her in peace in her tent.

Not content with her own hand she went on to nab mine, unintentionally looking like one of the Bisto kids!

Iz most enjoyed cooling down method number three, a good old ice lolly, yum! 

A great afternoon was had by all and Isabelle loved spending time in the garden with all of us.

 

 

Izzy Rider

Iz got her first bike at Christmas and I’ll be honest we’ve not had that much joy with her wanting to ride it – apart from when it is upstairs and being ridden on the landing like the kid from The Omen.

Today when we visited Hockley Woods we had some limited success, it also helps that Isabelle’s legs are now a tad longer as well, although like all kids after a while they just want to walk, but it was good whilst it lasted and Isabelle enjoyed it. 

Less Easy Rider perhaps and more easy come, easy go rider!

 

Reach for the Southend skies

The roar of the Spitfire and the low, very low, rumble of the Lancaster Bomber filled the sky and dominated proceedings at this year’s Southend Air Show, dubbed the Festival of the Air.

Isabelle loves her planes so it was great for her to see the aerobatics and tipping of wings from Grandma and Grandad’s back garden on a beautifully sunny day.

The Rolls Royce Merlin engine of the Spitfire is unmistakable,seen in thousands of films and newsreels, and sends something of a shiver.

As it passes by you almost expect it to be followed by the deafening noise of machine gun fire, especially when it took place in something of a mock dog fight.

And you’d almost be forgiven for thinking that the Lancaster, which seemed to be flying just above the tree tops, was coming down it was going so slow but at the same time was such a sight to behold as its engines crackled and popped.

It reminded me of that ‘Cadillac of the skies’ scene from Empire of the Sun where Jim, played by a young Christian Bale, sees the planes roar by at close range as he waves at the pilot.

The jets couldn’t be seen but they certainly could be heard, as if they were like an approaching thunder storm, which both startled and delighted Isabelle.

She loved waving to the biplanes and the wing walkers atop them, even shouting up to them to wave back, which of course they did.

The sky for the planes was just so clear and bright, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sky I like to call it.

Splish, splash, splosh at Peppa Pig World

Peppa Pig is infamous for her love of muddy puddles, a section of the park even being devoted to it – which is about the only part we didn’t pay visit to as we saw a grown man get absolutely soaked through there (if only we had known about the giant dryers by that stage of course).

With Iz soon changing into her standard issue Peppa Pig wellies – no toddler should ever leave home without them – it was pretty much inevitable that at some point during the day that actual puddles (and there were a lot of them) of Peppa Pig World would get something of a pounding from my daughter. Loved it, what do you think?

It reminded me of that girl who wrote into Jim’ll Fix It and all she wanted to do was slam doors, lots of doors, and that’s exactly what they showed (me, I could never decide if I wanted to meet Roger Moore or Sean Connery). I don’t think one single puddle was left unsplashed.