We Have Moved!

    Say hello to the Pilgrim's new home!  

After 6 years in our flat and 2 children later we have (finally!) moved into our lovely new house at 51 Esher Road. A year in the making, thanks to a very arduous and prolonged sale process, having to re-sell our flat 3 times and pulling out of 1 sale here we are in our new home and what a beauty it is! On Jun 24th we moved everything from our flat 5 mins down the road and herein begins new phase of our life! We have a proper house, a huge garden and it is all ours! Well sort of...when we pay off the mortgage in 25 years -yikes! 

 

And so immediately we set about enjoying our new found space taking it all in and taking advantage of our lovely big garden! what a pleasure,  enjoying a bit of breakfast, dinner and a few drinks out on the patio and the kids immediately got stuck in too running in and out of the house exploring the new space -we all love it! Naturally, to round-off the big day we popped the cork on a vintage bottle of 2004 Dom Perignon (as you do!!!) and now i'm just thinking about all the bloomin' DIY i have got to do...!

Although the change has beeen undeniable we thought the difference between living in a flat and house would be like night and day and in some ways of course it is but in our minds we had moved in as soon as our offer was excepted a year back so when we arrived here in a strange way it felt as normal and natural as if we had been living here for ages...!

Love it!

Spider Bax!

I had to dedicate a post to Baxter's obsession with Spider man or more importantly his Spider man suit!

He loves it soooooooo much if we let him he would probably ware it every day! When we get up in the morning it's, "Spiderman costume daddy!" or, "Spiderman suit mummy!" Whatever we are doing he wants that suit on! Going to Nursery? Spiderman suit. Birthday party? Spiderman suit! Go to the "play g-lound"? Spiderman suit. Playing trains? Spiderman suit! Bouncy castle? Spiderman suit! Bed time? Yep, Spiderman suit! He has slept in his Spiderman suit 4 times already, he really just doesn't want to take it off!!!

And to finish...Spider SAX!

5

I can't believe it, our dearest little girl turned...

And what a special party we had! First things first we must to take our hats off for mummies amazing...wait, is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Olive's "Frozen" birthday cake! 

Disney's "Frozen" was the theme and daddy went to lengths to secure a "princess Elsa" dress to match the cake and party plates! Olive was very proud as she took centre stage with her new batch of friends from Orchard school and a couple of old friends from nursery. We hired "Flossie" the clown who was an absolutely scream and as you can seethe kiddies were very attentive laughing and clapping along Flossie was so pro she even had my parents in stitches engaging the parents and the children together -brilliant!  

...Flossie in full flow!

Spider Baxter also got stuck in with Flossie's fun and got himself a nice little lady bird balloon!

Silly clown hats anyone?

...special birthday cake hat for Olive! 

After the party was over we went home, unloaded the car and just look at that pile of pressies Olive got! It was like Christmas all over again! I wish I was Olive's age! What a memorable 5th birthday. Olive, I really hope you remember this one!

Sleeping Beauties!

To my beautiful babies; how beautiful you both are sleeping so peacefully...in mummy and daddies bed!!! And no matter how hard we might try to get you to sleep in your own beds you always come back -and secretly we love it even if we may never get a good nights sleep again!

When Olive met Olive

This entry was irresistible! So, this is the moment when Olive met Olive! And not just any Olive, this is the first Olive we have ever met in Olive's nearly 5 years and guess what... she lives in East Molesey and goes to Olive's school! And what's more...they both like Olive's!!!!!

...can't leave out my little Baxter, he wanted a picture too!

Wettest winter for England and Wales since 1766

"...from mid-December 2013 to mid-February 2014 saw at least 12 major winter storms, and, when considered overall, this was the stormiest period of weather the UK has experienced for at least 20 years." MetOffice

I this period the UK saw 517.6 mm of rain breaking the last record of 485.1 mm in 1995. OK so, it always rains allot in England but I have never before experienced such unprecedented rainfall and storms to hit the South/West of the country and I have never seen the Thames so high in my life. The worst hit was the Somerset Levels which devastated villages and rendered agricultural land completely unusable. The coast particularly Cornwall took a severe battering. Even as I write the flood waters on the Somerset Levels have not completely dispersed and not due to do so until April. The damage has been massive. 

Somerset Levels

Porthleven, Cornwall

Hampton Court Bridge

Usually the river is approx. 6ft lower like in this picture taken after the water level dropped: 

Wolsey Road after Storm

East Molesey cricket pitch

Thames banks burst / Hurst Park