Sunday, 4 December 2011

The Smolive Round-up!

To round up the end of our summer 2011 here are a handful of images from the family album!



Playing in the park


Having a giggle with her favourite cousins Charlotte and Chloe




Watering Granny's Garden!



little Smols radiant as always!



Me old mate Owen's No.1 Gus Piper!




Coffee, croissants and sandy feet (with a very preggerz mummy!) in Bushy park the location for Olive's favourite summer pastime: the sandbox!





Sunday, 18 September 2011

Family Portrait




Our annual end of summer family portrait with added wink from Olive!

Friday, 16 September 2011

Potty Time!




Our clever little monkey-chops has done us proud. Olive is now fully Potty trained at 2 1/2 and the best part is Olive did it all on her own -well more or less! No "accidents" at Nursery and none of the usual uphill struggle to for us in fact, she wanted to sit on that potty!!!



Outdoor Potty with "lovey"


Applaud yourself potty on the grown-up loo!



And the motivation!


Olive loved the Sticker chart. It didn't last long but just long enough.
It started with stars in the relevant box and then after a while well hell, they can go anywhere as long as it works!



Sunday, 31 July 2011

Messing about on the river





A beautiful bright and sunny Sunday in July. As a little birthday treat (...for me!) we rented a little motor boat from the local skiff and boat hire in nearby Thames Ditton. We took along some friends and Olive's mate Nathan who both looked very fetching in their life vests!




Bless that Nathan, he always wants to hold Olive's hand!



Skipper T G Pilgrim setting course for Kingston!



Mummy and Melony in the back enjoying the leisurely life.



Olive didn't have the best sea-legs...



But for most part had a pretty cheeky good time...!







Nice.

Friday, 29 July 2011

Boys BBQ



These two chiefs are two of my best mates, Ben & Scott:


An invitation to a Sunday BBQ became a minor union of three old school fellas. The two chaps pictured here I have known since meeting at Chiswick secondary school age 12 so, 24 years and counting!




We are missing one other from this group and that is [big] Dave and which made me think i must have a few old snaps of the boys together...hang on!

Scott's stag weekender in Budapest, 2008 (age 33)

And then here's a classic:

Boys Summer Holiday in Crete, 1994 (age 19)

Not much has changed that is apart from Ben's long neck and a fashion for wearing waistcoats (and oddly we always seem to order ourselves the same way for group photographs!). Time moves on you grow, you change, you do some stuff, you get married, you have your own family and there is always more to come. The passage of life even at this stage often feels surreal in retrospect. Where does the time go? ok, who hasn't said that before yet somehow it is all so completely natural, improbable and impossible at the same time yet -and for want of a better word -exactly how it should be.


Scott enjoying a moment with his daughter Charlotte.



Mummy and her Olive.

"Uncle Ben" with Olive.

Hang on, is that Uncle Ben encouraging underage drinking...what?

Don't worry that's Kellye's non-alcoholic beer!


Charlotte and Olive hanging out in the paddling pool.




Kate and Scott share a laugh...