Out with the old (year)...

Only 2011, I mean (i am otherwise quite happy to keep most aging things near and dear). Before we get on to the 2011-2012 interface pics and news, must clear out that old tray! Nov, Dec, and Jan were really busy months, with all sorts of to-ing and fro-ing of all sorts of bodies, so Your Faithful Blogger has been remiss! But she shall begin to correct it with a few snaps of The Visitors, and other fun things we got up to at the end of last year...

One random but great adventure was Leicester by train to visit the Golden Mile - all you can eat south indian lunch buffet anyone? (And some snaps of us heading out, by way of Big Tree, our neighbourhood totem.)






And then December was pretty much dominated by Vecais's BIG SIX.

Some preparations:
And the best guest visitor, all the way from the Our Home [on] Native Land - the Nan!


At Wollaton Park:
And N got to spend her birthday with us too:


Vecais feeding his lego obsession



And Mudzuks trying out her early Xmas gift too:

Vecais's 'school friends' party:


And then a fantastic visit from Ilga and family:

Late night convo, after the wee ones are all tucked away...


But morning always comes too soon! At least this was a good one: Vecais' 'real' birthday, with specical guest Teo to help open the loot:


Teo discovering the wonderful world of IKEA lego tracks, as Dzuk looks on

And one more party:
The person-of-honour's 'speech'


And the K5 too:

We all had a good laugh!

forests and trees

This is a theme (think eponymously) with our Swedish cousins, who were brave enough to visit for a whole week! Dzuk and T got some bonding time...





(I love this one, even though its kind of hard to see - both are doing the universal sign for 'crocodile'. Snap snap!)

Here we are birdwatching at Attenborough... obviously we were too caught up in the fauna (and the flora -- literally, as we spent some time picking 'natras' out of little hands...) to take too many pics of this gorgeous nature reserve.

Next day: busriders...

... and parkies.

Tante S's birthday afternoon was celebrated with a walk in (the NOT eponymous) Bunny Wood, with bouts of more and less enthusiasm from the entourage...

And here is the birthday girl in her guest role as Old Mother Hubbard (either that or an ad for birth control!):

But all's well that end's well - that is, with indian food and birthday cake!

(My girl wants to) Party all the time ...

How many parties can you fit in a telephone booth? Not as many, apparently, as we managed to stuff into one lonely old November week.


First - Hallowe'en. Not exactly Canadian style, but British style suited the terrors just fine (less houses, but more bang for your buck. We're talking full-sized chocolate bars.).

Tante Stinky was in charge of make-up, as it was a "London" night for Mamuks. Dzuk is a bit skeptical, I believe (nau.)

Then came Mudzuks' 'school friends' birthday party, which luckily Annika was still around for as well. This year Mamuks gave up on cakes and turned her hand to underwater papier mache instead....

... while pizza-maker Papuks played galley slave.

Well, not only galley slave. He was also jellyfish pinata maker extraordinaire. Perhaps too extraordinaire. Particularly as we hadn't quite reckoned on it being pitch black already at 5 oclock -far too dark to go across to the field with Big Tree - we improvised inside. The pinata was far too powerful a match for the wooden spoon, as the frustrated bashers soon discovered.

But the bottom, as always, evenutally gives way...

Happy customers!

But the partying doesn't stop there, oh no. The next night it was Guy Fawkes - i.e. Bonfire Night in England. Opis rose to the challenge! With marshmallows...

And real fireworks - both small and sparkly, and big and potentially dangerous! (You can see Papuks has almost lost a leg in that second pic...)


But we're just warming up, really. The next morning O-squared brought over a torte and more goodies for the birthday girl...

...while Dzukie and Vecais were already looking a bit hungover from all that partying (hmmm, fingersmears on the glass doors, anyone??)

But nothing a little bit of fresh air and park action can't cure.

And finally the real day arrives!

(I think she enjoyed it, through a sleepy sort of fog....)