We didn't make this giant snowball - it mysteriously appeared in the field between when we walked to school and when we came back. Pretty cool!

Alex building a snowman (with a little help from Mummy) 

A better snow - actually covered the ground a few inches deep and stayed around for most of the day. Great packing snow - really good for big snowballs & snowmen & stuff 

So who says it never snows in London? OK, not a lot, but it's still coming down now, so who knows what it will be like in the morning. I hope there's something left or the kids will be disappointed. (Photo is terribly out of focus as I can't use the flash - but you get the general idea!) 

We went to Kew Gardens on Thursday and saw lots of interesting stuff, including some wondrous orchids. The strangest thing we saw, though, was one of these - an axolotl. Remarkable, in a rather bizarre way!

Well, it's officially the half-term holiday now - no school tomorrow. So of course the kids are manic. We have plans for several of the days, nothing too strenuous, hopefully. Today we are going to take the kids swimming, that is, if they ever finish eating breakfast, etc. You'd think with the exciting prospect of going swimming (which they nag us about all the time) they would hurry up, rather than messing about, but then, that's kids for you, I guess.

Just booked our holiday for July this year - we are going to hire a cottage with our friends Cathi & Dave, who live in Ireland - they have two little girls, Aine, who is a few months older than Alex and Aisling, who is about 9 months old. We're going to the West Country (my favourite part of the country) - near Exmoor this time. Should be fun & the kids will really enjoy being able to hang out together - my girls love the little girls & Alex and Aine are just getting to be old enough to actually play together rather than just fighting over who gets what toy...

We were considering going to France, but it was just too expensive for us this year, so we decided to split the difference between London & Waterford and get something in the UK, but not too far from where the ferry comes in from Ireland. Here's the cottage we've found.

this is a photo from Alex's little party we had today - lunch at the house and then a visit to Cheeky Monkeys, our local soft play place. Doesn't show the kids very well, but it's hard to photograph 2 year olds. Can't believe he'll be 2 on Saturday!