Hama Nice Day...

Among the other things the kids have been doing to amuse themselves over the holiday was making some Hama bead creations - for those not in the know, these are tiny plastic beads that you set up on a plastic form and then iron to fuse. All three of them have created things - Alex did the panda, the rocket and the A, with a little help from Sarah - Olivia's done the N and the giraffe and the rest are Sarah's, though a few of them were made previously and just mended during the recent session.

Gingerbreadmania

Gingerbread creations were, well, created. Gingerbread men...



...and Gingerbread women.



Also dinosaurs (or dinosours, depending on which child is spellling).



Not to mention trains.

And of course...


Gingerbread Daleks.

V&A Visit

Today I met up with my friend Julie at the V&A - normally I would not go up to town two days running, but as she lives in California and is only in London until Thursday, exceptions were made...

Disappointingly, as she is a fellow quilter and thus interested in textiles as well, the textiles gallery and the clothing gallery were both shut. (The clothes until 2012, for refurbishment - the textiles, who knows, there was no sign, just a closed door. Sigh.) However, there's still lots of fun stuff to see at the V&A, including the revamped ceramics gallery, which I hadn't yet seen, and which included this lovely little collection of pots and beakers - which reminded me a bit of the view from the window:




I do love chimney pots!

Also found these pieces really interesting...



I did resist taking photos of the billions of other things I liked - one always takes tons of photos in museums, and then never looks at them again!

Birthday...

There was present opening (this is an Obi Wan Kenobi outfit for his teddy bear),



there was travelling up to London to eat in Gourmet Burger Kitchen (walking past London Eye & Big Ben)




...and through Covent Garden where this gentleman was singing La Donna e Nobile, among other things...



I looked in a few windows, and eventually, we found ourselves here:



It was excellent!

8 years ago...

I do have a photo of him newly born in hospital, but frankly, it's not a great photo - this one, which is probably a few days later, is much better...

Happy Birthday to my (not so) little birthday boy!