If you go down to the woods today...

You can't have teddy bears' picnic without a few teddies. The bear on the bottom left is Mark's bear, Eddie. He was bought before Mark was born and, rumour has it, was originally white. The bear on the top left is Tom's German bear that Mark and I brought back from our trip. He is too cute for words in his 'Lederhosen'..

..
I had originally planned to do a spring themed tea party this afternoon, but when Tom came home with the Star of the Week bear again on Friday I wanted to do something special for him instead. The Podlings love picnics, so I thought what better way to celebrate Tom being Star of the Week than to have our first picnic of the year. With Teddy residing with us for the week, it really had to be a teddy bears' picnic! We packed up our hamper with a picnic that included gingerbread teddy bears and bear shaped crisps and headed out to a local park. We brought a ball, Frisbees and bubbles and of course, each of us brought a teddy bear. There was a bit of upset when the ball ended up in the duck pond, but all was well once Mark fished it out again (if you discount the fact that Mark had wet shoes for the rest of the afternoon!). The Podlings had a lovely time and are keen to repeat our outing at the earliest opportunity. I'm sure the year will bring many more family picnics to please them.
..

The Podlings stayed warm against the March chill in the matching Aran cardigans made for them by my mum. They looked so adorable!
..

Podlings at play

..

The Star of the Week
..

Star of the Week!

Tom and Teddy outside Tesco on Saturday.

.
Tom surprised us all by coming out of school with the Star of the Week bear again on Friday. As far as we can see, Tom is the first child in his class to be Star of the Week twice, so we are very proud of him. As much as I worried about sending him to school, he really seems to be thriving there. I attended parent's evening on Thursday and his teacher had nothing put praise for him. He is making excellent progress in his work and is in the top group for numeracy. His vocabulary and speech are apparently excellent for his age and his questioning approach is also serving him well. His teacher said he has a very scientific mind, which is perhaps not surprising for the son of two PhD polymer chemists! Everyone seems to know and like Tom, teachers and children alike, and his own teacher seems to have a bit of a soft spot for him. He is, in short, doing very well at school and Mark and I are so proud of him. Well done Tom!
.

Teddy with the gingerbread teddies I made for Tom this afternoon. I made a large batch so Tom could take some to school to share with his class.
.
Daddy and Teddy help Tom with his homework
..

She ain't heavy

.
Lily adores Emma and the feeling is clearly mutual. Every morning Emma greets Lily with a huge beaming smile and she saves all her best laughs for her sister. Lily takes great delight in entertaining Emma and they have a lot of fun together. I am very close to my sister, so it is my hope that my two girls will always be friends as well as sisters. Early indications are good!

.

8 Months Old

Little Emma is 8 months old today...my how time flies! I almost lost track of the day and only remembered it was the 21st when I was giving her her bath this evening. I threw a pretty cardigan on over her pyjamas and took her 8 month photos before making her supper.

Emma has come on a long way in the last month. She can now sit completely on her own, but I never leave her seated on the floor without something behind her. She has a rather bizarre habit of randomly throwing herself backwards for kicks. She loves doing it on the bed, but I suspect she wouldn't find it so entertaining on harder surfaces! Changing her nappy is now something of a challenge as she is working very hard on getting mobile. She can get around with a funny combination of rolling, pushing herself backwards and pulling herself round in circles. She really wants to crawl, but can't manage it yet. She gets very annoyed when trying to move as she clearly wants to go forward, but every time she tries she only manages to push herself backward. I keep having to rescue her from her little tantrums! I fear it won't be long before she figures the whole crawling thing out and my life gets a lot more hectic!
.
She has had the odd grumpy day lately and I suspect I may see her first two teeth soon. I will miss her lovely gummy grin when those pearly whites peek through! She laughs readily and certainly gives me plenty to smile about. She has such a funny little personality developing and is turning out to be quite opinionated. She is going to be such a little character! She is such a delightful little person and I love her to bits. Now if I could just get her to sleep through the night...
.

Getting warmer

.

This afternoon, for the first time this year, it was mild enough for Lily to be able to play in the garden without a coat on. It's been a long, cold winter, but I finally feel like spring is on its way. I'm not usually one for hurrying through the seasons. I love each season in its turn, but I have to confess that I can't wait for winter to be over this year. There's nothing like a bit of sunshine and warmth to lift your mood and fill you with the joys of spring.

..

A weekend away

Beautiful Konigsee

.

Alas, my poor neglected blog! I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week, but life has been a bit hectic and I simply haven't had time to update it. I'm making up for it now by posting lots of pictures of our wonderful weekend in Germany. I can't tell you how restful it was! I think I read more in the few days we were away than I have read all year and the sleep...oh, the sleep!

.

Mark and I both needed to recharge our batteries, so we took it easy while we were away. Each day we had a wonderful breakfast in the hotel, read in our room for a while and then went sightseeing around Berchtesgaden and Konigsee, usually having a light lunch whilst out. We would head back to the hotel late afternoon for Kaffee und Kuchen (mmmm, kuchen!) and then took our books onto our patio and read some more. We would then head to the hotel pools and have a swim. I can now officially say that I have been swimming in the snow. The hotel has a heated outdoor pool, so as long as you kept your shoulders under the water it was lovely. It was quite invigorating swimming in temperatures of -5 C with the snow falling around you.

.

After our swim, we would head back to the room to ring the Podlings and then dress for dinner. We had a four course dinner in the hotel restaurant each evening. The Alpenhof makes sublime food and we always stay half-board there. After dinner, it was more reading and then off to bed for a night of uninterrupted sleep...bliss!

.

It was a fabulous trip and, despite the rather stressful journey home, came back much the better for our time away. It was a wonderful way to celebrate ten years of being together. Thank you so much to Mum and Dad P. for taking care of the Podlings so we could rest and spend some time alone together. I know the Podlings had a great time in our absence!
.

Although we have been to Konigsee several times, we have never been on it. This time, we took a boat ride across the lake to visit the church and palace (the latter is now a restaurant) on the other side. The muppet fur hat probably looks a bit daft, but I was nice and warm!

.

St Bartholomew's church, Konigsee. The church here was founded in 1194, but this building dates from 1697. It can only be reached by boat.
.

The stunning interior of St Bartholomew's
.

The beautiful stucco-work ceiling of St Bartholomew's
.

A walk in the grounds of our hotel. Is it not beautiful!
.

The view from my chair. Every afternoon after kaffee und kuchen we took a hot drink outside to our patio and read for a while. We always take our travel kettle with us when we go away to make sure we don't have to go without tea...so very British!

.

We took a stroll around Konigsee on our last afternoon and got covered in snow!
.

Off to the airport and home, but first we must dig out the car!

Our journey home was rather eventful. Two accidents on the motorway meant that we only just made it to the airport in time. We literally had to run onto the plane after checking in. After arriving back at Heathrow, we sat on the runway for over an hour while they found a parking spot for the plane and then had to wait while they found a bus to take everyone to the terminal. We then discovered that they had lost one of our bags! Poor Mark had to rush straight off to Ireland on business on the Sunday night and he only just made his plane as a result of the hold-ups!
.

Home again, home again...

.
Mark and I are back from our relaxing break in Germany. We had a wonderful few days reading, relaxing, eating good food and enjoying the beautiful snow covered mountains together. We also managed to end up with a pretty awful trip home, but home we are. I will post more pictures in the next few days, but for now I have Podlings to cuddle, bags to unpack and laundry to do. In the meantime, I will just share this photo I took of a snow-covered tree on the shores of Konigsee. Beautiful!
..

The result...

If anyone pays any attention to my random twitterings in the sidebar, you'll know that The Great Switcheroo took place last week. I am so grateful to Mark's dad and uncle, who worked incredibly hard moving all the furniture. The rooms have been in their new arrangement for just over a week now and I am absolutely thrilled with it. The new lounge is such a relaxing room and I can't tell you how much calmer the whole house feels to me now. The entire downstairs is staying much tidier and, as a result, my housework is much, much easier. My only regret is that we didn't do this months ago! I love it!

..

Ten years!

Mark in the mountains near Berchtesgaden on our honeymoon in 2003

.

Today is a special day. Today, Mark and I have been together for ten years...one whole decade! We met in 1999 when we were both doctoral students at the University of Surrey. We were in the same research group and Mark and I faced each other across the bench in our laboratory. I knew straight away that Mark was the one for me, but I had to be patient and wait for him to realise it to! We became very good friends and got together in March 2000. We've been together ever since and I can honestly say that the last ten years have been the happiest of my life (and I have had a very happy life!).

.

I left Surrey with more than just a PhD. By my graduation ceremony, I was happily married and 7 weeks pregnant with Tom.

..

Mark surprised me on Valentine's day with the news that he was whisking me away for a long weekend to celebrate our ten years together. Unbeknownst to me, he had arranged with his parents to look after all three Podlings and booked a four day trip to our favourite destination. We will be travelling to Berchtesgaden in Germany early on Thursday morning and coming home on Sunday afternoon. We first visited Berchtesgaden on honeymoon and have been there a couple of times since. We love it there and it is a very special place for us. We will be staying in our favourite hotel of all time, a charming chalet called Hotel Alpenhof. It is so warm and inviting and serves the most wonderful food. We wouldn't think of staying anywhere else in the area.

.

I took this picture of Konigsee during a trip there in January 2004. I have it framed on our landing, along with another couple of pictures I took of the area.

..
I know I am going to miss the children dreadfully while I am away, but it will be lovely to have a little break and spend some quality time with my wonderful husband. After all, I was a wife before I was a mother and I think it is important to remember the two people that made the five of us. I can't say I'm not looking forward to a few nights of uninterrupted sleep either! I am very excited about our little getaway and I am thrilled that Mark was able to arrange it all and surprise me with it. So romantic! I am also incredibly grateful to Mum and Dad P. for making it possible for us to go. I know the Podlings will have a great time with them while we are away and I'm sure I will miss them more than they will miss me!

...

Hotel Alpenhof...quite probably the best hotel in the world! This photo was taken on our honeymoon in 2003, the first time we stayed there.
.

Thank you, Mark, for the last ten years. You make me so happy! Life with you just gets better and better. I wonder what the next ten years will bring us...

,.