The Martin kids

Hi! We're still here! We've been very busy and since we last posted:

• We have moved house! We've moved to a bigger house and we now have a study/playroom and dining room/school room!
• We went to center parcs in June for our holiday!
• Primrose started walking just before her first birthday!
• Primrose is now one years old! We had a party for her at our new house and the children went on our new trampoline in the garden and mummy made a fairy castle cake.
• We decided that Finn is going to be home-educated rather than start school in September.

We decided two years ago to take a photo of each family member every year on the 1st July. The plan is that we take a photo annually for the next twenty years and then line the photos up, each family member side-by-side and the photos of each person displayed vertically year-by-year. I saw it on someone elses blog a few years ago and it is amazing to see how a person changes through the years. So, today I have posted the 2011 annual photo of the Martin kids x x x.

Chirstmas is nearly here!

Christmas is on it's way and this week we put up our Christmas tree! This is the second year that we have got a real tree. We all love it: Jacob cannot stop taking the baubles off to play with and yesterday discovered the chocolate ones (there are now only two left on the tree!); Finn loves the twinkling lights and Primrose loves to lie under a branch in her chair and grab at it to try and chew (her first two teeth have just come through and she wants to chew everything!). We have no presents under the tree yet though (which is probably a good thing as they'd only get opened early by the boys!).

Quick update on us all:

Finn's writing and artwork has really improved in the last month or so. I have included a photo to show! For a boy who only turned four two months ago I think he is doing really well. He also knows the whole alphabet on sight now as well as most of the phonetic sounds of each letter and can do simple sums that total ten by using his fingers! He has almost finished his first term of swimming lessons and got his report last week saying his water confidence has really increased (he can jump in on is own now which he could never do before). He is also still enjoying his gymbobs and tennis classes. He is also looking less like my little boy these days too as you can see by this photo I took of him two days ago.

Jacob is doing very well with toilet training. It has been much easier than it was with Finn as Jacob has just learnt so quickly simply through observing his big brother (he even prefers to use the toilet like Finn rather than a potty). Jacob's speech is slowly improving these days but he is also in the midst of the terrible twos and driving mummy and daddy mad some days! But he is just so cute he only has to smile and we forgive him (well mummy does anyway!).

Primrose is five months old now and an extremely good and contented baby. She now has her first two teeth at the bottom that came through the other week (although we wouldn't have known about it, there was lots of chewing but no fretfulness/night-waking etc. that a lot of babies have). She is very smiley and just perfect really!

Other things we have been doing since we last posted:

• Finn turned 4 and Jacob turned 2 and we had a joint pirate party!
  


• Went to London for the day on the train. The boys loved the train and the science museum.


• Went trick or treating at Halloween and a fireworks display.


• Went to meet our new boy cousin Alexander!


• Went to cousin Caleb's 1st birthday party.

Summer is over but the fun continues...

This summer has gone very quick and as well as the excitement of our new baby sister coming along we have been having lots of fun days out with our friends.

We went to:

• Wicksteed Park with Oscar, Darcey, Jake and India


• Thurleigh Park Farm with Oscar, Darcey and Jake


• Stanwick Lakes with Oscar, Darcey, Jake and "big Darcey" (as Finn calls his friend from tennis to differentiate between her and Oscar's sister who is known as "little Darcey"!)


• Ferry Meadows Park with Oscar, little Darcey, Jake and Jake's cousin Daisy. That was our last summer outing as term starts next week and so it's back to Tumble Tots and tennis lessons and Finn also starts swimming lessons on saturday.


• We have also been to Grandpa's house a few weekends and enjoyed playing in the garden.


• And we went to the south coast one weekend and met up with little Sophie and met her new baby brother Edward and we saw our cousin Eva in Portsmouth.

September is also party season, so there is still lots to look forward to despite summer being over! This weekend we have Nelia's 3rd birthday party; next week it is India's 4th party; week after that it is Finn's 4th and Jacob's 2nd joint party and then the week after that is Oscar's 4th!

Our new baby sister!

We have a new baby sister!!! Her name is Primrose Susan and she is beautiful. She is 8 weeks old now and we love her very much. She has started smiling and gurgling which we think is very funny. Jacob calls her "Mimose" and every morning the first thing he says to mummy if he sees her without Primrose is, "airs Mimose?" Here are a few pictures for you to see...

Our Holiday to Cornwall

We went ot Cornwall at the beginning of June and as usual had a lovely time. We went back to the same farm cottages as the last year and the year before and I made friends with the owners' daughter. She is called Gabby and she is nearly 4 just like me! We had fun playing in the play area in the afternoons and she tried to teach me to climb the trees! We enjoyed feeding the animals on the farm - the goats and pigs ate all all our left over packed lunches! We had lots of days out, including: The National Seal Sanctuary; The Lappa Valley Steam Railway; I went go-karting on special go-karts designed for 3-5 year olds. The track was near Padstow so we went there also and found a lovely little beach called Trevone Bay nearby which we had never been to before. We also went swimming in Falmouth again where they have a wave machine in the pool which I loved but Jacob was scared of, and there was a big tube slide that I was scared of so Daddy went down it on his own! We also picked strawberries and raspberries and ate lots of lovely Cornish ice cream and scones! We can't wait to go back next year! Love Finn x.

We're back!

Wow, it has been a long time since we last posted - you must be wondering where we have been! Well, we have been very busy and Mummy just hasn't got around to updating our blog. Since we last posted in September we have had our birthday's - Jacob's 1st and my (Finn) 3rd. We had a lovely birthday party out in the garden with all our friends and family. We had a Thomas paddling pool filled with balls and lots of other toys to play with and Mummy made me a Henry tank engine (as he is no.3) and a Thomas one for Jacob (he is No.1 engine). There was lots of fun and cake and wrestling done by me and one of my best friends, Oscar!

Other news:

Since September I have been going to Tennis classes on a Thurday with Oscar, India and Jake. We have great fun running around the courts and even learn a bit of tennis at the same time. I am quite good at volleying now and am working on my forehand. I will get mummy to find a photo of us at tennis to put on here (they don't come up in any order though - we will download them all after typing this post). I also do Tumble Tots on a Wednesday with India, Oscar and Yasmin and since January when Jacob started walking confidently he does Tumble Tots too (he is in the walking to age 2 session and I am in the 3 yrs -school age). We both love it - although mummy says that she wishes Jacob would do as much climbing there as he does at home! He gets shy and is a bit clingy to mummy when we are out and about and yet at home he is very confident and drives mummy mad climbing the stairs and on tables and window sills!

On 26th November our first boy cousin was born! His name is Caleb and we are going to his Christening tomorrow so we may post some more photos of him soon. I think we will be good friends when we are older - I can already make him laugh by doing peek-a-boo!

Then there was Christmas - more toys and excitement and snow (although that seems like a long time ago now that the weather is so hot), and Mummy told us that she was having another baby! We are still waiting for her - she is due on the 1st July so we won't have to wait that much longer. I am very excited and I want to call her Rosie. My brother Jacob does not seem to realise what is going on, mummy points to her tummy and says that there is a baby in there and he put his hands on her and just laughs! In January Oscar's mummy had a little girl called Darcy. In April India's mummy had a little girl, she is called Noor Olivia, and Jack's mummy has just had a little boy called Tobias Joseph Oscar. My friend, Darcy at tennis is having a brother or sister in a few weeks and then it will be our turn! I am very excited about being able to tell everyone as every week at Tumble Tots we start off sitting in a circle and the teacher asks us if we have any news to share. This week I told everyone how I have a new Scooby Doo DVD, but a baby sister will be even better!

We are now looking forward to our holiday to Cornwall in two weeks time, and hoping that this nice weather lasts until then!

Bye for now, Finn x.

Center Parcs

We had a great holiday in Center Parcs last week. We went swimming everyday in the sub-tropical swimming paradise, bike riding in the forest around the lake, ten-pin bowling, disco dancing as well as spending lots of time at the indoor and outdoor play areas and feeding ducks and geese (and the odd uninvited swan!) on the patio of our villa! Mummy and Daddy said we will go back there - I can't wait! Bye for now, Finn x