First day at school

Alvar's started school. On the first day he was really upbeat and chatted the whole way to school, mostly about what Spiderman would do. Perhaps it's his way of making him feel bolder and more confident. He walked straight in, hardly any hesitatation and started exploring. So far so good, the teacher says he's confident and self reliant. It has been very difficult to let him go and we miss him loads when he's there. My mum told me that when my brother started school in the 60's one of the other mum's said it felt like having her heart ripped out, letting her son go off. At least they were seven years old. Not 4.5 years. Some things never change. I can't quite believe he is at school and I suppose it will always feel that way somehow. Like he's still only a small baby. He was a happy and cheerful baby and he's a happy and cheerful boy.

His Spiderman position

Christmas in Sweden

Christmas 2011 was spent in Sweden. Low key, lots of food and plenty of 'fika' moments, trips to the barn to search for eggs and feed the cattle, playing with cousins. Although not so much snow the few days we had it was well spent building snow men and lantern.

Clara's birthday was celebrated with all her cousins. This is a Princess cake, a classic Swedish cake with custard and marzipan on top.

Off to get the Christmas tree. All three boy cousins travel in the back of Uncle Peo's tractor.

The fantastic Christmas lunch.

Southend

We like to get away from London and we are in a perfect position to drive to the coast from where we live. Unfortunately, so do a lot of other people too. Which means a lot of traffic. But it's worth it once you get to breathe a bit of fresh sea air. We also went to a a butcher near by who we'd heard a lot of good stuff of. So with the boot full of goodness, we managed to find a beach, not wild, not pretty but it had sand and sea, pools of water to jump in and lots of sea shells and a stand selling hot cups of tea. Oh, and the first photo is from breakfast. Pancakes, soaked the night before. Makes a change from porridge.

This photo will be framed and given to dh from Clara. He never looks here so it's not spoiling it.