Jonathan's 2nd birthday

We have recently celebrated Jonathan's second birthday - not sure where those two years went!

In following the tradition of the males in the family, he now has his own set of golf clubs:

He loved blowing the candles out on his cake, and of course eating it!

To mark the occasion, we spent day out at the Bronx Zoo, where both boys enjoyed seeing the animals close up, as well as riding the carousel...

 

and experiencing an 'Ice Age' short movie in 4D:

With summer finally arriving, and we are all looking forward to some great beach time and lots of barbecues over the next few months. Hope all of our blog viewers are well!

Spring 2013 Update

We have had a long and very cold winter here in Connecticut; our worst blizzard, in February, left us with 32 inches of snow on the ground and pretty much housebound for three days. The boys had great fun - once we could clear a path! - though the novelty wore a bit thin for mum and dad after a while!

On the plus side, we did manage to enjoy the snowy weather by spending five days in Smugglers' Notch up in northern Vermont a few weeks ago. Daniel had a great time in ski class, Jonathan enjoyed the snow, and Jo found her ski legs again after 5 years off them, though being a fair weather skier, on the most bitterly cold days she left James to bomb it down the mountains on his own!

After a nice Easter with some sunshine and temperatures above zero for a change, we are now willing it to start feeling like spring!

Happy 2013!

Hello friends, and a very happy new year. As we were totally remiss with keeping our blog up to date after July last year, here is a potted summary of the second half of our 2012.

In July we enjoyed our third family visit of the year, from Sandra, Steve, Samuel and Calum. Here they are strolling the Yale campus:

We had a great week with the family up in New Hampshire, where everyone enjoyed beach time on the beautiful lakes up there.

Before we knew it, Fall was on us and Daniel and Jonathan enjoyed choosing their pumkin...

messing about in the leaves that daddy had tried to tidy up......

And of course, Halloween!

In November we enjoyed a lovely week in Mexico over the Thanksgiving holiday:

That brought us back to the cold of December, and Daniel's 4th birthday, closely followed by Christmas....

and then snow!

2013 has started cold: we are currently trying to keep warm in maximum daily temperatures of around -7 degrees C.

Hope you are all well. We will look forward to seeing some of you this year xxxx

Summer Update

Hi everyone! Having a great summer here at home so far. Weather is lovely and hot with lots of sunshine and only the occasional summer storm, so can't complain.

Over the past couple of months Daniel and Jonathan have enjoyed having their grandparents visit. Sandra and Stuart spent 10 days with us at the end of May - the first time they had met Jonathan, so a big occasion:

This was followed by Joan's visit at the end of June. After a week at home, Joan and Jo headed for a girls' weekend in New York, where they got about in spite of 100 degree heat and enjoyed seeing James Corden in 'One Man Two Guvnors' on Broadway.

Given the weather, the boys are enjoying plenty of beach time, where Jonathan's exploration includes eating lots of sand:

Daniel, in the meantime, has found a new passion:

ARE WE MAD???!!!

We are now looking forward to seeing Sandra, Steve, Samuel and Calum in little over a week's time. Hope you are all enjoying the summer and looking forward to the Olympics! xxx

Jonathan's 1st Birthday

Last weekend we celebrated Jonathan's first birthday with a family trip to New York. Unbelievably, although we've been here two years, this was the first time we'd been into the city together - and was both Daniel's and Jonathan's first visit.

We took the train into Grand Central, then headed to Times Square to check into our hotel. On our way, Daniel was delighted to encounter Buzz Lightyear.

 From there we walked up Fifth Avenue to Central Park, where we all enjoyed the zoo.

From the zoo it was back to Times Square for a visit to Toys R Us. James reckoned this was one of the most stressful experiences of his life - that is, until it came to bedtime, and the four of us sleeping in one room! Let's just say that mommy and daddy were very grateful to get back to their own bedroom the following night.

The first family trip to the Big Apple was great fun, and will no doubt become at least an annual event - subject to improved sleeping arrangements!



Happy New Year!

Various things going on meant that we didn't find a minute to blog towards the end of last year. So, here are a few very belated photos from November and December. Firstly, the boys enjoying the sunshine in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where we spent Thanksgiving Week to celebrate Jo's 40th:

Now on to December, during which we celebrated Daniel's third birthday:

and he added to his golf club collection:

And of course, Jonathan's first Christmas, which we spent here at home:

Happy New Year to everyone - we look forward to seeing some of your during the course of 2012 xxxx

Autumn Update

It's been a busy Fall for us here in Madison. Early October we enjoyed a visit from Inma and Javi. As usual we did lots of catching up whilst eating and drinking!! They also met Jonathan for the first time, as well as our friends Stef and Adam.

Fall is a big season here in New England, and people like to celebrate the last of the gorgeous autumn colours before winter arrives. This means lots of fayres, scarecrow competitions......

and of course, Halloween!! Jonathan did not partake this year - he wasn't up to the partying after three vaccinations earlier that day. Daniel, however, was very excited to be Spiderman, and had a great time trick-or-treating with his dad, then finishing the evening at the neighbourhood party.

In spite of all these goings on, life continues its normal routine. Jonathan is enjoying becoming a bit more mobile and trying out new tastes.....

....while Daniel continues to work on the perfect golf shot down at the driving range, as well as helping out with the Fall clean-up!

Scarily enough, we've already had some snow. A heavy storm hit the region on October 28th - the very day that Jo and her friend Stef were spending in Manhattan - aaaggghhhh!!! Let's hope this doesn't mean that we can expect another winter like the last one!