Fortieth Wedding Anniversay

Back in February we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary. On the actual date we were in Devon for our grandson, Gilby's birthday party. After the fab space party we all went out for an anniversary supper. 

It's not easy to get all our family together, our eldest daughter and family are missionaries in South Africa so they weren't able to join us and the rest of the family weren't able to get together until March when our son organised a great meal out in London at Roka, an amazing Michelin star contemporary Japanese restaurant. 

We met up at the London Museum where the grandchildren enjoyed some time before going on the the Barbican area and then moving on to Canary Wharf where the restaurant is.

The meal was amazing, we all enjoyed the food including the children who all love sushi. The atmosphere and service all added to the great time had by all. 

Grandpa and Ptimrose were trying to avoid the cracks in the pavement 

Eugene enjoyed some special time with Auntie Amy and the children always love being with their uncles 

As well as it being hard to get everyone together it's also hard to get everyone to look normal, I did say 'nice faces please' but clearly some one didn't hear me

They gave us a lovely big table right near the 'all you can eat' buffet 😊

summer outfits

Some time back I posted these little smocked tops that I made for my twin granddaughters, using a purl bee pattern. 

I had plenty of fabric left over, I had found the vintage seer sucker in a charity shop, so I made a pair of shorts each for a pattern I bought from ellegarrettdesigns on etsy. 

Both the tops and shorts were nice easy patterns and the fabric beautiful to sew with.

Today I received the bottom photo from my daughter of the twins modelling their little outfits :)

The sun is shining today, summer here in the UK hasn't been great so I'm hoping this bank holiday weekend will be good. We are heading into London tomorrow to take care of little Eugene for the day while our son and daughter in law attend a wedding. This is the first time we have looked after Eugene on our own and are really looking forward to spending time with him. We are blessed! 

Have a great weekend! 

Update

I've just noticed it's been over two weeks since I last posted. As I said last time we have a new grandson, sweet little Eugene. Here he is below, he's doing really well, feeding and putting on weight. He will need a couple more ops but thankfully they live near some of the best hospitals in the world. They are getting great support and all doing really well.

The bluebells near us have been amazing this year, infant all the blooms that are out at the moment are fabulous. 

The week before last, I had a call from my daughter in Devon, her and the children were all unwell so I jumped on the train and went down to stay for a few days to help out. The beautiful view is from their sitting room window and looks across Dartmoor. Thankfully they all recovered and Gilby managed to set up a little library game :)

Friday was my birthday, I had a great day. We walked the dog and had coffee out in the morning. Then got the train into London, met up with our eldest son for lunch and a walk around Islington, I came across two great shops, Ray Stitch and Loop London, for sewing and knitting. We then went to visit Eugene and his mummy and daddy, it was also our daughter in laws birthday so we shared gifts and cake :) and had lots of cuddles with Eugen before we travelled to Leicester Square to see the Carole King Musical which was probably the best show we have seen. I've been catching up with all your lovely blogs and will try to keep mine a little more up to date! 

Mothers Day UK

Mothers Day is  a time of mixed feelings for me, I miss my mother and MIL so much and am so thankful for all that they were to us and our family. I also miss seeing my daughters but know that they are celebrating their own mothers day with their children, those in SA celebrate the day on the same date as those in USA. On Saturday we took a trip into London to meet up with our sons and DIL and enjoyed a lovely brunch together. 

1976

I was sent this photo for Mothers Day all the way from SA (thank goodness for 'whatsapp')

Joe and Jesse are i the centre, our adopted grandsons, baby Hudson has been with our daughter and SIL for over twelve months now, we are praying that there will be an adoption in the near future. The two girls are living in a children's home at the moment and sped time with our daughters family, they would love to adopt them too at some time.

I received beautiful hand drawn cards from the munchkins below :)

Gilby Skipp

Primrose & Maggie

They look different in this photo but they really arent!

London

We have had the twins staying on their own since Saturday evening and we have had so much fun. They had planned a trip to London especially to visit the toy shop, Hamleys. I usually dread going there but actually today wasn't so busy. We met Uncle Ben which was an added bonus, Grandpa made his way to the coffee shop on the top floor with his book and the four of us began on the ground floor and scoured the shelves to be sure that what we had planned to buy really was what we wanted. 

I'm not sure how many of you will have experienced 'Build a Bear' but it was much more fun than I thought it would be. The girls chose a little pony each, a skirt for each pony and with Uncle Ben's help managed to choose the cheapest 'sound' to go in the pony, he also pointed out to me that to buy the roller skates at the girls wanted would mean I had to buy two pair each as the ponies have four legs! That was helpful as I would have easily fallen into that trap. 

The girls got to help fill their pony by pressing the foot pedal which enabled the filling to go into the pony, they then had to choose a fabric heart to place into the pony after they had first rubbed it to make it warm :) the girls then went over to the computer to make a birth certificate for their ponies. They girls are delighted with their ponies and are happy with the fact at they are an early birthday gift too. The Build A Bear staff were great with the children, talking through everything that they were doing and getting the girls to enter into all of it. 

We then had a picnic in St James' Park which was lovely, before getting the bus back to the station and home....two very tired little girls and two very tired Grandparents!

more Christmas photos

 Christmas lights in London

 Boxing Day walk

 some were a little too tired to walk

stocking time

A Day in London

We have spent a lovely day in London, strolling around. I enjoy just snapping shots here and there.

 Maltby Street Market  is in Bermondsey and within walking distance of London Bridge station...lots of interesting food stalls and some nearby markets stalls selling second hand stuff

 I'm usually lagging behind the boys with my camera and I just follow them from one eating place to another...they know all the best places to go

 The Shard

 Lovely cake stall at Borough Market

 London Bridge

London Trip

Half Term has been busy with family visiting, a trip into London on Saturday to meet the boys (Alice was working). First was a visit to Violet at London Fields, for coffee and some yummy cakes. Then onto London Fields Park and down through the market checking out the vintage stalls. Loved the crochet blankets!