Grace turns 5 years old

This was my attempt at a "Princess cake"

We had a small party for her when she came home from school, and her other Nana and Grandad came up from Southampton.

All the children at school sang happy birthday to Grace.

3 children turned 5 this week at school.

Going to school with Granddad on her new bike.

She was so happy to go to school on her new bike. No so sure about Grandad carrying it back home for her.

Grandad Chocolate's 70th Birthday.

Emma helped to make the cake.

Jack was very happy with his surprise party. Our 5 grandchildren had lots of fun in the old apple tree in the back garden. My mum spent loads of time in the garden playing hide and seek, not bad for 82, I wish I had her energy now!!!.

My Mum playing with her Great grand children.

The Gang

Fun in the garden

Grace & Nick

Recovering after shoulder surgery

Well I only had to stay in hospital for one night, which was good and the pain is not too bad, if I keep taking the pills.............I have an appointment with Mr Chana, my orthopaedic surgeon, next week to have the stitches out, and to see if all went well. Also to talk about physiotherapy. So glad I did most of the house packing over the last few weeks. We hope to move into the new house the last week in July.

Booked our flights back.

Jim has been very busy on the computer and has finally found some realistic prices on flights from England to Alberta and then Alberta to Florida. So we will leave England on the 5th October and going to Alberta to visit Richard and Marlus, Yippee arriving in Calgary, and leaving from Edmonton to Orlando, on October 16th.

We have sold our house.

We have had an offer on the house a little less than we asked BUT the couple in the house we want to buy have knocked some off the price of theirs. So its all systems go now, I hope to take the girls to the new house this week, so will take some pic's and send them to you. We have been at the old house most of the week washing all the garden furniture and sorting out what I want to take out of the garden i.e. large plant pots, bird bath etc. I will miss my plants in the garden, as there are some from my dad's garden, and tree's that we planted when the dog's died. I will have to leave the green house too and a small shed, but we have taken the dog kennel down, as we hope to get a dog when we come back for good. The house and garage is not too bad, as I got rid of a lot of stuff 4 years ago, but I have so many framed pictures and not enough wall space in the new house, so will have to sort through them, The new house is only 2 bedrooms but we both liked the feel of it when we walked in. I'm trying to get as much done before I go in to hospital on the 18th June, to have my shoulder rebuilt. Let's hope it helps my pickle ball game ...............

We do get hot days in England

It took over 20 shots to get this one photograph....


Me, and our girls.



Sunday we all got together for a BBQ at George & Dan's. And we thought it would be a good idea to get all the little ones together for a photo, to give to my step-father for his birthday.
The weather was great, sunny and quite warm, with temps in the mid 20's centigrade.


Two of the 20 we could not use, but we all had a good day, and more than enough good food. And of course more than one or two beers.....

Edward playing with Jim........

Not sure who had the most fun, but I know who got worn out first......

Grace in one of her party dresses.

A day Lichfield

Cath John and Jim
Jim and Me

On Saturday the 31st May our good friends John and Cath picked us up and we set off for the BEAD SHOP in Lichfield. We settled the boys into the local PUB and we set of up the hill to the bead shop (stopping at any shop we fancied on the way) Two hours, and three pints of the local brew for the boys later, we all set off for a nice walk around the town and back to the car. When we got back to our daughters (who had gone away for the weekend with her family) we order a curry in and a vegetarian meal for Cath. And spent a nice evening catching up.