Making a Cake for Ba-Ba

Since Ana's school has encouraged bringing things in your 'Show Me Shoebox', we have started to make little projects. They mostly take days to make so it's a bit of a theme. In the month of May we celebrated a lot of birthdays...Andrew, Uncle John and mine. Ana and I looked at some very fancy cakes at Waitrose and decided we were going to make our own. Below is our attempt to make a 'special' cake for Ba-Ba (Andrew).

Splash Dancing With My Posse!

What is a pool party without dancing and singing even if you are the one making the music?!?!
On occasion Ana will just break out into song and dance. I thought if you had not seen it before then you'd like to take a look at what sort of entertainment Ana provides us on a regular basis.


We are at Aada's house taking a break from the paddling pool :)

Splash splash!

Tuesday was pretty hot so Ana went over the Aada's house to enjoy her paddling pool.



Chasing around the pool...





Ana, Aada and Tymek soaking up rays and goofing around. It was a really great afternoon!

Friends and Family

Ana has 2 cousins around her age. Talitha (2yrs) and Georgina (3.5yrs) sitting together at the annual family reunion (30/08/2008)



Ana and Talitha hanging out during New Year (03/01/2009) at Aunt Helen's house in Tunbridge Wells. Talitha is Ana's cousin and she came down from London for a quick visit.


Ana with Tymek one of Ana's first boy friends in Cambridge (31/03/2009). Tymek is from Poland and he is best friends with Ana and Aada.



Daddy's brothers and sister at Chris' 50th birthday in 2007. Doesn't look like they have aged much in 2 years...still handsome Hicklings at Alistair's party below.


All of Daddy's brothers and sister (L-R Mary, Chris, Alistair, Granny, Daddy) at Alistair's 50th birthday party in Tunbridge Wells (04/04/2009). It was a great party!

Continuing the Festivities...Sunday

Ana has lots of Uncles, Aunts and cousins. She loves to socialize and there were plenty of opportunity for it this weekend. Chris and Aileen Hickling hosted the Sunday gathering in their beautiful garden.



Making Pimms is an English tradition for the summer. It takes many people and tasters to get it right! (L-R) Andrew, Ellie and Chris making the perfect Pimms.



Andrew with his favorite sister Mary.



Andrew with his mom Patricia or Granny to most of the Hickling family.



Granny with Sarah and Ellie (L-R)



Patricia and Uncle John who is her older brother and 90 this year.



Simon and his wife Miriam Broadhead. Simon is Uncle John's oldest son.



Andrew with Sarah Broadhead and Miriam.



Emily, Nick and Ollie having a rest by the swing.



Ana making use of Chris and Aileen's yard by riding her bike like a champ!

Birthday Bash Weekend

This past weekend was really special because we celebrated 3 birthdays!! It's was Andrew and Bing's birthday but even more special it was Andrew's Uncle John's 90th Birthday! The whole weekend was a gathering of Andrew's mother Patricia's family for the party so we had Broadheads from Ireland, Rusbys from London and Hicklings.



Ana wore a new pretty dress! Here she is posing and giving me her 'SMILE' for the camera before we make our way to the party.



Ana's Great Uncle John who turned 90. He immigrated to Ireland so most all his children and grandchildren came from Ireland to celebrate. He was given lots of balloons to celebrate the grand occasion.



Though they only just met, Ana made friends with Abagail her cousin (4years old). Abagail is great granchild to Great Aunt Elizabeth Rusby. Abagail and Ana were the youngest attending the party.



(L-R) Claire Hickling and Sophie Broadhead the oldest grandchildren of Patricia and John.





The Hickling being silly as usual with Andrew leading the pack!



Uncle John with 2 of his grandsons and Chris Hickling.



Joe Dodson and Charlotte Rusby who will be getting married in 2 weeks. Welcome Joe to the clan!



Rusby, Broadhead and Hickling...spouses, children and grandchildren of Elizabeth, John and Patricia. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful party. A great opportunity for all of us to meet and get to know each other for a wonderful birthday celebration!

Summer Begins in Cambridge

Lammas Park is not too far away from where we live in Cambridge and it's got all you would ever want as a kid to enjoy the warmer weather. Ana had a blast this past Friday with her friends Aada, Tymek, Hagin...swings, see-saw, slides, ice cream!!!



After the park we bought rasberries and blueberries from the market in Cambridge city center and ate them while enjoying setting of the sun. Can you tell Ana LOVES rasberries?!?