We appear to have been in hibernation this Winter, but now that the sun is shining again and the days are getting longer, it feels like time for another blog post to catch up a bit since Christmas. The main story of the last couple of months has been snow, so here's a few of our adventures:After the first major fall of snow, Ben's first effort (5th January) at building a snowman was a "Snow King" (from a 'Harry and the Dinosaurs' story) rather than a full size snowman, but there would be plenty of other opportunities before the winter was out.
He also enjoyed playing snow balls with Mummy in the garden.
In these first few days, Daddy struggled into work so didn't get much of a chance to play with Ben and Thomas in the snow but at the weekend, with the snow still sitting on the ground as we suffered through the big freeze, we went sledging across the fields between our house and the Castle.
Mark got more than he had bargained for as for a little while he pulled the whole family along, and then a little later, let go the sledge with Ben on it down quite a steep hill. Running alongside for a few moments, the sledge rapidly outstripped Mark and he was relieved when Ben stopped just before heading into a ditch at the bottom of the hill! (Ben, thankfully, was totally unfazed and picked himself up with a grin from ear to ear).
It was of course Thomas' first Winter and therefore his first snow, although he didn't seem very excited by it all. If you look closely at the photo above, he is asleep.
Next week, a further fall of snow, and Ben was back out in the garden, this time with a much more impressive effort.
Things culminated with a visit with Stephen and Lucy to Lyvedon New Bield, near Oundle in Northamptonshire, and the construction of our biggest Snowman of the winter, in lovely Sunday afternoon sunshine.
After we'd finished at Lyvedon New Bield, we headed into Oundle for hot chocolate and cake, and Debbie is convinced we saw Pete Postlethwaite in the coffee shop. We'll never know for sure though.
