Seaside Life

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Charlie's 2nd Birthday


Following on from Charlies first birthday party in France we arrived home safely on the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon found our house full of friends and family and a host of children to celebrate again. It was a lovely afternoon with plenty of food and wine and chat. the kids all had a great time racing up and down the stairs playing hide and seek whilst Charlie's pile of presents grew and grew. As a result we took the remainder of the week to open them all with him. It's hard to believe that he is now 2 and a very articulate and strong willed little boy who is full of love and arguments and an absolute joy to be with. Roll on the next year.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Snowboarding 2009






















What a fantastic week we have had in the Alps boarding down snow-laden slopes, blue skies and the sun beating down across our faces. Perfect weather for our annual trip to the slopes. This year we found ourselves in Morzine again, in fact we rented the same chalet due to its convenience to all the amenities and its 24 hour heating system which even i who always feels the cold felt somewhat overwhelmed by at times. It was a great week, Charlie spent some of the time in the creche and some with my parents who came out too. The rest of the week was spent with us and his new found buddies George and Frank. In fact there was a lot of hero worshipping going on with George as Charlie followed him everywhere and squealed and shouted at his every move. The boys shared a bedroom which was a rather loud experience both at the beginning, middle and end of the night when a variety of voices were heard calling for either Mummy or telling Charlie to be quiet.










The snowboarding was amazing and improvements to techniques and fear factors were made all round as we managed to board across the majority of the runs obviously stopping for a mulled wine or 2 on the way. We took the toboggan out several times and introduced Charlie into the thrill of skidding and sliding down the snowy slopes. Morzine is a fantastic resort as most of the runs weave through the fir trees and so it is incredibly picturesque and magical. But strangely one day when Mike and I were out we came across a stray pig just wandering around the slopes dodging all the skiers and boarders.















Evenings were spent cooking hearty big meals washed down with beer and local wine and a cheese board. One night Rob cooked the local dish of fried potatoes, bacon and reblechon cheese, known as tartiflette. It is absolutely gorgeous but guaranteed to raise your cholesterol levels to unknown heights and very very cheesy. In fact we all woke the following morning having all had a terrible nights sleep and weird dreams proving the theory about cheese and sleep disturbances. What with the immense amount of cheese we ate at lunch i think we really did overdose on the stuff.
Friday, we celebrated Charlies 2nd birthday with a pizza party and a very expensive birthday cake bought from the local patisserie. He is getting used to having his birthdays in the snow and in France as we did exactly the same last year. We had to travel back on the Saturday, Charlies actual birthday arriving home early evening which saw me hot hoofing it up to the supermarket to buy all the things we needed for Charlies other birthday party the next day....