Easter Food...

This Easter we did some baking! 

We made a Simnel cake, the eleven marizpan balls represent the twelve apostles minus Judas. We made this on Mothering Sunday, as per the tradition. 

We made some lovely hot cross buns. 

Which were well appreciated!! 

We died some eggs, with homemade dyes. 

Instead of Easter Eggs this year we made Cornflake Chocolate Nests

... and here they are with the Simnel cake, and an Easter basket that Teddy made at a stay-and-play. 

Where the wild things are...

 We recently paid a visit to Lavender Pond, a 2.5 acre wilderness space, in our community. Not typically open to the public, they were having a wild flower planting day.

The pond... where Teddy discovered frogspawn...

...your local wilderness needs you... to plant! 

..here's some of the amazing insect hotels...

... dig for victory...

... Ted checking out this path..

... and this path...

... and having a well earned break! 

Going through the archives

I realized out trip to Paris was a year ago, how time flies!  I was looking through the archives of photos and found one from last year and one from this year and thought about how much Teddy has changed, and how some things have remained the same. 

Teddy in 2015

Teddy in 2016

You may note in the second picture he is doing some heavy reading, he enjoys Amy Poehler's book Yes, Please which is really funny, he has good taste in books and comedy already. 

a leap year letter

To mark the leap year we're making a short post (leap year letter) to be repeated each leap year of things that are important to Teddy right now.

So here's a few of Ted's favourite things right now... probably his favourite things are cars and buses, especially lining them up. He's a fan of watching Peppa Pig and really anything associated with Peppa. He loves to sing the song "big red bus", and play "sleeping bunnies", and listening to nursery rhythms including signing along to twinkle twinkle little star. Teddy loves throwing and kicking balls, playing with building blocks, and pushing a wheel barrow, or walker at speed over great distances - especially up and down ramps. Some of Ted's favourite places to visit are the MoL Docklands - especially the mini-mudlarks gallery, the London Transport Museum, and the Salmon Centre. His favourite snacks are drinking babyccino and eating fruit. He's a supportive friend and likes to clap and cheer when friends complete tasks or slide down slides, and he likes spending time with his buddy Daisy and hiding in wardrobes, pushing each other around in a push along walker, and holding each others hands as their buggies roll down the road together.

Ted as Mr Darcy

This weekend we headed to the city of Bath, to meet up with the Grandparents...  

... Teddy also got to meet Jane Austen...

... and to dress up in Regency wear... 

... not to be outdone, Ro donned a bonnet too...

... and then Ted went into full Mr Darcy mode... 

... we wandered all over the city... here's the Abbey (sadly having their AGM, so we couldn't go in)... 

... we found a park, where the Grandparents could play...

... and visited the Egg Cafe (seriously child friendly cafe)...

... Ted took the Grandparents for a walk around town... until their legs got tired and a cup of tea was needed... here they're all staring at the Obelisk.. 

... now some sites of Bath, this was just a lovely street view...

.... Dalek in the shop window, why? who knows ...

... the famous weir... 

...and associated one end of the Pulteney Bridge...

... Ted playing with sticker book on the train ride home after a lovely day trip to Bath...

... sadly Ro left her scarf on the train, and in contacting lost property discovered this wonderful "Teddy Rescue" service that GWR have to reunite lost Teddy bears with their families! Perhaps influenced by the most famous lost Teddy Bear in the world (and conveniently their network hub) Paddington Bear. 

Alpacas and Ack Ack: A typical day in the East End

We try our best to adventure off on the weekends and see something new, this weekend we set off to Mudchute farm, an amazing piece of countryside in the East End...

Teddy in the wilds of the East End... 

...running through the farm path...

... ALPACA.... seriously teddy loved this alpaca...

... the pigs however scared him...

...bull in a field...we didn't go in here...

...nuff said...

... oh yeah, and there's an ack ack gun...  

...and some tropical birds...

...on the way back through Canary Wharf we saw this amazing system that wrote words in the air using sprays of water... it was drawing quite a crowd!...

Adventures in NW1

...onto the Tube...

...adventures this way.... 

...look who we bumped into, old JFK himself...

... our main destination was Regents Park, where we discovered the  Frieze Art Fair Sculpture Park...

... more sculpture...

... water fountain and the BT tower in the background... Ted loved the water fountains... 

... our destination, the Play Ground.... it's an amazing looking play ground with a great big slide, but I think it was a little cold as the slide was a little slow today... 

... after much playing, we made our way to the Wellcome Collection, where we saw the Tibet's Secret Temple exhibit, and had a spot of lunch...  

Let the reading begin

"Libraries Gave Us Power"

Teddy is now the proud owner of a Southwark Library card... so he can get his own books out!

We're also entering a "winter book challenge" to read a book everyday and record what it was between now and the end of march.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas from the Cull's... here's what we got up to over Christmas... 

In the run up to Christmas Stockings were hung... hoping Santa didn't forgot about DRE

On Christmas Eve we attended a Christingle service at St James Church, during which this brilliant video from New Zealand was screened...

On Christmas Day we made a Veggie Christmas Dinner.... 

Christmas Day Cooking underway!

The Menu: 

Nut Roast

Texan Stuffing

Roast Potatoes

Roasted Red Peppers stuffed with Fennel 

Roast Parsnips

Bashed Neeps and Carrots

Braised Red Cabbage with Apples

Brussel Sprouts

Gravy

Caramelised Orange Trifle

Christmas Cake 

Mince Pies

Christmas cake... yum! 

After Lunch Presents were opened by the tree... thank-you for all our presents! 

... and then a walk was taken, during which Teddy took a well earned nap... the rest of the day was food, walks, playing, naps, seeing Christmas lights once it got dark.