well, i suspect that the last time i put this many pictures all in one post i promised never, ever to do so again. oh well, as i am not sure how to break them all up into separate ones, here we go!
these pics, whilst not in chronological order, are all from the last 3 or so days where we have been having loads of fun with the visiting Harlo gang. some of the pictures, like this first one for instance, show Colin and Angela bravely walking away from the kitchen and just having fun!
William didn't seem particularly disorientated by having three days of going to and from Grandma and Grandad's house, as far as i can see. far from it really - i think he's taken quite a shine to being the centre of attention!
queues, for let us be honest there were that many people there that queues were possible, were formed to have a go at holding William and giving him a big loving cuddle. as patient as Angela and Erika were for a turn, though, it did seem that more often than not Grandma was at the front of the queue!
yes Gillian & all involved in New Zealand, the above pic is primarily for your benefit, as it shows of William wearing the splendid shoes you sent for him! he quite likes them in the sense that he has tried to eat them more than once. as far as we can work out, something appearing to be edible is William's sign of approval thus far.
now then, with a few South African born people on hand and the odd token English born person, an impromptu Test was arranged to see who might make it into the next English team. James showed quite some style in taking up a defensive position, ready to send the ball flying through the air.
a skills display was not limited to James, mind - Lyla has quite an accurate throwing arm on her, and regularly connected the ball with the stumps!
i believe that Andrew and Christopher intended to carry on with the match after we had gone home. i might (might) have led them to believe that the unwritten rule in their Uncle Bob's house was that if you did a shot that was so good that it broke a window, he bought you an iPod thingie in celebration of it; the bigger the window broken equaling a bigger GB size one too. i suspect Colin & Angela intervened and told them that this wasn't the case, which is a bit of a pity.
onwards to another arena of contest, then, and one in which James feels he cannot be beaten. that would of course be the arena of being a Jedi Knight. here he is showing off something that looks like a lightsabre, and indeed the magnificent t-shirt that the Harlos brought for him!
now that i think about it, another reason Colin might be quite content to stay in the kitchen is that he doesn't get beaten so frequently with plastic toys whilst he is in there. when he comes out of the kitchen he seems to be transformed into "Darth Colin", and has to battle for the fate of the galaxy.
Colin is not the only one who has been tempted by the dark side of the force, apparently. here we can see young Jedi Knight James having to put aside his personal feelings and battle his cousin, she who has become Darth Lyla.
it's a bit like Anakin vs Obi-Wan, really. except without all that lava. and indeed ramifications for the future relationship between Luke & Leia. well, OK, it's not really a bit like Anakin vs Obi-Wan, then. at least the version by James and Lyla doesn't feature Jar Jar Binks, i guess.
James vs Lyla had a somewhat happier ending, anyway, as they were reunited by the power of the force of their love for sitting with Grandad.
and, whilst we are on the go with family pictures, here's one of us kindly taken by Erika, before Colin & Angela sat down and joined for the pic you have already seen. which, if you read this site in the order i post them, means you have just, sort of kind of, engaged in some form of time travel. i think.
and just in case you think i was kidding about Grandma somehow being forever at the front of the queue to give William a love and a cuddle.....
and why, in the words of the greatest film critic ever, although he never ever said it on his show, not?
to end off this rather epic post, then, here are glimpses of the magnificent Easter Egg hunt(s) conducted on Sunday. the plural is hinted at as there were, sort of, three of them. first Lyla and James hunted some down, then Andrew and Christopher, and finally us sort of adult types had a go at it.
i am not at all sure that photographic evidence of the "grown ups" hunting for eggs exists, but who care when you have smashing pictures of Lyla finding some?
now, i could use this next picture to claim that Richard participated in the egg hunt with some skill, but it would be dishonest. this, rather, is a picture of him simply just undertaking to "look after" the eggs Lyla found!
just look at the sense of pride on his face. the last time i saw him that happy was when he found the zoom button on a DVD player, something that enabled and empowered him to watch the whole of Convoy whilst focusing exclusively on the chrome rubber duck on the front of Kris Kristofferson's truck.
instead of discussing Richard's love of yellow eggs and films about trucks driving in an absolutely massive line, let us instead admire some pictures from the great hunt. here they are crossing the mighty Bridge Over The River Koi in search of more religiously inspired confectioneries.
there were more pictures like the one above, but they just show Colin and Andrew taking pictures. as good as the two of them look taking pictures, it would all just be a bit silly for this site to have them here. which is saying something.
onwards, and in the trees and plants many, many fine examples of Easter treats were to be found!
it was very, very kind of Grandad to go along with James and Lyla to help them find the eggs. it was kinder still of him to eat one or two of them, just to check that they were suitable for his beloved grandchildren.
and, after they had found all the sweets, what were they to do with them? well, there was only one option for James - to show them to William and see if he was allowed to share them all with his beloved baby brother.
and on that naturally nice note, so ends this rather large post! we've all had a fantastic weekend, i trust the same is true for you wherever you are!!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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