De Silva Family Blog

One milestone I've been really looking forward to is teaching my boys to ride a bike and today we achieved it, much sooner than expected! We attended a session at Barleyfields Children's Centre in Woolmer Green aimed at helping parents teach their kids to ride.  Having just woken up in a strop Ollie stomped off to mope on the sidelines, but Leo was riding all by himself within 15 minutes!  Seeing this, Ollie decided to try and, sure enough, he was also riding around before too long! Well done boys, Mummy and I are so proud of you both!

Leo and Ollie were inspired by Helen Skelton's trek to the South Pole and figured that they could face their own challenge of running a mile for Sport Relief. A mile is a long way to go on little legs, but Leo did brilliantly muttering, "Never give up!" the whole way! Together we managed to raise £235 for Sport Relief, so we'd like to extend a great big thank you to all of our sponsors. Love, Team De Silva

Leo, Ollie and Tristram had their 'Superhero and Princesses' party today. Poor Tristram was feeling poorly, but he still managed to put on a good show as Ben 10. Mr Marvel, the magician was the best children's entertainer that I've come across and he held about 40 young kids enthralled for well over an hour! However, as far as Leo was concerned, the pinnacle of his act was when Leo got to beat him over the head with a fluffy wand! You've got to wonder what goes through that boy's head! To top it all off, Kelly made the most amazing three-tier superhero cake. Ollie was very excited by Iron Man bursting out of it, saying "I'm going to eat Iron Man's head. Is I'm a baddie?!!" Here are a few pics from the party .

For Leo's fifth birthday we went to the Natural History and Science museums. Seeing dinosaurs the boys' birthdays is becoming a bit of a tradition, having visited Dinosaurs Unleashed for the last two years. As you can see, Ollie dressed perfectly for the occasion, with his black tie and blue Batman cape/towel! Unfortunately, he didn't see much holding his binoculars backwards! When we left the Natural History Museum, the queue was about a mile long! We were a little worried about the queue at the Science Museum, but as it turned out, there was none. I wonder what that says about our next generation...

Leo has a morning routine at school, where he takes off his coat and shoes, puts his snack in a box and answers the 'question of the day'. Today, his question was, Which animal starts with the letter 'F'? a) Duck; or b) Fish. Leo answered the question quickly and then said "If 'Duck' started with an 'F', it would sound like F***!" He was a little bemused by the snorts of laughter from Kelly. Luckily even his teacher, Mrs Corcoran, found it funny.

I've been a bit busy recently, as you may have guessed from my lack of posts. So I thought that I'd take a bit of me time and work on my photography. I spent the day wandering around London taking a few snaps. Here are a few of my favourites . Hopefully next year I'll find a little more time to blog?

The pumpkin was put to good use at our Halloween party in the afternoon, attended by 10 (!) of the children from our original NCT group. It was very special to have them all around the same table, and then troop off into the darkness with glow bands shining to wreak havoc on the neighbours who very kindly supplied many treats for our ravaging hoards of little monsters.

Leo asked if I would carve him a pumpkin for his halloween party tomorrow. We had a look at some examples on the internet and he picked his favourite. Unfortunately I didn't think I'd be able to manage the "Yoda" pumpkin, so we settled on this...   Not bad for a first attempt? Leo thought so too and I received a big kiss and cuddle for my efforts. Perhaps next year I'll try the Yoda one (although as Yoda would say, "Do, or Do not. There is no try!")

October is always a difficult month for I'm often away for most of it with work trips. In fact I've just returned from LA, where I was staying at the Beverly Wilshire hotel (sounds difficult - I know). Perhaps it's more difficult for my family... This time, however, the boys didn't mind me leaving as I happened to meet some very important people. They weren't bothered by my work colleagues, nor even President Obama! They were far more impressed by the Avengers! The boys adore the Avengers, so my meeting them in LA made the whole ordeal worthwhile. Particularly when I told then that I would be bringing back their favourite Avengers' costumes. The look on their little faces as I walked in the door was priceless. Thanksfully, I won't be going away for a while.

As Leo grows so slowly, it's easy to think of him as my little baby. So I was rather sad to discover that his pre-school days are at an end! He had his graduation 'ceremony' today and judging by all the tears, many other parents feel the same way. Leo has thoroughly enjoyed his time at St Michael's pre-school . The staff have been wonderful and in particular Leo has formed a very strong bond with Mrs May, his key worker. He loves her so much so that he doesn't want to go to 'big' school because he'll miss her. Fortunately, Sycamore class is just next door!

Andy and Fiona celebrated their 40th birthday on The Golden Hinde , Sir Francis Drake's warship, near London Bridge. Leaving the munchkins with my parents, we booked a hotel and prepared for a wild night out. However, after a few beers and some daddy dancing I was happy to exchange my dancing shoes for some slippers! Hopefully when I reach 40, I'll have as much energy as Andy and Fiona. Happy Birthday guys!

Dad rather naively let Leo and Ollie play with the garden hose. As you can see, he soon learnt his lesson!

Leo has been a very good boy of late, patiently earning stickers for good behaviour such as eating all his dinner, staying dry through the night, etc. He finally made 100 and got to choose his reward - a day out to Legoland! Wahey!!!

Having had such a great time in Jersey last year, we decided to return for more. This time we were joined by Andy, Fiona and their brood. The weather wasn't quite so good this year, but there was enough the keep the children occupied. Despite the high noise levels, having five under-5s was easier than I'd feared! We met Captain Jack Sparrow at the Maritime Museum who taught the children to sword fight. Alex was in his element and although Ollie was nervous at the time, he took the lesson to heart and has been incorrigible ever since, much to Leo's dismay. We had plenty more fun on the beach and at Amazin' Maize (a theme park for kids). We dressed up for a posh meal at the Atlantic Hotel to celebrate Fiona's birthday and I was lucky enough to have a quick landscape photography tutorial from Tricia Kennedy . Check out our web album for more holiday snaps.

Our little boy is growing up so fast. It feels like only yesterday he was a tiny bundle of blankets, and now he's off to school! It was his first day at pre-school today (he'll be going for one morning a week) and as you can see he was raring to go. He's been desperate to go for months now and was so proud to receive his book bag last week. I only hope that they are ready for our little clown!

We spent the Easter weekend in Wales this year and were blessed with some great weather. The boy's had a wonderful time following Grampa Clive around (partly due to the six Easter eggs they received!), whilst I got some much needed kip. I had fun at my first "point to point", trying to be a sports photographer, whilst the boys tried their hand at skimming stones down by the river. Here's some photos from our trip . Hope you all had a great Easter break.

Mary was telling Ollie a story about Spiderman in a 'sticky situation' this evening, when she asked him, "What should Spiderman do?" "Cry!" he said. "Superheroes don't cry!" she responded.. ""Pray then.". ""To who?". ""Me!".

Hi from Oz! I've been in Sydney with work and given the ridiculously long flight, I've decided to tag a few days of holiday onto the end of the trip. I've walked for miles, had some great food and caught up with my cousin and his family. The highlight of the trip was Taronga Zoo this morning, where I saw boxing kangaroos, a newborn gorilla breastfeeding, a cute baby elephant playing football and many other amazing animals. Check out some of my snaps... Nevertheless, I can't wait to get back to the UK and my own little zoo!

...blow out a candle? Our little boys have gone loopy over Spiderman. Leo got a costume for his birthday last month and poor Ollie has been desperate for one ever since. Fortunately he didn't have long to wait, as less than a month later, he had his very own Spiderman party. Check out the pics . I hope I get muscles like that for my birthday...

Ollie can be a cheeky little monkey. However he's not too sophisticated about it yet: Naughty Boy Ollie: Kiss. Cuddle. Now go 'way! Mummy: Why do you want me to go away? Ollie: Me naughty / Wee over there / Drink (bath) water! Greedy Boy Ollie was too busy playing to sit at the table and eat his ice cream, so he got down and Mary finished it off. He returned ten minutes later asking for his ice cream. Mummy: It's gone darling, I ate it. Ollie: (Holds out his bowl to mummy) Spit it out! Clever Boy Leo had made a den with Nana Joan, but wanted to be the sole occupier. He announced, "No one is allowed in here. Only me!" Ollie responded, "I'm me!" and promptly barged in. Here are a few pics of our funny little thing in action...