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...

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

Dear Fans I've been bugging Daddy for nearly six months to update the blog and I've waited so long, that I've finally learned to type myself, so here goes. In the past six months, I have... ... had my first sports day ...made a fire with daddy, ate marshmellows and put it out with my water pistol. made chocolate cakes... had a party with my cousins and aunties ('cause some old people were 60 - here are some pics )... washed the car (I was really after Ollie!)... went to Tenerife (here's our holiday album )... was a wise man-pig in the pre-school nativity... and became best friends with my bro bro!

For my first proper holiday, I went to Jersey with Mama, Dada, Leo, Nana and Grampa. We went on a big boat, which was so exciting. There was a ramp up to the shop and I spent most of the trip running up and down it, with Grampa Clive chasing me. We stayed in a big house with a huge flower bed outside for digging in. Every day we went on an adventure or three. We spent a lot of time at the most beautiful beaches. With so much sun, sea and sand - what more could a little person want! Some days we had to do adult stuff, but even that was fun - especially when a seagull stole Grampa Clive's ice cream! Halfway through the holiday Nana and Grampa left and we moved to a lovely new house - it even came with CBeebies, a football pitch and my own king-sized bed. The next day, we visited a castle where my brother Leo the Lionhart, King of Gorey Castle, led the fight against the French invaders. I fired the cannon that sank their ship and even saved Dada from a swordsman. King Leo...

For the bank holiday Monday, we got some bike seats and went on a short trip around Grafham Water with Roz, Sophie and their parents. In typical bank holiday style it was cold and rainy. Our resolve faltered as we thought of our poor, wet, shivering offspring strapped to the back of our bikes. We forged ahead regardless and were rewarded with the weather easing somewhat and even a ray or two of sunshine. After lunch Mary had a number of passers-by laughing at her. She was a little put out until she looked backwards and found the source of their mirth - a headless Ollie!

I've been a good boy recently and eaten all my dinners so was finally tall enough to go on the the big boy rides at Legoland. I'd been looking forward to it for ages, so was very excited when Mummy and Daddy said we could go. Things started off well as Ollie met Bob the Builder and managed to get me a job on a building site... Unfortunately, it was only a small job but that did give me time to go on the Sky Train and a balloon ride. After helping Daddy put out a fire, I was famished, so had some grub in Dragon's Castle. . That afternoon things took a turn for the worse as, despite passing my driving test, I was caught on camera for reckless driving... ... and put behind bars! Things went from bad to worse as, after being let out early for good behaviour, I got eaten by a lion! Fortunately I'm a tough little thing and he spat me out, choosing instead to go after my, much juicier, younger brother. We celebrated our lucky escape with a quick pint of...

We celebrated Ollie's birthday a few weeks ago , together with Leo and Ros. So, for his actual birthday, we thought we'd celebrate with a day trip to London. We started by visiting my office, where the boys worked their charms on various colleagues and were well paid with chocolate, sweets and toys! We then headed off to the main attraction, Dinosaurs Unleashed , an amazing interactive exhibition. Leo was really excited about the whole thing, until we entered the building and he came face to face with a life-sized, roaring, T-Rex. He turned tail and ran! Fortunately, after some cajoling and some (very nice) hugs, he managed to overcome his fear and spent the next few hours becoming a palaeontologist: digging for fossils, piecing the bones together, classifying dinosaurs and learning all about them. He even appeared in a video with one! Meanwhile Ollie slept peacefully in his pushchair, blissfully unaware that he was sleeping under the most vicious carnivore ever to walk...

Most Sunday mornings, our Matriarch (Grandma) gathers the De Silva clan together. These meetings are often characterised by loud music, crazy dancing and offerings to the God of Mahem - and that's just the adults! The pygmies love their time together and it's heart-warming to watch them careering around the living room shouting at the tops of their voices. No meeting of the De Silva clan would be complete without the traditional feast and Grandma's special soup is always a welcome winter warmer, guaranteed to slip down the throats of even the most temperamental eater.

I had my first birthday party today and it was brilliant! I shared it with Leo and Roz, but luckily I had my own cake! Kelly made it especially for me but it was disguised as Thomas the Tank Engine. I figured it out though! In fact, everyone was disguised: Leo was a fireman and Roz was Peppa Pig, but there was also Spiderman, Snow White, SpongeBob SquarePants, faries, princesses, cowboys, etc. We had a nice entertainer who was a bit mad and liked jumping around to the music. I preferred jumping around on the bouncy castle, although I did enjoy the parachute. The ball pit was fun and the food delicious (Daddy didn't let me try the beer), but the best thing of all was having all my favourite people with me. If you'd like to see some pictures of my party, Daddy's put them here . So long, and thanks for all the prezzies. Love you all. Ollie xxx

As Dado's getting old he needs the help of his grandchildren to blow out the candles on his cake! Apparently they think he needs help eating it too...

Having loved our time in Centre Parcs earlier this summer, we returned for another week. The lodge was a wonderful woodland retreat and I loved spending the entire week with the family. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their time with all the swimming, climbing, running, etc. and Leo became very proficient on his scooter. By the end of the week, however, all the activity had reduced our boys to mere shadows of their former selves. During our last meal there, poor Ollie slumped forward in his highchair, rested his chin on the dinner table and looked at us as if to say, "I can't take it anymore!" He couldn't even summon the strength lift his head again, barely opening his mouth for the odd spoonful of food. And for those of you familiar with Ollie's (a.k.a. the Beast of Mardley Heath) voracious appetite, that's really saying something.

When Mary complimented Leo on how nice he looked in his lovely new top he replied, "Mummy, why do you always have to go shopping?!!" After spluttering in my Starbucks latte, I realised that he had a good point. You see, we've recently taken on a nanny and she's looked after the boys for the last three tuesday mornings. During that time, Mary has spent her newfound freedom shopping. When we were considering the merits of a nanny verses a nursery, the cost factor was very definitely in favour of a nanny. Unfortunately, I'd neglected to consider that the true cost of a nanny is not just her wages but, perhaps more importantly, what your wife does with her time!

Mummy said I could go to Legoland when I was big - now look at me!