Gang Weekend

Everyone popped round this weekend for early Christmas, bowling, films and a touch of very loud, out of tune Rock Band! ;-)

Elliot 7 weeks, Charlie 3yrs and 51 weeks!

This weekend we finally were free and popped up to meet baby Elliot. We also surprised Charlie with a 1 week early 4th birthday party! We had an excellent time just chilling and BBQing.

• See all the photos here...

Weekend at Keith & Jo's

This weekend we celebrated Barry's late birthday at Keith and Jo's in Southsea. Played a load of Guitar Hero, had a cracking Chinese, then played Singstar until we were hoarse! On Sunday morning, some of us were a bit worse for wear due to wine/bourbon combo, but we walked down by the boating lake and along to the pitch and putt for a full on cooked breakfast.

We also volunteered to take Jamie home to Wear, as its right by my aunt's neighbours who were selling a car Barry was interested in. Literally 9 miles apart, but Barry ended up buying the new car!

Old (background) vs. New (foreground)

Gareth's Pad

This weekend we headed to Gareth's new pad in Andover to meet up with Mark, Carol, Charlie and Elliot "the bump"! As usual a very chilled weekend, lots of films, poker, playgrounds, Pimms in the sun and Gareth's home made fajitas! Also as usual everyone just seemed nackered!! Sunday morning to recover from too much drinking we tried to go to the greatest named cafe - Fat Piggies! Unfortunately it was closed :-(

• See more of Charlie's Cartonneeze here...

Late Christmas

Well its mid-January and we still have our decorations up, waiting for "Christmas Take Three" (almost, as no turkey dinner!). Carol was ill and nearly everyone else seemed knackered as we all kept falling asleep! Charlie had her late presents, we ate too much on Saturday and went out for Wagamama and to see Madagascar 2 on Sunday.

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Charlie's Belated 3rd Birthday

We're a bit over a month late for Charlie's 3rd and we're also exactly 1 year away from our Florida holiday together! We went to Thomas Land in Drayton Manor Park, the weather held out and we had a nice day. The rest of the time we spent chilling and catching up over a game of Samba de Amigo. As usual a great weekend at Mark and Carol's!

• See all the photos here...

Watching Mark & Gareth on a high-spinning ride (left),and the safer option (right)!

Which one is Barry??

Spamalot Theatre Review

After waking up with achy heads from the night before and crashing Starbucks for lattes and water, we headed to The Palace Theatre to see Spamalot, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It followed the plot of the film loosely including some of the songs along the way. However they had added loads of comic moments and new songs. It was thoroughly enjoyable and made our eyes water with laughter in several places!


Ben 4 out of 5
Ben 4 out of 5

http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/

Absolut Icebar London

Its Mark and Carol's 10th Anniversary and we'd all booked to goto the Icebar in London. Run by the same chain that do the Ice Hotel in Lapland, it was a large freezer room full of ice art and tables, all lit moodily inside the ice, with Absolut Vodka cocktails served in ice glasses!

We had a fantastic evening, and all got slightly sloshed on the cocktails, both in the Icebar and in the normal bar. We then wobbled back towards the hotel around 11.30pm and stopped at a chinese restaurant at the top of China Town, where we had the most delicious meal! To top off the night we raided the ice cream machine in the hotel lobby for Magnums all round.

• See all the photos here...

The Gang Visit

Mark, Carol, Charlie and Gareth all came this weekend. We had homemade pizza, Charlie cooked cakes and rice crispy treats, and we had a whopping big BBQ!! We did loads of painting and drawing, but most of my pictures looked like a 10 year olds! Lots of alcohol was also consumed! Shame the weather was mostly wonky, but we amanaged some sun on Sunday and everyone had a good time, even poor Mark who had to drive back to work on Saturday!

• See all the photos here...

Braving the cold outdoors

Warm inside

I think I might be a bit too big for this playground equipment!!

Where as Charlie just looks cool!

Scooby visits!!

Summer has Gone Again :-(

What is going on with our weather? Keith and Jo decided to share their cigarettes with the snowman and then pelt each other with snow.

Singstar plus Alcohol

Keith, Jo and Jamie came up this weekend for fun 'n frolics. Was nice to meet Keith's new girlfriend, Jo, and we had a blast after a few drinks on Singstar. They had Keith's favourite A-ha song, which he got a bit carried away to, it woke Jamie up, who needless to say was very amused by it!

Devil vs. Cat

Had a very relaxing weekend at Mark and Carol's. We had big plans to goto the fireworks, but as we were all a bit knackered, we used Charlie's cough as an excuse not to go and vegged out with crusty bread, wine and a movie!

Saturday morning we got up late, and played Play-doh and Buzy Bumblebee with Charlie. I taught Mark how to use the Play-doh tools!

Barry also managed to "violate" Carol's washing up bowl by having a bit too much wine ;-)

Thank You for my Birthday Surprise!

We've just finished editing the video (thanks Julie!) from my birthday at Monkey World. Have also send everyone a DVD of the photos and video. Had a fantastic day, thanks everyone for coming!

Ben's 33rd Birthday Surprise

Well Barry did it again with a big surprise for me. After a long drive with having no clue as to where I was going we turned up at this beautiful little B&B in Dorset. Walking through the door I saw mum and Julie waiting. Little did I know that Carol and Charlie weren't far behind, and that Keith and Jamie would be coming on Saturday! We had a fantastic roast dinner from the carvery that night and retired to our huge, comfortable rooms.

In the morning Barry gave me my present of a monkey and told me that we were all going to Monkey World! I knew it was down that way, but didn't realise we were 5 minutes around the corner! We had a fantastic day, which went far to quickly, wandering around Monkey World, seeing rescued monkies from all over the world.

• See all the photos here...

Charlie's 2nd Birthday!

Mark, Carol, Charlie, Gareth and Lisa all came round this weekend for our gang get together and Charlie's 2nd Birthday. We were going to go down to the flat on Hayling, but the weather report was crappy, however in the end it came out boiling hot and we were in Basingstoke!! Oh well!! On Saturday we decided to have an unplanned picnic in the park, and after a quick trip to Sainsbury's for sarnies we were ready. We had an excellent weekend just chilling and playing.

BBQ in the Sun

Had a fantastic weekend and Mark and Carol's. Treble birthday celebration, Mark's delayed 40th, Milo's Gareth's 26th and Charlie's 1½! We chilled out, went to see Spiderman 3, played loads of games and eventually had a BBQ when the sun came out. Unfortunately we had to zoom off on Sunday morning as I'm going away on business :-(

Charlie on her bouncy castle

Gang minus Milo Gareth