…so said the back of a bag of cashews I found in my cupboard the other day.  Who would have thought it to be true?

If Evan asks “daddy can I have some apple juice” I usually reply “of course you can”.  So now if I ask even something like “can you get your shoes” I get a reply “of course I can”.  So far he’s not repeated anything dodgy…but one day in a fit of anger its going to happen isn’t it.  Oh dear.

We’re off to the States for a few weeks to see family and welcome baby Will into the family.  We then round it all off with a 4 day stop in Las Vegas.  Ironically we are meeting up with all of Nic’s family.  So we travel 5000 miles to get away and there they are again.  Diddy taught Evan to say “see you in Vegas baby!”.  

Right…last Friday saw a wee reunion of folks who currently or have in the past worked for my former company DBT.  After 10 years the 28th of February saw me leave the building for the last time.  I’ve been building up Shootinghip since December 2003 transitioning into doing this full time.  Its been really hard at times…perhaps harder on my dear wife.  But after taking extended holiday and reducing my hours to 3 days a week the time had come to say goodbye.  I didn’t really want a leaving do…instead I wanted to see some old faces.  I was delighted to see so many old faces…one even coming from as far as Charlotte, North Carolina.

With that in mind I need to say a big thanks to John Stevenson for prodding a few people (and for inviting Jack from NC as I had assumed there was no chance in hell he would come).  Also thanks goes to Richard and his company Visa card for buying a few rounds of drinks, Jack for picking up the Indian tab for those brave enough to soldier on and to everyone who made the trip to Fareham.

A final thank you to the current staff at DBT who were gracious in presenting me with some great leaving gifts.  I will hopefully get a bit more time to play golf this year.  Thanks to everyone.

With that in mind I suspect you won’t hear from me now until the 7th of April.

See you in Vegas, Baby!

This is from July 2006…my how things have changed!

Evan’s 3rd birthday is now complete….all 3 days of it.  After having two very small birthdays in years past it was time to branch out and give what every 3 year old wants — their own party.

His actual birthday was Thursday.  We opened presents first thing and true to form each item had to be unwrapped and inspected.  Every puzzle assembled and game played.  You can’t say he doesn’t appreciate or savour them.  The rest of the day consisted of a trip to the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth.  Action Stations was a hit, mostly because it was empty come 3:00 when we got to it.  He had 5 goes on the Merlin Helicopter simulator.  Luckly he found the auto-pilot scenario giving him great joy at flying under the bridges etc.  HMS Victory wasn’t quite as much of a hit.  Too much jabber and not enough buttons.  We still have the Harbour Tour and HMS Warrior (where I’ve shot a few weddings in the past) to see.  Luckily Action Stations is provided free on all entries on our annual pass.

The day, however, would have been quite a bit more enjoyable had Evan not been there.  Harsh I know…but goodness he had the devil in him.  Hateful!  Thankfully by Friday it had passed.  Speaking of Friday it was afternoon tea with his cousin and cake for the family.  The adults went out to the Madhuban to celebrate (any excuse for a curry).

Sunday…well, Sunday was the big day.  14 children and accompanying parents all descended on The Triangle Centre for a bouncy slide, gingerbread man decorations, colouring, ballon man making, general scooting and  tea (lunch for the American viewers).  It was a huge hit and Evan was on top of the world.  It was so great to see how much he loved it.  On the way home he said “thank you for my great party”.  Butter wouldn’t melt!

Of course this morning the question came “who’s birthday is next?”  I told him his Auntie Sandy probably wouldn’t want a bouncy slide!

Just in case…The story goes, I had to wash up the cake tin.  As I left it to soak I realised what a great image it was.  Purely accidental.

Cheeky is an apt term for Evan on Thursday

Enjoying a few pages from his Shrek storybook…the entire movie in images and small words…typos included at no additional cost.

Wow!  A puzzle.  Still a favourite around our house.

But maybe not as much of a favourite as Shrek.  We now have all 3.

Pleased with his dandy new bike!

I was waiting for him to test it out by banging his head on the wall…no joy unfortunately :)

Testing the bike out on Southsea seafront…Yes…we forgot the helmet!

 
He’s off!

…but not very far

He needs to work on his candle blowing trajectory

Check out this wicked cake topper we got on Ebay…£5.00 delivered with any character and writing

Taking the idea of a drive in a little too far

…and after the curry a little Wii Boxing action — remind you of another image of Grandad?

Honestly…would you cross her in a dark alley?

Dedicated blog readers might remember the drum set from Christmas.  It wasn’t, shall we say, very robust.  Now we’re talkin!

Nick Mason eat your heart out!

The big day…the calm before the storm.

Captain Fearless

Hands off my (cheese) balls

With the gingerbread man half eaten it was time to finally decorate it

Evan’s POV

And where, I wonder, did her learn this?

Another attempt at yet another cake

I hope all you ‘muthas’ out there had a great day yesterday (yes US readers, yesterday was the UK Mother’s Day).  We tried to make it all about mummy but we failed miserably.  We made it to the Family Service at Church.  Evan is coming out of his shell a bit.  He was very keen to go to the front to collect a flower for mummy.  Marched straight up in fact.  Afterwards we went to softplay @ Archies Launch Pad.  Nice size…great coffee and smoothies.  But as you can imagine this isn’t really about mummy.  Later that evening we were meeting up Nicola’s parents and nan for dinner so lunch consisted of a packet sandwich from Waitrose — in the car no less, before we moved on to the park where we froze our proverbials off.   

I reckon you Mothers get a raw deal.  Father’s day is in June…a sensible time when you can get outside and enjoy yourselves.  I’m starting to learn why the ‘Mericans do it April.

Right…blog images from this past weekend’s wedding.  I always say I’ll do a few…8 to 10.  But I just can’t keep it that low.  I have too many things I want to show.   Sorry about that.  For those on the ‘Cheap Seats’ table…thanks for being such a laugh.  For the singletons I have an extra special image of us all, email for details.

Francesca and Paul — Saturday March 1st 2008 — Highclere Castle

From the amazing and patented, Top’o'Dress Cam

“Walk like an Egyptian….”

Gotcha!

The light in the Bridal Suite was…well….sweet

The doorman were dead rough!

“Your name’s not on the list…you’re not getting in!”

You can’t really beat an entrance like this!

Just a small room for the ceremony.  Nothing special really :)

“I dooooooooooo”

Goran…Even he’s a witch (perhaps you had to be there)

Proof I’ll never be a sports photographer.  As the formals are taking place Gran loses her hat…

..this chap tried hard…just as he jumped, the hat blew straight back.  A boomer-hat I suppose.

“Shine…..let it Shine!”

Perhaps one of the most amazing wedding breakfast rooms on the planet!

Just a quickie for ‘HELLO!’

I reckon Fran pulls of that moody thing pretty well.

How they found time to play life size snakes and ladders I’ll never know

Sill-oh-ette

He literally sweeps her off her feet

Is that not the most amazing ceiling ever?

I don’t know how the sculpter would feel about his art being used a hat stand…but I thought it was amuzing.

The problem with cameras on the tables is that everyone just takes shots of their bums in the toilet…problem is, in the digital age you get to see the results before pudding!

Dad does some smooth talking….

…..then Paul’s Best Man brings them to their knees….

…before Fran learns a secret or two about her new husband.

Thanks to the guest for providing the great flash fill!

Paul shares the moves he learned on High School Musical