Family News

This is the new Clapp family's news and pictures page

Charlie and Emilia (Millie) Clapp live in Sawston with their Mummy and Daddy. Here are some pictures of the things we have been getting up to.

Emilia and Charlie Clapp

29 November - Godparents visit

There was a special service at church to celebrate baptism so Mummy invited our godparents over for tea and we all went to the service together. Here we are playing with Sue, Millie's godmother. Tim played the piano, while Ruth (Charlie's godmother) and John sang along/listened. The previous day, Mummy saw a sparrowhawk catch a pigeon and land in the hen run. She quickly went to get her camera, but disturbed the sparrowhawk and it flew off. Here is her picture of it flying over the shed in pursuit of the pigeon that got away.
sue with charlie and millie

17 November - Trip to Welney

We went on a trip to Welney with Rosie and Phil, and Millie's friend Magnus and his mummy Catherine. We had fun looking at swans, geese and ducks. Catherine and Phil were real twitchers and looked through their binoculars at marsh harriers and other birds. We all had a little picnic in the viewing platform while we were waiting for the birds to be fed. Apart from Charlie being travel sick in Phil's car on the way over, we all had a lovely time.
riding a swan

9 November - Sally's first egg! - we had it fried and it was very yummy.

8 November - News

Poor Charlie has been ill and has spent most of the last two days in bed being very tired, moany and unhappy. He was slightly better this evening, so lets hope the worst is over. Millie has been learning how to walk. She took a couple of stumbling steps a few weeks ago but today she has walked across the room and has launched herself off a few times and arrived without falling!! Here are some pictures of Sally (white), Nora (black) and Mabel (grey) who are settled in well and have found a very nice perching place on the old pergola.
hens

24 October - Visit to Claudia's

Mummy, Charlie and Millie went to visit Claudia as Daddy was off playing hockey most of the day. We had a lovely time playing with her toys and we went to buy crickets for the baby spiders. We had lunch in a pub and then Claudia showed us how to play her Indian drums (called the Tabla).
charlie playing drums

Silly Children during October

Here are some pictures of Charlie with his tiger on his head (I don't know why!?), and one of Millie showing how well she can store her lunch in her eyebrows for later. We also went to visit Rosie, who had made some lovely carrot cakes. Charlie helped to ice them and made little marzipan carrots for the tops. Here is Phil, Rosie, Charlie and Millie showing off the cakes before they rather hastily got consumed!! Millie got into the Halloween spirit and dressed up for the day in her skeleton babygrow.
tiger on head

10 October - New arrivals

First some news about Millie - she can now climb the stairs, can toddle along just holding on with one hand, has 7 teeth and her other tear duct has finally unblocked so she finally no longer has gungy eyes!! Hurray!!

On Saturday we went off to buy some hens for the garden. Mummy got very excited as she has been waiting to get some for a few weeks and had made a special basket to take them home in. There is a white Sussex hen called Sally, a black hen called Nora and a grey hen called Mabel. All have settled in well but are much happier being able to roam about in their larger run at the far end of the garden. Mummy is currently trying to deter cats, which seem to be frightening the chickens. On Wednesday the cat had them all flapping about so much that they flew over the fence and escaped!! After getting them all back again, Mummy made the fence higher and has tried to deter the cats with spikey wire. Grrrrr
new hens

2 to 9 October 2009 - Holiday to the Isle of Wight

We went on holiday to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight to stay in a big house called 'Ashleigh' with our friends Lucy (aged 3), Luke (aged 1 1/2) and their parents Sarah and Rhys. We went on a ferry to get over to the island which was good fun and on the way to the house we stopped at Bembridge Windmill. The house was very nice and had a play room in the attic and in the garden was a tree castle and a badger sety (there was a large hole in the lawn but we didn't see any badgers). We got down to the beach (at Ventnor and at Shanklin) quite a lot but it was too cold or windy to stay for very long. During the week we visited a model village, a steam railway, an aquarium, a model railway, a butterfly world and fountain world, and a farm park. Lots of fun was had playing in the tractor tyres and straw bales in the barn at the farm. Here are pictures of us with Daddy on the beach, and a picture of Charlie waiting for the steam train with Mummy, Rhys (and you can just about see Sarah). For more pictures from our holiday click here.

19 September - Victorian Family Day and Teddy Bear's Picnic at Newnham College

We went with Phil, Andrew and Rosie to Newnham College. Phil made Millie and Rosie's pinnies and Mummy made my waistcoat so we all looked very Victorian. Rosie and Charlie had fun on the swing boats and running around in the garden. We all had a lovely picnic and the weather was very warm and just right for spending a leisurely afternoon in some lovely gardens.
little victorians

12/13 September - James's Party and Playing at Home

On Saturday Millie's friend James had his first birthday party. Charlie liked playing in the sand (here he is with James and Millie). Millie showed off her new shoes and socialised with her friends (here she is with Neri). On Sunday Charlie was rather moody and Millie had a cold so we stayed home. Millie enjoyed eating her chocolate biscuit before playing rough and tumble with Charlie and having a cuddle with Daddy.
James Party playing with sand

2 September - Millie is 8 months old

To celebrate being such a big girl she has learnt to crawl, can take a few steps while holding on with just one hand and had now got 6 teeth. Charlie is not so keen on Millie's new crawling ability because she can now come over and play with his toys!!

30 August - trip to Colne Valley Railway

We decided it would be nice to have a trip to the steam railway today and Mummy called Granny and Grandad to see if they wanted to come too (and they did). We all met in the car park and had lots of fun having tea in the buffet car; riding in a steam train and a diesel train; riding on the minature railway; making the model trains go round by pressing buttons, and looking at the little garden railway. We all had so much fun that we forgot to take many pictures, but here is Charlie on an old tractor and Mummy and Millie in the buffet car. When we got home we delivered Rosie's decorated cakes to her and stopped to have tea. Ruth and baby Fiona also stopped by and Millie had fun playing with a baby smaller than her. Here are all the girls together!
charlie on tractor

29 August - the Village Show

Yesterday Rosie came over and we had lots of fun making vegetable animals and decorating fairy cakes to submit to the Sawston Village Flower Show. Mummy got very enthusiastic and planned to submit her knitting, crochet, basket and baking!! We had lots of fun making mess with icing and playing with carrot penguins that we also made. We managed to each ice 6 cakes without eating them!! Here they are. Today we visited the show in the afternoon. However, the competition was very stiff and we didn't win anything. Mummy won first prize for her knitting, and a second prize for her crocheted jumper, which she was very pleased about.
cakes

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25 August - Trip to Wimpole

We all had a bit of bad day yesterday, so Mummy needed to get out of the house today. We went to Wimpole Farm for the afternoon and had a lovely time. Mummy even managed to take some pictures even though she was carrying Millie round. Charlie did very well exploring the farm on foot. Charlie and Millie played on the play things and we explored the straw bale maze. We ate some mini-muffins under an apple tree and then had a ride on the carriage pulled by two horses.

charlie in a combine

15-19 August - Holiday at Nanny and Grandad's

We went to visit Nanny and Grandad for a mini break and had a lovely time. We ate lots of plums and cake; visited lots of parks and relaxed. Nanny found out all of Daddy's old weebles (including playground, cars, aeroplane and caravan), so after Mummy washed them to clean off the dust and flies we had lots of fun playing with them all. Here is Daddy and Charlie flopping in a chair. We visited Packwood House and explored the garden too. Here is Daddy with Millie at the top of the Yew tower. Charlie and Daddy enjoyed playing in and around the yew trees.
Charlie and tim flopping

Charlie helped Daddy mow all the lawns on the tractor mower. Although they pretended they were being very helpful, they both thoroughly loved it and spent well over an hour mowing!! We visited the park at Leamington Spa, which had a sand pit. Millie had fun in the sand and managed not to eat any!

We also met up with lots of great-aunts and uncles. On Tuesday Joy and Ken, and Pam and Graham came to visit for lunch and cake (here is Millie with Nanny, you can see Grandad and his sister Pam in the background). Millie spent the afternoon looking cute and adorable. On Wednesday we met up with Tony and Pam for lunch at a restaurant. Charlie was really well behaved (even though he was tired) and Mummy and Daddy were very proud of both Charlie and Millie for being really well behaved.
Nanny with Millie

12 August - A Friend's birthday

Mummy's friend's daughter had her second birthday party today. We put on our smart clothes and went to the party. Millie and Charlie were true to form. Charlie found the table of crisps and nibbles (along with his equally deep stomached friend Oscar) and Millie loved socialising with all the people. We both had lots of sandwiches and party food to eat. Charlie also enjoyed his birthday fairy cake and skillfully nibbled all the icing off the top first (here also is Oscar enjoying his cake too).
millies party

9 August - Picnic in St Neots with friends.

Mummy and Daddy went out for a meal last night to celebrate their 6th wedding anniversary. Today we had a picnic in the park at St Neots. Here is Mummy relaxing with Millie (wearing a very large sun hat) playing with an aerobie. In the background in Martin with his new baby isabelle.
picnic

4 August - Charlie learns to clean

Charlie was having fun cleaning the conservatory but he ended up very soggy in the end!! Here he is playing with the cloth and Millie watches him from the (dry) safety of the lounge.
charlie with cloth

Click here for older family news - April to July 2009

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