Keeping up with the Culveys – Oct 2012

Yes, here he is! Please allow me to introduce Logan Fynn Culverhouse!

Born 4th October by C-Section, weighing a whopping 10.3lbs (4.5kgs) at the Royal Berks Hospital in Reading. Both Mum and Logan did very well, and came home after 4 days in hospital. Amazingly he is 10 weeks old already, but before I go on, we last left you in July, so lets pick up where we left off last time.

As the final term at school was drawing to a close, things started to get very busy. Ly was involved in organising the school summer fete, she was in charge of food and arranged for the best kebab van in Bracknell to attend! The day of the fete arrived and keeping with the theme of this summer, it was of course raining! The whole fete had to be set up inside the school rather than the on the playing field. Just to ensure we were really busy that day, we had Kai’s first karate grading to attend. Gradings are as much of a test for the adults as it is for the kids as it goes on for hours!! Still he did very well and got his 1st belt. Indi had gone off for the day on her Brownie trip to Windsor, while the rest of us went to the fair, with the highlight of the day being Jennett’s Park’s got talent, and Kai was in the final!! Indi also made it through but as she was off with the Brownies, she gave up her place.

The fete went great despite the rain, and Kai did brilliant! Picking up 2nd Prize! `it was a wonderful moment, he was over the moon, and just kept repeating “I can’t believe it!” He also won the guess the number of sweets in the jar! Interestingly, Lyra got the 2nd closest, but they decided that it would be a bit suspect for us to walk off with both of them!!

The end of the school year wouldn’t be complete without a school play, and this year was no exception. The production was Cinderella Rockafella, mostly performed by years 4, 5, & 6, but with a few lucky year 3’s. Indi was lucky enough to be one of them with a great part, the fairy godmother. As you would expect she practiced, a lot, and when it came to show time, she was brimming with confidence and couldn’t wait to hit that stage! Well, she was wonderful! Full of confidence, completely in character and sang beautifully, we were so proud of her, brought a tear to your eye, what a great way to finish her school year!!

So finally school finished and it was time for summer holidays!!! We were very pleased with our little guys they had received brilliant school reports, and all throughout the school year had delighted us with their enthusiasm and achievements.

So the first big event of the summer was Crazy Nana’s 70th Birthday Party. Surprisingly the sun was shining at Heyford Cricket club so the kids could enjoy themselves outside, the rest of the UK was gripped by the Wimbledon final, where Andy Murray was trying to be the first Brit to do it since 1936!! He failed! But we partied! It was a great turnout, lots of food, Indi and Kai read a poem called ‘Ode to Crazy Nana’ penned by Lyra, Kyra got dancing, and everyone , including Crazy Nana had a great afternoon!

Next it was time for Indi’s grading at karate and she did great too, they were both now on their 2nd belt, and loving it.

Both the kids had started to learn the piano this term and they were really enjoying it. Both of them had taken to it and loved practicing at every opportunity! Karim was studying hard for his IELTS (English for Foreigners) exam that he needed to get on to his next pharmaceutical course, we all had our fingers crossed for him.... would he pass it this time (at least the 3rd attempt)!!?? Sadly, no, he didn’t get a high enough score in all the sections, better luck next time.

The summer really began when Claire, James, Libby, and Katie, arrived from ‘up North’. It was 4 days of fun packed water fights, trampolining, picnics at Ascot Races, wild times in the water of Legoland, tours of Windsor castle, plus a day in London where we headed up the London Eye, saw the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, a nice dinner in Covent Garden, then topped of with Shrek Live at Drury Lane Theatre. There were many sad faces the day they left, we would miss those evenings of ‘favourites of the decade’!!!

Next it was Prague! Our trip down memory lane with Indi and Kai! As soon as we arrived we headed around some of the memorable spots including the hospital where the kids were born. Next we headed down to Pruhonice and showed the kids where we had lived, and where their friends had lived. We checked in to the Park Hotel in Pruhonice, then headed over to our favourite restaurant Grossetto!! Within a few hours it was also the kids favourite! We would be there again before we left...

That evening we headed to old town square, it was so lovely to be there (not running a marathon) without all the crowds and be able to soak up the amazing view and atmosphere. We took a horse drawn carriage round the old town which the kids adored.

Next day we met up with our old friend Tanya and Pavel with her kids Tanya and Ben. the kids didn’t remember each other but soon enough they were having a great time together. We had a walk around Pruhonice park, and by the time we stopped for lunch at (you guessed it) Grossetto Tanya and Ben were practicing their English. After lunch, the kids were having such fun, we decided to go for a swim at a popular lake just outside Prague, fun for sure, but completely freezing!! Kai proclaimed this was the best day ever!

With the kids getting on so well Tanya and Pavel decided to take the kids to Prague Zoo the following day. That meant Lyra and I had a few hours to ourselves, so we hit the Museum of Communism, somewhere we had always planned to go while we lived there but never did, it was fascinating. While we toured around the city, we got a great text from Tanya to tell us that India was an encyclopedia of animals!! We picked them up a few hours later and they were buzzing, and of course hungry. Where did they want to eat? Grossetto of course! Tanya and the family came too, and we met up with our old friend Veronica and her lovely dog, Arnie!!

Our final day in Prague we went to see Jana, our old Midwife. Sat in the waiting room to see her brought back so many memories, and we were thrilled to see that Indi and Kai’s photo was still on the wall! Jana did a scan for Lyra so we could all see ‘Baby 3’ one more time before being born. We made it very clear that we wanted no mishaps, and not to tell us the sex of the baby!! We headed up to Letna Park to have one last chill before heading home, while we were wandering around we stumbled on a gallery, well it blew us away, such incredible, spiritual, out of this world pieces, we all loved it.

Well there was just time to wander through Mala Strana and over the Charles Bridge, but it was time to head home, for now, we will be back again, our heart is always in Praha!

After Prague, I had a couple of days at home and it was then off to Amsterdam to celebrate TCC’s 21st birthday, dubbed Amsterglam, it was attended by every employee in the company! The first couple of days were devoted to global teams getting together and going over future strategies, but then come Friday it was party time. Lyra and the kids also travelled out to Amsterdam so we could spend the weekend together.

Before the party started we had an inspiring afternoon where the Chairman shared his vision for TCC going forward, and then selected teams presented their visions for their areas, it was a brilliant few hours, and I was very proud of what my team presented! With the work done though it was time to party!!

The party was hosted on a large barge, 3 stories high! All 425 people were transferred from the hotel by stretch Hummers or pimped up coaches with flames come out of the top! At the barge we were given the red carpet treatment, complete with fake paparazzi, it was hilarious! The evening was a blast, full of great entertainment and laughs with a great bunch of people. It certainly reinforced what a great choice we had made to join TCC!!

While I was at the party, Ly and the kids had a little wander around Amsterdam, which swiftly turned into a marathon stroll as they got lost amongst the canals!!

Saturday morning started with a breakfast with TCC in an enormous church, Indi and Kai were on full charm and had my colleagues cooing all over them!! Once breakfast was done, it was time to hit the canals and watch a bit of Gay Pride! It was eye opening as I’m sure you can imagine, a few difficult questions were successfully dodged from the kids, then the heaven’s opened, we quickly retreated to a nice looking bar, that turned out to be one of Amsterdam’s infamous ‘cafe’s’! A few more difficult questions about the funny smell were fielded, then thankfully the rain stopped! We decided the safest way to get a good look around was to get on to one of the canal tours, so we put our feet up enjoyed the guided tour, followed by a nice relaxed Italian dinner on the street.

Next day we were heading home that afternoon, but before we headed out we took some advice and went off to find Zaanse Schans which is a famous Dutch park which includes windmills, clog making, and all things Dutch! We had been given ‘reliable’ directions, to jump on a bus and it would take us straight there, well, the bus wasn’t running so we were told, just jump on the ferry, and catch the bus from the other side. Great, we did that, and it took about an hour and a half to get there! Not the promised 30 mins! We had just enough time for a drink, and a quick mooch around, then it was back on the bus and back to the hotel.

TCC had organised for us to be bused back to the airport and the kids were very excited to see that we were going on the pimped buses! The music blasted, dry ice blew all around inside and the disco lights were on, it was the highlight of the trip for Indi and Kai!!

Of course throughout the last few weeks we had been enjoying the incredible spectacle that was the London 2012 Olympics! What an amazing experience it was to be so close to it all, even though we didn’t have tickets, the excitement was everywhere. Ly and the kids did take a trip into London with Uncle Chris to the Olympic show in Hyde Park and watched some of the events on the big screens, and even saw Sir Chris Hoy interviewed on stage!

Next it was catch up time for Ly as she managed a few hours away with her old Christopher Howard pals, they had a great dinner at Jamies in Reading. Then it was time to catch up with old Turkey Expat pals Mel and Sally plus the ever growing brood of kids! They hit the lookout and all had a great day.

Well it was August already, those Summer hols were flying by! And August always means Uncle Chris’s summer softball birthday party at Heyford. We headed up to Northampton on Saturday and had a lovely BBQ at Abi’s. By some miracle the weather was great on the Sunday, the kids were loving the opportunity to be outside running around, riding bikes, or play footie, everything except soft ball, somehow we never got around to playing the game... nobody is certain as to why, but it was a great day regardless.

It was a late night home, and following closely behind was Abi, Kiera, and Cam, plus Rachel with her two Harry and Seth! That meant there was going to be SIX kids in our house!!! Sadly I had to go away on business (phew) so I missed the spectacle!! I believe though that Legoland took several days to recover!

Good job really as a few days later we were back there again with Fletcher, Tyrone and Kerry from Kuwait!! I took the day off as I didn’t want to miss the ‘fun’!! As always at Legoland it was pretty manic and crazy busy! Sadly it wasn’t a warm day so the kids could have their usual water play fun, but seeing Fletcher after all this time was all they needed for a fab day out! Once we had squezzed every last drop of fun out of the park, we retired to a rather nice pub nearby for a beer and dinner.

Following this, Lyra was almost broken from all the ‘fun’ so she headed off for some Bodytalk relaxation with Eloise and came back a new Woman (with a big baby still brewing!).

Back on trail, it was Northampton bound once again, this time it was Vicki’s 40th. We left the Kids and Izzy chillin’ at Abi’s while we went to the party, as newly converted non meat eaters it was a challenge for us as the party had a hog roast! We survived though, and on the Sunday we headed up North to meet Auntie and Uncle as they were adopting our kiddies for a few days! they had an absolute ball, and every night the calls home were full of tales of water fights, fun parks, and all the animals and birds they spotted during the day!

After 3 days, Indi and Kai’s summer tour moved on to Crazy Nana’s, they accompanied her to the Derby and Joan club, we are told it was a blast (i think they just love the attention), then had a great run around with Nana on the Green. Next venue was Uncle Chris’s, for their now traditional indulgent sleepover with naughty nibbles, ice cream, and of course Star Wars. 

Once they were finally handed back to Lyra, they headed straight to the pub for lunch with Jan and Tate, with more fun on the swings, will their energy ever be spent!! It seems not, as soon as lunch was through, it was off to the stables for a horse riding lesson! They did great and loved it of course! So much so they stayed awake for the whole journey home back to Binfield talking about it!

As the weekend arrived, we knew the Summer holidays were running out, so Dad got his wish on the Saturday and we had a quiet one at home to relax (joy!), then Sunday was off to Chessington, not to the world of adventures, oh no, we just wanted the zoo! As you would expect, our two nature lovers had a ball! The highlights were the enormous Andean Condor and Kai spotting a Coati at the animal antics show (apparently he was the first person to ever get this right!!), all in all a brilliant day, topped off with some yummy chocolate fondue. 

The following day, Indi and Kai’s tour continued with Nanny and Grumpy picking them up and whisking them off for a few more days of fun. Birdwatching, farm visits hugging chickens and feeding lambs! Ly and I headed down towards the end of the week, on the way Ly and I had a fun hour in Ikea getting baby essentials and picked up a cot finally! On the Friday we all headed over to Cheddar Gorge for some cave adventures, it was a spectacular tour, some of the caverns were incredible! Our ticket also allowed us to do some rock climbing and abseiling, but decided that we would leave that for another day, it seemed only fair considering Lyra’s condition!

And then it was September, BACK TO SCHOOL!! Indi and Kai were really excited to go back, they love Jennett’s Park so much, they literally jumped out of bed on their first day! The new teachers were a hit, Kai was promoted on his first day to a new reading level which put him on a par with Indi!! This meant he went in to her class for reading, but no problem for Indi as she also went up to year 5 for reading. The first week ended with Indi bring home Dino for the weekend (her classes version of star of the week).

With less than a month to go to the big performance at the Albert Hall, the practicing for ‘A License to Thrill’ was in full swing. They were really excited, and loved heading off early on a coach to do a full dress rehearsal for about 10 hours! This also worked well for us as it gave us time to re-work the house in prep for the new arrival!

At school the kids were fully immersed with after school activities every night, Beavers and Brownies, Choir, Karate, Indi’s Spanish, Kai’s gardening club (excuse for birdwatching), and of course piano lessons!!

September had a big event this year, with our second 70th birthday, this time it was Nanny (my Mum). We headed West, for a lovely lunch, then back to Steeple Ashton for cakes!

The very next day, and only a week before Lyra was due to give birth, we headed into London for the big show, License to Thrill at the Royal Albert Hall. Indi, Kai, and about 1,500 other kids gave an incredible performance! Indi and Kai’s acting part was in the first half and we had a great view of them both taking on James Bond, Kai put up a pretty good fight and eventually perished with style!! The second half saw them in the choir, singing their hearts out, it was wonderful for them and their proud parents!!

As we counted down the days, Lyra visited the hospital, all went well, and in particular the staff gave her great confidence.

With one weekend to go, I had to make a quick trip to Bulgaria to deal with some unavoidable challenges with our apartment in Bansko. It was a nervous time, as Lyra was only 5 days away from giving birth. The trip itself was a success, up until it came to coming home.... my flight was delayed 9 hours!! Trust me, Sofia airport is not a very interesting place at the best of times, but for 9 hours, it was hell! Thank god for my iPad!!

While i was away, Abi came and ‘baby sat’, they kids had a great chilled weekend, and even Jane and Guy (Trigger) popped down for dinner with the pregnant lady (while I was sitting in the airport, rub it in or what!). But I made it back before the birth, so all was well.

The 4th Oct arrived and it was an early start as we headed into the Royal Berks for the big birth day! Everything went like clockwork, all the staff were simply amazing and made us feel so comfortable.

We had managed to go the full nine months without finding out the sex, so we had the joyous surprise of discovering we had another, not so little boy, Logan Fynn!!

As I highlighted at the start he was a whopping 10.3lbs, and jumped onto Lyra and quickly began feeding!! And he hasn’t stopped since!!

Our lives had changed once again for ever, but we all fell deeply in love with the little guy straight away, Indi and Kai were just lovely when they first met their new Brother and have been the best Brother and Sister a boy could ever want! Now to say Karim was nervous about having a baby in the house was an understatement, we actually thought he might wish to leave soon after Logan’s arrival, but we could not have been more wrong The word smitten springs to mind, but lets just say Logan and Karim have become inseparable. It’s very sweet... :-)

So as we adjust to the sleepless nights, we will say bye for now... until next time...

With much love,

Dan, Lyra, India, Kai, and the lovely Logan xxxx