A yikecycle made for who?.....

It was my brothers birthday, and what did he want? A uni-cycle! Of course not just an ordinary unicycle.... a mountain unicycle. Cos as if it's not difficult enough to master the art of one wheeled perambulations, what you really need is an extra large wheel to make things even more unstable!

Initial attempts required some additional support. Jenny isn't actually 3 foot tall.

It's a little known fact that the unicycle was invented in response to the steel shortage crisis in 1907. Workers desperately required economical transport to the coal mines of south Wales. The unicycle was invented by a local entrepreneur, who would recycle pram wheels to make four cycles per pram. ' Wheely Jones' became famous in the valleys of Wales and his statue can be seen in the 'Uyp-Y-Pant' museum of transport.

My brother quickly developed a style of his own...here we see 'The Ballerina'.

The 'Fiddler on the Roof'....

And now being really ambitious, he demonstrates some 'semaphore'.

Jennys attempts were tentative...

...but she soon proved to have a natural aptitude.

Learning from past experiences, I donned appropriate safety gear.

To my cost, I later discovered that it was the lower regions that required protection and developed a nasty case of 'girlfriends lap'!!!

Two become one.....

It was the tiny twins 1st birthday on Saturday ( see them hatch and grow at http://russandmax.blogspot.com/ ) and we were all invited to a party.....
We've had rain for days and days, but Maxine ordered some sunshine and it arrived an hour early!

There were plenty of helium balloons, but not quite enough to achieve 'zero gravity' for a small child...shame!

The twins received loads of presents. Shiny paper, twinkly ribbons, brightly coloured bows....all their favourite things! Some of them had stuff inside.

All children had to be 'spun' regularly, it was the rule. Or so they told me. Safety was paramount, all hands were applied with sticky chocolate cake to avoid slipping.

I was glad when Jon and my brother Russell arrived to take over the fairground duties as my war wounds were beginning to play up.

The paparazzi were out in force. The twins lapped up the attention, playing to the cameras.

Although I set the shutter speed to 'Max', she proved difficult to capture on film. Trays of yummy food magically appeared, spillages were wiped and all by the blur known as Maxine!!

I had an informative crawl around the garden with the twins. The stone steps were a bit hard on the knees, but we found some bad plants we shouldn't eat and some good plants we could. The Rosemary smelt odd, but we rubbed it on our noses anyway.

Sometimes when it all gets too much, Daddy makes it alright again. "I'll hit him with this brick, then he'll know that I care."

The peaceful game of garden Jenga inevitably descended into civil war. Wooden blocks were violently exchanged as tiredness and 'e' numbers distorted young minds perception of fair play. A peacekeeping force was brought in and an uneasy ceasefire was maintained.

Chris loved playing the 'slam the door shut' game, honing his skills for his teenage years.

A great tiny tots teatime toy time time was had by all!