The annual Bullard family picnic this year was in Wantage Oxfordshire and after eventually making it out of the house, we drove down the M4 to arrive for lunch with the assembled masses. James and Sophie soon reacquainted themselves with Joshie and Alisha.

After a quick lunch James was soon off, playing football on the big fields.

Once Joshie has finished his lunch, he and James had a good old kickabout.

The best part of the location was this fabulous water feature which was adorned with children of all ages!

Needless to say James wanted to try it out and after getting used to it (and the chilly water) was soon having great fun!

Fortunately we'd learned of the parks' existence so we came prepared with James' water gear. Joshie knew about it too so they played together in the fountains.

You can tell how much James (and Sophie) enjoy something by how wide their mouth gets!

Something says that James is having fun!

It was a beautiful day and the cool water was the perfect tonic - plenty of sun cream too!

Just one more go before we get out!

A quick pose for the camera and I think you can see that Sophie knows what to do!

Even with all the mayhem and masses of people there was still some time to catch up.

James wanted to go on the swing and Sophie wanted to see how high he could go. Daddy to the rescue!

Finally the other swing became free so Sophie naturally wanted to have a go. Gently does it...

...higher Daddy! This is wonderful!

Sophie just loves going on the swings and always wears a great grin!

As can be seen there are plenty of these shots but it's so hard to choose which ones are best. Never mind eh?!!

Yet another one of a very happy Sophie on the swings!

Don't stop pushing Daddy!

Just gorgeous!

Sophie has taken it on herself to "listen" to James' bedtime stories, so when James and Daddy sit down for books, Sophie forces her way in to listen too!

It often breaks down into some form of chaos as Sophie gets her little fingers to attempt to turn the pages before we've read them!

When it comes to bedtime stories, Sophie's tolerance level isn't that of James' quite yet, so she soon decides to head off!

Back under control and having swapped sides, James shows Sophie what the book is all about and helps her feel the textures on the page.

We're on for a busy month with weekends away and our next visit is to Grandma & Big Rog's house. James reacquaints himself with their garden and seems to be enjoying himself. (This is after he fell down the cattle grid and needed a big cuddle!)

After a nice lunch it was time to head down to the play park, and we walked down the lane past all the sheep!

Once at the park, the football came out and we had a kick about. James waits impatiently for Daddy to stop taking pictures!

Sophie meanwhile takes things slightly more sedately, taking in the view of the nearby hills!

James and Rog versus Mummy and Grandma. Sophie is the linesman!

Football over it was time to check out the swings.

Sophie as usual loved it and Grandma enjoyed pushing her too!

Daddy discovered the zip wire and being Daddy was more than keen to try it out!

Maybe Sophie's happy mouth open expression comes from somewhere...

If Sophie had her way she'd be glued to a swing! I don't think she wants to go home!

James discovered Grandma's piano and wanted to have a go.

Hearing the "music", Sophie was soon on the scene and wanted to join in too!

As can be seen, they had a whale of a time bashing the poor old piano. Probably the only time it's been "played" for years!

The grin was a permanent feature while she tinkled the ivories!

It is quite hard to reach the keyboard when you're fourteen months old!

This is such a typical pose that we see when we go to pick Sophie up. It's usually accompanied in a second or two by two arms reaching up and waiting to be picked up!

While Grandma does a bit of sewing for Mummy, Sophie demonstrates her growing confidence on her feet.

Before we head off for another weekend away, Sophie wants a quick go on the rocking horse. She certainly gets up a fair pace!

We headed over to Longleat and the Centre Parcs there for an early celebration of Grandad's birthday. Sophie was very excited by it all!

Even though it was very late we all went on the land-train to find our dinner. It was lovely to get everyone together and tuck into some nice fish and chips!

Our villa was very nice indeed and had a pool table which all the children enjoyed playing with.

As with most boys and girls her age, Sophie likes having something to hold on to and the pool balls were no different. Grizzles quickly followed if someone tried to remove them!

Being the lovely girl she is, Sophie like to share things and here passes one the pool balls to Grandad (she did demand it back straight afterwards!)

Clever things these pool tables! You put a ball down the hole (Sophie says "awww") and then it reappears via Daddy's hand back on the table. How does that work?!!

With the Open Golf on the TV, Daddy watched a bit from the games room and was often visited by Sophie as cruised around the villa. Here, Daddy managed to capture Sophie's wonderful "over the top smiley welcome grin"!!!

James brought his bike and we went to hire one for Joshie. While Joshie got his bike readied, James has a quick scoot around the bike hire shop.

Once the boys were on four wheels, we cycled to the main complex to find some lunch. After the fun on the land train the previous night, James pretended that he was the trains engine, constantly saying "Woo-woo!"

After lunch we headed to the playpark but found a view point over the outdoors water slide. James and Joshie were fascinated by all the people splashing around and watched very closely.

We decided that we'd try out the pool tomorrow and Daddy decided that he'd try out the water slide too! James didn't want Daddy to go on it though!

A quick chocolaty snack for both James and Sophie resulted in a few moments peace for Mummy and Daddy as they munch! Note Sophie's clamp like four fingered grip of her Kit-kat finger! There's no way she's dropping that!!!

Do you want a kiss Daddy?!! Of course he does but he might find a wipe first!

We headed to the play area and even though it was for older children, James was very brave in exploring and eventually plucked up the courage to go on this balance beam twenty feet up in the trees!

Mummy meanwhile was much more content to just stick to terra firma and run through the tunnel with James!

We'd watched other children go on the zip wire and after seeing Daddy and Mummy on the one in Mid-Wales the previous weekend, James said that he'd like to go on it with us.

He enjoyed it with the safety of Mummy or Daddy and wanted to go on it again and again.

This great big slide was one of the best bits of the play area and James ran full pelt around the obstacles to come whizzing down again and again. Daddy had to come too and the slide complained a bit when he came down!

Being Centre Parcs, everywhere was surrounded by massive trees and it gave a tranquil setting. Fortunately the weather was kind too and it resulted in some pleasant walks and cycle rides.

A new day and all the children were getting along really well. The boys shared jigsaw duties and the girls played with the rocket.

Today's main activity was going to the pool and after some trepidation (and some demisting of Daddy's camera) James took to the water very well.

His favourite activity was splashing! The hardest lesson was if you splash, you'll get splashed back! James wasn't a fan of this concept!!!

Sophie on the other hand wasn't too enamoured with the water and even dropping her into the water a millimetre at a time resulted in grizzles. Still it was her first time at a swimming pool.

With Granny and Grandad helping with the little ones it allowed us more time to play the boys. Mummy showed them how to swim under water too!

When James and Joshie got out of the water they were both fascinated with the water that poured off them. They both called it "wee" but we reassured them that it was just the water from the pool dripping off. Still, it resulted in this great picture and plenty of giggles!

Every half hour a Tarzan call signaled the imminent introduction of the wave machine. At first James ran away but eventually he wanted to see what was going on and by the end was happy to sit on the side and get splashed by the waves.

Back from the pool and after a nice afternoon nap, it was time for Sophie to get out and do some walking. She wandered down the hill to find Granny!

Sophie lets us know she wants something by going "Uhhh! Uhhh!" and pointing at the object. James had dismounted from his bike (wanting a go on Joshie's blue bike!) and so Sophie sensed her opportunity to have a go on James' bike!

Back on two feet Sophie explores back down the path, quite happy to be walking off alone but always in sight of Mummy or Daddy!

We'd brought a special cake for Grandad's birthday and after Grandad had blown out the candles, the boys wanted a go at blowing them out themselves.

Our final meal before heading home, and Sophie let us know that she wanted to try the Apple juice in the Coke cup. Being little, Sophie's whole face disappeared into the cup when she started drinking!

Some more walking from Sophie and here the arms are in full effect. She really does remind of us of a little zombie with the arms outstretched for balance!

Mummy was determined to get this hairclip in place and when Sophie wasn't pulling it out of her hair, looked absolutely gorgeous with it in!

Mummy had bought some ingredients a while back and with Sophie asleep and Daddy mowing the grass, managed to make time to do some cooking with James.

James shows us where the important ingredient is in the mixing bowl. The resulting Chocolate & Raisin crunchies were very nice indeed!

With Mummy now making the dinner, Daddy's grass cutting was stopped by looking after James & Sophie although they played beautifully together in the garden.

Sophie loves sitting on James' or our chairs and once James had vacated his, was straight in there! I think she looks like she's just about to present a TV show here!

We'd decided to head over to see Grandpa & GranGran and after a lovely lunch, we headed down to Oxwich beach. The weather was perfect and although the beach was busy we soon found a good spot to start building our sand castles!

Getting up and finding your balance on this sloping sandy surface is a bit tricky!

Whoah! That's a bit of a strong gust of wind!

I think we're over the worst of it now, let's press on!

There we go! Nothing to it! Once we've regained our balance and composure there was nothing to worry about was there?!!

Everyone had to help out with the sandcastle building. Here Daddy has a go while Sophie looks on battling the breeze!

Mummy turned out to be the building queen with her sandcastles turning out to be perfect! James and Sophie try to learn her secret techniques!

Sophie hasn't quite go the hang of the spade just yet but don't worry there's plenty of time!

Daddy thought it was time for a paddle and wondered if James wanted to try going in the sea as well. James went straight in and loved it, maybe down to the fact that the water was lovely and warm on the shallow sandy beach. It was very cooling!

Once Mummy had joined the boys, Grandpa took over the camera and that allowed James to do some assisted wave jumping!

The wave jumping was a huge success with chants of "More! More!" James got pretty soggy from all the splashing but he didn't mind one bit!

As you can see the waves were pretty big so we needed massive jumps just to clear them!!!

It was one of those days that you never wanted to end!

With Grandpa turning out to be a whiz with Daddy's camera, Sophie and Daddy were happy to have their pictures taken. Note how Sandy Sophie is - look at that hand!

She'd been grabbing the sand and then tasting it. Her mouth and tongue were covered! Yummy!!

Having a huge beach to play on and explore, Sophie found herself a small hole and happily played in it for ages!

Independent Sophie wants to walk at every opportunity, even if it is just to the car to head back home. She was asleep after 500 yards of car travel!