Snakes!

Fraser has been told he is doing some serious DIY around the house. I bought paint for every room in the house and we are fitting a shower. SO I promised that on his day off on Friday I would take the girls out all day. We went to Strathclyde park to try out amazonia. It is quite small but perfect for a toddler. We signed up for a handling session and Neive was desperate to hold a snake. The handler then truned to me for a hold and I told her no way! She was in disbeleif that I was desperate to give my 2 year old a shot but then freaked out at the thought of it myself. But hello - it's snake! They also had gekos and trantualas. I did hold the trantula thought.






We fed the fishes and chased butterflies around for a bit.



After we headed for lunch where we met Aunty Ali. I promised Neive she could go on some of the rides but only when Ali got here. We went on the big wheel, dumbo and boats.



Neive was in brilliant fettle. Sometimes when I'm out I see a perfectly behaved child and think why is my daughter not more like that but today that was my child. I was very proud of her. We eventually got home after 6. Great day out.

Beth's First steps

We went over to Alisons for a well deserved catch up. Beth is totally on the go and narrowly escaped a fall down some stairs (they're only little ones). This week alone she has come on so quickly with the walking. At the weekend she was standing for about 5-10 of seconds and falling on her bum. Tuesday Morning she could stand for much longer until she fell. I think watching Leah on the go made her decide to take a half step whilst at Alisons. By the time we got home and took in the washing before dinner she took four steps?! We were in the garden and Neive was tipping the basket over whilst sitting inside. Beth stood up and realised she had to get to the basket before Neive tipped it again or fall down and she ran for it. Well done honey.

Wet weekends

Although it is the start of July the weather was awful. It was stormy rain on Saturday and the only time we ventured out of the house was to buy paint for the house (that's F's next ten weekends booked). Neive does not like being stuck in the house. She goes stir crazy which in turn make mum and dad stir crazy. On the bright side Neive and Beth are playing much better. Neive made a house by the corner of the couch and Beth was allowed in but not allowed to leave. They both played happily and 8 months in, I managed to get a good picture of both of them together. No tears from either of them. Bliss





Although the weather still wasn't brilliant on Sunday we were going out regardless. So we took a long walk through the wood to burn off some steam.



Neive looks like a crazy person as she was told she ad to wear wellies (for jumping in muddy puddles) and she wanted to wear a ballet tutu! Isn't it a shame that you can't get away with that when you are 29.



We headed to the play park to fly a kite and play on the swings. Now who does everyone agree with here - Neive is two and I personally think that F is pushing her just a little too high! Even if she does look like she's enjoying it?!

Culzean country park

Maya and Kylie head to Malta on Saturday so we made sure we caught up with them before they went. Ayr's a pretty long drive so to get the kids tired out for the journey home we went to Culzean country park. We didn't get round much of it in the time we had - it's so big. We walked through the walled gardens and bought some plants for Granpa.



Had a lovely picnic that Granny had made us all.




Walked to the adventure park where Neive showed off how well she can handle the park equipment. Beth was on the slide and she loves it. You could hear her screams from the other side of the park (I hope they were happy screams).



Even mummy and granny had a fun time in the play park.






We fed the ducks and had ice-cream and visited the toy shop. At that point we had to go. We didn't even make it to the beach. All the way to Ayr and didn't even see the sea.


The girls eventually got to see Baby Maya (she's 5 weeks old know) and she has changed a lot since she was born.



I think you can tell what Beth was thinking "What the **** is that!"



Mummy was so proud of Neive. She was so gentle and gave baby Maya lots of cuddles and helped granpa wind her.



Good luck in Malta and keep in touch.

Happy birthday Daniel & Aarons Head wettin'

3rd June

Happy Birtthday Daniel - 1 today!



Hard to beleive but Daniel turned 1 today. No idea how that has happened. It seems like yesyerday that he was born. Charlene and Allan hired a hall and the spell lady to put on a Mickey Mouse clubbouse themed show. It's one of our favourite sows so you can imagine how much fun we had.





They also had pass the parcel, musical chairs and bubbles plus loads to eat. Alan got really involved when the pom poms came out.



As you can see the birthday boy did brilliantly blowing out his candles.




In the afternoon Mum headed out to Aarons head wetting in Glasgow. We went to November in princess gardens.



The air coditioning was not on and it was roasting after buying a ridiculous amount of cocktails for 23 women and a hell of a lot of nagging - staff served us all lollies to cool us back down - yummy.




Then we eat at Barca the tapas bar. Obviously more drink was consumed and by the time we got the last train back everyone was very very very merry. The train was like a party in itself with the girls competing against 60 boys for best singer. Sorry girls -they so won. Here's a pic of the hilarity on the train - sorry all other have been removed due to explicit material.




On the taxi ride back a very drunk Lorna convinced a very drunk everyone else that a party at Avrils was a good idea - maybe if we were all 20 and had no kids! At about 2 o'clock we were all asleep in her conservatory and couldn't hear the taxi ringing the bell. Eventually got home at 3 and was up with kids from 9. F did give me a lie in but he was up with Beth 4 times during the night and did the morning shift. He just couldn't take it any longer.

bye bye Davina

It's that time again - to Say good bye to Aunty Davina as she's going home to Australia. We had a great time with her while she was here. She took Neive for a play at Lanark Loch with her 2nd cousins and a day trip to loch lomond - she's a gluten for punishment. It really gave Aunty Davina a chance to get to know Neive and viceversa. We hope she has a safe journey home and all went round to Uncle Jims to throw a farewell party. Here is a picture of all of Davinas' favourite girls together.

oompa loompas

As everyone in my life knows Saturday the 26th of June was oompa loompa day - also known as Carstairs Gala. Unless you have an orange face and green hair I probably haven't spent any time with you in the last month. Organising gala day floats are hard work by the way#1 - but lots of fun too. We all got up at 6am to start on the float - which looked fabulous. Granpa Dougie, Lorna and Daddy worked very hard putting it all together. Laura, Lorna, Charlene, Mum and Jennifer have been arts and crafts crazy for the last three weeks doing things for this float. Aunty Laura and Uncle Gordon were first to arrive in the morning and promply handed them the hoover as I ran to get dressed. Trying to keep the house clean was just mission impossible. First everyone came to get changed into oompa loompa outfits. We headed to the judging (second prize) We had an hour in the procession driving the streets of Carstairs (who knew there even was enough streets in Carstairs for it to take an hour) a quick play in the park, back to mine for everyone to get back into normal clothes, then back to the green for our treat tickets and fun in the park with Granny Ducks and Becky (next door neighbour). Around 3ish we headed back to the house for a bbq. Thank god we have such good friends that just chip in when needed. Everyone had a brilliant time and I hope the photos and memories will be remembered in the future but I couldn't have done it without my mum, Laura, Lorna, Charlene and Jennifer - Oh and my loving and very very very patient husband! Thank you everyone.

Tea for two

Suzzie came to visit today when her mum was doing some shopping. We had tea in the wendy house with real princess tea cups. Of course, there is only one thing that you can serve in a pricness tea cup - chocolate milk! When Georgina came round to pick suzzie up it was hard work getting her back home.

Highland show

I am sure that in years to come I will look at these photos and remember the fun we had and block out the morning of the highland show. We left the house at 7:30 (after mummy having an hour and a half sleep and Daddy 3 hours of sleep - Beth's teeth), ran some gala errands, got some petrol and then drove over to pick Fraser up from his work (as he had to go in for the morning). By the time we had joined the traffic jam to get into the place, Beth was screaming and Neive was seriously fed up. By 1 o'clock Fraser had taken his last work phone call and we eventually started to have some fun.

Neive loved the tractors and we spent the first hour jumping on and off the machinery. She also loved the show jumping and we didn't think we'd get to see anything else at the show. I even missed out looking at the shopping stalls (much to Daddies delight)







We met Suzzie and Rosa for a picnic and then headed to the food exhibition area. Neive was in heaven. She couldn't believe you could just pick up all these goodies. At one point she had cheese, shortbread, raspberries and crisp all in her mouth at the same time. When we got to animal section we took the annual photo of the girls looking at the animals over the pen. Beth's first!



We eventually got home at 8 and poor Beth (who has been really struggling with her teeth coming through) cried all the way home.

End of term toddlers

Today was the end of term party for the toddlers. Becky (who was graduating) was ill and couldn't come. She really missed out they had party food and SPELL doing the entertainment. Beth is getting a lot more involved in the fun. Instead of just looking on she was running around the hall and hiding behind the curtains with the big girls and boys.









George invited us over for a playdate to test her new trampoline out. The kids were having a great time till Suzie came flying out of the trampoline. Luckily no bones were broken but hopefully it gave everyone a big enough fright that the kids will always zip up the net when bouncing. Jennifer is getting really concerned about Alastair. He has taken to wearing girls sun hats and hand bags. It's been decided he needs more boys to play with.

Carstairs Gala week

We went round to the park to celebrate the start of our gala week. They run a "it's a knockout" assault course for the kids. Neive saw the giant sized paddling pool and wanted to dive right in.



On the Monday night they hold a disco. This was officially Neive and Caitlans 1st real disco with the older kids. They both have some snazzy moves but they mostly include running around and spinning in circles. They got home after eight o'clock - such big girls!

Water guns

With the wonderful sunshine we had some fun with our water guns. It took Neive a while to get to grips with how to work the gun. I got stuck in and within minutes she was soaking and knackered from running away from me.



You can see she took it very serious. When daddy came home form work Neive was waiting with a shoosh to the face and shouting "Bang Bang Daddy - your dead"