KIDS

Here are some pics of the kids. There have been quite a few changes and milestones in their lives since I last wrote. The following is their story.

ANDREW:

Fun, enthusiastic, sweet, iron-willed Andrew is, as he puts it, "DAH BEST!!!" School here begins at age three therefore on August 17 he began attending Peterculter Playgroup (name of the pre-school). It has been the best thing ever for him! He goes every morning from 9-12 and comes home happier and more imaginative than ever. I had a hard time the first few days although I didn't think I would. I was wrong, I checked my phone almost every ten minutes thinking that his teachers would call and tell me that he needed me. He didn't. He absolutely loves going and it has turned him into a different kid in many ways...all good ways.

Here are some pictures of him on his first day.





In his school jumper (sweatshirt)


His favorite things right now are: Peterpan, sword fights, pirate ships, playing with Cooper (his friend from school, wrestling with dad, helping mom cook and clean, ride his trike, play outside and jump off the sofa like so...









(He also likes Spiderman and often tells me that I am the "good bad guy" and he is Spiderman and we are friends.)


ABBY
Adorable, chubby, cheeky, sweet, sensitive, angel girl has been growing and growing. She turned ONE on September 12 and I about had a fit thinking how fast this last year has gone. She is such a sweetheart and I don't know how we even went through life without her. She is crawling machine and can say: Momma, Daddy, Hi-ya, bye-bye and uh-oh. She can also stand on her own and could walk if she wanted, but the idea still scares her a bit. So we will let her take her time, there is no rush...none at all.





















Although Andrew still isn't 100% on playing with Abby all the time, it has gotten much better. He enjoys playing outside with her and she basically just adores him. We sure do love these little bugs!!!!

Alright here is some stuff...

So I decided to show, rather than tell, about our recent adventures. So, with a few captions here and there the next few posts will tell the story of our lives in photographs. Enjoy!

A brambling we will go! Among many other things, Scotland is phenomenal for berry picking...WILD berries. Seriously, they grow right outside...look!

This time we found raspberries




But the most common are blackberries (i.e. "brambles") We filled buckets...buckets, of this delicious "weed" (they think it's a nuisance here). That is why I included not one...but TWO pictures. Just wanted to illustrate the BUCKETS (plural) we picked. So cool...OH! And those little red berries are some wild strawberries. I know, right!?!




We mainly use our spoils for smoothies, but I tried a few other things too.

Raspberry chocolate pavlova



I attempted jam







Looks good, right? Well, good thing you can't taste it. It was NASTY...guess I used too much sugar. Sigh...I am determined to do better next time.


We go on a lot of walks. See!







We were in some woods and happened to come across someone's private castle. I mean, c'mon, that is pretty cool!






Sorry some of those pictures are blurry...it was because on those days it was rainy.

More to come soon...

Just a wee update

I don't know if anyone reads this anymore. (Hello? Is anyone out there?) I mean, I could hardly blame ya'll (if there ever was a "ya'll") because I have been completely MIA for quite awhile. Anyway, I am feeling the guilt because there has been so much to report and I got behind in doing it which caused me to feel guilt and anxiety so I just pushed blogging, journal writing and basically all other manner of writing off the cliff. Not a good reaction.

I am trying to repent.

So...journal writing and other forms have improved and so now I turn my attention to ye ol' blog.

Basically, I have a lot to say and a lot of pictures to post. But it takes ages and ages...and unfortunately I can't get them to download tonight because we can't find the usb cord and I don't have the gumption to really look for it right now. So to ease my own conscious (because that is likely the only thing that will read this)I am posting a, "YES WE ARE ALIVE and I PROMISE THERE WILL BE MORE TO COME SOON!"

So...for what it's worth, I shall be writing of our adventures shortly. :-)

Pickle the poo snail and the perfect loaf

There has been a lot going on these days. Good things, exciting things, scary things, stressful things, happy things, sad things. I have much to tell and limited time to write them. However, I really wanted to post about two silly things that just chuffed me to bits.

First thing. Andrew, Abby and I love to go for walks. It feels like a crime if we stay inside on a sunny (or non-rainy)day given the beautiful surrounding we call home. Well, a couple days ago we went for a nice, long walk on a river trail and while we were out Andrew met someone who turned out to be a brilliant new friend. It was a snail...just a little guy trying to cross the pavement as fast as he could sludge. Sadly, he wasn't making very good time. When noticing the poor fellow's struggle Andrew immediately told me to "Stop the push, Mom" and he got out of the stroller and picked up the wee sludger. "Oh, wook...it's a snail!"

"That's right, it's a snail. Should we help him get to the safe grass?"

"No, he can come wiff me!"

So off we went, Abby, Andrew, myself and our new snail pal. Andrew enjoyed watching him hide in his shell and then come back out when he thought it was safe. Which it wasn't. So then he hid again. Andrew giggled and giggled.

I then suggested that we give our slimy new pal a name. Andrew agreed and I started throwing out suggestions. Fortunately Andrew is a considerate soul and determined that no random name will do. It needed to be something special. So after regecting about 53 of my ideas Andrew piped up and said, "PICKLE!" (Followed by fits of giggles, and of course, with a name like pickle who wouldn't giggle?)

"Oh Pickle! What I fantastic name!" I said.

"Yep. It's...it's a snail. Pickle snail!"

"Sure is."

We then continued to stroll along until I heard Andrew pipe up again. "OH wook!! Poo!"

"Really?" I asked while looking around for signs of animal droppings ( a very common thing)and finding none.

"No...here on the shell!" I looked down at pickle and saw that in his sluggish struggle to cross the path he had managed to get a little dirty. Was it actually poo? No, just a little dirt but Andrew seems to think that anything causing a slight mess these days is poo. (Sadly, a residual effect of potty training...dirt has never been the same since.)

"Oh...he is a little dirty, isn't he?"

"Ya, poo! He's a poo snail!" (Fits of giggles)

"I guess he is!"

"Yep, he's...he's pickle a poo snail!"

Then I began a fit of little giggles.

And so we walked on some more...Abby (who incidentally was brilliantly sleeping or sitting quietly enjoying the views)Andrew, Myself and Pickle the Poo Snail. Finally near the end of our walk Andrew found an acceptable looking home for Pickle between some withered daffodils and budding queen anne's lace. We decided that Pickle would enjoy being outside much more than he would enjoy our little flat. So there we left him and said our goodbyes.

As we walked closer to home, Andrew looked back and yelled (in his most irreverent voice, to ensure Pickle heard) "BYE-BYE PICKLE POO-SNAIL!"

Bye-bye pickle! It certainly was nice to meet you (fits of giggles).


(NOTE: This is not actually Pickle the Poo Snail. Sadly, I did not have my camera with us. But I did find this picture on the internet...and it comes close. This literally could be Pickle's cousin)

The next item that made me smile real big this week involved bread. YES! BREAD, glorious bread! I have attempted to make loaf after loaf in my days and I have NEVER gotten it right. It either comes out too crumbly or too dense or too doughy. It's been a rough one for me because I want to master the art of bread baking so badly! Well...the other day I was out shopping and noticed this delicious looking granery bread flour on special as Tesco's. It had been a long while since I attempted to make bread so I thought I would give it another shot. Well...yesterday Andrew and I had some time to kill during Abby's nap so we discussed it and decided to bake bread. The conversation went like this

"Andrew, want to help mommy make some bread?"

"WHAT?" yelled while jumping on the bean bag pretending to be spiderman.

"Want to help me make some yummy-tummy bread?"

"I SPIDERMAN, YAHHHHH!" yelled while attacking my calfs with his super spider fists.

"Come here" He managed to follow me into the kitchen and noticed all the flour. Suddenly his spiderman cape was on the floor (what? Doesn't your spiderman have a cape?) and he was clamoring for a measuring spoon.

Well, one thing lead to another and to be honest, I don't know how it happened, or what I did differently this time but it worked!!! Really, the end result was BRILLIANT! It was the best looking (and tasting) bread I have ever created. HALLELUJAH! Who knows if I will ever be able to do this again...so here are some pictures to remember it by. (Confession: I think that perhaps the reason it was a success had to do with some seriously awesome Spiderman powers, perhaps he is my lucky charm?)











Incidentally, when Mike came home and saw all the pictures of bread he thought I was a little a mental--which I won't refute---but this has been a life-long pursuit. And I finally succeeded. I thought it merited a few snapshots.

It's a shame Pickle wasn't there to join us. I think he would have really enjoyed the experience.

KIDS

Who is that?










(top two: andrew, bottom two: abby / Andrew at 6 months, Abby at 7 months)

Kids on a Sunday (it's shameful the amount of bribing it took to get Andrew to do this, lol)


Here we have a wee petal and a fearsome pirate!





I sure do love these things!!!!