St Andrews

Our Happy kid
All smiles at St Andrews
Recreating Chariots of Fire...
Lots and Lots of shells!
Picking up more shells...

Here are some pictures of our trip to St Andrews with Erin.

We went to the beach. Isla collected shells, then we had a picnic of Thanksgiving leftovers in the car (it was REALLY cold but Isla thought it was great that we let her eat in the back of the estate), then walked around the town.

It was a nice trip and both girls fell asleep on the way home.

SNOW!!!

The bins with their 22" inches....
Snow coming off the roof over the mudroom
The back garden
The front garden.
We're a little worried about the snow's weight on the centre window in the house!!
A view up the main street...the A9 has been closed on and off for three days...
Isla has been "playing" with Ailsa again...
Yes, it's deep!!! This is the front walk where the roof's snow landed on top of the snowfall...and compacted it.
Erin and the girls in the kitchen. Loving the heated floor!

So, we had a lovely Thanksgiving. Auntie Erin was great to have here and we went to St Andrews on Friday, then we attempted to go to Edinburgh on Saturday, but the trains weren't running normally and we got stuck in Linlithgow for WAY too long in the cold, so we gave up and came home.

Sunday morning we woke up to SNOW....and not a little snow, TONS of snow. Kenna shoveled as Alisdair is still quite sick and has agreed to go to the doctors since everyone tells him he might have pneumonia. For over 2 hours she was outside trying to get ahead of the storm, but with little luck. Realising that Erin was supposed to leave on a 6:10am flight out of Edinburgh, Alisdair braved the storm and we got her on a train at Gleneagles and she arrived in Edinburgh and got a hotel near the airport.

At 3:45am she left for the airport on Monday morning (we woke up to MORE snow), only to have the airport close and her flight to be rescheduled for Wednesday night....she spent the day trying to get back to Perthshire and we spent the day shoveling and trying to help her get back. Alisdair's devoted employees all got to the shop (minus 1), including one who walked all the way!

We've been holed up in the house. The snow is so deep the terriers are going mental as they can't run in the snow and it's so deep now that even Cassie is struggling. At last measuring, there were 22" on top of the trash bins, but with MUCH more on the driveway and roads as it is super light and blows and has come off the roof and such. (and Alisdair is feeling better after having Sunday to rest and we gave him honey and hot water---a Grammie Long remedy. It seems to have done some good)

We spent today (Tuesday) shoveling again, and got the driveway cleared (again), neighbour Anne's car in our driveway (the main street has been taken down to one lane because there is so much snow and so many cars stuck on both sides---they don't do parking restrictions here!), and the front walk done. Luckily Auntie Erin has been happy watching the girls as mum's been shoveling. (It's SO much easier to shovel when one isn't pregnant! Last time mum shoveled she was 6 months along with Ailsa).

We'll see what tomorrow brings on the airport front. More snow is forecast and some say up to 2 more feet may fall....we have tons of food (gotta love our shopping for Thanksgiving at Costco!), enough wood and coal for quite awhile too. The town post office is pretty empty we are told, but as Alisdair has taken his truck into work, he stopped and got some stuff today for us and neighbours on his way home. The girls and I went and checked on some of our neighbours and everyone is in good spirits over being housebound...again....but it is amazing how many didn't learn the lessons from last winter (and still like to shovel with dustpans!)

Cold weeks

Our trip to NH in September with Isla's "bestest" friends, Abbey, Paige, Colin and Bo (the dog). She still asks daily when we're getting on the "big airplane" and going back. I told her to save her pennies...she adored the kids and they were so good to her and great examples of going to bed at bedtime, so we'd be happy to go back anytime! We don't think of her as a baby, but it was interesting to watch the dynamics of a 2 year old around kids who are all older than she is.
Happy Baby now loves tummy time, in the bath and pool too!
This picture makes me laugh...as usual, Thing 1 is explaining the deeper meaning of life to someone, and Ailsa is feeling her new tooth (or telling us that someone smells....) eitherway, it makes me chuckle.
SOMEHOW she managed to turn on a disco track on Spotify and then insisted she get her picture taken dancing....she also managed to find a program on the computer for people who are short sighted that reads out every key. HOLY annoying!!!!


It's only Friday, but seemed as good a time as any to update the blog. We've been dealing with the cold, and getting quite good at lighting fires, Ailsa is settling into a food routine--and has now tried porridge, apples, pears, bananas, cheerios, rusks, spinach, water, diluted juice, toast and clumps of charlie hair (kidding). Her two little dagger teeth are in and she is now sporting a lovely amber necklace....it seems to be helping. She's been much less drooly and red cheeked!

Today Kiwi ran off on us again. We'd taken her to the farm to let the dogs have a good run and she was off....when she was found, she'd obviously been digging after rabbits as she had a fair amount of dirt on her. Charlie has been adopted by Isla and now spends almost no time in the mudroom as Isla makes her her "playmate" (and we finally gave Charlie a bath...they've been found locked in Isla's bedroom again, Charlie has been found on top of the coffee table (Isla decided she's a vet and was giving Charlie an 'exam'), Charlie is LOVING the fact Ailsa can't find her mouth and drops mounds of Cheerios on the floor, and lately Isla has been eating at her little table in the kitchen, which is much more Charlie-friendly height for being fed (or stealing food)...

Isls is loving swimming lessons again this week. Ailsa is getting adjusted to the water as well. Thing 1 has also declared herself "Incredible Isla" and is convinced she can climb anything. On Thursday it was the giant sand hill during our dog walk....by the time mum got up to her, she was 3/4 of the way up the hill, and Kiwi had taken off again. She'd climbed up on her hands and knees and left a trail in the sand like a slug, then kicked and screamed as she was carried down the hill....ah, 2 year olds! She does seem to enjoy playgroup and has ruined most of the teacher's Christmas surprises as she is a bit too verbal for her own good and loves to tell you everything they do in class on the way home.

She is VERY excited for Auntie Erin to be visiting for Thanksgiving and has planned a birthday party (complete with pink cupcakes), a trip to the castle (she's a bit fascinated with the Wallace Monument, which she thinks is Stirling Castle), and Erin to take her ice skating :) Ah, Aunts rock....

Busy weeks

The highlight of our day is about 5pm when Neighbour Anne comes over. She has been teaching Isla to Scottish Country dance (another creative way to get her to walk up the lane when you're out with the dogs). Here they are with Jimmy Shand's ceilidh music blaring off the computer (gotta love spotify!) and them doing the Gay Gordon's in the playroom...
Step two-three--the twirl, twirl...kids here actually learn it in PE class!
Ah yes, carrying wood...she is 1/2 Maughan afterall! Must be genetic...and notice her red little hands. She refuses to wear gloves (but loves to play in the coal and is fascinated with the town's coal man who wears a hi-viz suit, but is black from carrying all the bags into people's gardens. She's jealous that he gets to get so dirty.) Note the Halloween socks from Grandma Maughan!
Baby Ailsa and her new hat, thanks to Grannie Troup--Her first tooth is THROUGH!! Bottom left and it's SHARP!

This week we had the usual, playgroup, swimming lessons, toddler's, cleaning house and also managed to get the new front doors painted, visit with Grannie Ella, see daddy at work, do TONS of laundry, and we made it out a few days to walk the dogs when the rain let up. We finally also got Charlie stripped and the dogs bathed. Kiwi has now taken up a spot about 2 inches from the wood stove...I can only assume she's intelligent enough not to touch the stove, but you never know. The house is toasty warm with the new front doors.

AND in very exciting new, we found the key that has been lost for months to the DVD cupboard! Isla has a habit of taking keys out of doors and making them disappear. We just happened to find a key that looked promising and now we have access again to that cupboard. HOORAH for little miracles :)

Rainy Weeks

Ailsa grabs at everything...including Isla's glasses....
Saint Charlie, the great Cheerio eater...don't let the adorable face deceive you, she gets her own back from Isla during their "wrestling" matches and has been accidently locked in the butler's pantry more than once as she's followed someone in and steathily hid, looking for scraps...
5 months old! Where has the time gone???

This week we've had the cold and so have stayed indoors most of the time. The builders finished off our doors and built a new step which is great as it keeps any cold air from coming in under the back door. Ailsa is getting more fun by the day and is loving porridge, bananas, apples and cheerios (She grabs at everything and loves to put things in her mouth, so we let her play with Cheerios...Charlie LOVES it that she drops most of them on the floor).

Isla made it to playgroup just one day this week because of her cold, but had a good time making "firework" pictures (glue and glitter on black paper). "Remember, remember the 5th of November afterall....Guy Fawks day and the town fireworks (the girls slept through them but Alisdair and I ran up to the attic and had a lovely view!)

Isla's latest destructive behaviour is taking door handles off doors...so not only have we lost keys, we now can't get into room, like the bathroom, because she had taken the door handle off. This house might be 150 years old, but it's obviously not had many 2 year olds living in it! Her other "fun" was playing with Charlie in the kitchen. When she couldn't find a ball to play catch (it was awful outside and so I let her play with the dogs in the warmth of the kitchen), she ran out to the mudroom, came back with her boot, declared that they were going to play a game called "boot catch" and proceeded to throw the boot AT Charlie...that ended the game....(I was impressed she was making up her own games, until it turned violent!)