Plans

So Isla's decided if she ties all her 'vehicles' together, that would be a 'good idea'...ailsa gets the non-functioning quad bike and Charlie...what? This might end badly???!!

Love, 3 year old style

Isla (after I found her cutting Charlie's hair on my dining room carpet), took the poor dog to the play room and 'dressed her for a concert so she'll win a trophy'...and somehow that involved glitter paper, a nurses cape, a halloween straw in her collar, some crepe flowers and being put in a shopping basket...and some ribbon....

Pumpkins

And we discovered Charlie likes pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkins

And we discovered Charlie likes pumpkin seeds.

Halloween!

Tonight we carved our pumpkins (thank goodness for Costco!). We're having a Halloween party at the house for Isla's mates so thought we'd make everything a bit more festive. The girls stayed up late helping mom decorate the house while dad (and Cassie) were out duck hunting. Will update tomorrow how the party goes--we have great plans for crafts, games and indoor trick or treating with the 30 doors in our house :)

The fascination with water continues

Yup, Number 2 shares her sister's draw to every puddle in site! This is from today's dog walk. She likes 'riding' (being pushed) on her trike to the park and going in every puddle there is and cries when it's time to go home. She can walk Charlie herself and has great fun chasing Isla and her friends around. 430, however sees the sun starting to sink in the sky---days sure are short this time of year and getting shorter!

Techno genius

She can now 'milk the cow' in an ipod touch and is pretty happy with herself! Notice the darkness...it's 930am and still that dark---winter is coming!!!

Did someone say it was over 55 degrees and not raining?

Yup---someone decided it was 'paddling' weather and when mom disagreed, she filled a cleaning bucket with warm water and put her bathing suit on to sit in it!

Happy Girl

Ailsa's been a little happier since we took her off milk. Grannie's discovered coconut milk (which is MUCH nicer than goat's milk) and we're not 100 convinced it's helping Ailsa's insides, but her mood has certainly gotten better. She's back to being a little comedian--pretending to eat her toes for laughs, telling people they are 'stinky' and giggling, and toddling all over the house like a drunk midget at a million miles an hour. We're going to try it another week before we start an experiment taking her off gluten.

Problem solved!

The girls seem to think Charlie needs a nappy after a few unfortunate incidents this week.

Growing up

Someone's had a 'light' go on this morning. She brought me a towel as I was getting out of the shower and now has decided to put her own nappy on! She's pretty convinced she's a 'big kid' now. Fun to see things start to 'click' with her.

Bed checks

I've determined tonight that the best reason to go check on your kids before you go to sleep is so you can see their adorable little asleep faces, happily snoring away and it makes you remember that you love them and makes it easier to be patient with them during the day....when you've had days when it seems all they do is talk back, ignore you, bite\scream\kick each other, cry, etc, it's hard to remember that.

We're sure glad daddy's home from another month's 36 hour trip & sure dreading the longer trips he'll be away in January, February, March, May!

Other wisdom

I was also informed this morning that she wanted her hair in a 'donut'...and she'll need to have it that way on her birthday too, as 'that's what you do on your birthday.'. I was a bit baffled till I remembered Grannie's birthday party (where she had a bun, which was different from her usual braid) and asked, 'like Grannie?'. Seems someone is a bit confused between a donut and a bun....all pastry types to a 3 year old I guess!

Another day of holiday fun

FINALLY the rain stopped long enough for her to get the long-promised Pony ride! It was a big hit and she's now graduated from the shetland pony to the actual pony...she has grand plans for this to be a frequent occurance. It's only 20 minutes but she thinks it's WONDERFUL! Heaven only knows what she tells the lady who leads the horse in those 20 minutes. She told me she told the lady about grannie's sheep, her trip to America, her dogs, her wellies (the lady had a ripped pair on-supposedly), and her birthday.

Our A-Team

Good old Uncle Michael gave Ailsa a 'Mr. T in my pocket' devise that when you press buttons comes up with Mr T quotes. So, Ailsa, despite barely talking, can come up with phrases like 'don't give me no backtalk, succah' or 'I pity the fool' at random times. Then she laughs.

Big girls

Look who's not scared of the zip line anymore at the park!! She now thinks it's great fun. It was a chilly, but clear morning so we took off to a local park and met up with some friends for a nice morning. Ailsa had a great time too. All that fresh air sure made for a nice afternoon, with happier girls.

Checking out the Hedgehot statue

The Garden

The old-fashion store

More Beatrix Potter

More school holiday fun

We went to the Beatrix Potter Exhibition and Garden today. The girls loved the 'hands-on' part including this puppet theatre.

Too fast for a picture

Daddy fixed her bike seat higher and training wheels to be more stable and she's off!! Grannie has the perfect yard for bike riding. She put out some old tyres and the girls praticed going around them. We also helped daddy who'd been cutting up dead trees for grannie. All the small branches we dragged to the burn pile. Then we had lunch and daddy cut up his ducks from Thursday night's successful outing. A fun Day for sure!

Success!

'Way up in the apple tree...'

Sunday with Grannie--unlike our tree, hers bore some fruit this year. Daddy got out the extendable pole, knocked the high branches and the girls tried to catch them, or pick them up and put them in grannie's basket. Loads of fun!

Grannies Urban Assault Course

Autumn

The sound of honking geese can be overwhelming at times. Our town lies in their flight path and nothing declares the changing of the seasons like their noise. Even ailsa will stop to look up when she hears them even from far away.

No fear

Ailsa loved feeding the animals. The llama in this picture though stole Isla's whole cup of food---she was NOT amused!

Climbing

Having no fear, my two decided to climb up every enclosure--luckily it's made for little, excited kids.

Little Bears

We went to the safari park today with Grannie Ella. Isla decided to her best 'angry bear' face.

The group

Ailsa and Adam (Emily's brother) are 3 weeks apart, so it's fun to hang out with them as everyone has a playmate!

Indoor play

Being Scotland, there's an indoor play area full of bark mulch. The girls had their wellies & splashsuits on anyway. We never go anywhere without them lately!

Daddy's kid

So, following in her daddy's footsteps, someone fancies herself quite 'the deer whisperer' and was all about feeding them & explaining their finer points to Emily.

Pigs

Isla, Emily and the pigs. Emily is 5 months younger than Isla and we joke, as her mother was a high school teacher too, that's the reason they're both so verbal! It's fun to listen to the 3 year old logic between them.

School holiday fun

As Isla is off school for two weeks we went to a local wildlife park with her & her friend. Ailsa loved it too and as we showed up early we had the place to ourselves! White wallabies and all

Another Costco find

Tired of toys everywhere, we splurged on this. Isla and I put it together during 'Quiet time' (when Ailsa naps and Isla gets to watch tv). Hopefully it will help the state of the toys.

Decisions, decisions

See what Costco had??!! They say their shipments of shovels sell out in less than an hour (everyone is getting prepped for another winter like the last two), but they did have this, which would be GREAT, if it weren't so expensive. We'd be the only family in town with one for sure!

Lizards

This giant lizard in the 'reptile section' was stalking the girls (they didn't realise it). They liked the snakes, crawling things and bugs. We also went to IKEA and bought Ailsa her 'big girl bed' for when baby arrives and did a quick Costco run. It was exhausting doing an all day trip alone, but we made it! Isla can be an amazing help (when she wants to be), doing things like pushing shopping trolleys as I wrestled Ailsa and a flat trolley full of mattress, bed, bureau and gubbons..thank goodness for the occasional female sales associate who has 3 kids and understands the logistics and challenges of herding 2 and being very pregnant!

School holiday fun

No school here for two weeks so I bundled the girls into the car and drove to Butterfly world in edinburgh. Last time Isla had a fit when a butterfly landed on her. It was much more successful this time. Ailsa wasn't bothered by flying stuff--she just kept running to every puddle and water source trying to soak herself!

America

How do I love thee, America? Let me count the ways :)
We got our annual shipment from Stateside Candy today...prepping ourselves for the holidays with some of the wonderous treats of the States today! It may be expensive, but sure makes you appreciate some of the tastes of 'home' and ration stuff to last for months.
That and American soda.com are two great sites we've discovered to find stuff like canned pumpkin, graham crackers, fluff, corn muffin mix, root beer, molasses and Jello.
(In case you're wondering, a 12 pack of soda costs £11 or roughly $17, graham crackers are £5 a box or roughly $8, Crisco costs £9 or $15, cooking morsels are £5 a bag)-- is that's why we treat it all like gold :). Most stuff has roughly that kind of mark-up, but when you can't get it anywhere else, there's not a choice. We sure enjoy the holiday though!!

Monkey see, monkey do

We walked a different path than normal on Friday and the girls discovered the wonders of the footbridge....and seeing how high up you can climb!

Gifted family

Uncle Michael and his shadow doing their best slug impressions!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Bliss

A swing, a fresh apple and family Sunday dinner with venison, neeps, tatties, beans & carrots. The perfect Sunday for a 1 year old!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Improvising

Two tesco bags and some tape made her a lovely pair of parachute trousers!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Boots

We went to Grannie's but forgot everyone's waterproofs. Not wanting to disappoint Mr Chicken, we tried to improvise....these boots were a bit big...
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The Enchanted Forest

The light show
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Friday night fun

We went to an outdoor light show with Grannie. The girls had a great time and were psyched they got to stay up past their bedtime!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Daddy's babysitting techniques

Daddy let's the girls 'baby' Charlie this morning.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Autumn

That time of year again and we know where we'll be finding Kiwi for the next few months!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Early gaming skills

Guess who's figured out the 'fireworks' app??

Crazy hair

Her hair was in such a mess yesterday, multiple 'bunches' was the only way to section it off and comb it. She thought it was magic!