Birthdays

It's very fun watching Ailsa grow up...she's still not the clearest talker, but some of her phrases are priceless...'hang on a minute!'....she is SO excited about her birthday ('on Tuesday'), even if she can't hold up 3 fingers successfully. She only wants a wiggly worm cake and 2 Peppa Pig bikes---one for her and one for Ailsa. She was over the moon on Saturday because she got a parcel from Grandma in America. She's modelling the socks here. She is thrilled with the idea of getting anything in the post and riding a pony on her big day!

Success!

And our resident monkey who had climbed on the table.....

Then Dobbies

While we were in town, and Fergus was still semi-presentable in his 3rd outfit of the day (thinking he has a milk allergy), we ran to Dobbie's garden centre and went wild on the clearance rack. It was more the experience of planting, rather than huge, lovely plants we are after and the kids had a great 2 hours helping plant everything. Bulbs, garden vegetables, wild flowers, planters for the front garden...we tried it all!

Then the rides

The first up the fence!

He may not walk on his own, but wow, can he climb!!

Feeding the goats

More near-summer adventures

Back to Blair Drummond to see tigers before Ailsa turns 3 and we have to pay for her ;)

Being full

Isla just came and announced that Fergus has eaten pancakes, bananas, cupcakes and porridge for breakfast and was very full...(he'd been in bed and just woken up'...when I investigated, I found him on the stairs with a stuffed onesie...poor boy! He's much too tolerant of Isla's jokes.

Fun from Mr Tumble magazine

Isla loves crafts out of her magazines and ailsa is usually a willing participant.

And..

And lest I be accused of favouritism, here is Ailsa's bag. 

My first project

I traded in my second hand machine on Saturday and got a new one. This ballet bag for isla was my first project. The new machine is amazing!

Riding along

Fergus likes the backpack better than the buggy and he did my Saturday walk with me.. .he now makes train noises, horse noises, and grunts a lot especially if he wants something....he cam say 'mama' , 'dada', 'banana', bottle, bubble, make owl noises, pant like the dogs, say yes and no, sleep is 'shhhh' (with his finger to his lips), yucky (he wrinkles his nose, sticks out his tongue answers shakes his head no to get the point across.

Ailsa, on the other hand firmly believes her middle name isn't Rigby, but actually 'wiggly'...she can't say her r's correctly (they are w's) and as her new favourite song is 'there's a worm at the bottom of the garden, and his name is wiggly-woo', her explanation of her name makes perfect sense to her! We'll let her believe it for a little while.

The dancers

Isla has been talking about the highland dancers since last year. We spent lots of time watching them this year, and her doing her own version in the kitchen at our house.

No face painting this yeat

....so they got 3 rides..

The slides

Hitting the rides

Beautiful morning for a highland games

Holidays with Kiwi

Kiwi's been home a lot this week as dad was in Wales for two days and London for one. You know a day is warm when Kiwi takes shade...but Isla wanted to make her "comfortable" so she got the giant Land Rover umbrella out for her, and then her water bowl and filled it with ice....such a life!!

Another willing participant

And then Charlie wanted to play...

Ailsa Sandwiches

It was sunny on Saturday and mum's friend she knew from Uruguay was in town. While we waited for him and his friends to come back from the Highland Games, mum was savagely attacked and Ailsa became an "Ailsa sandwich" (Isla's favourite game)...

Weekend entertainment

So, throwing rocks in the burn isn't our ONLY family excitement.....the kids were mesmerized by daddy and the pressure washer this morning....he was out for HOURS. They got their umbrellas, and raincoats on and watched him with great glee as he got covered in all sorts of muck! Thankfully the "barn door" made it a little safer of an exercise.

Not to successful afternoon walks

We've had a spate of decent weather, and we've tried to make the most of it....including a long afternoon dog walk, but that sort of all went downhill by the end....Charlie got the buggy seat, mom had to carry Fergus and Isla just zooms ahead on her bike.

Uncle Michael!

We had a visitor last Saturday who pulled Ailsa around on her roller skates, played "hide and seek" all over the house with the girls, taught them nifty tricks on the trampoline and generally had a great time with them. They keep asking when he's coming back and were crushed when he'd left his jumper at the house, but we broke the news to them that he wouldn't be coming all the way back for it that day....and in fact we'd just leave it at the farm till he was next home....

Enjoying the sun

Someone loves his ice cream!

Household fun

She's so pleased that I said I'd pay £1 if she did the ironing! She starter negotiations at "10 dollars or £1". I chose the pound :)

Kiwi

I suspect Kiwi hates dad's monthly trip to Wales as much as mum does....(normally she's is taken to work and sleeps all day, in peace at the side of dad's desk.)...instead of being pushed around the kitchen in the laundry basket and forced to be dressed up like a doll...

Style

We did an afternoon ask to the humpy bumpy....she decided a glittery headband was in order, thanks to Auntie Emily, this was her running down the hill to us...she layer decided to do the high hill path herself and was great! She loved the independence and came back with a full shirt load of rocks.

Magic

Playing in the burn....again....it never gets old.

Buggy buddies

Not so warm

But the girls never give up a chance for the paddling pool....even with weather only in the 60s.

Art

Never underestimate the value of masking tape, crayons, paper and wooden hearts to a 5 year old....this was a 'welcome home from work Daddy' sign on the back door yesterday with a decorated wooden heart.....they were much nicer than the black paint Ailsa got into, covering herself and making paint splatter all over the kitchen, table and bathroom, while I was making dinner.

Gorse magic

So....funny story...yesterday while walking the dogs, Charlie poo'd. I also think its wasteful (when out in the hills) to put it in a plastic bag, so where possible I just make sure its somewhere no one can step on it, like in gorse (a very nasty prickly bush). I did my very best 'kick/flick" of the poo and SCORE---it stuck to the gorse bush....and this morning it was still there, just a bit dried from yesterday's nice weather.....i was impressed, in a pathetic sort of way. 

Outfits

Ailsa wore TWO tu-tus today...she' actually been so excited she got dressed last night when she was supposed to be in bed...and wore her sandals and skirts all night in bed.

Running

There were SO many shells on the beach, the kids had a great time picking up all they wanted.

Holidays

Today was supposed to be a "mini heatwave" so we excitedly got our friends to go with is to a beach on the west coast in the town of Troon. The sand was huge---it was mildly warm, but the kids had great fun regardless

Trion beach

Mr cooperative

Confidence

We started the day out playing 'beauty shop' where mum blow dried everyone's hair (and straightened Isla's), then we ran a few errands in Stirling, said 'hello' to dad, and headed out for an adventure at Loch Lomond.

Comparisons

This was part of the Loch Lomond quilt show.....talk about a different calibre of quilting from Paducah!

Making the most of summer weather

The bonnie banks of Loch Lomond

Success

Corn flour, water, fairy liquid and baking powder.

Success!

Corn flour, fairy liquid, baking powder and water.

Bigger, bigger, bigger.....

Egg cup fun

Nerdy summer bubble fun

Who's in charge??

The gift that keeps in giving

Sad times

The burn had changed course so much, it has exposed this brick cover. A few more big storms could very well turn our path into a peninsula and destroy our favourite spot :(. All the kids had a great time playing in the water. Ferg gets more adventurous every time. The girls practiced their shotputting moves with rocks, Charlie went exploring across the water and kiwi got tied to a tree limb to save me the hassle of wondering how long it would be before she ran away.
We left the burn by 1030, met Anne for lunch at the wheel house and then went to the Falkirk Wheel, where the kids played at the playground and we went on a boat ride up the canal and got to ride the wheel.
The kids were exhausted by teatime and by 630, everyone was fed, bathed and asleep. Mom got lots of quiet time to finish a quilt.

Finds

Look what we found today in our beach adventure! A bone.