Fire

We lit the fire and it's been a bit hit with chilly kids come inside 

Wednesday is Craft Class day!

Today we made shakers from couscous. Exciting stuff! 

Busy days

Today the family spent the day helping build a sensory garden for the school. We were thrilled to come home to an email telling us our project has been nominated as a finalist for the Community Challenge Fund Awards! 

Weekends

We worked on the school garden all day yesterday and then had a slow day home today. I made challah--I think fergus was Jewish in a past life as for a boy who barely eats, he ate 1/2 of it! Figs and all.

The first day of school

We survived it and my social six year old was thrilled to be back with all her mates. The council has declared another  holiday  due to the golf tournament so we get a four day weekend in September! Yippee!!

Our last day of freedom

School starts tomorrow :(. We made Isla's teacher a 'school year survival bag,' (with chocolate, tissues, wet wipes, paracetamol, hand sanitizer, a plant, mints and a personalised embroidered bag). We dropped it by and then headed off for the animal park for one last summer hoorah. Ferg was very brave and loved feeding the animals. The kids all vote we get 'white deer' and wallabies for our yard. 

Early to bed tonight and school stuff all looked out. Isla is excited . Ailsa doesn't want to go and I'm sad my unstructured days are over...I am counting the days until October holidays and browsing ideas for things to do.

Productive mornings

This morning after my walk I decided to build the dogs some stairs for their kennel as none of them spend any time on their mat roof...kiwi now claims the stairs as her new home. I assume it is warmer than the concrete.

New hobbies

Every recyclable jar and bottle in our house seems to become a seed planter or bug collector these days. This is her new pet caterpillar....which has been fed leaves from my focus tree (on the hearth)..I believe it's chance of survival is thin...

Not long now

The weather has been pretty chilly and windy. The heather has really purpled up though. 

We've not done much this week, just enjoyed quiet time at home...with some sewing and cleaning and hair bow making. Along with some internet shopping for lost jackets and new school clothes that fit. I am so sad school starts on Tuesday but we can still enjoy a few more 'quiet' days. 

The Festival

We went into Edinburgh twice this week to watch shows at the Fringe. The kids managed te train rides and four shoes in total. my Gran is a pirate, BeDom (brasilian rhythm performers), the Sushi Tap Bar (Japanese tap dancers/circus tricks) and Artie's TArtan tales (singing storytelling). It was fun, but tiring. We also went to the national museum and the grave of "old jock" and rubbed greyfriar's Bobby's nose. Hat to believe only one more week of school holidays :(

The workmen have been busy finishing the yard and some days there has been a digger out every window.

The girls have been bribed to stop sucking their thumbs with old Nintendo DS games (that heavens for eBay!) and we met Grannie in town at the garden centre for lunch and plant buying. Pots were expensive so she suggested old plates (which we don't have) so we went to the 'yard sale store' (charity shop) which is now the kids favourite place. Every Scottish town has at least 1, if not 6 of them and there are bargains to be had! We stopped in Haymarket (after posing  with the distillery statues) to check one out as well. 

We are getting boxes unpacked, little by little and hope we have all our school shopping done. 

The great fisherwoman

Her third outing wasn't as successful as the first two...mostly just pond weed...daddy is searching for a new spot to take her 

Homebound

We took the car for its inspection this week and didn't pick it up for four days. It was nice not even thinking about leaving the house, although the girls did come up with some ingenious ways to get to the garage... Involving biking to the bus stop (with car seats), hiding bikes in the bushes and then bussing it to Perth....Thursday night we got the car back and almost had another animal vandalism insurance call out as a herd of cows escaped and some walkers stampeded them into the car. I had to quickly reverse down the hill to avoid being hit...it was a little scary. Dad had a game fair on Saturday and it rained so we just stayed home and tried to do more unpacking/tidying. We did a family walk this morning down the glen which was good fun. It onicalky the kids had barely asked to go outside since we got back from American, despite fabulous weather...at the first sight of Saturday's torrential storm, they were changed in 2 seconds and out on the porch to play in the rain.