Happy Easter!

Ok - sorry Aunt Joyce (and everyone else) it's always a rush at the end of term and this term has been no exception - parents evenings, deadlines, nights out - it's a rush. But now I am on holiday and we are back from a short break normal service should be resumed - wait.....forgetting to do the blog intermittently seems to be normal service!

Here are the latest happenings from our wee mad family................

Lauchlan has a fondness for the garden - regardless of the weather he wants to stay outside rather than go in the house - that's all great until we have to go in and then he lets us know all about what he thinks.

He was in his element however climbing in the park with Gran Hilary.

Sophie loved it too - although Lauchlan seems to have stolen her puddle suit.

 Gran's visit was very timely what with Dad heading down to Bristol to catch up with some old friends and when Dad returned and finished work for the holidays we decided to head down to see Gran Hilary in Cbltown.

It's a long drive normally but Easter traffic and roadworks meant some serious delays.

I can see some more roadworks!

Anyone want a Smoothie?

So we stopped off for a play and a bite to eat at the Marine Bistro - how very exciting.

When we got to Gran's time was short and we visited lots of people and places - there was great excitement however picking daffodils for Auntie Margaret.

There was also great excitement visiting the horses down in Carradale - we saw baby Amber again but unfortunately Dad had no wellies and couldn't get close enough for a photo - apparently Lauchlan loved seeing the horses.

We dined out in style at a local hotel last decorated in 1963.

Sophie stuffed the biggest burger in her mouth but still had room for an ice cream cone - well, it was a holiday after all!

Lauchlan fell in love with the cats, he loved saying 'cats' and looking for cats was his favourite thing. Now Gran's cats aren't your typical cats - they live outside and aren't all purry and warm. They are stone cold tough cats who know what and who they like and what and who they don't. They didn't mind Lauchlan shouting after them constantly but they didn't exactly say hello. Lauchlan didn't care.

Being Easter Gran Hilary had also enlisted the help of the Easter bunny to put on an egg hunt around her house - it went down very well although Lauchlan just wanted to see the cats. He will learn one day ;o)

On the way home we stopped by Bayview as Katie's relatives had booked it out - it was nice to see the place and what the new owners have done with it.They had even found some old signs from Hilary's fish business.

Lauchlan took a shine to Sophie's easter bonnet and waved everyone goodbye as we left. Because of the traffic on the way down we though we would take the opportunity for a change and we decided to go via ferry on the way home . This caused great excitement and was actually a really good idea - Sophie and Dad even saw a dolphin (or porpoise or monster).

Sophie got star of the week in her nursery last week - she is such  wee star every week who is also an amazing big sister to a very lucky wee brother.

Spring is in the air.....no, wait, it's actually more snow, pants!

Very few words this week - Sophie and Lauchlan have had another busy week as have Mum and Dad!

Sophie had a play date with friends

So did Lauchlan

There was also a visit to Mugdock Park - a staple for entertainment.

More playdate photos just slightly

out of order!

Then a wee visit to scrub the decks of a pirate ship - if only they cleaned this enthusiastically at home ;o)

Only two weeks to go until Easter holidays where we will be hoping to get a lot of stuff done and plenty of pictures to go with it.

World Book Day, Mother's Day and Gran Irene's birthday.

When the snow hit last week I had been in the middle of preparing for World Book Day - our idea was relatively simple but a wee bit more thought than just sticking on a Princess Dress and going as Sleeping Beauty or something.

So Sophie really likes the Paper Dolls book - if you have never read it Sophie will tell you all about it - a tragic story of love lost. So we paid great attention to the book and got Sophie's outfit pretty close to the girl in the book - with a butterfly hair slide etc. Anyway - we drew and coloured in some paper dolls and then I mounted them on cardboard and had to cut them out. Well I was going to cut them out until the snow cancelled nursery but I thankfully didn't bin our hard work - I didn't exactly finish it either. Hah - World Book Day next year - I will have plenty of time to prepare - in fact I am well ahead of the game.

That was until the Tuesday night at about 9pm when i found out world book day had been rearranged for the Wednesday, cue a bit of late night cutting and painting and we were good to go.

Sophie was excited and the outfit was really good - however when Sophie came back from nursery she said "you forgot to dress me up!". Unfortunately all the other girls had went along in their Princess dresses - I don't believe half of them had any idea what book they were supposed to be......

Lauchlan found my guitar again this week and here he is pretending he is going to use the plectrum to play a tune and then he just does what we all knew he was going to do and drop the plectrum inside the guitar.

We have been lucky enough to see more of Nicole and Arthur this week - he is getting much bigger and going through a really nice wee stage where he is getting really alert. Loving his hair.

 We embarked on early morning painting for Mother's Day whilst Mum got some extra time in bed - I think Lauchlan's favourite bit was when he spilled a cup of water all over the table.

Mum was spoiled this week  - she not only got new wellies that Dad had a bit of nightmare getting on the internet.But Dad decided to surprise her with two additional gifts that Mum had thought were for him. Firstly a new hedge trimmer and secondly an upgraded Virgin Media box - happy Mother's Day Katie!

We all then packed ourselves in the car to head over to see the birthday girl - Gran Irene can't remember a time when Mothers Day and her birthday ever clashed before but it MUST have happened at some point previously surely!?!! Anyone got the time or inclination to check?

That's all for this week folks -and welcome back to Sunny Scotland Auntie Joyce and Uncle Ronnie. ;o)