Esther drawing

She's getting the hang of this! If you look closely you can definitely see a face there...

Esther playing

Esther is very much one of the big girls now and it getting very good at playing, both by herself and with her big sisters...

This shape sorter (genuinely called an "intelligence box", I think it came from ebay China) is surprisingly engaging for her as she has totally mastered it.

Hidey...

Boo!

Getting the hang of our very own bike

Puzzles are a big favourite.

So are sisters.

She is also starting to draw real things. This is a "person, two arms"

Lydia Drawing

Lydia has had a bit of a step-change in her drawing ability the past few weeks. Lots more detail!

This is some music. She's noticed that Naomi now has some sheet music to go with her cello.
We'll try to get a video of the song that accompanied this as it's very cute. Lots of stuff about God being good.

A wee bit more music and some pictures of her family and friends. See the eyelashes on the girls?

This is Lydia with her best friends Erin and Elise.

Moo!

Having settled in to the new house, I've been on another couple of trips.

First was another Crest Open Workshop - the COW - but this time quite exciting, in that I'd been invited to give a talk on my work. Specifically on some work I've done with the airline KLM to improve some of their software. You can see a video of it (about 25 minutes) here if you like. Another trip to London, but I didn't get to visit Heather this time as speakers are expected to stick around a actually "speak" with people!

I was also in Sheffield for two days at a workshop run by EPSRC - one of the UK Government's research councils - to learn about research funding. Besides the workshop (which was very good!) there were two other highlights for me. First, the James Bond style that my room key was presented in...

Second, I took a quick walk through the arches under the former Great Central Railway (Sheffield Victoria Station) that I'd spotted on my last visit. This is the Cobweb Bridge, can you see why? :)

The former station hotel

One more thing - it was Valentine's day not so long ago. Jay and I did get out on a proper date - meal and cinema thanks to my parents visiting!

Yum!

Two other things worth sharing from the day. Naomi made me this card, which I thought brilliant...

I also saw these at work. I love working in a university :)

Maths humour is fun!

Fathers' Day

Is today! And it's been pretty good. A long lie which was very much appreciated, followed by cards and hugs from all my favourite girls.

Card from all on the left, and home-made by Miriam on the right

Naomi's on the left (that's a picture of her), and another from Miriam on the right

Naomi wrote this, it's "God loves you" - and my daughters have helped me know this so much more than I did before.

That's me on the left and Miriam on the right (Miriam's people all have that fancy hair just now)

Miriam's other card. I think one of the figures is Jay.

Naomi wrote this on everyone's behalf. 

Naomi drew me a milkshake. This was an excellent supplement to the large chocolate I was also provided with today.

Lydia did her bit too!

Miriam drew this...

... and this - obviously that's a flag on the right. The bit on the left is a dress with a heart at the top.

Miriam also drew me some faces.

Naomi drew me the whole family!

One of the best parts of the day was that Naomi told me she didn't mind what we did as long as we could spend time together. This is pretty much my thinking on family time too! So while Jay went for a reciprocal nap this afternoon, I had a couple of hours uninterrupted play with Naomi and Miriam. For the most, part we made things with the play snow, and it was really good fun. After that, Lydia got up from her nap and we played "hiding under a blanket" for a bit - then it was a mixture of TV, reading stories, play kitchen and other such things.

It's a real privilege to be father to these three girls. I love them!

Ragtag

A truly gargantuan catchup of ragtag activities from the past couple of months. There's been a lot going on!

We took Naomi to the park to try learning to ride her bike. Definitely a work in progress - she's pretty good until she knows we're not holding her, but unfortunately she figures that out instantly!

Lydia has been learning the finest traditions of the Cockney folk song, and can now complete the riff on demand.

She also has a fond appreciation for snacks...

Naomi has taken to laying out her clothes like this as she chooses them. I guess it's because Jay lays out the clothes each night in preparation for school/nursery the next day. The best part is that she layers everything properly too: under there are vest and underwear all in the right places.!

I just liked Naomi's hair this day

Sisters doing a bit of drawing

Miriam's hair is quite good at building up static charge. This is in her new car seat, but the same happens with thep lastic toys in the garden too. I've always liked charge-induced big hair, you can imagine how much fun I had with the van der Graaff in school.

Lydia looking nicely relaxed after a lovely breakfast of hoops.

This was on Jay's birthday. I took the day off work and her we are enjoying a bit of time with Lydia while her sisters were out at school and nursery.

Some innovative use of the birthday candles already in our possession. Not as tricky as last year though!

Miriam does enjoy her jam.

 Lydia can play peekaboo!

A wee Easter treat made by Naomi at Sunday School

Don't leave Lydia unattended. Chaos will follow.

Baking some gingerbread men (and other shapes)...

Naomi and Miriam are highly creative with their Lego 

For some reason, the milkman elected to leave our milk in this convenient location one morning.

During the school Easter holidays, we went for a break to grandparents in both New Deer and Keig.

Extra excitement when cousins are around!

Miriam quite enjoying having access to her cousin Innes' toys.

A "being quiet" competition (yes, really)

Naomi made this sign after being told repeatedly to avoid disturbing her baby sister's nap. "No one come in, Lydia's room. No noise."

Dinner at Granny's house always means sweet desserts!

At least the graffiti in my car is well done.

Naomi has been asking for some time for a picture of my office. Here it is - currently I've taken over both the desks in the middle and the zone to the right, but no doubt that'll need to end soon as we have more people joining us soon.

Another open day, another go on the 3D printer. Here it is printing a Klein bottle (3D version of a Mobius strip) - technically impossible to represent in 3D space but we'll give it a go anyway...

Loads of widgets! Here's my spot for the open day. (a finished Klein bottle is in black to the left of the cup)

Given a 3D printer, what would you print? For me the answer is obvious.

Brilliant.

I recently spent a night in Edinburgh doing the Scottish Crucible (there's a picture of me there under "Scottish Crucible 2016 launched") - a training a networking programme for young researchers. There's another couple of trips, but this one was spent at the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament, with a stay overnight in a hotel overlooking Waverley station. It was very intense, so no pictures of the event, but here's the view from my room...

I bought Naomi an umbrella in Paris a few years back, but the toddler years took their toll on it, so we finally had to replace it. The girls are very happy with these! 

Miriam has started swimming lessons. She was most pleased to get her goggles.

Lydia sporting her new cardigan, made by her Grandma.

 Granny and Grandad came for a visit, here we are having a much appreciated meal out at the restaurant that also has soft play. What's not to like?

Finally, some good weather has made an appearance, so we've had lots of outdoor play...

At the park

In the garden

The Quadro has been reconstructed into a schoolhouse

It has a blackboard, here is Naomi educating her sisters

 

and occasionally getting distracted.

CHEESE!

Lydia can now climb on the big slide. Terrifying: just not for her.

 Some real sunshine last weekend, we had to get the pool out!

And a picnic outside

Followed by a barbecue this weekend. Awesome.

We had to admit defeat with growing tomatoes from seed this year, so here are some shop bought plants. Two tomatoes and a sweet pepper: hopefully they will produce something that doesn't just get eaten by slimy creatures this time!

 Also a revisit to the impossible-to-kill house plant I mentioned in a previous post.

The sticks (and one was nothing more than than) in the glass of water started to sprout leaves and roots...

 

The big plant also started to branch out at the top of the two stems

Following this, the new plants were moved into their own pots of compost and are now doing well...

The big plant is already starting to interfere with the ceiling once again!

there was recently a transit of the planet Mercury across the sun. I tried some solar projection to view it using some binoculars, with Naomi helping. We got quite a big image, and might have seen something, but it's possible it was also a sunspot. Unfortunately, getting a good photo of our image, while holding the binoculars steady and preventing Naomi getting too close proved too difficult for me!

We conclude with some nice craft and artwork...

Naomi built this little garden scene using her Lego 

Another "sounds" lesson. This time S for singing, slide, snake and sweets.

Naomi's rainbow

Two Mothers' Day cards from Naomi

We found this picture that Naomi had drawn, a copy of the cover of the book that Jay has been reading to her at bedtime.

Naomi's "button treat" this week was a magazine, which came with some nice paints.