Glasgow

The girls have been wanting to go on a train for some time, so last week we went on a day trip to Glasgow. We went to Pizza Express for lunch, and the Riverside Museum (mostly about transport). The latter also has a tall ship to explore, sand pits, and lots of nice activities for children (Naomi really liked the "pretend street", Miriam and Lydia got to do some firefighting). A very fun day, but rounded of with a spectacular bout of sickness from Lydia which meant we got home VERY late. Oh well.

Train based excitement...

PIZZA!

Naomi added the stickers to this bag, I thought it was quite good.

At the museum

The important part of the day. Candy floss and ice cream.

Tired girls at the end of the day.

Sunshine

The past few weeks have been very sunny. This has helped our attention-deprived children no end!

Barbecue fun

Again, it's a hard life.

Settling In

Esther has been with us for over four weeks now - really! - and the time is flying by. Everyone is having a lot of fun getting to know her.

Ewan the Dream Sheep keeps Esther company. He really is The Business. 

I'M A BIG SISTER

ME TOO!

Our long-serving Moses basket has finally bitten the dust. When I brought it down from the loft it literally* fell to pieces.

(*Yes, I literally mean "literally". You may look up the word in my metaphorical "grammatical gripes" list if you're unsure.)

As a replacement for the Moses basket, we got the SnuzPod. This would have been most welcome during Lydia's phase of sleeping in our bed - and has already proven its worth.

This caption intentionally superfluous.

The older girls have been receiving presents to celebrate Big Sisterdom. Lydia loves her bubbles!

It's a hard life.

But there is still plenty to smile about!

Irony.

Additional unnecessary caption.

Lydia has learnt well how to be a big sister. She loves getting things for Esther, and providing her with entertainment.

Found you!

Lydia is now able to count up to 11, so has become even more enamoured with Hide-and-Seek. She'll instigate this by instructing me to hide in the kitchen, will then count to an arbitrary number between 5 and 11, then will come and find me. Then it's her turn to hide, except that she's not quite got the hang of "hiding" yet. Here is where I found her last night (at least 5 times in a row!).

Aquarium

The girls had two in service days last week and we were very happy that Sandy was able to take one of them off to spend with us.  It was only our council that was off so we decided to venture just a little bit further for a fun day so that things would be quieter with most children still being in school.

Granny and Grandad had given the girls some money for their birthdays so we could go somewhere fun and we decided to go to the aquarium at Loch Lomond Shores, in Balloch (which happens to be a place that Sandy and I went on holiday many years ago).

The girls had a brilliant time, Lydia loved looking at all the "FISH!!!!" and the older two had a great time exploring and we were more relaxed about it because there weren't so many people there that we couldn't see them.

Here's some pictures of our very cold (-5 on the way over!) and foggy day.

We finished the day with a cake and drink, the way any great day ends

The day was fantastic and we all (apart from Sandy who was driving) fell asleep in the car on the way home!

Loughborough

A few weeks ago Lydia (who is, I think, addicted to breastfeeding so couldn't be left behind!) and I went to Loughborough to see some of my friends. There were plenty of laughs along the way and it was really good to hang out with some of my best people!  Daddy did an awesome job of playing with the bigger two for the weekend!


I didn't actually take that many photos but here are some of the highlights...

We travelled by train, the first of which was at 7.17am! YAWN!

Mummy, that baby keeps waving at me!

I know I have barely slept all day but I can't understand why I feel so tired!

Eating dinner in a big girl bowl!

Staying with friends means getting to try out a new (huge) bathroom!

Why didn't Dolcinos exist when I lived in Loughborough? Although maybe I should be grateful for my waistline's sake...

This waffle was every bit as good as it looked!

Going home and a bit tired!

And at home...

Starting a castle kit Naomi got for her birthday

While Naomi was busy Miriam played with bricks

Several hours later (in some unprecedented concentrating from Naomi) she has finished one of 5 towers for her castle!

Daddy played the guitar with Miriam

It all got a bit much for Miriam!

Naomi tried out another birthday present, Hama beads!

Miriam does trains, let's face it Daddy does better tracks than Mummy...