Miscellaneous catchup

Time to catch up on plenty of things from the past year or so that didn't really fit into a post of their own...

Miriam continues to make excellent creations out of Lego!

This provides some inspiration for her little sisters

A couple of shots of the beautiful place we live. First, this was taken from my office window at the university. I zoomed in a bit to miss out the other buildings, but this is genuinely (normally) the view from my desk.

This is the River Forth, a few minutes' walk from our house. The "River Walk" is currently on our agenda most days. Just occasionally though, extra rain means that the path is blocked (as shown by the debris on the path)

We can go for a longer walk around the loch at the University...

We also get some pretty good sunsets around here.

Some pictures of our girls at play...

(Lydia said she wanted a sword when we were visiting Stirling Castle. So we made some...)

Grandma came to visit in February last year, just before lockdown started. Happier times indeed.

Jay was the last one to have a non-lockdown birthday

The next couple are from the day the parks reopened after the first lockdown.

Some excited girls that day!

This is the "wobbly tree" on the way to the park in Bridge of Allan. The girls really like to play under its branches and have had a lot of fun here.

Some more shots of messy church and Sunday School at home...

Lydia is now getting some big teeth. Here she is proudly sporting a "gap".

In t he summer Naomi and he friend wanted to raise money to help the snow leopards, so the set up a stall in the street selling various wares. They made a decent amount too.

Naomi really likes the band Little Mix. In the summer the had an online concert via YouTube, so Naomi and Miriam got to invite their friends around and enjoy a big night of entertainment.

Lydia can now ride a bike!

We had a little bump in our car a few months back. The major perk was that our insurance was good enough to get us a really shiny hire car while ours was getting fixed. Every trip was a big day out that week!

This swing/climbing frame had been able to absorb a lot of the excess lockdown energy.

Naomi made a portable speaker...

Ice is also fascinating!

Naomi has been doing some painting with the watercolour set she got at Christmas.

As you might expect, she's really good.

Naomi has also volunteered to help make dinner a couple of times...

Finally - the girls said they wanted a pinball machine. I don't know where they got the idea from.

It turns out that all those amazon boxes from the past few months can make a really good one! Hours of fun.

Snow

We don't get much snow in Stirling (plenty on the surrounding hills - but we're too close to sea level to get much), so when it comes we try to make the best of it.

The first photo is after we'd had a light dusting (at best) and Esther really wanted to build a snowman. You can just about make out our effort on the table.

A week later (early January) we had a bit more snow...

Brownie Camp

 Naomi and Miriam were meant to be on Brownie camp this year, but of course, that hasn't happened. Instead we had a weekend of Zoom meetings and activities, with a "camp" setup in their bedrooms. I think it still worked pretty well. They had fun, anyway...

The little two were very keen to not be left out, so they got a camp too.

Christmas Prep

 It'll be an "at home" Christmas this year, for the first time ever without grandparents or cousins or anything like that. We have, at least, got the first part ready: our very unique tree decorations.

Naomi has made a santa's grotto as part of the tree decorations. That gold tinsel surrounds it.

Miriam's 8th Birthday

 Similarly, Miriam's birthday also needed some outdoor fun, but in her case she just wanted to play Minecraft on the tablet with her friend. So, a little bit easier. Spot the theme with the case too!

Pre-school presents. Miriam is really there somewhere!

Her camera was a popular present

Messy church at home

Among the many things folk have adapted to the present situation, both our church and North Parish (the one we go to messy church at) have been very good at providing home versions of their usual children's activities. Our Sunday school now usually has a Veggietales video and an appropriate craft; we usually have a kids song to dance to as well.

Messy Church revolves around parents and their children doing the activities together  - and it's been really helpful to get a bag of materials and instructions for activities each month. Here's the girls enjoying some activities (this is from back in full lockdown - Lydia is wearing her school uniform to feel a bit more like it's a regular day)