Magnus is Two

Where has the time gone? Magnus turned two yesterday so we celebrated in the usual style with presents and cake. The lucky lad got some new lego, some "In The Night Garden" characters who he has really taken to, some Bob the Builder toys, and a very hard (as I discovered) toy camera.

 

 

 

Happy Tent(h) Birthday, Lachlan

Well, I'm fair shattered after a busy weekend.

For his birthday, Lachlan had asked that he have some friends over for a sleep-over in the tent, and a trip to the pictures to see Ice Age 3 (as expected, very good but probably not quite as good as the first one).

Of course, that means I've been collecting cakes, ferrying kids to and from the cinema, putting up tents, getting pizza, lighting fires for marshmallow cooking (mmmmm), trying to sleep in a tent next to a bunch of noisy kids in a tent, taking down tents, and generally running around after small people.

Also, I managed to run over 15 miles on Saturday morning. I struggled towards the end, but pleased to get the miles under my belt. First time I've run that far, and first time I've run the equivalent of a marathon in a week, which felt like a good threshold to cross.

Vikki was running in the Forfar 10K today. Not a PB, but a good time in tough windy conditions, and 21 points in the Club Championship by being the first Stonehaven RC woman to finish.

Se7en

Regular blob readers may have realised that it was Calum's 7th birthday on Sunday, and what a busy day it was. I started off with a 9.5 mile run, then Vikki and I went to donate blood (which took ages for various reasons I'm not going to go into). And then we all set off for the Deeside Activity Park with six of Calum's friends - Vikki's folks came along to provide some much needed backup.

It was good fun - the boys did some archery, quad biking, and carting, and despite making a lot of noise they were pretty well behaved. Calum managed to get stuck in a stack of tyres which everyone else found hilarious.

Rob from the Deeside Brewery was doing some free tastings of their latest batch of Lady Macbeth so I had a couple of tastes, thought it was rather nice, and took a 2 pint carton home for later. I also bought a couple of bottles of Broichan which I'm quite looking forward to.

After the activities, it was back to our house for more play, party food and cupcakes, before we finally returned the other kids to their rightful owners (unfortunately, we had to keep all of ours) and I was finally able to relax and enjoy the aforementioned beer.

There are some photos of the day on our picasa web site....

2009-03-22 Calum's 7th Birthday

Where's the Year Gone?

Happy Birthday, Magnus. Yes, he's 1 today, and it hardly seems a blink of the eye that he was merely a glint in that self same eye. I managed to get away from work early so that we would have some time for cake and pressies before Calum and I had to go off to Beavers. Vikki made the cake which was very nice - Magnus would probably still be eating it if he could.

Our present to Magnus is a bit of a sneaky one. It's this really cool little daysack for him to wear when he starts walking around. The sneaky bit is that he'll have to carry his own stuff, and also, it comes with a strap so we can keep him under control. Mwaah-ha-ha-ha-ha.

I wanna be a rockstar

 

As ever, Vikki's Uncle Peter and Auntie Nancy gave Lachlan a really cool birthday present, because they are generous people and I suspect Peter is really a big kid at heart. And as ever, it took me ages to remember to buy some batteries, because I am basically useless. In this instance, the present was an electric guitar and microphone which the kids are now thoroughly enjoying making a fine racket with. Thanks, Peter and Nancy!

Big Weekend

It was Lachlan's birthday on Saturday, and we had a great day out in Aberdeen planned. Worryingly our plans were thrown into disarray by a phone call telling us that Franky and Benny's was shut because of a fire. I had visions of us wondering round looking for somewhere to eat with the kids moaning like you wouldn't believe but, as it turned out, we got in to Chiquito's before the main lunch time rush and had a nice lunch there. Lachlan got a pizza with bacon and bacon on it so he was happy and I had a margarita so I was happy too.

Then it was on to Cadona's for a ride on the Crazy Train, the big slide, and the Log Flume. All great fun, but then it was on to Transition Extreme for a climbing taster session, which was really good fun and might be something we do again.

Yesterday, I had the option of taking part in the Forfar 10K run or the 26 mile Great Stonehaven Bike Ride. So I did neither - after I got back from a 6 mile late morning run, we all went down to the harbour to see what was happening at the MRI Harbour Festival. It was the usual collection of money raising stalls (raffles, bottle stall, duck fishing, whack the rat, etc) but also a mechanical bull. The boys had a shot of the bull and lasted about 7 seconds on their best shots, then Calum practically shoved me on it. After two 8 second rides, I managed 17 seconds so could walk off with my pride intact having beat the kids times. A long way short of the 47s best time of the day, though, and feeling a little bit tender this morning.

I'm sure there are some photos somewhere, so I'll need to upload them. Maybe I'll also post the ones from the rest of the holidays at some point.

Happy Birthday, Calum

2008-03-22 Calum's 6th Birthday

Snow? On Calum's birthday? Surely not. Surely as it happens. At least we hadn't planned a barbecue or trip to the beach or anything silly like that. Calum had decided he wanted to go bowling with some friends, and then we went to Frankie and Bennys for lunch. It was good fun although the boys were quite boisterous, so it's nice now to relax and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. Calum got heaps of great presents including a skateboard (expect tales of cuts and bruises soon) and some cool Lego skeletons. More pictures if you click on the picture above.

Happy Birthday To Me

Thanks to everyone who left a "Happy Birthday" comment. It's very much appreciated and I raise a glass to you all. Not just figuratively either - who'd have thought Hungarian Pinot Grigio would be this good? We just had a wee bit of cake this evening since we were out for dinner at The Marine on Saturday which was very nice. I got some nice gifts - some running shorts, a gorillapod for the camera (used to take this photo), a new book, and a box set of 5 CDs of The Fall, one of my favourite bands of all time. Yay.

Vikki got a new Paul Frank/Lego t-shirt. On my birthday. What's all that about?

Happy Birthday, Aileen

To celebrate her 60th birthday, my Auntie Aileen invited a big bunch of family for lunch at The Atholl. For some reason, the birthday girl arranged the seating plan to have Lachlan and Calum on either side of her, not something most people would choose to do if they'd ever sat at a table with them before. As it turned out, it all went really well. The food was excellent, the kids were well behaved (as well as our two, their cousins Liam, Eilidh, and Kirsten were there and they all played well together or drew pictures when they weren't eating), and it was a nice chance to say hello to a number of relatives who we hadn't seen for a while. A good time was had by all. Lachlan and Calum took quite a few photos - a lot had to be deleted but enough survived for a slide show. Click below if you want to see the full size versions:

An affa fine birthday

As a special birthday treat, Vikki got to look after the kids while I went running in the woods. Earlier on, she'd been to the hairdressers to get a nice hairdo to go with her new glasses, and I took her dancing in the evening, but a full hour looking after Lachlan and Calum was clearly the highlight.
The running and the dancing were part of the "affa fine Stoney Stomp", run and ceilidh. It was a tough 7 mile run in hot sun which I managed in about 64 mins. The last 1/2 mile or so was all downhill and turned into an almost uncontrolled gallop past the finish line. Well done to everybody who took part and a big thanks to the organisers and marshalls, and also to Christine who ran with me for a bit and kept me going when the legs felt like quitting. The ceilidh was good fun and we even managed to win some mugs in the raffle.
Click below to see the pictures...

2007-09-08 Stoney Stomp and Vikki's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Andy

The last full day of our holiday coincided with an anniversary of Vikki's dad's 29th birthday (to borrow a phrase). Despite getting two cakes we still didn't have quite enough room for the correct number of candles. We were worried he wouldn't have enough puff to blow them all out. Fortunately two volunteers turned up to help with the candles and with eating the cake.

In the afternoon, we went down to the Nevis Centre to go 10 pin bowling. If you ask me it's one of the most difficult sports to get decent photos of, but I thought this one of Calum posing was worth sharing.

In the evening we went to this place for a meal and a couple of beers. It was very nice and a fine way to round off our holiday.

We went home via Glen Coe where I was hoping we might be able to stop and take some photos of the spectacular scenery around there. However, low cloud and rain scuppered that plan, but nobody was sick so that goes down as a remarkably successful journey.

Happy Birthday Lachlan

Today is Lachlan's 8th Birthday so, as you'd expect, he got some presents and we had pizza and cake for tea. As usual, Lachlan got some great presents such as a Pirate Ship, Spongebob Squarepants Lego, a Lego cake/jelly mould, and an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. The Evel Knievel stunt cycle is great - it's just like one I remember from when I was a kid with a big handle you turn round until it makes a really loud noise and then goes shooting across the floor and crashes into the nearest item of furniture. It makes me feel young again.

For those of you on the edge of your seats, waiting for more pictures and stories from our holiday, they are coming but don't hold your breath.