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

Why...

...are the pirate's underpants on his head?

I don't know. They just aarrggh!

Calum....

...asleep, on the floor, in a baby's blanket and a home made "Zippy from Rainbow" fancy dress head. Enough said.

 

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.

Building the Cooliseum

The kids have been having fun, making things. We try to discourage that sort of thing, of course, but it just doesn't work.

For starters, Calum built "Mr StickyOutTongue" with lego a couple of days ago...

Then, after a couple of games of Jenga (one of a few games that everybody in the family can play and enjoy), he decided to build with the Jenga. First he built the "Cooliseum"...

...and a cinema....

Of course, Lachlan had to get in on the act with a theatre...

...before Calum finished off with a 10 pin bowling lane....

Looking more like his mum each day

Lachlan got new specs today which are, strangely, quite similar to his mother's, but are in fact way cooler because they have a zebra pattern on the inside of the frames.

Calum's eyesight means that he has yet to experience the joy of new glasses, but he is becoming a proficient Lego builder, as this fine model of a man shows.

I've just realised that these two photos just about fit the latest Weekly Word Competition (which I've been meaning to get involved in for a few weeks now) because Lachlan is wearing his Purple school uniform and the Lego man is made from a mismatched Assortment of bits.

1st Class!

This is Calum's first school photo. The local paper always prints pictures of the new Primary 1s from all the different schools in the area. Can you spot the future high fliers in this lot?

What's that coming over the hill?

In a desperate bid to get some more blog readers, or to at least entertain the few that we've got, I resorted to mind control and managed to implant the idea in Calum's mind that he should not in fact go quietly to bed as he had been told, but would instead dress up as Sully from Monsters Inc. and fall asleep on Lachlan's bed. If you want to see the results.....

.: click here :.

Skool Daze

Yesterday was a big day for the boys - the start of a new school term, Lachlan's first day in P4, and Calum's first day at school. They both looked very smart in their uniforms - the simple act of wearing a polo shirt and a decent pair of trousers has made Calum look a lot more grown up, I think. He seems to be settling in well so far - hopefully that'll continue.

 

 

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.

Cow Hill-abunga, Dudes

In the afternoon after we got to Fort William I decided to leave everyone else to get on with cooking tea and go for a run as part of my training for the Aviemore Half Marathon (despite my good intentions, this turned out to be the last run I managed to do for a whole week which is a bit of a set back but shouldn't be a major problem). I decided to follow the track up Cow Hill which sits between the town and Ben/Glen Nevis. It's a tough wee hill for a run but it felt good after being stuck in the car for so long.
The next day, we decided to all go up to the top and see the views which were pretty good although partially obscured by low cloud. Unfortunately, it was a last minute sort of thing and we didn't take any bribes for the kids, so they moaned a lot - even lots of splashy puddles didn't cheer them up that much.
Anyway, here are the photos - some of them are from my run and some from the walk. The smaller ones are from my phone so the quality's a bit iffy.

Sports Day

Today was sports day at Calum's nursery. Strictly non-competitive of course, but they appeared to have great fun, running through things, ...

...getting up close with girls, ...

...wanging wellies, ...

..., and getting a medal and a big hug from his Nannie.