Yellowcraigs Beach

After Dirleton Castle last Saturday, we went to North Berwick to get some lunch and then headed back to Direlton to go to Yellowcraigs Beach. It had tuned out a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. This was really good because when we'd left Livingston it was looking pretty black over the Pentlands and Mummy and Daddy were really worried it would be raining.

Unfortunately, it was still very windy (check out Mummy's hair in the picture!) and extremely cold. Also, the tide was right in so there wasn't much room on the beach. We had the kite with us and given the wind it would have flown beautifully, but would also have ended up in the water so we didn't risk it! After throwing a few shells and bits of driftwood in the water (I much prefer a beach with some good stones nearby) we headed back to the car park where there's a pretty good playpark. A lot of the things there are probably better for older kids - Mummy and Daddy seemed to enjoy a couple of the fancy swings more than me - but there was this great wee boat climbing frame thing. I could check through the telescope where we were headed and then steer the boat with the boats wheel. It was great. After a wee while, after a long and exciting day we went home and I had an excellent sleep in the car - I was shattered.

Tulips from Amstergran(ny)

Just a quick one for Granny. When she was here earlier in the year she bought some flowers, including these excellent orange tulips. I helped her plant the bulbs and now they are up and looking fantastic in the afternoon sunshine. Thanks Granny.

Also, since it's a quick post, here's a picture of me playing at Buzz Lightyear in the garden this afternoon while Daddy cut the grass. To infinity and beyond!

Dirleton Castle

Continuing the castle theme, we were at Dirleton Castle on Saturday. It was another glorious day, if a bit cold and windy in the exposed areas. OK as long as you stay inside the castle walls and keep your hood up, though.

It's great fun exploring these old castle ruins. This one had a lot of rooms and many of them were toilets - people just, erm, went, through a hole that went outside the castle. Daddy and I had the swords available to be Knights again too. Dirleton has a lot of steps and spiral staircases that are loads of fun - but they really scared Mummy, especially when I was powering up and down them!


Some of the doorways were quite small but luckily I'm still very short and they cause me no bother at all. I could even go inside the oven - Daddy said I'd turn into a loaf of bread if I did that but I didn't believe him and I was right. He learned better than to make jokes about things happening to me when he walked into a sign. And check out the sign, oh how we laughed while Daddy made loads of excuses about the sign not having anything written on the back of it!

Ruthven Barracks

We were at Ruthven Barracks on Friday morning. It's a great ruined barracks (that you can read more about if you follow that link so I'm not going to give you a history lesson). There's lots of rooms to explore and the greatest picture of how it would have looked when acting as a functioning garrison with lots of little black stick-men attacking from the horizon and little black stick-men with red coats defending the garrison. The middle soldier on the front ramparts had unfortunately been killed. Or was asleep on the job.

Daddy and I took the opportunity to play at Knights while we were there. We forgot the lightsabers so couldn't be Jedi Knights - we had to be Playmobil Knights instead. Daddy, since he hadn't shaved and had prickles, had to be the Barbarian. And since I've got blonde hair (and couldn't be Luke Skywalker) had to be the goodie Knight. Once I defeated Daddy we headed home for some hot chocolate and shortbread. Yummy.

Frank Bruce Sculpture Trail

We're just back from a few days at Granny and Grandpa's. It was great fun. We went to the Frank Bruce Sculpture Trail. There are some great pieces of art there and it's a fabulous location at Feshiebridge. It was a wonderful day when we were there also. It's great fun finding the next sculpture on the trail. My favourite was probably The Walker, which was also the biggest - making it difficult for Daddy to get a good picture of all of it.

On the way back, Mummy thought she'd be clever and run off without us. What she didn't think of, though, was that Daddy had the car key. I took it off him and walked up to Mummy singing "Nah, nah, na-nah, nah. We've got the key!"

Did you hear the one about...?

Daddy was very impressed with this joke I told him on Monday -

What do you call a cat with eight legs?

Octopus.

Birthday Party Karma

It was my birthday party today. We had it at Linlithgow Leisure Centre. We started in the soft play area and run amok there for an hour getting pretty hot. Then we moved into the hall for some food and a lot of running around playing with balloons and the excellent-fun pilates balls! We were all having a whale of a time and then Mummy and Daddy made us stop to play party games. A quick game of pass the parcel and then musical bumps and we could thankfully get back to running around like four-year-olds again.

When we got home, I spent ages opening the wonderful gifts everyone had given me and playing with them all with Daddy. We had great fun. Hopefully I can convince (or guilt-trip if necessary) Mummy and Daddy into another party next year.

I should probably explain the post title, though... Last week was my friend Emma's party. I couldn't go because I was sick so I missed it. Emma was also invited to my party and she turned up today with her Mummy and a present for me but was sick as soon as she arrived in the car park. All over herself, the car and her Mummy apparently. So she popped in to wish me a happy birthday and give me the present then had to go straight home again. Poor Emma, I hope she gets over the bug a little faster than I did. Daddy says he hopes she didn't make too much of a mess of the car.

One other mention has to go to my other friend Emma's Mummy. We have her to thank for the picture of me blowing the candles out on my cake (it's a cool car cake that Mummy got - didn't make this one though). Daddy had left his camera in the car and then since everything was so rushed he didn't have time to go get it. Thank you Emma's mum!

Life begins at 4

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me..!

What a fantastic day I've had today. It's my fourth birthday today and it's been like Christmas here. Mummy made an amazing cake. I picked the cake from her book and she spent all day yesterday making it. Daddy says the air in the kitchen was occasionally blue - not sure what happened to cause that but wish I'd seen it. Mummy says she's never going to make another cake in her life, but I didn't believe her the last couple of times she said that either.

I had forgotten that you sometimes get presents on your birthday so I was extremely excited when Mummy reminded me this morning. We all got dressed (just like Christmas) and then went downstairs together. There was a pile of presents in the middle of the sitting room floor all for me!

First I had to investigate the status of the birthday cake (Mummy was still making it after I went to bed last night). Mummy really had made a good job of it. I was especially pleased with the cannon on top and had to eat that first!

I opened my cards and and then started on the presents. It was a great haul. Lots of Playmobil Knights stuff. My toys were a great match for my cake! There were also some great new books. Mummy and Daddy built my Knights stuff while I played with them.

And then Mummy and Daddy showed me my new BIKE. It doesn't have pedals so that I can learn to go it without stabilisers. It's brilliant but turned out to be a lot harder to ride than Daddy made it look. I'll need quite a bit of practice.