Engine Engine Number 9

When we were at the Glasgow Science Centre on my birthday, we spent some time building a model of a steam powered wheelchair from Wallace & Gromit. A little ironically it was battery powered but that wasn't important. The lady explained to us how to build it and we talked about the drive and the impact of putting different pieces on that resulted in the wheel not running centrally (a funny lumpy ride was the result!).

Anyway, a nice surprise was that we got to take the model home to finish off. Finishing it off required the cardboard wheelchair shape to be correctly folded and added. Today, Daddy and I did this. And it was no surprise why they didn't want us doing it there! It was difficult and fiddly work. However it did come together in the end and we were both extremely pleased with the quality!

Here it is ferrying some Lego minifigures across the floor:

Fireworks!

This year, for the first time, Dad bought sparklers for me for fireworks night! As usual, we headed to the fireworks display at the local cricket club and they put on a fabulous display as usual. They make a tremendous effort and charge nothing to come along and see. While waiting for the display to start I was able to enjoy my own sparklers and even share them with one of my friends!

Hallowe'en 2011!

This year for Hallowe'en we were at home and after Dad and I made our own lanterns, I got to go out guising with my friends Ellis and Niamh.

I had planned to dress up as a skeleton! I already had suitable pyjamas and Mum managed to find a balaclava, excellent gloves and welly boots to complete the costume. Then Auntie Carol added the final touches with some face-paint. I looked great!

Guising was great fun. I performed a poem at every house we went to and everyone was very happy to see us. I scored loads of sweets and chocolate! It'll keep me going for ages. Can't wait until next Hallowe'en!

I Love the Holidays

Mummy and I have had a great day today. After we dropped Daddy off at work, we went off to Linlithgow for my swimming lesson. I've been every day this week, and I've been learning loads. At the start of the week I told Mummy that backstroke was my least favourite stroke, but now I really like it, and I'm really good at it! Take a look at this:

After swimming we stopped in at Dobbies for a drink and a cake. Yum. To be honest though, I think I ate a bit much (and I know Mummy did!), so we are not going to do that again tomorrow!

We then went home and I played with my Power Miners Lego for ages while Mummy did Mummy stuff around the house. I can't tell you what any of that was, because I can't say I see any difference! After lunch we cycled to the dentist - passed with a clean bill of health (and teeth), and then took the long route home (on purpose!). Then I watched Harry Potter 2 for a bit before we went off to gymnastics - Mummy was just driving, not taking part! As usual I had lots of fun - we're practising for our competition in September at the moment, and my teacher Allen told Mummy and Daddy the other day that he is having to do more advanced stuff with me because I am doing so well. Hooray for me!

And now I am home, playing with more Lego and wondering when Mummy is finally going to be finished making dinner!

Gingerbread Men and Houses!

While we were geocaching on holiday we picked up a trackable. For all of you muggles out there, a trackable is something that you collect from a cache and move to another cache. Each one has a unique number and you log it and look it up to see it's story or goal.  This one was a gingerbread man and its goal was to move around caches and for people who collect it to make gingerbread men and put the pictures on its log. So when Dad went back to work, Mummy and me made gingerbread men! It was fun making them but even more fun eating them - they were delicious!

Last Day of Holiday

Last day today but we did a lot.

We popped over to Lossiemouth to see the beach there. Got another geocache (another earth cache - Dad's favourite kind!) but the weather was a bit dull so we decided to head back to the lovely Findhorn. On the way we parked up at Lossiemouth runway to watch the planes. None took off or landed so we left.

On the way we passed Duffus Castle so we swung in. What an amazing find! This was one very cool ruin. The sun was back out and the guys had just finished cutting the grass all around it. It still has its original wet ditch - just like the moat on Dad's sandcastles! This was now an excellent pond and we saw Damsel Flys and hundreds of baby frogs - Mummy kept giving me a row thinking I would be standing on them. But in all honesty, if I stand on one it'll probably be fine, if she stands on one, well...

One of the coolest things there (so say Mummy and Dad anyway) was the original road over the wet ditch bridge and up to the castle. They said they could imagine ox and cart trundling up it and it reminded them of the roads in Pompei.

We tried to do the jump photo in front of the castle. Had loads of goes at it with Dad having to run back to the camera to set the timer after every shot. We finally gave up with no success and then Dad discovered he didn't have a fast enough shutter speed so we're all blurred anyway!

If you click this photo you'll see all the bad attempts at this!

So it was time to have a swordfight with Dad - cause we were at a castle! And while we were fighting, a Tornado flew over and landed at Lossiemouth runway. Typical. Dad could just about see it in a gap between the trees from where he was at the top of the castle mound.

But the day didn't stop there. There was still time to head to Findhorn beach and make the best of the tide before it swallowed up all the sand. Great times!

Bored

We went to the Findhorn Foundation today. It's pretty cool - lots of eco homes and friendly folks doing nice things. We specifically went so that Mummy could spend a lot of money on take a look at the pottery. I had a good look too but then everyone got a bit worried that I was going to break something - I don't know why they were thinking that. Anyway, Dad and I went outside to wait on Mummy to spend a lot of money. She took a while to spend a lot of money and I got a bit stir-crazy so thought it'd be nice to entertain Dad...