July '14

We're way behind updating this blog and catching up gets scarier and less likely with every passing day. So we're going to sacrifice our usual detailed quality and dump a bunch of photos in for each month in an effort to get back on track soon. Enjoy July!

Slacklining in the back garden!

Welcome home, Dad - surprise water fight!

Dramatic ending of our Play in a Week at Firefly.

Less dramatic start of the show :)

Ice cream!

Bounce!

I'm Playing In The Rain!

The rain this evening was pretty special. It was really heavy and the wind was pretty strong too. Dad shouted me through to watch it and I immediately decided to go out and play in it. Dad tried to stop me like the fantastic parent that he is but quickly realised he wasn't going to have any success with that so decided to just video me having lots of fun getting wet instead!

After he stopped recording we played for a while. Mum had joined him and we played soldiers from either side of the glass with me shooting them and blowing them up with hand grenades and rocket launchers. We're so easily amused - who needs computers?!

East Lothian in the Sun

It's been sunny all week and with nothing already planned for a beautiful Saturday, Mum and Dad decided a trip to East Lothian would be a good idea. First we headed to Tantallon Castle, just in time for lunch and a wee picnic Mum had prepared.

Then Dad got the swords and we explored and fought our way around the castle - lots of fun on a beautiful day.

Tantallon is right on the coast and the nearby beach and water looked amazing so afterwards we headed down to Seacliff beach. It was pretty busy as it's a really nice beach. The tide was on its way out so there were plenty of rock pools for us to explore. We saw fish, shrimp, shore crabs, hermit crabs and even a few tiny flat fish. I caught a hermit crab and had a shrimp run over my hand! This is actually a couple of the 50 things I need to do before I'm 11 and 3/4!

We also climbed a little hill and found a secret little harbour and explored the rocky area beyond where Dad took a bunch of pictures of me looking reflectively out at Bass Rock. And jumping!

After that, it was time to get in the sea. No one could believe I hadn't been in yet, although I had managed to get my new trainers pretty soaked in the rock pools! A quick strip and into my trunks then I waded into the sea. And actually did some swimming! This is another of the 50 things to do before I'm 11 and 3/4! It was pretty difficult and I didn't do many strokes. Having been taught to swim correctly, I put my face in the water - there's none of this head up nonsense with me! But no one had brought my goggles so it was fairly uncomfortable. I did it though! Very pleased myself and so are Mum and Dad.

A Night without Mum and Dad

This week, our class at school spent a night away at the Low Port Centre in Linlithgow. It's a real event and the school do it as part of our maturing from the infants section (P1 to P3) to the seniors. I've been excited about it for ages and Mum's been worried about it almost as long!

We packed one of Dad's old gym bags (I say 'old' but it looked like it had never been used to me. He must have really looked after it while attending the gym for all that time he paid his membership). Once packed it was really stuffed and heavy. Mum said I should get a suitcase with wheels but Dad insisted his son wasn't going away for 1 night with one of those. Mum had to carry it to school for me because it was so heavy and then she complained about her sore shoulder all day afterwards.

We went to school as normal and left on the bus at lunch time. Mum had a physio appointment (about her shoulder!) so wasn't going to be able to see me off but Dad snuck out of work for a long lunch to come see. As usual, I was last to leave the school. All of my classmates left to get on the bus before me. All of them, every single one of them, pulling a suitcase on wheels. And then I stomped out with this really heavy bad on my back!

I was with my friend, George, who I'd be sharing a room with. He had a trunki with wheels but was insisting on carrying it. George is noticeably bigger than me and he was moaning about the weight so I had a go. I still had my bag over one shoulder and took a grip of his in my free hand, only to report "I don't know what you're complaining about, you should feel mine!"

Mum arrived just in time to see the bus pull away and that was it until after school the next day. I had an amazing time, it was gorgeous weather, punctuated by a bit of thunder and lightening. We went out in a boat on Linlithgow Loch; did some stuff with the rangers; played games on the peel; had a Low Port's Got Talent contest (I didn't win) and went to Beecraigs park.

I'm already looking forward to P7 when we get to go away for a week. And Mum's already worried about it!

School Shorts!

It's sunny! No one can believe it! I'm wearing shorts - see if you can stop me!

Yellowcraigs Beach

So, today it was Daddy's turn to insist we go out. A friend of mine came over in the morning and after lunch Daddy wanted to go to a beach and take some photos. He wanted to play with his new filter apparently so off we headed to Yellowcraigs Beach on the south side of Edinburgh. I got a nice long sleep on the way there - I knew there was no need for those long lies that Mummy and Daddy keep insisting I have!

When we arrived at the beach, Daddy got all setup to take his photo and I headed straight for the water with my wellies on. Within 2 minutes I was over the welly heads! And the temperature was 2 degrees! That put paid to Dad's plans!

But while he begun to pack up, I was already wet. I wasn't about to let a bit of sea water spoil a play in the sea - it could only improve upon it after all! So I continued to wade and jump waves and splash for a while while Mummy made friends with another Mummy who was there and Daddy got photos of me (they're always better than the ones he takes without me!). I lasted about 15 minutes and in that time got pretty soaked through. The kind friend of Mummy's helped to empty my wellies and wring out my socks afterwards before we headed back to the car. Mummy had even brought a change of clothes for me (but only slippers so I couldn't go out again).

Daddy says it was all worth it for the sleep I got and the photos he got for this blog post!

Beecraigs Geocaching

The holidays have been mostly spent indoors. Our plans to go north were scuppered by Mummy getting flu and Grandpa having a fall (get well soon, Grandpa!) and apparently there was no plan B. Luckily, Daddy has bought an XBox 360 so that's filled far too many an hour!

Today, Mummy is feeling a lot better and insisted we go out for a walk in the cold. So off to Beecraigs Loch we headed for a nice stroll and attempt to collect a geocache or two in the area. It didn't seem to matter how much I asked to go to the park at Beecraigs Country Park, The Folks were having none of it and just drove straight to the Loch for a walk with no swings, roundabouts or chutes.


The lack of park didn't matter in the end though. I had loads of fun. Mummy and me looked for lots of interesting things to bring home and the Loch was almost completely frozen over!









We did find one geocache. We were lucky as a few days ago it would have been completely covered in snow! There was a second cache but although we knew where it was, we couldn't find it. It's a tiny one and before we could track it down, some people approached. Geocaching is a secret game and you're not supposed to draw attention to caches so we left. We watched the people though and they were cachers too! They went straight to where we were looking and started looking for the cache too! We'll just have to get it next time we're there.

Santa Train

Our friends along the road had some spare tickets for the Santa Steam Train at Bo'ness. So along we went, wishing we had Santa's reindeer and sleigh to get us through the snow but we made it in Daddy's old car (Mummy's car doesn't do too well in the snow).

Mummy and Daddy hadn't told me where we were going and I was very happy and excited to be going on a steam train but I still didn't know at that time that Santa was visiting the train and that he'd be giving out presents!

So it was along the line for a bit on the steam train; stop for a bit and go for a walk along the platform and on to the bridge (in the snow) over the train to peer at the firemen filling the fire, then after a wee while we had to get back on the train for some songs on the way back.

Once back we spent some more time on the platform and I got to go on the engine platform to meet the driver! He told me that the train is actually an Aviemore train that was down specifically for the Santa run!

That was a great day and a great surprise!