Late Christmas Present

I had a great time yesterday. First I went to gymnastics for the first time. That was really fun. Lots of kids playing on trampettes, balance beams and rolling over mats. I think the lady thought I was really good and I'm looking forward to going back.

After that Gran and Grandad came over to see us. They were a bit late and I was very hungry. We had plans to go out for lunch but I just wanted Mummy to give me lunch right away. When they did arrive, Gran and Grandad had brought a present that was supposed to be mine at Christmas. Unfortunately it had gotten lost in the post and only just arrived. It's a fantastic wooden ball track. You can build your own track for the marbles to run down. Suddenly, lunch didn't seem to matter anymore! But unfortunately everyone else insisted.

As it turned out, lunch was pretty good, and I'm glad we went, although I did end up with a tummy ache from eating too much sausage, mash and ice cream with chocolate sauce. Everyone else thought their lunch was yummy too. And Daddy was even happier when they took vouchers Mummy had that were about 10 years old, and when the waitress forgot to charge us for the ice creams and said she was unable to fix it when we told her about it. I think Daddy will definitely take us back there!

After lunch we went back home and Auntie Vikki, Uncle Ian and cousin Dylan were there. It was good to see them and Auntie Vikki let me hold cousin Dylan, which was nice. He's growing really quickly and I think I'll soon be able to play with him.

In all the excitement, I think I forgot to thank Gran and Grandad properly for the ball run. So, Thank You Gran and Grandad. It's a lovely toy and Mummy says there are lots of other parts that can be added to it so I'm really excited about that too.

Snow

I guess most folk reading this (if you're in the UK) will have enjoyed a tremendous amount of snow recently. Well we haven't. And I don't think I've ever seen Mummy so disappointed (which is really saying a lot). We had a nice 2 or 3 inches of it on Monday with both Mummy and Daddy being sent home from work to save them from being stranded but then there's been nothing more than a couple of dustings since while the rest of the UK have had *loads* of it.

Luckily, Daddy, having sneaked away early from work on Monday came and picked me up from nursery and we did a bit of sledging, built a snowman and had a massive snowball fight (which was particularly good when Mummy joined us). It was really funny when Daddy, having suited up in all his fancy waterproof clothing and walking boots came into the house when we were finished and while waxing lyrical about how dry and warm he still was, took his hat off (which Mummy had hit once or twice with a snowball) and dropped lots of snow down the back of his neck!

It's been just as well we made the best of it on Monday afternoon though as there's been no snow since. Daddy and I even managed to get the car washed yesterday.

Aberdour Castle

We went to Aberdour castle this afternoon. It had been a bit of lazy day and Daddy is nursing a cold (again) but Mummy was nagging him so much he decided to take us to a castle. We headed for Aberdour and arrived mid-afternoon thinking we'd kill about half an hour and then head home again but we were there for ages! It was loads of fun and is a really surprisingly nice castle.

The nice gentleman in the shop suggested we go around the garden and out to St Fillan's church nearby. It was really interesting and I really enjoyed making Mummy and Daddy read some of the headstones which were extremely old (I would have had them read all the headstones but they refused). We went into the church which was really nice but Daddy made me leave the swords outside and take my hat off so I quickly got bored while Mummy read about all the history.

After seeing the church and graveyard we headed back to the castle. First we checked out the garden which is terraced and allowed me to take a different from Mummy to get to the Dovecot (I won!). Then we explored the castle. Some of it is still covered but most of it is ruined. It was all really nice and Daddy and me had a fight in several of the rooms before we finally headed home two hours after arriving. So much for a half-hour visit! I'd quite like to go back there sometime.

Castle Gloom

We went to Castle Campbell near Dollar today (used to be known as Castle Gloom with River Care on one side and River Sorrow on the other). It was a nice drive up, which I slept through, but apparently we drove across the river Forth! At least the Sat-Nav seemed to think so...


She didn't speak to Mummy and Daddy for a while after that - they think she was sulking.

When we got there, Daddy parked quite far away from the Castle and we went for a walk through Dollar Glen. It was good fun, following the Dollar Burn and then the River Care. Mummy thought it looked too far and too steep for me, but I insisted on walking, so she went back for the car and drove up close to the Castle so I wouldn't have to walk back. It was a really nice walk though, just a narrow muddy path along the side of the river with bits of bridge where the sides of the glen were too steep. We met Mummy near the end and she walked with us up to the Castle. Daddy told me that it was just as well Mummy hadn't come with us because she couldn't have coped with the walk and even more so couldn't have coped with me walking it with a steep slope to a fast flowing river on one side!

The castle was quite nice. Not a lot to see but an extremely nice gentleman manning the shop. He stamped our book (it's a Historic Scotland castle) and gave us all head-torches for seeing the tower. Daddy and I had our required sword-fight in the top floor of the tower and then we went onto the roof for another wee fight and to take in the fantastic views.


After the tower, there isn't much to see except a couple of cellars where they used to do selling. While we were looking at them it started to rain quite heavily. We waited in the shelter of the castle for a break in the rain and then headed for the car. The car park is up a very steep road which is crossed by a river (Mummy says that is a called a ford - fortunately there was a little bridge or I would have got very wet and cold) and I needed some encouragement but got there eventually - for a packet of crisps and some chocolate! Then it was off to Auntie Vikki's to see the Marlows and my new cousin Dylan for a bit. He's very sweet but he sleeps a lot and isn't big enough to play with yet. But, then, he is only 5 weeks old.

The Negotiator

"If you don't pass me that helicopter then you can't come to my party. And if you don't come to my party then I can't have a party. And I want to have a party. So you need to come to my party. So you need to do what I tell you. So pass me that helicopter."

Fashion Designer

Mummy and Daddy dragged me shopping the other day. While Mummy was trying on a pair of shoes I found this really trashy handbag. But it made a fantastic hat! What do you think?


Daddy was so impressed that he took a picture of it. And I was so impressed that he could take a picture with his phone that I insisted he let me take a picture of him. What do you think of my efforts? It was so much fun, you should have seen Daddy trying to wrestle the phone off me again!

Marbles

Daddy and me went to see Gran and Grandad yesterday. We'd all been out in the car for a bit, thought about going for a walk but it was just too cold! Going home, Grandad suggested I help him build the marble run that Gran had given him for Christmas. That sounded like a great idea. Just a few days before I'd seen a similar toy in Asda and asked Daddy if we could get it so I was really looking forward to playing with it.

When we got back to Gran and Grandad's, we had some lunch and then opened the marble run. There were lots of peices and several pages of instructions. Within 10 minutes we had it built Dad and Grandad were chasing me out of the room to play with Gran so that they could build it without being 'distracted'. Apparently they needed all their concentration. The box says it was for 8 year-olds and older and I heard Daddy say that maybe they should wait until I was 8 and get me to build it.


Anyway, a couple of hours later (and many Play-Doh models made by Gran and me) it was finished. And I got to switch it on! Grandad and Daddy seemed pretty happy with their work. Grandad must have really liked it because he said there was no way he was taking it apart again. He's a lucky guy, it was a nice Christmas gift.