A busy 2 weeks to bring the summer holidays to a close

Well its been a busy couple of weeks…
We went to Scotland for a week – The Davidson family holiday and we had a great time

We took the kiddies through to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and watched a puppet and dance production by ‘Chickenshed’ and then a bubble show, which was very impressive. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the day was topped off by travelling on the train.
On Tuesday, setting off in the pouring rain, full waterproofs for everyone, we headed to Finlaystone Park with a picnic lunch! We were rewarded for persisting with the trip despite the weather… we were the only people their so all of the children (Bethany, Callum and their cousin Oscar) were able to go on the zip wire and other slides as many times as they wanted. Elsie and Mia just hung out in their buggies….Anyways the weather brightened up and by the afternoon we were sat outside having a cuppa at the café. Exhausted, we sat and watched the Lion King in the afternoon.


We also had several trips out cycling, a trip to the swimming pool and the soft play, plus Mark and I managed to get a swimming session one evening and went out for a scrummy meal another. (thank you grand parents for baby sitting)

Unfortunately the journey home was not quite as planned, Elsie got upset within an hour of leaving Glasgow, within 2 hours there was a thud and the car started making funny noises. 3 hours into the journey the AA man arrived and repaired the car, we then hit M6 Friday traffic all around Manchester…. But finally at 1600 we made it to the farm park. Last entry to the park was at 1600, but I think the lady could smell our desperation… We had the best hour with the children, bottle feeding the goats, holding chicks, collecting eggs, sitting on horses and milking goats. We then went next door into the soft play; we were the only people in there, the children had a lovely tea and we left feeling much happier and by 1845 all the traffic had died down and we had a good 2 hour run home.

Saturday was a big day for Elsie (who had reverted to waking every 3 hours in the night whilst we were away) and we decided to see how she took to baby rice…she loved it. She now gets extremely excited when she sees the spoon coming out and has demolished carrots, butternut squash, apple and pear and is already trying to grab the spoon and pull it into her mouth. (The sleep seems to be improving again too:-))

Elsie also rolled for the first time from front to back, which was very exciting but subsequently she appears to have forgotten how to do this, but has mastered rolling back to tummy. In fact, she is determined not to lie on her back any more and rolls over every time you put her down. She enjoys being on her tummy for a wee while and then starts to moan as she gets tired and can’t work out how to roll back again! Elspeth is beginning to enjoy playing with some of her toys, by which I mean, enjoy ‘eating’ some of her toys! She does appear to be trying to work out how to make the ones with bells in make a noise, but this could just be mummy being a little over excited. [Photo evidence of Elsie's activities will follow once camera photos downloaded!]

Callum had his first day at Pre School on Thursday and was brilliant, he looked very grown up with his ruck sack on his back. He confidently went in and sat down with all the other children and had had a lovely time when we went to pick him up.




Bethany’s teacher and teaching assistant came to visit her on Thursday afternoon, which she loved. She wore her uniform all day in anticipation and made a lovely picture for Miss Lowe. On Friday Bethany went into school for 2.5 hours – I am pleased to report that Bethany and Mummy held it together this time!!! Bethany seemed really confident striding off into big school with her uniform on. Tomorrow is the first full day as Bethany commences her first 5 day week… lets hope the enthusiasm continues:-)