Laura’s Life

This morning I took the boys out to Barnluasgan for a walk around the loch and a search for some critters.  We were not disappointed.

Evan setting out on the walk.

Just a few minutes into our stroll, we found our first animal: a frog.  Aidan held it first …

…. then held it so that Evan could touch ….

… and then Orin had a hold and returned it to where we found it.

Here it is hopping on the path before Orin put him back on the grass.

Orin looking at the loch.

Trying to get a photo of all three boys perched on a mossy branch proved nigh impossible.  One or more of them was always up to some kind of mischief.

Orin perched on a wooden seat.

A foxglove.  Aidan has been obsessed with these since I warned him they were poisonous.  Now he seems keen on knowing about all sorts of poisonous plants.

A velvet beetle crawling on my hand.

Aidan paddling in the loch.

We found a big brown leech in the loch, another exciting critter encounter.  It’s not a great photo but you can see the leech just above the reflection of the flash, snaking from bottom right to top left of the image.

But the leeches did not deter the paddlers!

We found a lizard basking in the sun on a drystone dyke.  This was the most exciting critter encounter in ages.

Evan walked for the second leg of our circuit round the loch.  I think he has more stamina for walking than Orin does.  Here he is resting his wee short legs.

Aidan doing likewise as an excuse to climb.

And Orin having a turn.

My trekking trio.

Scouring the grass for more beasties.

Aidan on a perch.

Evan heading off for the horizon.

Evan resting on a perch.

Evan walking back towards the car.

Aidan and Orin playing on the grass while I packed up the car.

And, if you are wondering, yes, those are skittles the boys are carrying with them.  No prizes for guessing that they use them as lightsabers.

As part of our Australia and New Zealand theme, the boys learned to perform a Haka. Maybe not an authentic one but a fun version of it anyway. Unfortunately by the time I thought to grab some video footage of them performing, Orin and Evan had decided to just spectate and Aidan was losing patience. So this is not the best version of a Haka that they performed before or even since but it gives you and idea anyway.

This week the kids have been learning about Australia and New Zealand.

In addition to reading stories set in Australia and New Zealand, we read the book ‘Children Just Like Me’.  Aidan thought the main difference between him and the little Maori girl was that she lived with her grandparents rather than her parents and the main difference between him and the wee Aboriginal girl was that she did not have to wear shoes.  I think he was envious that she got to go bare foot all the time.  Then we did some colouring in of maps, flags and animals.

Then Orin and Aidan made a duck billed platypus and a koala out of toilet roll tubes.

Then we learned how to sing ‘Waltzing Matilda’.  This is Orin singing along to the chorus.  They would not let me capture them singing it on video.

The next morning we did an activity where they had to move like various Australian animals.  Here they are being jellyfish.

Here they are being slithering snakes.

And here are Orin and Aidan being sharks attacking seal Evan.

And Aidan being a snapping crocodile.

Another day we did Aboriginal hand paintings.  (They were in their pyjamas so as to avoid getting paint on their clothes.)  I drew around their hands and cut out the shapes in black card and then they finger painted patterns onto them in bright colours.

Aidan also made a venomous Australian spider.

Another day the boys learned to perform a Haka.  Well, our version of one anyway.  I think they got quite into the aggressive posturing and sticking out of tongues.

Finally, the weather not being good enough for a “barbie”, Chris and the boys made lamingtons.

As if wielding a lightsaber and knowing how to perform a stage death was not inappropriate enough for a baby, Evan has also discovered that duplo can be turned into a gun.  He wanders around making sort of spitty shooting noises and “firing” the gun at his brothers.  So.  Very.  Wrong.

We got the face paints out this weekend.  Can you guess what theme the boys chose?

Antony kindly sent them a DVD of the Clone Wars so Aidan wanted to be Anakin with all the tattoos just like in that cartoon:

Whereas Orin wanted to have a beard so he could be Obi Wan Kenobi:

So then they had a lightsaber duel …

… which Yoda Evan intervened in …..

… only to sustain a terrible injury.

There is something quite wrong about a baby knowing how to play dead, right?  He even does the whole dramatic stage death thing.

I appreciate that Scotland does not have the most tropical climate on the globe but the weather right now is thoroughly depressing.  Flaming June had the occasional glimmers of sunshine through the grey clouds but this past week has been such a deluge of rain I might have to consider building an ark in the back garden.  It’s the first day of July and even just to get in the car to go and visit friends we had to dress in rain jackets and wellie boots.  Wellie boots!  In July?

Do these look like kids dressed for a summer holiday outing?

This was actually Aidan’s penultimate day at nursery but tomorrow all the kids (including Orin) are having a Medieval Banquet to celebrate the last day of term.  So this morning was when they held their graduation ceremony.

I did not manage to get any really great photos because I had Evan on my lap, the kids were intent on not posing at all and I was more involved in being a mother than a photographer (yes, for once!) but here are the snaps to commemorate the moment anyway.

They began by having all the kids sing a “Celebrate” song to the eight who are heading off to school in August.  Aidan is lurking in the back right of frame in the black t-shirt.

He was presented with a certificate and a childrens atlas.

This is a group photo of all eight “Rising Fives” together.

Aidan graduated from nursery today. They had a little ceremony for the eight kids who are starting school in August. They started the whole thing by having the kids sing a “Celebrate” song to those heading off to school. Aidan was embarrassed to have everyone look at him when his name was sung, turning a shade of fuschia, hence the giggling at that point in the video.

Aidan was sick on Saturday night so we did not get up to much over the weekend.  Well, I took Orin swimming but there are no photos of that obviously.  So here are some random photos from the past few days instead of a weekend activity post.

Aidan, Orin and I made chocolate fridge cake on Saturday afternoon.  It was so delectable!  And it was really easy to make too, almost as easy as crispy cakes but far tastier.  Yummy yummy yum yum!  Here is Aidan showing the cake as we put it into the fridge.

The kids escaped out into the garden at dusk the other night (hence the state of undress).  Evan is obsessed with playing football:

I really like this photo of Aidan.  No silly faces or grouchy facial expression.  Just looking like himself.

I feel like all of a sudden Orin is really into drawing properly instead of just scribbling away.  Here he is with his magnetic drawing board showing off his drawing of (what else would it be) Qee Gon Jinn fighting Darth Maul.  You can see the funny spherical figures are holding lightsabers:

Inspired by Aimee, I went to the website www.sp-studio.de and made portraits of the DP family as if we were residents of South Park.  I am not the biggest fan of the show but I think the animation style is cute.  I think these portraits actually resemble us a worrying amount.  I always knew I was a ball headed shortie!

Me:

Chris:

Aidan:

Orin:

Evan: