Esther's art

 Esther has suddenly become very good at pictures! Here are a few of her creations.

Lydia's "Not My Snowman" Book

Lydia's class made their own "That's Not My" books. Here is her most impressive effort with her own writing and pictures...

Christmas Party

Now we're into the Christmas holidays! Lots of excited children here.

Last weekend it was our church Christmas party, with food, games and dancing. All the girls joined in the with ceilidh dancing: this is a very tiring exercise... Esther is a really good dancer now (musical bumps) but really excelled herself with pass the parcel. The older girls really enjoyed the games and being around friends (and have been doing the dances at school so they even know some of the steps). We had a great time!

For brief moments they play really nicely together too

Miriam has custody of Pepper, the class parrot for the weekend, so he came to the party as well.

Lydia was just having a really good time!

The children also got a visit from a certain chubby Christmas celebrity dressed in red.

Esther's present was a drawing board.
This is a dolphin!

Lydia's present was a pair of snow globes to decorate - here is one.

Naomi got a grown up cup with a pattern to colour in...

I'm really impressed with the design she's put on it!

Miriam also got snow globes, but with these you get clay to mould into shapes. These bake in the oven and then you fill them with water and glitter...

Here are some of the parts ready for immersion (actually, we tried once and they came unstuck, so they have some glitter on already here)

The finished article

The finished article (2) - isn't the snow man brilliant? It's Olaf.

February Holiday

A couple of snippets from our brief holiday in February...

Miriam was worried about being homesick, so I took some photos of her room before we left.
She didn't need them :)

Kelvingrove

We had occasion to be in Glasgow for a morning shortly before Christmas, so we went to Kelvingrove Museum for an hour or so. I love how much the girls take in this kind of stuff: they had a great time!

Messy Church

Back in late May we took the girls to Messy Church being run by one of the other churches in Stirling. They had a great time and we were all able to share in learning a Bible story. Essentially Messy Church has a few stations where there are different activities - usually craft of some kind related to the story of the day - and you can wander round these in your own time. There is then a bit of focused time where everyone comes together and has a wee song and a short talk, and it closes with some food. It worked really well for us and we've been planning to go back, but each weekend has coincided with some major event or travels since. Hopefully we can get to the next one.

See if you can guess the story!

Christmas 2017

Time for a little catch up on Christmas...

First, the church Christmas party!

There's a stowaway hiding under the table...

Prizes! Our girls were quite successful in their party game playing

This was meant to be a picture of Miriam!

That's better.

Lydia got a present from Santa - a book with the Wheels on the Bus words, but also a track to run a wind up bus around! Brilliant. It also supplanted her Dora The Explorer book as her every night bedtime read.

This is how decorated my office got. Still more festive than last year - thanks to Paul who now sits facing me behind those screens.

Almost no pictures of the school nativity this year as we were sitting right near the back. Two girls in the show this year, both animals in the stable! We got this picture from Miriam's teacher of her dressed as a bird. Naomi was a pig.


Now, ready to go off on holidays...

Having fun at Granny and Grandad's house

Every year the girls get to make their own placemats for dinner. This is Naomi's Nativity one

Miriam went for a classic star.

Making gingerbread men to occupy the waiting time during Christmas Eve

Off to bed soon...

Then presents time!

This is a book, that is also a board game, that is also a pirate ship! Brilliant.

Now off to Grandma and Grandad's house, and lots of cousins too...

What's more, it snowed while we were there. Hooray - lots of excitement for us (Stirling doesn't get much snow) and the girls' cousins who live in London (which doesn't get much snow either!)

I just like this picture.


Fun in the snow... 

We also took the chance of extra childcare to get Naomi a haircut. She has been looking to have a fringe for some time...

Doesn't she look grown up?

Some crafty pictures... 

And lots of trips to the park. That snow is actually ice!
We had a follow on trip with sledging which was brilliant!

Then it was my birthday. Naomi organised the party games, and did an excellent job.

Finally, just some rest before heading home.