Well done Mummy...

Mummy did an amazing thing last Sunday, walking 26.2 miles in the Kiltwalk for the Scottish Association of Mental Health. She completed the walk in surprisingly good shape, with some sore legs and a slightly red nose, raising lots of money for a great cause in the process. Well done Mummy :-).

Daddy also did an amazing thing, managing to keep the supreme being entertained all by himself for over 12 hours. He didn't complete his task in such good shape though, as he was completely knackered by the end of it and raised no funds whatsoever. Well done Daddy :-).

Emily survived in probably the best shape - although too much sugar and pizza was consumed. To compensate she did manage to eat five pears back to back at one point! Daddy-daughter time was a day of indulgence with ice cream treats and a DVD all being part of the fun. More productive activity involved extending the veggie patch, planting sunflowers and making Mummy a lovely banner. It was clearly a success though as she collapsed into bed almost instantly asleep, having spent some of Daddy's money. Well done Emily :-).

 Before

After

 Banner making/Pear Eating

 Yoghurt eating

Ice cream eating

Play with me Daddy...

Entertaining a supreme being is a full-time occupation. From the minute I get in from work and all weekend (except telly time), there's a lot of "Play with me Daddy." I'm certainly not complaining as I love it, but I am aching from playing with someone half my height who just loves to roll about the floor half the time. People keep telling me it's because I'm getting old. But that simply can't be true, as having a 3 year-old bundle of fun is guaranteed to keep you young.

Talking of young. Grandma and Grandad were visiting recently. Both of them over 80 years young and still just about managing to keep pace with Emily (albeit with some tactical snoozing every now and then). We were also blessed with some not bad weather, and the golden orb made some rare appearances, so we made the most of it and got out and about around the Campsie Hills.

Young and old still enjoying the seesaw

Great views from the local playpark

 Back to the 70's - anyone remember Hex?

Mummy's been recently eagerly awaiting the arrival of lambs so that we can go to Wellsfield Farm Park and see some. She made me buy us a voucher a few weeks ago, and has been excitedly holding it waiting for the perfect moment. In the last few weeks we've been noticing lambs in the fields, and so, with the onset of good weather, she rapidly dragged us off to the Farm Park today.

Sometimes the clue clearly isn't in the title though. And sometimes Mummy's clearly not even looked at the clues at all. So, as I looked for directions to Wellsfield on the internet I also discovered that the Farm Park didn't have any lambs. In fact it didn't actually have any animals at all being somewhat more of a large kiddies playground. So I had to figure out how to break the news gently to Mummy in the car. She was a little disappointed, but Emily loved it and quickly forgot about any promises of lambs with an arriving cry of "Play with me Daddy"...

And so once again I'm now exhausted and aching. Still, it was another really lovely day :-).

Jump with me Daddy

 Highlight was the bouncy pillow

Scream if you wanna go faster!

Life in the fast lane with Mummy at the wheel

 Always work to be done in the garden - mini veggie patch commenced

 Sunsets over our garden are living up to the memories of last year

Watch the birdie...

Tanya really doesn't wear make up, and nor do I generally. We actively avoid TV with adverts, fashion magazines, princess stories and many other things that we don't consider strong female role models for the supreme being. So when Mummy was caught with lipstick on the other day and suggested that Emily might like to paint her toe nails like Mummy, why on earth did Emily start to quiver with excitement? It seems no matter how hard you try, boys like guns and fighting and girls like dolls and dressing up. I give up.

Anyway, before I knew it it had turned into a full blown make up session for ALL the family. Well, if you can't beat them then you have to join them...

 Looking good

 The terrible toes that started the matter

My beautiful princesses

Emily has been out enjoying her Easter break from nursery. She's been catching up with friends and having trips out everyday. Topping the bill (pun alert) has to be albatross mask making and being on a horse again!! She's a bundle of joy at the moment with such a zest for life that we struggle to keep up with her. That zest is particularly useful when it comes to chasing pigeons off the lawn I have attempted to re-seed. She's certainly determined I'll say that - a trait more from her mother than me.

 Spot which one is the real albatross

Delighted to be back in the saddle

And some of the most exciting news at the moment is that we have lodgers in our Dutch nesting box. Over the past few days a pair of blue tits have been busily building a nest inside and so we are hoping to become surrogate parents to some blue tit chicks in the coming weeks. Emily's been pretty excited about the whole bird thing this year. She has taken to bird spotting with Daddy at the bird table, eagerly searching our bird book to find out what the birds are that come munching, whilst remembering that the only ones to chase away are our seed eating wood pigeons. I'm learning a thing or two myself which is nice, but I have to say my memory is barely half as good as a three year-old.

 There's no place like home