Heather's Nursery Sports Day

Today we had the joy of attending Heather's first ever Sports Day. Heather is a very fit wee thing and LOVES, LOVES, LOVES running and doing '"exercises" (jumping and balancing), so she was very excited about her Sports Day. It was made all the more special because Ian managed to get away early from work so he could attend and Granma was able to come along too.

Sports Day was held at the little park beside the Primary school which has a swing park in it. We arrived a little bit early so Evan enjoyed a turn on the swings - so did me and Granma!!! My mum was very excited to have a turn on the swings...she is a big kid at heart.

 

 





What a beautiful sight it was to see all the little ones arrive, walking hand in hand with their P7 buddies, ready for an afternoon of sports and races. There were 8 potted sports activities for the little ones to try with their buddies -  Heather seemed to enjoy them all. It was lovey to see her interact with her nursery friends & staff and did exactly as she was told (phew!!!). After the potted sports the kids all had a rest and a snack before starting the races.

The past week has been beautiful and the weather has been really warm (between 17-22 degrees - a rarity in Scotland, even in summer) so we were all dressed for the weather in our shorts and t-shirts. After about 30 mins, the sky became very dark with big grey clouds and it got pretty windy - we were freezing!! I had wrapped my cardigan around Evan to keep him warm when he was napping in the pram. The wee ones were fine though as they were running around and keeping warm. Ian and I have never been so delighted to see a cup of tea at half time!

 Heather indicating she was cold - the hoodie went in soon after this.

 The 'carrying-bean-bags-on-a-tray-event'. Perhaps I should suggest this one at school for my sports day...

 

 Hoop-Hopping!

Hurdles - at one point, H lifted it and went under rather than over! Freestyling.

 Ball rolling

Goal kicking - unfortunately, Heather may have inherited my footballing skills...

 


 Lining up for the start of the Girls Running Races

Girls Bean-bag-between-the-knees-and-jump-race. This one was super cute to watch!

The races finished with a staff race and the parents race. My mum said I shouldn't enter because I am a professional - let me make it clear, I am not Usain Bolt - I am a PE teacher and as you'll see in the pictures below, I do not specialise in the egg and spoon race. Oh yeh, I was also wearing flip-flops!

What a lovely afternoon we all had. We quickly dashed home for a heat and another cuppa.

Well done Heather, Mummy and Daddy were very proud of you. xxx

Santa has been

We have had a wonderful Christmas! We've been really busy since schools broke up for the holidays and fitted lots of fun things into each day.


We've been ~ baking lots, crafting,  having fun at soft-play, swimming, to the theatre, on a polar express, at a birthday party, at a bad Christmas jumper party and of course we've had a very busy Christmas Day too. The kids have been exhausted and so have we!




Polar Bears Go Wild
www.macrober.org

Theatre

 



On Sunday 23rd we went to MacRobert Arts Centre to see 'Polar Bears Go Wild' - it was brilliant! Last year we saw the first Polar Bear show and it was amazing. It is a fantastic little show for the under 5's where 2 actresses, dressed as polar bears, go off on an adventure together to different places. There is clever, yet basic, set and no dialogue ~ there is however, lots of comedy, some crowd participation, music and loads of laughter. I would go back in a flash as both kids loved it and were engrossed throughout.

 

Crafting

 

We made little Santa hats from triangles of red card and 2 cotton pads (split in half) and a huge amount of glitter!!!

 

 

Baking

Heather and I made shortbread cookies for Santa  - Daddy kept stealing the dough and eating it though! Evan has been devouring the cookies (and everything else in sight recently), I think it'safe to say he has a sweet tooth like his Mummy.

 

My first loaf of bread - I can't believe I've never made one before. It was really easy, I just used my trusty friend (the Kitchen Aid mixer) with the dough hook and let it work it's magic. The only difficult thing was leaving it to prove for 2 hours - I am far too impatient! Anyway, it worked out well so I think I'll be making more.

Polar Express

I came across a fantastic post on www.confessionsofahomeschooler where the parents surprise their children by taking them out on a trip to see the Christmas lights instead of goingto bed. I loved this idea so we copied it. We made up little golden tickets and hid them amongst the kid's pyjamas. It took Heather a little while to understand what we were about to do but by the time we were in the car she kind of understood the idea. She was soon shouting out each time she saw the brightly lit houses. Even little Evan started to understand - he began pointing at the houses and shouting too. Bless.

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Olympic Fever

Olympic Fever...

THE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY CAME THROUGH OUR VILLAGE!!!!!!!!!!!

 Woweeeeee, the torch came within about 100m of our house!

 

I actually cried i was so excited - I know, sad!

 

 

So in honour of this once in a lifetime event - we had a wee party...I promise, this one was wee.

 

 

Luckily it was my day off and Ian managed to get the afternoon off too. So we had my Mum and our friends The McGaugies and the Caleys (minus Adam who couldn't get out of work) over to watch the relay pass and have a mini-olympics and garden picnic. . Unbelievably, the weather was good to us - T-shirts, sunscreen and hats!

 

So about an hour before the relay was due in our street we took our spaces.  Out on the street there were thousands of people - the entire High School + about 4 primary schools + residents + everyone else who lived in the area and didn't go to work that day!!!

 

 

Mum, Ian and Heather

 

 

 

 

We tried to explain to Heather, Rory and Ben (all age 2) that the Olympic Torch was coming by and that it would be really exciting. Heather seemed so bored and confused and kept asking to see the torch - I found out later that she thought it was a flashlight type torch we were waiting for! How disappointing that would have been.

 

Well, we were there an hour early but we picked the right seats as it turned out the torch handover was about to happen right beside us. Woweee - we had no idea! (It happened months ago and I'm still getting excited writing about it).

 

 



I have to admit the kids were getting bored and poor Claire (who was heavily pregnant) could really have done with a seat whilst we waited.

 

Then it arrived...

        .....The Metropolitan Police convoy, people selling merchandise, BMX trickster guy, the bus convey of promoters, the Torch bearer's bus...loud music, dancing, flag waving, cheering and lots and lots of smiles. It was so cool.

 Family snap, Heather trying to avoid it as usual

The street just got busier and busier






Me and my Mummy - she was as excited as me!

 

 

 

 

 Me and my girl waving our flags




Claire and Rory

 

 

 

 Our wee flag wavers were getting a bit bored - and then it all arrived!

 

The start of the Met Convoy vehicles

 

 

The sponsor vehicles arrive

 

 

Olympic Torch Bearers on their bus

 

 

 

 

The Coca Cola Bus

 

 

 

Mum was given an Olympic bottle of Coke! Woohoo

 

 

 

 

This is when we realised we were right at the handover point - for the next lot of pictures you'll need to look hard to see the flame and handover. My Mum did manage to get an amazing picture of the handover because she stood right in front of the camera that took live feeds of the relay  - for a few seconds, the world will have seen my Mum instead of the handover...ha ha ha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini Olympics and Picnic

 

Gold, Silver and Bronze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris gets the Egg and Spoon race underway

 

 

 

It honestly took ages to get them all ready at the same time.

 

 

 

 

DIY Shop

I was searching for things to do with H and found a fantastic idea on tipjunkie.com. It was 32 ideas of things to do with a cardboard box. Honestly, some people are so creative and clearly have more time on their hands than most! Anyway, the ideas are amazing - have a look!

As usual, I suggest to my hubby that we make one. He looked so excited (not) at the prospect of spending his Sunday morning cutting, painting and building a shop for our wee girl...! I should maybe mention that it was about 7am when I dragged the huge box out the dining room and suggested this!

Fortunately, Ian is an absolute super-star husband and Daddy and therefore promptly (well, after a cuppa and a bit of encouragement) went out to the garage to get all the bits and bobs we would need.


I am so pleased how it turned out. We have added some cheery wallpaper to the back wall and counter since this photo was taken. H has been playing with it everyday.  So far it has been a shop, a ticket booth, a cafe and a post office. I am thinking it might also make a good puppet theatre too.