Outdoor Adventures

We've been taking advantage of the milder weather lately and going outside. We love Aden Park and this year I want to go there more often. Here are some pics from our latest visit.

Maia sliding down a tree in her hand-me-down "very expensive designer outfit" - oops!

Fake meat hanging in the 'ice house' for the mansion at Aden Park. YUCK! It actually looks really creepy because it's dark down there so you don't see it at first.

What the heck, Blogger's mobile app has put my photos in a totally random order, apologies. So here is Maia riding her bike on our walk today. :)

And more fake meat... this is the one that Cora said was scary!

Said mansion house. :) It's just a shell, but perfect for hide and seek! And now Calvin really wants to see inside a real castle that's still together so that's on our agenda.

Playing pooh sticks on a bridge in Aden Park.

Climbed up above the cattle 'tunnel' that joins two fields.

Going through the cattle tunnel.

Cora above the tunnel.

Down by the river while Maia played pooh sticks on the bridge.

The first snowdrops I've seen!

The Ice House.

Cora climbing a tree.

Jumping in muddy puddles! She was totally soaked!

Atop the tunnel again. Love this pic!

Coming down from the tree house by the mansion.

A lovely big tree near the mansion has fallen down. :( This is Cora climbing on the trunk.

Crossing a stream via a fallen tree. I can see a theme emerging here..

Maia 'climbing a tree'.

School Room Update!

It's getting there! Now we just need to get the couch in the room. They all have desks now, and Maia loves to colour at her own table. It took me a whole day to sort out this room, half of Cora's stuff was still in it, and I ended up throwing away a trash bag full of stuff. When I moved the book case I also discovered a large patch of mould, so scrubbing that was on the agenda too. Can't wait to post pics of the final result!

Reorganisation

Well, New Year, new start, I guess. :) We've rearranged the living room, sorted through the children's toys, and had them tidy their closets. The next on the list is to get rid of Cora's double bed, have her sleep on Calvin's bottom bunk, and move more of her stuff into his room. They've been sharing for months now so it's about time. Then the school room can be properly organised, the couch can go in there, and it can be the warm inviting space I want it to be! What's your school room must-have?

Wrapping Presents

Sorry, I've been forgetting to update on our advent calendar fun. I will do that tomorrow. In the meantime, here are Cora and Calvin's main presents. I plan to do a treasure hunt for them on Christmas day.

Advent Calendar Continues!

Here's today's effort, a giant sugar cookie. It's actually yesterday's activity but we were out all day. Today's is glitter snowflakes, so the glitter is ready and waiting! Kitchen is a mess but I'm taking a break. When the dishwasher is finished I will clean the kitchen then we can do the snowflakes. :-)

Day 5

Today's advent calendar says "Pyjama movie day (Christmas movies!)". So here's our collection of Christmas themed films. A Christmas Story is on first!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Well as I type this snow is falling here so we're feeling very Christmassy! There's a very nice layer of snow on the ground.

Here's the kids opening Day 1 of their advent calendar:

I should probably mention that I can't actually remember what I wrote in the calendar! So for our advent calendar so far we've had:

Day 1: Watch a new Christmas movie. We watched "Miracle on 34th St" - the newer version. The kids really loved it, so much so that they watched it again the next morning! We don't do Santa here but he's a character to them that they love, much like Postman Pat or Bob the Builder. So this movie is just as magical for them.

Day 2: Read the real Christmas story. We read a version of it that we had taken out from the library. It was interesting because it had far more embellishments than the story does in the Bible, lots of details that I'm sure are made up. But the way it was told really kept the kids enthralled and we will read the Bible version soon too.

Day 3: Paint a Christmas picture. We don't do painting as often as we probably should, so they really enjoyed this. I'll post pictures of that later on today, as I forgot to take pictures of their creations!

Day 4: Go for a winter walk. Well, that's perfect, since it's snowing today. Later this afternoon we'll be talking a winter walk up to the village square, where there is community Carol singing and turning on of the Christmas lights. I'm sure the kids will really enjoy that!

Some pictures of our December so far:

The singing polar bear at JRD in Ellon.

Maia drinking her hot chocolate at the Happy Plant garden centre. She wanted tinsel in her hair, and I love her smile in the first picture! I'm biased but I just think she is so beautiful.

Gappy boy Calvin, he wanted to show his new tooth is growing in.

Cora and Calvin inside ELC in Aberdeen, pretending to be Santa!

The snow here today. It's still coming down, huge flakes, very heavy!

The Coca Cola truck in Aberdeen. Aaron and I thought it was very disappointing, huge queues for free cans of Coke! But the kids loved seeing it.


A day of shopping tired out miss Maia.

Lastly, my homemade tree skirt. I had looked everywhere for one and couldn't find one. Typically, I found one the day after I made this one! But this is special. It's made with a red American Airlines blanket from a trip to Scotland back when we lived in the States. The snowflakes are made from a special white baby blanket of Maia's, that's too small for her to use now. I love it!