I guess there has been a lot of political discussion in our house during the US election campaign.
When Orin appeared in our bedroom this morning the first thing he said to us was not “Good Morning” or even his usual non-sequeter about Star Wars. Nope, the first utterance was …
“So, did Obama win?”
On the Sunday after the Lantern Parade, we took a walk through Kilmartin Glen before Leanne and her boys headed back to Fife.
Leanne:
Rhys looking like a cheeky pixie:
Aidan balancing on a stone:
It’s my compulsory ethereal photo of a standing stone:
Orin:
I did not get any really good photos of Jordan for some reason. Here he is doing some wierd pose:
Evan inside a burial cyst:
Rhys sitting on a standing stone:
Standing stone circle:
Evan and Orin rolling around on an interpretive board:
“In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips” - but we’re mostly nuts!
Orin climbing out of a burial cairn:
And Aidan on top of the burial cairn, sticking his hand through a hole:
Evan weilding a lightsaber:
This would have been a lovely photos of Chris with Evan and Orin if the background was not so cluttered with other people:
My sister, Leanne, and her boys, Jordan and Rhys, came over this weekend to see our town’s annual Lantern Parade and bonfire and fireworks display.
Chris and Evan watching the parade:
Jordan:
Rhys:
Orin being cheeky running around in the dark - and refusing to wear his coat:
Aidan resting on the pavement:
Me and Leanne:
The beginning to the actual Lantern Parade:
A moving lion rampant (made by my friend, Maisie):
A huge bull:
Watching the fireworks:
Evan did not like the loud noises this year and had to be taken home early:
Some of the fireworks from the fantastic display:
Thursday night was Aidan’s school disco. He went dressed up as a zombie:
On Halloween morning, Orin and Evan dressed up for a party at playgroup. Orin was a bumble bee for about ten minutes:
Orin opted to dress as Darth Vader:
But that lasted all of five minutes because he then dressed up as Obi Wan Kenobi. I thought we were never going to get out of the house:
Here is Obi Wan Kenobi and R2D2 in their X-Wing on the way to the playroup party:
Halloween evening was spent at home waiting for guisers to stop by (we got nine). Surprise, surprise - the boys dressed up as ‘Star Wars’ characters. Aidan was Yoda, Evan was Darth Vader and Orin was Obi Wan Kenobi - but without the beard:
Totally random post this but I thought these photos of Orin and Evan were too cute not to share.
Orin, incidentally, has a bashed up nose and noggin because he face-planted on the pavement walking Aidan home from school on Thursday. His nose bled so much and for so long that I thought we were going to have to walk to the hospital and it took us an hour to walk home. Poor wee scone!
Anyway, Orin thinks he is uber-cool in his Darth Vader hoodie and Evan thinks he is cool because he is dressed in one of Orin’s old hoodies.
The boys were watching a live action tv show about a farm this morning.
Evan pointed to the piglet (the star of the show) and said, “That Mummy”.
Orin then compounded the insult by explaining, “Because you have fat cheeks.”
Nice!
Time to go on a diet then …
When it came time to collect Aidan from school this afternoon, Orin was not having any of it. Fair enough, there was a deluge of biblical proportions going on outside but he and Evan were safely ensconsed in the under the buggy’s “rain bubble” so he had no real cause for complaint. However, with time running out if we were to be there in time, I bribed him (Supernanny would not approve, I know) by allowing him to take his Old Ben Kenobi figure with him.
I arrived in the school playground and discovered that both Orin and Evan were fast asleep. My first thought was “Aaargh! Now they’ll never sleep tonight!” and my mind flitted forward to lots of bedtime squabbling and related shenanigans. And then I noticed Orin’s hand. Orin’s empty hand.
Noooooooooo!
He had dropped Old Ben somewhere on the route between home and school - a route that takes almost half an hour to walk and which has plenty of places for an Old Ben to go a-wandering.
Aaarrrrgh!
We have a household rule (created by me no less) that no Star Wars figure is allowed out of the house. I had broken my own law and was now going to suffer the consequences. Not only was I going to have to incur the wrath of Orin, all his screaming three year old rage issuing forth like lava at me, but I was going to have to confess to Chris that one of his beloved, treasured, childhood toys had been lost. I could imagine the divorce papers citing “loss of vintage Star Wars figure”.
And then, just as the school bell rang, a woman approached me and handed me, you guessed it, Old Ben Kenobi.
” I saw this lying on the street and I knew it had to belong to your kids,” she said, no doubt also looking rather worried as my face lit up and I suppressed the urge to give her a bear hug for saving me from ruination.
Yippee! Thank goodness the whole town - even people I do not know - know my kids to be uber-nerds when it comes to Star Wars. She had seen the figure and had instantly known it belonged to our household.
Phew!
Possibly the torrential rain had Old Ben scurrying off to hitch a lift back to the dry desert climate of Tattoine but for sure he is never ever ever leaving our house again.
Evan’s new obsession: underpants!
He is so eager to be a big boy like his big brothers and wear pants that he raids Orin’s drawers and steals, well, his drawers and pulls them up over his nappy and onesie. He is so proud of himself whenever he is wearing pants too, no matter how daft he might look.
Oddly, he seems to prefer pants with pictures adorning them whereas his older brothers act like they are allergic to any illustrated or patterned undies.
Anyway, here are some photos - oh how I can blackmail my boys when they get older *villainous cackle*
Evan has been singing away for a week now, favourite tunes being “Twinkle Twinkle”, “Happy Birthday to You” and - somewhat oddly - the Weird Al Yankovic song “Yoda” (which is set to “Lola” by The Kinks). I tried (somewhat in vain) to get some video of him singing today.
Here he is singing a teeny bit of “Yoda” - with direction from Orin:
And here he is singing “Happy Birthday”. He has been singing this a lot lately, curiously even before Orin’s birthday, perhaps because the boys like to play at making and serving birthday cakes. Anyway, he decided it was Daddy’s Unbirthday so here he is:
On Saturday, we went for a hike around Barnluasgan but with the addition of a hike up and along the ridge between Loch Barnluasgan and Loch Linne. The whole thing took us three hours.
Randomly, I start this blog entry with a photo of a beetle:
Chris with Evan and Orin ascending some steps:
Aidan waiting impatiently for us all to catch up:
Evan and Orin studying another beetle:
Evan using a leaf as a lightsaber. As you do:
Orin eating some wild brambles:
Orin and Evan holding hands:
Aidan and Orin walking on Chris’ feet:
Do you think Evan’s jeans needed hitched up?
