Laura’s Life

Orin has suddenly discovered drawing.  Having previously shown absolultey no interest in drawing up until now, he is suddenly drawing at every available opportunity.  His style is, shall we say, “primitive” but developing but he sure is prolific!  Anyway, the other day he came charging out of nursery holding a drawing he had done for me.  This is it:

He the  proceeded to explain that it depicted Aragorn, Frodo, Sam and Gollum all fighting Shelob the giant spider.  Yes, my darling wee three year old had drawn a scene (albeit a slight variation) from ‘Lord of the Rings’.

I do wonder what his teachers thought of his subject matter.

We had our first barbecue of the year on Saturday.  If last Summer is any indicator of how this Summer will be then it may well be our first and last barbecue.  Here are the boys tucking in to their food:

Then on Sunday, which was a glorious day, Mum and Dad came to visit.  This is me with my parents - not a reunion of munchkins:

I also grabbed the opportunity for Dad to take a rare photo of Chris and I together.  Looking at the resulting image, maybe it is best such snaps remain rare:

Orin was being his usual self, refusing to be photographed:

Mum and Dad had brought more birthday presents for Aidan and Evan and some treats for Orin too.  This is Evan and Aidan playing with Aidan’s gormiti toys:

That evening, I was rummaging through a bag of hand-me-downs from my sister, Leanne.  The boys had a great time trying on the fancy dress costumes and Evan had fun trying on all the clothes that were intended for Aidan:

We had a sunny day on Wednesday so we decided to take Jim and Heather on a trek to Arichonan, an abandoned crofting community on the Knapdale peninsula.

The boys found loads of beetles on the way:

Evan spent ages leaping across this small burn - wee adrenaline junkie - and was giggling hysterically:

Aidan:

Evan sitting and paddling in the burn:

Is that Bigfoot emerging from the forest?  Oh no, just Chris:

When we reached the township, the boys scampered off to explore and play in the ruins:

Aidan inside a window:

Evan inside a building:

A view of more of the houses:

Aidan leaning on a wall:

A view of the loch seen through a window:

Another view of the crofts and the surrounding landscape:

Orin inside a fireplace:

Aidan, Chris, Jim and Heather with Evan and Orin inside one of the buildings:

Evan playing at being a shopkeeper:

Orin in a window:

A triangular window:

Orin sitting on the sloping eaves of one croft:

Cooking Orin in a cauldron.  Delicious!

More views of the township:

Chris and Evan:

Me:

Chris having to carry both Orin and Evan back down the hill:

Hard as it was to believe, my oldest baby turned six this week.   Aidan has really become such a big boy these past few months - very independent, learning loads and growing like a weed, not to mention losing his first tooth - so it seemed perfectly right that he should be the grand old age of six; but on the other hand it seems like so recently that I was holding him in my arms having just become a mummy.  Sigh.

Here is Aidan in front of his birthday presents:

Aidan has even gotten so old that one of the presents we bought for him was a wrist watch:

Opening his presents:

Aidan with the set of Star Wars lego he received:

In the afternoon, we had friends around for a playdate.  Aidan was especially pleased to see his friend Eoghan since they attend different schools and, therefore, don’t see each other very often.  They also got to drag out loads of toys, drink juice and scoff cake.

Aidan chose the evening meal: fish cakes and roast potatoes.  Here he is tucking in:

At Aidan’s request, Chris baked a chocolate cake.  Here it is being presented to the Birthday Boy accompanied by the traditional tune:

Aidan with his cake:

Blowing out the candles.  Yes, there are four of them.  Somehow Chris got excited about the pirate candles being perfect for Aidan’s sixth birthday and yet only managed to place four on the cake.  He even left one in the box to make it even more mathematically incorrect than might otherwise have been the case.  But the cake was tasty so Aidan forgave his Daddy for his dunderheidedness:

Aidan eating his cake with ice cream:

All of a sudden it was Saturday again and time to head home.  It was such a glorious day, however, that we decided to break the long journey up a bit by stopping off at Hadrian’s Wall.  We had last been there almost exactly three years earlier but this time we decided to focus on sites at the Newcastle end of the wall whereas previously we had concentrated on the Carlisle end.  Our first excursion, therefore, was to Chesters Fort.

The wee museum there was great, chock full of artefacts and all displayed in a somewhat old-fashioned way but a way that enabled the children to engage with what they were seeing.  Chris, of course, was in hog heaven among so many Roman antiquities.  This is Aidan and Orin with a statue of Mars:

The site was vast and very open so the kids were able to roam fairly freely and really explore the ruins.  This is Aidan at (I think) one of the gates to the fort:

Chris with his favourite part of the whole site: an original bit of iron that would have held the wooden gatepost:

Aidan among the ruins:

The kids were also following an Easter themed treasure hunt and - in order to receive a chocolatey reward at the end - they had to find eggs hidden around the site, note their letters and solve the resulting anagram.  This is Aidan with one of the eggs:

Orin leaning on a wall.  He did not stop talking or singing for the whole two hours of our visit leading one of the other visitors to remark that Orin was our “permanent soundtrack”:

Aidan resting on one of the columns of the hypocaust:

Aidan among the barracks:

Orin pretending to be an Emperor:

Evan playing peekaboo among the ruins:

Down at the bath-house it was possible to see where the wall would have continued across the river:

A view of the bath-house:

Aidan’s favourite part of the fort was the latrine:

Chris and Evan sitting in one of the bath-houses niches:

Orin and Evan ascending from the bath-house holding hands:

Orin making a magic potion:

After Chesters Fort, our next stop was at the Temple to Mithras.  This was a site we had been to before but it had been in lashing rain and we wanted to find somewhere the boys could play more freely.  Which is why they took their swords and newly aquired Roman shields:

Aidan trying to look like a ferocious legionary:

All three boys scrapping:

Orin in Roman soldier pose:

The Temple of Mithras:

Orin vanquishing Aidan:

Evan being a Roman soldier:

Walking back to the car, Orin decided to stow his sword down the back of his shirt:

We drove along the remainder of Hadrian’s Wall and then it was time for the long journey home.

Our last proper day in Yorkshire was the only one to be actually grotty in terms of weather.  We counted ourselves lucky for the good weather we had experienced but it was still a shame to have that luck run out.  We headed inland to Fountains Abbey, near Ripon.  This is run by the National Trust so we found it to be very well organised and the facilities were great.

The first place the kiddliwinks headed to was the playground area where they had heaps of fun playing on all the equipment.  Aidan tackled the rope walkways with enthusiasm:

Evan was his usual wee fool-hardy, dare-devil self:

Orin, as you can see, was slightly less confident:

Aidan on a scramble net:

Spinning around in a dish:

Orin and Evan riding on a wooden horse:

Evan riding on a snail:

Orin definitely enjoyed riding the wooden horse more than he enjoyed the rope walks:

Aidan resting on a net:

Orin was not so happy on the net:

Playing on a giant swing:

Aidan on the wooden snail:

We found a yard fringed with gargoyles.  I always enjoy a good gargoyle and the kids were amused by them too.  This one with the snout was my favourite:

Orin and Evan preferred this one:

Our first view of Fountains Abbey:

Some views of the architecture:

Cheeky wee Evan:

Aidan descending a ruined staircase:

I got a tad obsessed with taking photos of arches:

The boys were apparently so thirsty that they decided to drink rainwater dripping from an overhead gargoyle:

Inside the small museum, I tried to engage the kids in some ecclesiastical history but not even the Black Death could spark their interest by this point so it was clearly time to head back to the car.  This is Aidan looking fed up with my chatter about plague:

We decided to have a bit of a sludgier day on the Thursday of our week away.  We, therefore, headed north to Stockton to take the children to a Soft Play Centre.  Evan was not impressed that this particular centre restricted him to a weenie section but he, along with his brothers, did enjoy the trampoline.  Aidan and Orin had fun clambering and sliding.

Evan and Orin inside a bus:

The boys enjoying a snack of crisp bears and slushies:

We then drove to Middlesbrough where we ate (yes, again) in a Pizza Hut before taking the boys to the cinema to see ‘Monsters V Aliens’.  I thought it had some very funny moments but was patchy in terms of both humour and plot trajectory and would have liked to have seen the other monster characters developed more.  Aidan and Orin thoroughly enjoyed it.  Evan slept all the way through it on my lap.

Our holiday cottage was not far from the line on which the North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs a steam train so that was what we decided to do on the day of Evan’s birthday.  Apparently one of their trains featured as the Hogwarts Express in an early Harry Potter movie but unfortunately their were no wizarding goings-on during our trip.

We caught the train at Grosmont station:

Here are the boys sitting inside one of the carriages:

Evan sitting at the window of the train as it puffs across the moors:

Look!  I was on holiday too!

Aidan in a daydream:

Orin actually smiling at the camera while having a photo taken.  Maybe he lifted the injuction against the mammarazzi:

We took the train all the way to Pickering where we then bought some gimungous pies from a deli and had lunch in a cafe.  Once back on the platform at Pickering, Chris took Orin and Aidan to see the train pulling into the station:

This time we found a former First Class carriage that could accommodate us with more privacy (and, more significantly, better aborption of our noise levels).  The boys really did feel like they were headed to Hogwarts and may even have expected a trolley to come around laden with chocolate frogs and peculiar flavours of jelly beans:

Evan and Orin sitting with me:

Aidan colouring-in steam trains:

Orin playing with his Shaun the Sheep sticker book:

Evan and his Daddy:

Chris reading Evan’s Shaun the Sheep book to Aidan and Orin:

Mummy’s turn to read:

Do you get the impression Evan was maybe a wee bit frazzled by this point on his birthday?

Happy again!

You may recall that a few blog entries ago I referred to Chris’ obsession with finding a particular stretch of Roman road.  Well, not content to have dragged us off in vain pursuit of it on two separate occasions in as many days, he then took the opportunity of being near Goathland to go in search of it again.  Apparently Wheeldale Road (or Wade’s Causeway as it is also known) is a well-preserved stretch of Ermine Street.  However, no one goes out of their way to aid people in finding the darn thing.  Incredibly, this time Chris was actually successful in locating it.  He did park up at the wrong point and take the long and distant footpath up to it when he could have driven most of the way there by not taking a left turn but, nevertheless, he did find it.  It was a long trek up hill and down dale so I stayed in the car with Evan while Chris took Aidan and Orin off the find it - since they had become as obsessed with its discovery as he had.

Aidan with a helpful signpost:

The road itself.  Yes, it looks like a pile of rubble or a “ye olde crazy paving” but apparently this rubble is incredible rare and exciting:

Aidan standing on the road looking proud of having found the road with his Daddy:

Evan’s second birthday fell in the middle of our vacation in Yorkshire providing an extra layer of excitement to the proceedings.  Alas, he developed conjunctivits on top of his bruised eye just in time for his birthday photos.

Here he is coming down the stairs while his big brothers sang “Happy Birthday” to him:

Evan with one of his birthday presents - some dirty dogs for playing with in the bath:

Playing with his new Lion King playset, Lion King being Evan’s biggest obsession:

Evan enjoyed lining up his new Lion King figures:

And here he is clutching the DVD of ‘Madagascar 2′ in a way that he never cuddles a soft toy, strange wee fella that he is:

We then went out of the day (which is in a separate post) and Evan was so shattered when we got back to the holiday home that he crashed out on the sofa.  Orin helpfully surrounded him with all of his presents:

Evan’s birthday dinner was pizza so here are some shots of the boys wolfing down pizza:

Check out the hamster cheeks!

The birthday cake was decorated with Scooby Doo since that is a favourite show of both Evan and his big brothers:

Evan chomping on some birthday cake:

In some ways I can hardly believe my wee baby boy has been with us for two years already but, on the other hand, it feels like we have known him forever.  Besides, he has been a stroppy toddler for at least a year now so it was about time he officially qualified for “terrible twos” status!

Can I just postpone telling you about our trip to York in order to have a rant about parking?  Crikey but it was phenomenally expensive to park in Yorkshire.  Even at the Whitby CoOp it was necessary to get a parking ticket validated at the checkout so as to avoid our pockets being ransacked.  Parking in York itself took the biscuit.  It was so pricey that we did not have enough change between us to pay for the number of hours of parking we would need.  Instead we had to try out this new-fangled but pretty sensible and efficient system whereby we phoned up and provided our location, number plate and credit card details in order to pay for our parking.  It was useful since we could top up from any location but it is indicative of how expensive it was that we payed by credit card.

But I digress ….

York is one of my favourite cities and it felt familiar and welcoming to be pounding its pavement again. 

Here are some views of York Minster:

Chris with Aidan and Orin wandering down The Shambles, the medieval street where butchery was traditionally carried out:

Our first stop was the Jorvik Viking Centre.  This is Orin eating a marshmallow kebab in the queue:

The boys loved the time travelling aspect of Jorvik, seeing Vikings carving things out of horn and wood, smelling the wood smoke from their fires, and - most of all - seeing a Viking man straining inside a wicker latrine!  Aidan also enjoyed seeing genuine Viking skeletal remains.  This is Aidan outside the Viking Centre, posing in front of a reproduction longship:

After munching in Pizza Hut, we headed to York Castle Museum, once the prison where Highwayman Dick Turpin was incarcerated.  This is Aidan and Orin playing on a canon outside the museum:

Cliffords Tower as seen from the museum grounds:

I took Aidan into the Museum while Chris kept the little two occupied outside.  Aidan especially enjoyed learning about the history of toilets!  So here he is sitting on an antique loo:

I was somewhat flabbergasted and dismayed to discover that what was basically my childhood kitchen was now appearing as a historic artefact.  Way to make me feel ancient!

Aidan and I also had fun in the Victorian street inside the Museum, solving riddles and answering questions as a way of engaging in all the little details of the items on display.  This is Aidan inside the Fire Station next to an old Fire Engine:

Aidan in front of a gaol cell: