If I could place code files in the same blog entry as image files it would be so much better. But I can’t. So these are videos that are connected to the Festive Photos post.
These three are of Evan riding Dougal the Shetland pony:
And this video is of Aidan clambering up the climbing wall at the Historic Dock at Portsmouth:
We drove from Scotland to Wiltshire just ahead of the bad weather so our journey was no trouble at all (well, except for our DVD player was busticated so we had to play guessing games for 11 hours straight) and the kids even got to enjoy some deep snow when we stopped for a break at the services at Westmoreland. Here’s a photo of the landscape looking all white and pretty:
We spent the next day sludging around Jim and Heather’s house - but I still took photos. These are of Orin and Evan vegging out watching telly:
Aidan, meanwhile, played on the computer:
The boys spent a lot of time playing with the contents of the dressing-up box and Orin turned himself into Frodo carrying the ring by putting a pirate’s earring onto a necklace:
These next few were all taken on Christmas Eve. Evan dressed up as a snake:
Heather (my mother-in-law) has lots of nutcrackers to decorate the house with at Christmas and Evan loved them so we took this photo of some of them together:
Arlo with his First Christmas snowman:
Jim and Chris took the oldest three boys to a Nativity event in Salisbury Cathedral. Aidan studying the art installation that formed part of the nativity show:
It appears to have been a tad freaky, with some creepy-looking gothic angels dangling from the ceiling:
A scene from the nativity performance:
Ant, Ali, Jon and Jess came over for dinner on Christmas Eve:
Evan was pretending that this small football was Saraman’s palantir (the eye of Sauron in a glass sphere). Oh my wee Lord of the Rings wingnut!
Christmas itself will be in a separate blog entry so these next photos are from Boxing Day. This is Chris wearing the A Team t-shirt I bought him:
Evan playing with the Littlest Pet Shop toys that Santa brought him:
Orin playing with his new gormiti on the piano:
Aidan chillaxin’:
Chris, Evan and Aidan building up Orin’s new castle. Note that Orin left his minions to do all the setting up for him:
We went for a walk through the fields to the village church to burn off some of our Christmas calories. Arlo wore his new snowsuit. It makes him look like a multicoloured marshmallow, which seems appropriate given that his brothers give him the nickname MarshmArlo:
Here’s the head that goes with the body from the previous photo:
Trotting through the mud:
Goodness knows what Aidan is up to in this photo:
Evan jumping on a molehill:
Looking at horseshoe tracks:
We stopped to feed the horses in a nearby field:
Jim (my father-in-law):
Aidan splashing in a puddle:
Heather and Evan:
Aidan with some ice from a puddle:
Chris and Evan:
The Church of St Lawrence:
The house in the village where Pitt the Elder once lived:
The church ground contain a topiary in the shape of the church:
Aidan went to church with Jim and Heather the following day and was taken on a tour that included going up this tower:
Aidan using the boot scraper:
Orin exploring in the churchyard:
The churchyard contained a section full of war graves which interested me as a family historian and as someone who likes rooting around in cemeteries:
Evan “reading” an inscription:
Orin:
Chris:
Heather:
Arlo and I beside the war memorial:
Evan and Chris looking at the gargoyle-like bosses inside the church:
Aidan loved this lectern:
Jim and Orin:
Chris and Evan:
Since Arlo cannot eat a mince pie, he decided to have a crack at its case instead:
Playing with Orin’s new marble run:
Orin playing with his castle:
Evan with the nutcrackers. (He had drawn on his face with a biro):
Playing the new Lego Magikus game:
And playing the Lego Minotaurus game that Aidan got from Santa:
Aidan took this photo of me with the Minotaur:
Evan and Orin watching “Ice Age 3″ in Jim and Heather’s room:
Arlo:
Monday 28 December was the day of Evan’s horse ride. Here he is getting his helmet on:
He was on a Shetland pony named Dougal:
He was so excited, I thought he might just explode with glee:
He got really confident at it and was placing his feet back in the stirrups, correcting his own balance on the saddle and even holding the reins with one hand:
Orin wearing a helmet (because he was in the same field as the ponies):
Aidan grooming Charlie. Charlie had accompanied Evan and Dougal on their trot because apparently the ponies are inseperable:
Evan grooming Dougal, an element of horse ownership he was less keen on:
Leaving the riding centre:
After that, we headed to the Historic Dock at Portsmouth where there was loads to do. We chose to focus on a tour of the Victory and an interactive place for the kids.
This is Aidan trying to balance the goods on board a ship:
Orin sailing a virtual yacht:
Arlo and me:
Chris, who enjoyed the simulators as much as his sons did:
All the boys (big and small) had a go at flying a helicopter simulator:
Should I be worried that my two year old knows how to squeeze his fingers on the trigger of a gun?
Aidan and a pirate:
The Victory:
Aidan, Orin and Admiral Nelson:
Arlo and me:
The tour of the Victory was really interesting. It was fascinating to see the living conditions and see how the captain’s living quarters were converted in times of combat, learn about day to day life and see an actual section of deck from the Napoleonic wars so that we were literally treading in Nelson’s footsteps. The boys, of course, loved the more gruesome elements like the cat o’ nine tails, the surgeons instruments and the places on the ship where people, including Nelson, had died.
We were, however, frozen to our marrows at the tour’s conclusion so we headed off to a mess hall to warm our cockles with some hot chocolate. Can you tell that Aidan needed thawing out?
Evan showing he has “pirattitude”:
Bellowing at Orin to come and see something:
Aidan had a go at a climbing wall. He was a little disappointed not to reach the top as he had high expectations and goals but he did really well scaling the wall and using the rope to come down again:
A statue of George III in Roman Emperor garb:
A statue of Robert Falcon Scott:
Aidan and Henry VIII:
Clapped in the stocks:
Orin being wacky as always:
Orin and Evan with an anchor:
The following day, the others all went to splash around in the swimming pool in Salisbury so Arlo and I had a wee photoshoot session:
You can see his first tooth in this one:
This is how Arlo gets about these days. He propels himself backwards using his heels. It’s like a reverse crawl or like backstroke on the carpet:
We took a walk up Old Sarum in the rain. Why? Because Aidan and Evan wanted to have chainmail armour like Orin had received for his Christmas. So we hiked up to the shop at Old Sarum to buy them some armour and Orin a Knight fingerpuppet (which is what he chose since he already had armour):
You can see Orin is actually wearing his chainmail under his jacket:
Evan found a pet worm. It was dead but it was still his pet and he decided to take it with him for the walk:
He even found it a snail shell to keep it cosy and dry:
Aidan at Old Sarum:
As well as buying their armour, the lady in the shop allowed each of the boys (well, not Arlo) to hold an expensive and heavy replica sword. They were chuffed to bits. Here they are wearing their armour. Orin is the King and Aidan and Evan are his Knights:
On Christmas Eve, the boys left some special food out on the lawn for Santa’s reindeer:
Then they left a mince pie and a dram out for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph:
Then it was time to hang the stockings on the fireplace:
Presents piled under the tree:
Santa delivered his presents for the boys at some point during the night:
The boys opening their stockings:
Orin only asked Santa for a Ben Kenobi dressed as a clonetrooper at last minute so he was amazed and thrilled to find Santa had got the message and their was one waiting for him in his stocking:
Evan is obsessed with wildebeest so he was delighted to find one in his stocking:
Arlo and Heather:
Let the present opening commence!
Orin receiving the chainmail that features in so many photos:
Heather showing Evan his horse book and explaining that his present is a ride on a pony:
Orin’s present from Santa was a clonetrooper helmet:
Evan’s present from Santa was a collection of Littlest Pet Shop toys:
Aidan’s gift from Santa was a Lego Minotaurus game:
Santa’s first ever present for Arlo was a set of Waybuloo figures:
Arlo and me:
Aidan’s wobbly tooth was ready to come out and made for an “interesting” appearance for a while:
Jess and Jon:
Heather and Jim:
Antony:
Alison:
Me and my new compost caddy:
The boys playing with Aidan’s new Lego set:
Orin with his Spiderman set - which took me hours to build!
Arlo had a chocolate pudding for the first time because it was Christmas and he had been given a hamper of baby foods:
Christmas dinner:
“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!” - Aidan finally lost his tooth which meant he got a visit from the Tooth Fairy as well was from Santa:
Evan in bed with his wildebeests:
Orin drawing in bed:
Aidan writing his journal:
Arlo on Christmas evening:
Chris, the boys and I wish you all Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2010!
A week before Christmas - and just as the boys were going to bed, hence the bizarre attire - we heard some seasonal music and a “ho ho ho” on our driveway. Lo and behold, Santa had popped around to have a chat with the boys and find out what they wanted for Christmas. Here they are on Santa’s (motorised) sleigh:
And here are a couple of photos of local scenery on a frosty morning:
A short video of Chris and the boys building a snowman (a wee one) in the back garden:
In the week before Christmas, we finally had a smattering of snow - not much but just enough to get out into the garden and have a play.
Arlo experiencing his first ever snow:
I am not sure Arlo was enjoying the snow as much as his big brothers were:
Wee crazy Orin heading down the slide:
Building a snowman with Daddy:
The final snowman - albeit a pygymy one. I did not have a chance to take a decent photo of it before Orin kicked it to bits:
Aidan’s first snowball of the winter:
Throwing a snowball at Daddy:
At the close of term, Aidan took his pledge and officially became a Beaver Scout. As well as gaining his scarf and woggle, he also earned his first set of badges. He was very proud of himself.
This weekend, we took a trip to visit my family in Fife and to meet the newest addition to the clan - my brand new nephew, Cameron.
Cameron Stephen aged 9 days:
Cameron with his mummy, my sister Aimee:
Evan using his Uncle Aaron’s exercise machine:
Orin grew very attached to his Granny’s old (much-repaired) teddy bear and decided he was named Mikey:
Evan pedalling his cousin Logan’s bike:
Cameron with his daddy, Ryan:
Cameron with me, his Auntie Laura:
Aaron with Paige:
Paige the podgy chihuahua:
My Dad - Grandpa Bert:
Arlo with his Auntie Leanne:
The smallest cousins together, Cameron and Arlo:
Orin holding Biba the tortoise:
Evan was not so sure of the tortoises because of their scratchy nails:
Willow and Biba:
Biba attacking the cat-shaped cushion:
Orin holding Biba …
… and showing him to Arlo …
… who was more interested in his own feet:
Logan:
Aimee:
Aidan and Chris playing the XBox:
Orin and Logan playing in the garden:
As dusk was descending on Saturday, we took the kids on a trip to Ravenscraig Park where they burned off loads of energy (and got quite muddy) playing on all the equipment:
Logan chasing Orin on the boardwalk:
Four cousins on a swing:
Orin absolutely loved the swing. It’s a shame about the flash in this photo because his facial expression is great:
Arlo and me:
Chris:
Mum:
Aimee:
Logan:
Evan found a worm:
Aidan dancing on the boardwalk:
Note Evan standing on Orin’s fingers in this photo. Nice:
Aimee and Logan trampolining:
Jordan:
Rhys:
Biba:
The bigger three cousins glued to the XBox:
Aidan, Orin and I spent a couple of hours one weekend producing a collaborative drawing. They chose Lord of the Rings as a subject but then went into so much detail conveying the narrative in pictures that we decided to focus on just the first film in the trilogy. Perhaps we will produce a further two drawings sometime.
This is the completed drawing, all four sheets of A3 of it:
The prologue - Isuldur defeating Sauron and cutting off his finger, ring and all:
Isuldur and Elrond at the volcano of Mount Doom, the ring being discovered by Smiegol and his friend, Smiegol transforming into Gollum having become obsessed with the “precious”:
Bilbo finding the ring; then, some years later, Bilbo celebrating his birthday:
Gandalf telling Bilbo he has to get rid of the ring and, shortly afterwards, instructing Frodo on what to do with the ring:
The hobbits setting out on their journey:
Being chased by a Nazgul and escaping by crossing water; then going to the Inn:
Metting Aragon:
The Nazguls attacking, injuring Frodo, while Aragon fights them off:
Arwen taking Frodo on horseback to the Elf town of Rivendell:
Frodo recovering from his injury:
The Fellowship is formed:
The Fellowship sets off on their adventure, crossing snow-covered mountains in the process:
Entering the Mines of Moria, they are attacked by a tentacled creature:
Orcs attack - with a cave troll!
Gandalf fighting the Balrog:
Galadriel, a kind of fairy queen:
Travelling down river:
Frodo saying goodbye to Aragon:
Boromir trying to take the ring from Frodo and getting a log around the head as a consequence:
The Uruk Hai arrive to attack the Fellowship:
The Uruk Hai kill Bormoir:
A big battle ensues:
Legolas killing the leader Uruk Hai:
Frodo leaving by boat and Sam following him:
