Laura’s Life

This is just a hodge-podge of photos taken at the end of January.

Evan had to have a day off nursery on Thursday because a rotten cold had made his asthma flare up.  He, therefore, spent the day in his jammies but had enough energy to play gormiti with Arlo:

We borrowed this baby activity centre from the Toy Library and Arlo has been having a blast using it:

At the weekend, Orin instituted a club with membership restricted to himself and his brothers.  This is Arlo’s name badge:

The first club activity was a treasure hunt with written clues to solve and lead to each item of treasure.  The treasure was a collection of Ice Age toys.  Gotta love ebay:

Meanwhile, Arlo was playing computer with his Daddy:

Arlo is sitting in the high chair at dinner time now:

Random sunrise photo:

Aidan entered a competition to design an undiscovered creature.  This was what he came up with - a Spectrum Shark:

Evan and Arlo crawling out from underneath the coffee table:

Orin and Evan have been excited to be working on a Superheroes theme at preschool.  Orin wore his Batman shirt and took Batman and Spiderman with him one morning:

Evan collected all the stickers for his reward chart and got to choose something from the prize drawer.  He chose a pack of toy dogs:

Arlo playing in the activity centre again:

Arlo now has four teeth!

Last weekend, we took the kids for a walk around Kilmory Loch.  It was cold but crisp and bright so a perfect day for a stroll.

How exciting is life for my kids that they spend whole minutes staring at a drain?

Then again, how exciting am I that I love to take photos of lichen?

Evan splashing in a stream:

Arlo in the backpack doing his best impression of Elvis’ lip curl:

Aidan doing his best … em … fish face:

More paddling:

Chris and Arlo:

Evan digging at mud with a stick …

… and successfully flicking it all over me:

I loved the dew-covered moss on this stick.  Because I am not quite normal:

Orin with our pet stick that he named ‘Peter the Magnificent’.  He’s not normal either:

Aidan with our pet stick:

Evan leaning against a really big tree:

Evan did not want to adopt a stick so he carried some lichen with him.  Nope, he’s not normal either:

I love this moss!

Arlo:

Chris and Arlo again:

Me.  I was actually there too:

Aidan refused to have his photo taken unless he was pulling a silly face …

… and Orin can always be relied upon to do something odd whenever the camera is pointed in his direction:

Evan brushing a tree trunk with his lichen.  Yup, still quite far from normal:

Sun coming through the trees above the ice-covered loch:

Orin:

Evan:

Aidan:

Orin found a piece of ice he liked because it was shaped like a mammoth tusk:

Chris and Orin on the side of the frozen loch:

Evan and his pet lichen:

Aidan and Evan:

The gang!  Would you believe this was the best group shot I managed to take?  They only stayed in a clump long enough for me to fire off two shots and the other one must have been truly deranged for this to be the best one:

Aidan:

Evan beside the stepping stones we had just crossed:

Arlo can sit!  He has not quite mastered balance fully enough to be considered independent but this is a big milestone:

Last weekend, we went for a walk around Barnluasgan Loch, which was completely frozen over.  This is Aidan slipping and sliding about in the car park before we even set off on the (thankfully flat) trek around the loch:

A view of the loch:

Arlo and me.  You are allowed to be a style crisis during cold weather, right?

This robin followed us around a quarter of the circumference of the walk.  If birds had lips, then I am sure he would have been licking them.  Poor wee thing was probably so hungry he would have snacked on Arlo given half a chance:

Aidan:

Orin pulling a crazy face as always ….

… I cannot imagine where he gets it from:

Aidan writing everyone’s names in the snow:

Evan:

Aidan and Orin drawing lines in the snow with their swords:

Orin making a snow angel:

I would like to be able to say that Aidan is also making a snow angel in this photo but actually he is sprawled out having slid for the umpteenth time:

A cluster of snowflakes:

Some more views of the loch:

Chris and the boys out on the ice.  Worry ye not - we only allowed them to walk out as far as they are normally allowed to paddle:

The boys turned this slope into an ice slide:

Aidan:

Arlo:

My bootprints in the snow:

The Crinan Canal is also frozen over:

My parents gifted the boys bedroom makeovers for Christmas and last weekend we found the time to actually change everything over.

This was Evan’s bedroom a couple of months ago, before he even had a bed in his new room.  It was the former study so was pretty boring:

And this is Evan and Arlo’s bedroom now, decorated on a vehicle theme:

Aidan and Orin’s room is still a bit of a work in progress since I accidentally left their wall stickers at my parents’ house and they also need a new chest of drawers.  Their room is decorated around a dinosaur theme.

This is the room as it was before:

And this is it now (Evan insisted on being in every photo!)

Having been unable to fit all of the Christmas presents in the car, we had been forced to leave some of the bulkier items behind.  This then meant that, on our return home, we had a second Christmas.

Orin wearing his new Batman shirt:

Eating breakfast out of their new bowls:

The huge heap of presents!

The boys opening the first presents of the day:

Arlo cuddling his new Thumper rabbit:

Chris opening his presents:

The boys received bedroom makeovers from their maternal grandparents.  Aidan and Orin are going to have a dinosaur bedroom and Evan and Arlo’s bedroom is going to have a vehicle theme:

Should I be insulted by the names of these beauty products?

The boys playing their new Lord of the Rings interactive game:

Arlo and his Daddy:

Sunset:

These photos were taken on Hogmany.  The boys (who were living in their chainmail) made an airport out of wooden blocks:

 

Evan made the control towere all by himself:

Hurricane Arlo approaching!

Also on Hogmany, we all went along to a pantomime.  It was ‘Cinderella’ and it was a really good panto, with performances just the right side of hammy, a good few musical turns and some nifty wee production details.  The boys insisted on wearing their armour to the performance.

On New Year’s Day, Ant, Ali, Jon and Jess came to feast with us along with Ali’s dad, John, and his wife, Gill.  We ate a selection of pies for our main course and then dessert was a chocolate fountain.  The kids had a blast with it:

Could Arlo look any more envious?

Seriously, the baby is trying to use telekenesis to transport that strawberry into his mouth:

Jonathan:

Chocolate coated Aidan:

Some of us then took a walk up Old Sarum.  This is (obviously) Arlo and me:

Especially after all those pies, our shadows were the only skinny thing about Chris and me:

Jon:

Jessica:

Aidan:

Heather:

Aidan in the sunset:

Arlo home again, warming up after the walk:

Once we returned to our own home, we had to find homes for all the new possessions.  This is Chris with the Roman glass jar I bought him:

The boys had fun playing with their armour and weapons in the “snow” (which was actually layers of ice):

Meanwhile, Arlo played on the baby gym in his jammies: