Tag Archives: heather

365 pictures: 101 – 110

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You’d think that this far into the year, taking and posting a picture a day would have become second nature. Not so, in fact, there have been quite a few missed days of late. I’ve kept going though, thanks to some pics borrowed from Gem.

I blame the time we had off at the start of April. That and a brief spell of illness: both were breaks from routine which threatened to derail this project, but I think I’ve got things going again. Fingers crossed, anyway…

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101. Cake!
In our house, Gem is far and away the top dog in the kitchen. I’m not completely useless, and, dare I say it, there are even a couple of things I can do better than Gem, but when it comes to baking I’m a complete novice. It wouldn’t be right for Gem to bake her own birthday cake though, so with a little guidance I managed to produce this bad boy. And it tasted as good as it looks :)

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102. Feeding time
And here are the girls tucking into Mummy’s birthday cake! I think I might have been a little generous with the slices, because neither was able to finish. And believe me, these girls rarely leave cake behind.

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103. Lego
Aunty Ruth and Uncle Andrew came to visit, partly for Gem’s birthday and partly for a Scottish Cup semifinal. They brought the girls some Disney Princess Lego, which went down a storm as you can see here.

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104. Bag
Sometimes you just have to walk around with a bag on your head, right?

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105. Cheeeeese!
This is currently my favourite pic of the girls, and the wallpaper on my phone. Love it!

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106. Toast
I mentioned Gem’s baking skills earlier, and this photo is testament to that. What could be better than hot toast made from homemade 6 seed malted wheat bread? Amazing!

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107. Camel ride
This one is all Heather, from arranging the toys to pressing the shutter button to take the picture. What a fun picture.

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108. YouTube in bed
Heather loves few things more than YouTube, as demonstrated by this picture, where she’s watching Psy’s follow up to Gangnam Style.

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109. Funhouse
When CITV did their Old Skool weekend, we recorded a few things for nostalgic reasons. Little did we know that the girls would be such big fans of Funhouse – so big that they’re still asking for, and watching it several months later. Only problem is we only have one episode. If only they’d rerun a whole series…

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110. Phone collection
We had a massive spring clean recently and passed on some old mobile phones to the girls, to add to their existing collection of toy ones. Aside from not being pink, they fit right in!

I'm running a 10k at the end of May in aid of The MS Society. You can read my story here, and I'd be eternally grateful if you could sponsor me, which you can do on my Just Giving page.

You can even donate by texting RBMS99 and the amount you'd like to donate (in pounds) to 70070. So, for example, to donate £2, text RBMS99 £2 to 70070.

Thanks very much (in advance) for your support!

365 pictures: 91 – 100

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100 days? Really? Where is this year going? I’m not sure, but I do know it’s heading there at high speed. This installment features more holiday pictures and another birthday – March and April seem to be made of them in our family. Which has its good and bad points, and cake definitely comes into both categories! Anyway, on with the pictures…

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91. Fireside
One of our favourite things about visiting Nana’s house (aka the country pile) is the open fire, and that includes the girls, who are very careful around it. Surprisingly careful, given their general “bull in a china shop” demeanour elsewhere.
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92. Rollercoaster
While visiting Nana, we met up with Amy, Jay and Joshua at Crazee Bongo’s softplay. The kids had a great time playing while the adults got to relax and catch up. I think the rollercoaster was Megan’s favourite, and after a few goes she didn’t even need me to push her off.

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93. Keeping warm
Because why wouldn’t you wear a hat with your slippers and dressing gown. Something about this picture strikes me as a preview of things to come in the teenage years…

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94. Breakfast
Both our kids are pretty good eaters, and a cooked breakfast is definitely a favourite, as this empty plate shows (crusts excepted).
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95. Captain of the ship
Back from Nana’s, we had a fantastic day out with Graham, Lynne, Maya and Anya at Camperdown Park in Dundee. The adventure playground seemed to stretch on forever and all the kids had a ball exploring it – myself and Graham included! We also loved the zoo, despite Megan tripping and landing on her face. A magic Malteser soon stopped the tears though.

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96. Chef’s perks
Heather loves an opportunity to cook in the kitchen with Mummy, and making Grandpa’s birthday cake was no exception. Especially when there are beaters and bowls to be licked afterwards!
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97. Chocolate cake
And here’s the finished product in all its glory. It tasted even better than it looked.

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98. Fixit sign
It might have been Grandpa’s birthday, but that didn’t mean Daddy didn’t get a present as well. This sign, from Ali and Iain, will be going up in the shed as soon as we get a dry weekend day with temperatures above zero. It could be a long wait…

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99. Beef Chimichurri
Our “make everything in Jamie’s 15 minute meals” challenge continues apace. I’ve no idea how many recipes we’ve cooked now, but we must be close to, if not over, the halfway mark. This one was really good, even the fresh peas in the salad which we were both pretty skeptical about. Not pictured: the chimichurri sauce itself.

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100. Self-portrait
Megan is definitely following in her sister’s footsteps of loving to play with any and every gadget she can. Only this morning she switched the TV on and was trying to get onto the Wii U. She took this picture on my phone, using the front facing camera, with only the slightest bit of help from me – not bad for a two year old.

I'm running a 10k at the end of May in aid of The MS Society. You can read my story here, and I'd be eternally grateful if you could sponsor me, which you can do on my Just Giving page.

You can even donate by texting RBMS99 and the amount you'd like to donate (in pounds) to 70070. So, for example, to donate £2, text RBMS99 £2 to 70070.

Thanks very much (in advance) for your support!

365 pictures: 81 – 90

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We visited Gem’s mum in Welby over Easter, then had the rest of last week off work. Apparently that meant taking time off posting daily photos as well, because I had to do a mammoth catch up today. Fortunately I didn’t stop taking pictures, so my photo a day project lives on. And there are some great snaps in this batch…

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81. Hampden roar
The night Scotland became the first European nation officially out of contention for a 2014 World Cup place. Yes, even San Marino, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg lasted longer than us. Euro 2016 it is then…

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82. Butterfly
Heather loves getting her face painted, and she loved this butterfly she got at a church coffee morning. I’m not so sure about the orange lips, but she liked them too.

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83. Gaslight Anthem
We rounded off a busy weekend with our second gig of the year, the Gaslight Anthem at a jam packed O2 Academy, and a great show it was too.

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84. Shoes
After giving our shoes a long overdue polish I thought I should capture the moment for posterity.

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85. 28,000 feet sunset
A working day in Birmingham meant I got to see the sun set from high above the clouds, which always looks spectacular.

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86. Bubble wrap
Who doesn’t like popping bubble wrap? Certainly not our two girls!

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87. Easter bonnets
Heather needed an Easter Bonnet for her last day at nursery, which meant Megan had to have one too! Don’t they look pretty?

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88. Heathers
I couldn’t resist snapping this. If the plants had been a bit healthier looking I might even have picked some up.

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89. Driving
A pit stop en route to Nana’s house. Megan decided the best way to relax after sitting in the car for a few hours is by, um, sitting in a car. I’ll never understand toddler logic…

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90. Chocolate lolly
An Easter treat from our favourite new landlady, Sarah at the Crown and Anchor in Welby.

I'm running a 10k at the end of May in aid of The MS Society. You can read my story here, and I'd be eternally grateful if you could sponsor me, which you can do on my Just Giving page.

You can even donate by texting RBMS99 and the amount you'd like to donate (in pounds) to 70070. So, for example, to donate £2, text RBMS99 £2 to 70070.

Thanks very much (in advance) for your support!

Doctorin’ the house

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One of my earliest childhood memories is siting on the living room floor, playing with my Doctor Who toys. I had a Tom Baker figure (complete with enormous scarf), a Cyberman, K-9, and a magical TARDIS which could make those figures disappear and reappear. I loved those toys as much as the show on which they were based. And I was 4 years old, something I know because that’s the age I was when we moved out of that house, just before I started school.

I mention this because the new series of the revived Doctor Who began at the weekend, prompting Gem and I to discuss whether it might be suitable for Heather to watch. The conversation went along these lines:

Me: “I think she’d really like it”
Gem: “I think it’s too scary – it scares ME!”
Me: “Hmmm… why don’t I blog about it, and let the internet-people decide”

So here I am.

Heather’s actually seen a little bit of The Doctor already – the 2011 Christmas special was broadcast after the Gruffalo’s Child, which we recorded and have watched quite a few times. One time it got left to play all through the credits, and into the start of Doctor Who, which prompted a lot of questions from a rather intrigued (then) 3 year old: “Who’s that Daddy? Is he really a doctor? What’s that thing? What’s he doing?”. Not dissimilar to some of Steven Moffat’s dialogue, in fact!

And I think she liked what she saw, not least because when the recording cut out halfway through the opening credits she seemed disappointed. Which, given Heather’s fascination with all things space, didn’t entirely surprise me. But, aged three, I think she was a little on the young side. “It won’t be long though” I thought, “maybe next Christmas…”

Of course, the 2012 Christmas special was about evil looking killer snowmen with menacing smiles. Heather already has issues with things going bump in the night, so I let that one go. “We’ll wait until the new series starts”, I thought. Which brings us right up to date.

The new series features a new companion for the Doctor, and that would seem like an ideal time to start watching – Heather could discover the Doctor’s world through Clara’s eyes, learning about time travel, sonic screwdrivers and bow ties at the same time as she does. But is it too scary?

I’ve just watched the first episode, and I think it’s probably okay. Yes, there were a couple of tense moments (I don’t want to give anything away in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet – spoilers!) but overall I don’t think there’s anything in there that will totally freak her out. Which you’d expect, given the family friendly tea-time schedule slot. And anyway, even if it is a bit scary in places, it’s good for kids to be frightened once in a while, right? Right???

So what do you think? Is four too young to be watching Doctor Who? Would vetting the show in advance, and bypassing anything that looks potentially too scary be a reasonable way to go? All comments and suggestions gratefully received.

Update (7/4): After everyone’s comments I decided yesterday was the day, and said to Heather would I put Doctor Who on. “No, I don’t want to watch it” she said, although she was intrigued by Clara in the YouTube clip I tried to entice her with. So I guess that’s the end of that!

I'm running a 10k at the end of May in aid of The MS Society. You can read my story here, and I'd be eternally grateful if you could sponsor me, which you can do on my Just Giving page.

You can even donate by texting RBMS99 and the amount you'd like to donate (in pounds) to 70070. So, for example, to donate £2, text RBMS99 £2 to 70070.

Thanks very much (in advance) for your support!

365 pictures: 71 – 80

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My last 365 pictures update featured a rather spectacular birthday cake. This one starts with the birthday itself and features kids, food, and crafty stuff. Which pretty much sums up life chez ours. No snow here, although there has, of course, been more. And I hear the current cold weather might last until the end of APRIL!

All I can say is we better get a decent summer after that. Anyway, on with the show…

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71. Oooooh presents!
Given how much the girls love Barbie: A Mermaid Tale (although recently it’s been all about the Fashion Fairytale) this Merliah Summers (Barbie) doll was a no-brainer as a birthday gift. Heather looks as delighted with it as Megan does!

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72. Farewell to the bunting
This birthday bunting was originally made by Nana for Heather’s first birthday, using Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric. It’s a while since it’s been used, but the girls’ reaction was so good, I think it might become a new tradition.

73. Snow White
Both girls love dressing up, but until now Megan’s had to make do with sharing Heather’s wardrobe. This Snow White costume, a birthday gift from Uncle Ian, is the first that’s her very own.

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74. Red Nose Day
Heather’s nursery did a great job of making the kids aware of, and involved in, Red Nose Day. Heather might not have won the crazy hair contest, but she had fun, and we got to meet this happy chappy, although I think he could do with some more sleep!

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75. Cuddles
Sometimes you see a great photo opportunity that’s gone by the time you actually get the camera out. Happily, this wasn’t one of those times – love this.

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76. Crafty
Without a doubt, Heather’s favourite activity is making things. We’ve managed to wean her off her Mister Maker addiction (I think) but she absolutely loves anything involving paint/pens/glue/scissors/stickers, and had a great time making these farmyard animals. Pretty much all on her own too!

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77. Rainbow flower
Another nursery creation, Heather told me about this flower in great detail one evening when I got home from work, but neglected to mention that she’d brought it home. We spotted it at bedtime, in the bathroom where she’d left it, and it was exactly as she’d described it.

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78. Magnets
I’m not sure which of the girls was responsible for this little arrangement. I think it might have been Heather, because I’m pretty sure Megan tidied hers away, but maybe it was the other way round.

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79. Meatballs
We’re still working our way through Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, and still enjoying everything that we’ve created. This dish – Swedish meatballs, with celeriac and rice – was one of mine, and very tasty it was too. And best of all, no horses were harmed in its creation :)

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80. Daddy in his shorts at bed time
More of Heather’s art, this time a portrait of yours truly. Good job I no longer sleep in the buff!

I'm running a 10k at the end of May in aid of The MS Society. You can read my story here, and I'd be eternally grateful if you could sponsor me, which you can do on my Just Giving page.

You can even donate by texting RBMS99 and the amount you'd like to donate (in pounds) to 70070. So, for example, to donate £2, text RBMS99 £2 to 70070.

Thanks very much (in advance) for your support!