Kenitic Sand

My sister brought the kids some "kinetic" sand for Christmas. It wasn't actually kinetic sand, it was another make, but I cant remember the name and they are all pretty much the same thing and you all know what I mean when I say kinetic sand, so I'll stick to that. 

The sand was a big hit with the kids, who loved playing with it, but what I think was the best bit about the present was the moulds that came with the set. In the past we have a few sets, that came with a few different moulds, such a sea creatures and also cars, but this set came with castle moulds. They ranged in size from small scale moulds, with wall and towers to much larger walls and also a pyramid and tower complete with stairs. 

The little man spend most of the time building towers from the bigger sets, naming them Towers of Doom for some reason, this was almost immediately copied by the young lady, who started building her own Towers of Doom. 

Tower of Doom

Tower of Doom MkX

This was one of the young ladies towers.

Building these towers kept the kids occupied for quite some time over a number of days, repeating the cycle of building and destroying and rebuilding again. The little man has got quite good at keeping the sand on the try, however, the young lady has not quite mastered this yet and a fair portion of the sand ends up on the floor! Luckily, its simple to pick the sand up again and put it back in with the rest. Granted over time the sand wonders off and your suddenly left with not enough sand to build even the smallest building. Christmas gave us plenty of refills though, as we had several packs given to us and we have kept some back to top up as we get low. 

While there are lots of different types of Kinetic sand out there, the original Kinetic sand still seems to be the best, although the last lot we got, with the castle building seems pretty good, I think that its Motion Sand, either way its pretty good stuff. We have had Cra-Z-Sand in the past and I don't think that this is as good, that's not to say it's rubbish, but it's quite different and more sand like, so it doesn't seem to hold as well and makes a lot more mess, that's a lot harder to clean up. The moulds that came with the cra-z-sand however are pretty good and have little tabs on the top to help you hold them, which is very useful.

I have to say that it's not just the kids that enjoyed playing with the sand either, i had a great time building a castle with all the various bits and pieces.

Castle Burden overview

Front view

A close-up of the main castle

Birds eye view of the castle, I'm sure there are various names for certain parts of a castle, but i cant remember any and I'm not interested enough to go searching for them! 

Slight accident while building.

It was fun building the castle and i managed to use up every price of sand! I literally had to scratch around to gather the last bits of sand to finish the last mould and finish off the walls but i think it was worth it. Granted, i should have been doing some house work instead of playing with the sand, but hey, everybody needs a little break. The bairns though it was great, and did play with it for a few minutes. Unfortunately the little man's idea of play tends to be build it and then break it, so you can imagine what came next!

3

2

1

And destroyed! Yep, it took me about 10 minutes to build the castle and took the pair of them about 30 second to destroy it! They were giggling and making crashing sounds the whole time they were destroying the castle, so i don't mind at all, as they were having fun and i wasn't really expecting anything less. Next time the kids have the sand out again, i may well try and build another castle, just because i can.

Snowy lakes

Again were still stuck in Christmas, don't worry we'll get back to the new year soon enough! After we had Christmas up at ours, we went down to the lakes to see the in-laws for new years. It was good to get away, although the trip ended on a bit of a low with the Great Grandmother falling ill and unfortunately passing away not long after the new year. 

While we were down though, we did get to spend some time with the greater family, catching up with the brothers and sister in-law and hearing all the latest family news. Including the fact that the 18 year old brother in law is buying a house! Best of luck to him, hopefully he's going to be setting himself up well for the rest of his life, I remember how much of a struggle it was getting my first flat.

I think most of these facts passed the kids by as at the do with young children, they were far more interested in seeing grandma and going to the soft play, not to mention getting quite excited over the now on top of the hills around the lakes. 

Not a bad view from the house.

As always, I took full advantage of the time away to catch up on my sleep and grab a Costa Mocha or two. I do find that these trips south to the in-laws a great way to relax for a bit and recharge, leaving all the childcare to them, well, mostly grandma anyway. Grandad, as great as he is at playing with the kids, something I think he enjoys greatly as well, its grandma who seems to be the star of the show when were down. I think its mostly because she lets them get away with all sorts of things and always has lots of goodies around the house, not to mention every time they come home after being out with grandma and granddad they seem to come back with a new toy and full of naughty snacks. Not that we mind, after all, that's what grand parents are for, although I would get annoyed if they lived just a round the corner and did it, although I suspect that they wouldn't if they did.

It could be a while before we get back to the grandparents again, as trips south are more difficult now the little man is at school. We cant just join the wife on her trips south anymore, which is a shame, but the kids are getting older all the time and life changes. Maybe one day I'll be able to join her again and leave the kids at home by themselves!

living on an island

While this is Christmas related, its not really about Christmas, its more about the Christmas weather. I'm sure that I have posted about this before, and I was going to like it here, but I cant seem to find it right now. I think I need to get my labels sorted to make finding things a little easier for everyone, including me!

Anyway, living on an island is great. There are some many advantages to living in a small community, one that actually has a proper community feel to it as well. However, there are certain disadvantages, the main one being that you are so far from everyone else and its expensive and time consuming to get anywhere on the main land. There is also another distinct disadvantage of living on an island, when the weather is bad, shopping become a problem!

Fruit anyone?

I should have taken a picture of the bread as well, because that was in a similar state, as was the vegetables on the other side of the fruit, you can just about make it out, as if you look carefully, you can actually see though the shelves on the bottom picture, there is a couple walking in the isle you can see by the melons in the bottom left.

It wasn't all bad though, there was still some fruit and veg, mostly the expensive organic stuff and some frozen and the in-store bakery was still producing loves of bread, at equally expensive prices! For us, it doesn't really matter, it was only for a few days and we had enough in the house to survive, thank god for freezers! Still, I'll take this minor inconvenience and live on an island. As far as I'm concerned its 1000 times better living here than in London where I grew up!

xmas calenders

Ok, so were well in to February now and i'm posting about Christmas. Its been a bit of a rocky start to the year, but hopefully things are looking up. This does mean that I am quite a way behind on posting up here and there are lots of draft posts, sitting half finished. I will try and get these up as soon as I can, so there may well be a bit of a spurt of posts over the next couple of weeks as I get caught up. This seem to be getting to be a habit, not posting for a while and them posting up lots over a short period of time. I need to get better at concentrating on this blog, as I do have a habit of prioritising my other hobby blog over this one. The young lady is now at nursery a couple of days a week however and we are coming back in to summer, which means that I should have some more time to blog in the future and try and drive this blog forward, as I've neglected it recently and viewing figures, although never huge, have dropped off quite a bit.

Anyway, on to the content of this post, and a step back in time, only about 3 months though, so nothing to extreme.

The wife decided that this year we would do something different for the kids Christmas advent calendars. It all stemmed from last year when my mother won a raffle prize of a set of 25 books, all wrapped up, to be used as an advent calendar. We used this with the little man and he loved it, getting really excited every night to be getting a new story book. So we decided to replicate it slightly, although we modified it by including some small toys and chocolates ( well it is Christmas after all ).

The calendars.

We did one for each of the kids and although the books were age appropriate, we filled the rest of the calendar with matching items, mostly to save on the arguments. The little toys were pretty basic, toy cars, squidgy frog/fish thing that pokes its tongue out when you squeezer it, googly eye toy, that sort of thing. There were 12 books in total including a special one for Christmas eve, 4 chocolate bars and the rest were toys, a nice little selection of items. It wasn't as though they didn't get enough chocolate over the advent period either!

7 chocolate advents

Yes, we really did have 7 chocolate advents and I don't like them! The wife ended up with two, as did the young lady. The little man however ended up with 3! As you can see, there wasn't a lot of variety either! It was a bit of a mission to keep everything in order though, as with so many the same, there were the inevitable arguments over whose was whose. I did solve this after several arguments by drawing big letters on the back to mark out who owned which one, but even then it got very confusing at times! 

I do love the fact of how excited the kids get about all the Christmas stuff, but i'm not so sure that having 3 advent chocolate for breakfast each morning is particularly healthy!

Merry Christmas

Winter weather

Were nearly at the Christmas Holidays again and we have been having some proper wintery weather up her lately. Its all disappeared now, which is a shame, would have been nice to have a proper white Christmas for once. Anyway, I though I would share a few picture that I took over the snowy period.

The Loch

The Broch

Our road

Down the Loch, can you see where the Loch is frozen?

Another view down the Loch

The main road

Christmas Tree

So its been a couple of weeks since I last posted up here. Life has been moving forward as always and finding time to post has been a little difficult. Partly due to real life getting in the way and partly due to the fact that I have been busy over on one of my other blogs, as there has been a lot happening on that front.

Anyway, I've got a lot of posts currently sitting in the draft folder, enough to keep me going until the New Year, provided that I can actually find time to post that is! Hopefully I'll get some time over the next week of two to get things written up and scheduled but time will tell, especially as there is quite a bit of bad weather up here at the moment and the schools have been closed a few days, meaning that I have two little ones to try and keep entertained when nothing is open and you can go and play outside!

One thing we have got done though is the Christmas Tree. We actually put this up way back on the 4th, as my wife was away south on the 1st at a conference in the capitol. I am one of those people who firmly believes that Christmas starts on the 1st of December and that's when the tree and decorations go up, no earlier, even if its a weekend the day before. It has done my head in this year that the local supermarket had there Christmas stuff out on the shelves BEFORE Halloween! I mean, they had to move the Christmas stuff to put out all the Halloween costumes! Really? Next thing you know, they'll just leave them out all year round, to save having to take them down after Christmas and put them back out in Feburary! Anyway, rant over, here's some pictures of out tree this year:

Two stars on the top, one for the little man and one for the young lady, mostly to stop them arguing over who's star went on top.

Sitting in the corner of the room. Most of the decorations that you can see on the tree have been made by the bairns at one point of another and I have no doubt that they will be joined by many more over the next couple of years.

Lights. And no, they don't just go halfway up. The top set are multifunction lights and are actually flashing, I just seemed to have managed to capture the photo just as they all flashed off!

Tried again later and still failed!

The cats have taken quite a liking to the tree or rather the baubles on the bottom of the tree. The bairns think that this is great fun, I just keep wondering if they could possibly pull the tree over! 

One last christmas.

Well, after a bit of a whirlwind when we left to head south, we have finally got around to having our own christmas. Were only about 12 days late and the tree is still up despite 12th night having already passed, well, you can't have a Christmas celebration without the tree afterall!

It was nice to finally have our own little Christmas, ultimately I would have preferred to have it on Christmas day, but flying down boxing day wasn't going to work withthe weather anyway and it does make it a bit of a rush seeing everyone when we are south. We'll have to think more about next year, as we'll have to pay for the young ladies seat as well, but that's for next Christmas. As for this one, well, Santa has been busy! The kids have got a whole raft of new presents, from trackmaster for the little man to a toy cleaning set for the young lady.

Its a shame that its all over for another year, but its the young ladies birthdays party next weekend!

Christmas at the in-laws

Well, another trip to the inlaws is complete and yet agian it been fun and games. Now I enjoy being at the inlaws, so this isn't a moan about the inlaws. With all the rushing around to get down and avoid the worst of the weather, we ended up spending several extra days with the inlaws, doing a number of family things, such as visiting the great grandparent. Christmas was also a fabulous day, the kids getting far to many present of all of the family, far to much for us to take home on the plane that for sure! So it's all going to be posted up and as it cost the same to post 20kg as it cost for an extra 20kg bag on the plane, it's a no brainer. Costs the same but half the hassle, after all we don't have to drag it around an airport with 2 children and 2 car seats, plus the 2 bags we've got anyway. Plus the bairns will be getting more present from my parents anyway.

Things started going down hill a bit on Boxing Day, when the mother inlaw came down with a heavy cold, shortly followed by the father in law, who ended up spending the best part of two days holed up in bed! It meant that the last few days we didn't do much at all, as the kids weren't great either. So those extra few days at the beginning were a blessing in disguise as it meant we still got to spend the same time with them, just the other side of the holiday.

The only real downside to the mother inlaw being ill, was that the wife and I were unable to get our night away together, something we try and do when we're down. There's nothing quite like a full nights undisturbed  sleep in the same bed all night. With the kids being a little under the weather, we spent a lot of time in the kids beds, and not in our own! The young lady is also a stubborn one and will only sleep in her bed, even though it is far more comfortable for us in ours!

Update; Well, I have been a little getting this post sorted! Mostly due to the fact that the I've been feeling like someone's taken a cricket bat to my head! I've been out for about 5 days, just trying to get through each day and hoping the kids will sleep well at night, so I can recover for the next day! Were back home and im still not fully recovered, although its mostly just a very snotty nose!.

Unfortunately we seem to have given the bugs to my parents, my father especially, who went the same way as the father in-law, must be an on old man thing!

Merry christmas

Just a quick post to say merry Christmas to every one that reads this blog. That's not many of you, but thanks for looking.

So I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope Santa is kind to you all again this yearn

Christmas travel.

So, living on an island strikes again and all carefully laid plans are obliterated in a blink of an eye. Ok, bit dramatic, it was more of a text and an internet search, but you get the picture. The plan for a nice little family Christmas on the Friday, before flying down to the inlaws turned in to a mad panic night of packing and a frantic dash around the house in the morning tiding and sorting. All because mother nature decided to throw this at us;

Yep, nice and windy. There are many superpowers in the world that you wouldn't want to mess with, but there's only one that you CAN'T mess with and that's mother nature.

Anyway, after an early morning phone call (0830) and a couple of hours of running around like headless chickens, we were all at the terminal, checked in by half eleven, ready for our half 12 flight. At 1315 we finally loaded on to the plane and after sitting in various locations around the airport, we took off at 1450. So just over an hour and a half sitting on a plane before the hour and a half flight! And then we had the 2 hour car journey from the airport to the inlaws! The kids were great though! We had a few tears when we thought we were heading back to the terminal, but we did a quick 180 back to the end of the run way and shot off in to the sky, a rather wobbly take off but the pilot was grabbing a drop in the wind (below 35 knots) to get us off! It wasn't quite the start to the holiday I was hoping for, but we made it, tired but in one piece.

All this has messed with the plans, as we had to abandon the Christmas at home, we'll have to do that when we get back. So that will be nice for the kids, as they will still get all their Christmas' just in a different order. It also means that all of the present to each other are at home, so nothing to give the wife on Christmas day itself, not even a card, as that's at home too!

Hopefully the journey back will be plain sailing compare to getting down and we'll all be able to enjoy the our last Christmas celebrations of the year.

Presents

Its less than 2 weeks till the big day, Christmas day that is, and for many the pressure is mounting. It always seems that every year Christmas shopping is the most stressful thing a person can do! By ive never understood why? Why is it so stressful?

For some I know its about keeping up with the Jones, as they say, for others its about not dissapointing anyone or worse, getting the same gift as someone else! For others I know it can be just the very act of shopping, crowded streets and tired feet, but in this world of internet shopping, that can be avoided. Although this brings its own problems, as the worry is about whether it will arrive on time, in what condition and will it be the right size! Ive had to return one item this year already as it was the wrong size, I even had to show the wife to check, which kind of spoils the surprise! Hopefully the new, bigger one will arrive in time, oh and it was for the horse, so Im allow to get the size wrong, repercussion free!

For me, present shopping has always been a trouble free affair. Personally I couldn't give a monkeys about the Jones, they want to spend 80 quid on a pair of Nike trainers for their little princess who can't even crawl, let alone walk, then they can. Im not! Clarke's sales all the way. I also am not to bothered by what people think of their gifts, its the thought that counts, something g that works both ways. Im not worried about what I get, Im just grateful someone took the time to buy me something. Ive also got the distinct advantage that I don't buy many presents, just ones for the wife, either from me or from the kids, the wife deals with the rest! I do help with suggestions, but the wife is definitely better at the present buying than I am.

As for the kids presents, most are picked up in various sales through out the year and stored till Christmas. Others are bough off the local 2nd hand stuff site, the local ebay as it were. I know a lot of people will be shocked at the thought of giving 2nd hand toys for Christmas, but I really don't see the issue, as long as they are in good condition and work as they should, why not? The bairns don't care if things come in their original box, it never lasts long even anyway! Its all about what's in the box and not the box itself. We've done this the last couple of years and the little mans been thrilled with his presents, plus it means that we can get more stuff for the same money, a win win situation all round.

For some people its about the cost of something, for others its about how much you get, but for me its about the reaction it gets from the bairns, that the important thing. The mother-in-law has commented a few time that as the kids get older the boxes get smaller and more expensive! Kids like big boxes, it doesn't matter about the cost, they have no understanding of cost anyway. This year the in-laws have decided that big boxes are the way to go, as last year the little man was less than impressed with the soft presents, to the point he just picked them up and handed them to mummy, saying for you, before moving on to the next hard box!

It will be interesting to see how they react this year as they are both old enough to know what's happening, last year it took a while for the young lady to figure it out. Hopefully, it'll all be plain sailing!

Christmas tree and other decorations

I know were almost half way through December and pretty much half way till Christmas, I thought I'd post up our tree.

Our tree was decorated by the bairns, hence the slightly patchy and bottom heavy decorations! Our tree actually went up in November, much to horror! Im defiantly one of those people who believe that Christmas doesn't start till the 1st and that no decorations should appear before then, however, it was the weekend and only2a couple of days early so I let it slide this year.

The bairns were really excite putting the tree up, which lead to many incidents of decorations going on and off and on again, as they both tried to decorate the tree how they wanted! Somehow there were no tears though!

I remember putting the tree up when was little, it was the start of Christmas and as we got older the responsibility for the decorations fell to us kids, usually my sister took the tree and I had the rest, as I could reach the ceiling and pictures without the need of a step!

One thing that hasn't changed from my childhood to now is the cats! My cat use to take a keen interest in the baubles and now ours are too! You can see one of them half under the tree in the picture above.

I know that for some Christmas isn't the magical time it should be, but I have fond memories of my Christmas' and I intend to make my bairns Christmas's as magical as I can!