Halloween

Many of you may be just thinking about getting ready for Halloween and here I sit in front of the computer, all the children are fast asleep, and we are done. It seems very strange to me. Anyhow, I wanted to share a few photos of our festivities here in Scotland.
We found some great costumes (some from friends and some from stores) which the children all loved (and I must confess I think they are pretty cute too). Alexander was EXTREMELY excited for some reason (literally bouncing off the walls) as we got ready to head out. Benjamin has a pretty bad cold and so was considerably less excited but excited in his own right. He actually came back part way through the trick or treating to pass out treats with Shawn. Hannah and Jacob didn't really know what was going on but got quite excited when they saw all the other children outside. They were very adorable. So here are some photos of our night:

The crew ready for trick or treating
In case you can't tell, Benjamin is Spiderman and Alexander is Batman. Hannah is quite easy to distinguish as Pooh Bear and as is Jacob as Barney.

This was last night's pumpkin carving.
Alexander and Benjamin got to take their pumpkins to school today.

This is "the showing of the loot"!

And here is our helper Benjamin passing out the treats.

We all had a good evening and have some goodies to provide special treats for the next couple of weeks. And even some left over chocolates for Shawn and I!!!

Fall Foliage Fun

I feel like we're back in Canada! Well, at least I did last week when we found some great leaves that had fallen in the back yard. I have a great scrapbooking page from last fall in Nova Scotia and I can't wait to add these photos to the scrapbook as they look identical! Except that the children are all one year older. We had a great time piling the colorful leaves up and then jumping in....It felt like home.... :(

Here is our first jumper

And our second

A little break to throw some leaves in the air!

Our third jumper/runner (she didn't actually jump)

And our final jumper/sitter (Jacob kinda just plunked himself down)

All in all, great fun was had by all.

Hannah and Jacob are 2!!!

We are finally connected again. Hooray!
So here are a few pictures of Hannah and Jacob on their second birthday. We had a great time although I know there were a few family members who were a little upset that they couldn't talk to them on their special day. We had a great day with friends at the zoo and then home for a little family birthday celebration with cupcakes and presents.

Here are the birthday girl and boy with their big brothers before they opened their gifts.

No a great photo, but here is the little birthday girl.
See the pin she wore to the zoo?

These are a little out of order since they are eating their birthday cupcakes before you see the picture of them blowing out the candles.

Here is the birthday boy with his pin also.

So here is the cupcake presentation. They all loved the cupcakes.

So we are all settled in our new flat and finally have phone and internet. If you are needing our phone number and address, please send an email and we will let you know (of course, we don't want to post these on the internet). I will soon post a few more pics!

Not again....

It wasn't that long ago that I sat at this computer and wrote how we STILL had no internet and phone. And here I am again at my friend's home writing away about having so much to blog and so little connectivity!
We have moved flats...to a ground floor! Woo Hoo! And our phone and internet did not make the move as smoothly as we did. So here we are, a week after the move, and waiting until "maybe next week" when we will be connected once again. Alot has happened in that one week....Hannah and Jacob turned 2!!... We had some good old Canadian fall fun...And so much more, please be patient with us and stay tuned....

WEEKEND AWAY

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to everyone!!
We "celebrated" Thanksgiving by taking a wonderful weekend away at a retreat center called Carberry Tower just outside of Edinburgh. I say "celebrated" because we didn't really acknowledge the holiday other than saying "Happy Thanksgiving" to Mom White when she called and by saying a longer, more "thankful" bedtime prayer with the children.
Anyhow, we did have a lovely weekend away and made many new friends. They provided terrific food, fun activities and interesting sessions (which included childcare so we could both go!). It seemed to be designed just for Shawn as two of the sessions were The Gospel According to Star Wars and The Portrayal of Evil in The Lord of the Rings. Quite interesting really! Send him an email and he can tell you all about it.
We all enjoyed the accomodations....we must have been the largest "group" there as we got the room with 6 beds in it! The boys thought that was quite neat that we each had our own bed.
We all enjoyed the grounds...many football (soccer) matches were played on the expansive lawns, and many walks in the lovely gardens.
We all enjoyed the "weekend away" atmosphere...no studying for Shawn, no cooking meals and cleaning for me!!
So here are a few pics:
Here is Hannah in one of the beautiful gardens...doesn't she look like a little lady? Except for the nice sneakers with the dress! We had to pack light, only one pair of shoes per person.


And here is one of the many football (soccer) matches which were played over the weekend.
Here is the back view of the lovely place we were priviledged to call "home" for the weekend. It was truly beautiful; as are so many buildings here in Scotland.

WEEKEND AWAY - Part 2

Here are a few more pictures from our weekend away:
This first one if from Benjamin, our budding photographer...not bad for a 4 year old, right?

Here are the "big boys" in the library in front of one of the many beautiful fireplaces.
And here are the girls taking a stroll through one of the many beautiful rose gardens.
Finally, here is one of "the babies"....I've really got to come up with a better name to call Hannah and Jacob now, they are hardly babies now! It is just so much faster to say "the boys"and "the babies" than it is to say, Alexander, Benjamin, Hannah, and Jacob!! Man, we seem to have alot of children!

EDINBURGH OPEN DOORS DAY

The wonderful city of Edinburgh has an annual event which we were able to enjoy yesterday. It is called Open Doors Day. It is basically a day to explore the city. They open the doors to many buildings which otherwise are not open to the public. We went to the Edinburgh Heritage Center (I think that is what it's called) and the children made a craft and got dressed up as in the 1800s. All the dresses were too big for Hannah so we just picked a nice purple/pink vest to go with her bonnet. The three boys were outfitted in vests and ties. They looked so cute!
We had a great time looking around at the displays . And it was all free!!
What a great idea for a city to do. We didn't make it to very many other venues as we were running out of time but we did enjoy the city. It was a lovely sunny day for it as well. So here are our pioneers...