Just another night of dancing...

Last night we had another great night of dancing here in Scotland. We went to visit with some friends who are here from Germany to study and then took them with us to our church's Scottish night. Not a Burns' night....because they are often frowned upon in churches due to the whole Whiskey drinking, womanizing thing....Robbie apparently liked the lassies!!
Anyhow, we had a great time at the Ceilidh as did our German friends who had yet to attend such a Scottish night. We all tried Haggis, Tatties, and Nips (that is the traditional Scottish haggis, potatoes, and turnips) and had a great time of fellowship and, of course, the traditional Scottish dances. Benjamin and Alexander both danced to all of the songs except one waltz near the end which was mostly danced to by adults. Benjamin was quite upset that he had to miss that one! As was Hannah who sat on Shawn's knee and cried as I danced with a man from church who knew how to do this particular waltz. They both got over it quickly to do the traditional "dance" to Auld Lang Syne for the "finale".
So here are some pics from last night:

Here is Alexander with a friend doing the Gay Gordon

And Benjamin and Company doing the same dance

Hannah was not impressed with me leaving her to do any dances until her little friend came to take her dancing as well...they just held hands and walked around the outside circle as everyone was dancing. Too cute! Too bad he only speaks German!!

And what you have all been waiting for....Haggis, tatties, and nips!!!

Confessions of a Scrapper Slacker...

I am writing an early apology for my lack of scrapbooking Yet Again!
Last week we got to talking to Shawn's brother and his wife on the webcam all the way from Australia. We were revelling in the technology and talked a little to late for me to scrapbook.
And this week, I am going on a girls' night out with a friend who needs a night out...her husband has been sick with cold after cold since a couple weeks prior to Christmas. So we are going to go out and celebrater Robbie Burns' night! Hopefully it won't be too crazy in the city! Alexander and Benjamin enjoyed a bagpiper, some haggis, spinach, and potatoes at their school today in honor of the great Scottish poet. They were beyond excited and told everyone (including the piper) that their cousins play in a pipe and drum band in Canada.
So please accept my apologies and look for my work next week...unless something else comes up by then! Just teasing, I WILL do scrapbooking next week for sure! I need to.
Looking forward to seeing everyone else's posts.

New Fruit and Veggies

We are very much a "meat and potato" type family and some of the children are starting to complain that I make them eat vegetables "EVERY DAY!!". So Shawn and I decided to institute "New Fruit and Vegetable Day". Every Saturday, we go over to a local produce store and pick out a new fruit or vegetable to try on Sunday. So last week, we tried avacado. The pictures below do not make it look appetizing, but they all tried it and said the liked it! Although none of them went back for seconds! I just sliced up some up with oil, salt and pepper and then mashed some to put on biscuits we had made with melted cheese. Not too bad.

So here they are showing off their new taste...

And here is the horrible looking stuff....the camera makes it look much worse because I don't remember it looking that bad when we ate it.

So today we tried mango and they really did all like that, we ate the whole thing and then dissected the pit/seed. Interesting and nutritious!
The following are just a couple of pictures I took over the last few days which I thought I would post. We were just playing around, no real stories to go with them, but I know there are a few of you who like to see pictures!

God knows my little boy...

Just a quick story before we go off to playgroup this morning. As some of you may know, Benjamin sometimes has a hard time with change. He is still getting used to the new bunkbeds and sometimes says he likes his old room better...anyhow, yesterday on the way home from school he says that he likes Canada better than Scotland. I asked him why and he says because there is snow in Canada and it doesn't snow here. I told him that maybe we would have snow here sometime to which he replies, "but it is winter now!".
But God knows every desire of our hearts and this morning He chose to supply Benjamin with this one "desire of his heart". I was able to go into their room this morning and say, "Wake up! It's snowing!" He jumped right up and got down from his bed and went to the window with a big smile. It was wonderful!
The snow is mixed with rain but it is snow none the less. I am sure there won't be any on the ground, but we are thankful for the little bit we have. I bet some of you are having a hard time believing our delight in "the white stuff" as you sit bundled inside with tons of it whirling around! Hope you all have a good day....don't be afraid to voice your desires to God; He may choose to give you yours tomorrow!

Hockey Day In Canada

Yesterday we celebrated Hockey Day In Canada....or In Scotland rather!
We were finally able to find a hockey team here in Edinburgh and Shawn took Alexander and Benjamin to see a game last night. They had a blast! They got home just before 10pm and we SOOO excited. They couldn't talk fast enough to tell me all about the game. Their highlights:
1. "Our team won!" That is, the Edinburgh Capitals
2. There was another person with a Team Canada shirt and with a Toronto Maple Leaf's shirt.
3. The game was tied and after OT, they had a shoot out! Edinburgh got 2, the other team got 0
4. They got to eat snacks.
5. They got to cheer "Go Canada Go!" Until Shawn reminded them that it was "Go Edinburgh Go!"
So the game was a hit! Now they are asking when they can go again. We'll have to see about that as it is quite expensive. And today Benjamin is telling everyone that when he is 9 or 10 he is going to play hockey....we'll have to see about that one too!

Here are the great spectators engrossed in the game.

Shawn said the ice rink wasn't too bad. It was pretty old...like a small town ice rink back home. Certainly no Harbour Station, but the boys didn't notice.

SCRAPBOOKING CHALLENGE

I did not do a great many pages tonight, but I did make sure I did SOMETHING for this challenge that so many of you have taken up. Thanks for participating everyone! It really is good to know that there are others out there who are "preserving their memories"...should I be a Creative Memories rep or what?? Check out Janique's blog via the link on the side for yet another scrapper. And thanks Christine for getting your family involved as well!
So for my work tonight, I finally journalled on Alexander and Benjamin's 4th bday page and I put in a few "odds-and-ends" pictures of when Hannah and Jacob were very little.


I don't know why this one is so yellow but I took 4 pictures and they were all horrible, so I just picked one because I was too tired to play around with the camera, so sorry!
Looking forward to seeing all your pages!

UPDATE

Just a little update on the last post...
First off, everyone slept very well last night in the new beds. Hannah did wake up about 10pm and I tried to get her to lay back down and go to sleep, I even crawled in with her but she just kept crying. So I picked her up and showed her where Benjamin, Alexander, and Jacob were, put her back in bed and she went back to sleep! I guess she was a little scared. And no one fell out of their bed. When Hannah and Jacob woke up, they just came right in to our room...no crying or anything. So, so far, so good!
Secondly, Benjamin was climbing up the ladder of one of the bunkbeds this afternoon as he was playing on the top bunk. As he climbed up the ladder, he saw himself in the mirror and yelled, "OOO, I look terrible" I said, " what, why would you say that Benjamin?" And he said, " My face, (pointed to under his nose) right there, that's terrible!". It was pretty cute. I told him it would only last a few more days and he was okay with that.
Thirdly, for those of you who have been looking for a picture of Shawn...well, here are 2! We had to cut the boys' hair again last night and tonight, I did Shawn's again. This time he decided to go for the very short cut like the boys. Last time, I used the clippers in the back and scissors for the front but tonight, we buzzed the whole thing. I told him he looks like he did the first time I met him at Camp Tulakadik (well almost!). He has promised to wear his winter touque when he goes outside now; although it is great weather here, normally between 6-10 in daytime and 4-9 at night....not bad since I was just talking to my sister in BC who is sitting through a snowstorm now that the hail has stopped!
Hope you all have a good rest-of-week and weekend.

This is the "BEFORE" picture. He was really due for a cut,
his hair grows even faster than the boys'.

And the "AFTER"...looking good!

New Arrival and The Accident Report

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our latest piece of furnishing....
A new set of bunk beds for Hannah and Jacob!
We had Hannah and Jacob sharing a single bed, sleeping end to end, since we moved here but they were starting to kick each other in their sleep so we made a request to our accomodation manager for another set of bunkbeds since you never know....and they brought them today and set them all up for us! I had just emailed on Sunday night, not bad service eh?
So now we have the two sets of bunkbeds together so the children are still all in the same room and we have a single bed in the toy room for all those guests we are still waiting for! Hee! Hee!
We are very pleased and Hannah and Jacob had no trouble falling asleep tonight in their new beds....now we are just waiting to see if they STAY asleep in them.
So here are Hannah and Jacob showing off the new bunkbeds (metallic ones are new, the wooden ones were here already):

And here is a picture I just had to capture from a couple of nights ago. Hannah is still not really keen on watching the videos which we play before bedtime each night. So on this night, she was sitting reading with her dad instead of watching the video with her brothers...it was just too cute not to capture on camera:


And now for the accident report:
We had gone for a little trip to a nearby park yesterday with Hannah and Jacob in the stroller and Alexander and Benjamin on their scooters. The park is quite hilly (is that actually a word??) and so the boys had fun riding down the hills on their scooters. We were at the exit to the park and there is a slight incline there. The boys asked if they could have one more run down the hill and so I turned the stroller around and we watched them come down the hill again. Now the boys have always been very cautious and use the little brake on the back of the scooter when going downhill....until yesterday; they decided at the top of the little incline (I am using the word incline so the grandmothers don't get too freaked out!) I hear the dreaded words "On your mark, get set, go!". I think to myself, "Oh, no, they are going to try to race down the hill" I mean incline! So I start waving my arms and yelling NO but of course they have already taken off and can't hear me because the pathway is roughly paved and the scooters make quite a noise on it. So as I stand watching in horror, they collide and both go down. As I start running (and praying) they both jump up and start screaming. Which to me is a very good thing...no broken limbs, no concussion, etc.
So Benjamin ended up with the worst of it as you will see below. He got quite the "road rash" on his face and on his back and thigh. Alexander got a bit on his elbow and leg. After I finally got them both calmed down, Benjamin's first words were "Why did we have to race?"
WooHoo!! They DO listen to what I say and I didn't even have to say "I told you so"!
Anyhow, they are both no worse for their little adventure, thanks to their helmets, which I still see so many children riding scooters and bicycles without.
So here is what happened to Benjamin's helmet (which I did not point out to him as he would have started screaming all over again)....as I said, I thank God I make them wear the helmets! Imagine what his head would have looked like without this on...scarey huh??


And here is Benjamin's face with his injuries:
I think maybe he was trying to look more hurt than he really was for the photo. This was just before bed last night:
Final message....Make your children wear helmets!!

Not a good start

I am not starting off on a good foot for the year of 2007. Well, for scrapbooking that is. Instead of doing scrapbooking as I should have last night (the first Thursday of the new year), I went out on a date. So I guess it is okay that I put my marriage above my scrapbooking... :)
We have made friends with a great family here in Scotland who are from USA and who share our last name. They have three children who are older (7-12) than our children but who all love to come and play with our children. So they offered to babysit for us so Shawn and I could go out. We took them up on it and we went to dinner and a movie. Or at least that was the plan...by the time we got the bus to the theatre, we only had about 1/2 hour before the show and the shopping complex which houses the movie theatre did not have any fast food type restaurants. Only real, sit down type ones and one pub. So we thought we had better not chance not making the film and instead bought not only popcorn and soda for the movie, but nachos and a hot dog as well. What a great meal huh? We didn't complain one bit since we were out to a movie (our first in Scotland) and our children were with people they know well and were well taken care of. We saw A Night At the Museum (or something to that effect, I don't know the exact title) with Ben Stiller. We both really enjoyed the movie and found it very entertaining.
I was going to share a cute story about Benjamin here but it is about the movie and would ruin it for anyone who wants to see the film. So if you are just too curious and "need to know" the story and don't plan to see the movie anyhow, why not call or email us and we'll tell you!! There really is a story here, this isn't just a ploy to get people to talk to us because we are lonely....
Happy New Year Everyone!