Magna

Another Winter's day out so we chose an indoor venue.  Except that Magna is inside an enormous metal building, and felt colder inside than out.

So we headed straight to the Fire Zone or Pod or Portal or Whatever.  This was probably the coolest thing in the whole of this sciencey engineeringy place.  It's only a fire tornado.

And this is the cutest thing: a small boy with a monster hat.

We had lots of fun in the Air Place, including playing atmospheres (Elspeth was particularly excited about this).

Earth zone?  Diggers.  Big tyres.  Transporting fake rocks using a variety of mechanisms.  Popular.

The water zone was clearly too wet to allow photography.  The super squirters were super though.

And then, after a nice lunch (we remain thankful that the children both really like baked potatoes), we explored the Very Extensive outdoor playground.

Well worth a trip, and with tickets turning into day passes for a year, I'm sure we'll be back.

Day out in Skipton

We're trying to get out and about for day trips to avoid chilly wintery malaise. Yesterday we went over to Skipton for a walk from Marisca's book of walks for little explorers. 2 and a half miles, some ice and snow, lots of things to spot and some too collect too.  Tom has been unwell so some fresh air did him good, and Marisca enjoyed the walk with only minor cajoling required.

He doesn't look like he's poorly, does he?!

After the walk we had lunch in a nice cafe and pottered through the shops and market, finishing, of course, at the milkshake shop. Marisca chose a refreshers milkshake, thus ensuring that I didn't pinch any, and they both enjoyed it. A good end to a nice day out.

Red one bus

I'm sure there are many wonderful things that will be forgotten in time. But u do not want to forget how Tom is learning to talk. One thing I particularly don't want to forget is how he thinks adjectives work. Instead of a red bus or a big cake he will talk about a 'red one bus' or a 'big one cake'. It's quite lovely.

Christmas 2014

Well we've had a very nice Christmas.  It's heading towards being over - we're home from our New Year travels - although there's still cheese and chestnuts to be eaten and the tree will remain up for a day or two yet.

This Christmas was spent at home - my first as churchwarden so I was on duty.  We got up to some traditional and untraditional things, as illustrated below.

Untraditional: pretending to be an elf and a snowman after going up the tramway to see Santa.  Also untraditional, not bursting into tears at the sight of Santa.

Traditional: looking for presents at the bottom of a stocking.  Both children were heavily into presents this year - actually, Marisca was remarkably even tempered about it but Tom was mad keen for presents.  His, anyone else's, he didn't really mind.

Traditional: Redcurrant jelly with Christmas dinner.  Untraditional: only eating the redcurrant jelly.

Traditional: hats.

Traditional: Christmas film (room on the broom I think).

Traditional: a bit of a walk and a cafe.  Tom enjoying playing with the Curl Originator.

Careless: taking a nice photo of the children with the sun behind me.  Even the curls couldn't shield Tom from its glare.

Traditional: posed family shot.

Untraditional: a stop on the trip down to Bristol to Do Engineering

Untraditional: Doing Science involving dancing raisins.

Traditional: pottering around town on New Year's Eve

Traditional: getting home to realise that this is the only photo I took of the cousins who all had such a lovely time playing together.  And none of the siblings.  Oh well, next year.

Sous chef

Tom has recently got very into cooking. If he sees me working in the kitchen he comes rushing over and climbs onto a chair going 'I help, I help'. He insists on wearing an apron, and prefers Marisca's butterfly one - I must see if I have any of the material left to make him one of his own.

It isn't just cakes he likes helping with either - here he is having a good go at chopping a tomato. He is a pretty good sos chef and we have lots of fun together!

Decorating the tree

It must be the penultimate weekend before Christmas, so that's Christmas Tree time!  It was lovely having both children interested and involved and neither made much of a pig's ear out of anything, which is nice.

A Christmas Angel

With Marisca starting school there have been many firsts - this week she got to star in her first Christmas concert, and we got to see our first one! The reception and key stage 1 children did a combined performance of 'children of the world', looking at different Christmas traditions in different countries. Marisca has been singing the songs to us for weeks, so we were looking forward to hearing them in context.

As you can see from the photo, Marisca was an angel, along with most of her friends, and very sweet they were too. I (Elspeth) was in floods of tears from the moment she climbed on stage, I was so proud of her - she sang all the songs, watched the teacher and was generally lovely - as were all the children. My admiration for primary school teachers has increased no end, I can't imagine how they got 180 children to remember lines, sing songs, sit and stand in the right places and generally pay attention, but they did.

There is a repeat performance this evening, so Tim is heading along to support and generally enjoy himself. I suspect there will be fewer tears from him, but just as much pride in our schoolgirl daughter.

EDIT (Tim): yes that's right.