In Search Of Some Prettyness ♥

I love this but my baby girl is all high tops and bright skinny jeans these days.

After being stuck in  for days with the nasty winter lurgy that Paul so generously brought home from school, I decided we had to get out of the house and look for some pretty things.Now normally I would go out for a wee walk but I thought being still ill Paul might enjoy the train journey into Glasgow.When we got there we took to the shops in search of all things lovely.Paul tucked up in his buggy happy with a banana and some crisps allowed me a little time to browes and take it all in.We looked at candles,fabric ,childrens cloths,plant pots,fancy stationary,perfums,dresses,christmas lights ,teddy bears ,allsorts of pretty stuff in the shops for Crimbo.Paul is still ill and not back to school,hes eating better but still sleeping and coughing a lot.Nevermind Christmas tree up this weekend for another dose of prettyness.♥

He has a lovely bed too!

Paul  loves the Jolly Green Giant!

Paul painted the Elephant above his bed when he was 2!

Mum could Santa please bring me ....

Paul has been wanting to 'seep' sleep in a tent since the summer only the summer was poop and Iam always worried he will shoot off and I won't be able to find him when we go camping so going a seep in a tent wasn't really my thing this year.However Paul remembered we had a play tent hidden (not so well hidden) on a shelf in Nairnes wardrop,he found her stool and pulled out everything from the top of her wardrop until he found the tent.When we came up to see what all the fussing was about he let it be known that he wanted the tent put up in his room.So Pat made up the tent and I made up the duvet ,pillows and cushions so he could make a comfy warm wee nest to sleep cozy inside the tent.With his Teletubbies and his Santa book (Argos catalogue) in with him he was as happy as a happy boy could be. He slept really well in the tent but after a night or two we decided it was time for Paul to go back to his own bed,we didn't want him getting into the way of sleeping on the floor,but it was fun for a night or two.He has a lovely wee bed too.

Sunny days.

Its a bit dull and drizzly here today the sky is low and I cannot see the hills so I am posting some photos of my birthday last summer, to brighten up my day.

I wanted to have a good old fashioned picnic with the kids for my birthday so we ventured out the Botanical Gardens in Glasgow.It has, I think an  lovely Edwardian feel to it with its big big  sprawling trees,wooden benches and the very old wooden framed green houses.In early June many of the mature flowering shurbs are out in full bloom covered in big fluffy bumble bees bummbling about doing their thing.The ice cream shop is open and lots of folks are wandering around licking swirly soft cones.We had a lovely day sitting on our red tartan blanket with the smell of freshly cut grass in the air,the kids just ran around like kids should eating cake,laughing and trying to avoid my camera,monkeys! The wind later grew a tad nippy so we went for a look around the greenhouse,which houses allsorts of odd and rare plants.Nairne was quite shocked by some of the marble statues on display inside the greenhouses as the were showing there bottoms!Tsk Tsk!Shocked overt you eyes now young missy! I was well warned not to take a photo of those statues,Oh as if I would ,hehe.Love my funny wee people.Yip it was a splendid day to become 41.Now back to November and the drizzle.

Night oot!

 Yay we had a wee night out,last Saturday.It doesn't happen very often usually due to lack of babysitters but Pat asked his brother and sister in law Andrew and Teresa and they said yes! The kids love A&T ,Paul always expects to play rough and tumble with A , so all was good.We decided on something to eat then pictures we've both been wanting to see the latest James Bond movie Skyfall and there is a newish Frankie and Bennys open locally .As soon as we walked into F&B we were met with the sounds of the Beach Boys and this was the theme for the whole dinner,lots of  50s and 60 s hits,Ike and Tina Turnes,Buddy Holly,Dusty Springfield,Chubby Checker...I still have his song stuck in my head Arrr.Great music especially when you've not heard it for a while.Dinner was fab and lots of it, we were stuffed,infact later when we went to the cinema we couldn't finish out medium sized bucket of pop corn,thats how stuffed we were.I drank a small glass of wine ,2 cokes and a coffee,now alchol and caffeine are somethings I don't normally have and boy did I feel them do their thing a 3:10 am,I was RATTLING.I ended up watching Youtube videos on how to make a quilt out of a jelly roll,yip sad but true.Any way back to the date ,at one point I had to go powder my nose ,coming from the speakers in the loos was one of those teach yourself Italian recording ,something about that I loved great idea kinda quirky I thought ; 1 bread roll (the Italian for it )2 bread rolls (the Italian for it) 8 bread rolls (the Italian for it) oh I am sounding like the count from Sesame St,you get the picture.We quickly guzzled down our coffee,we had cinema tickets booked for the 8 O'clock showing.We got there in time bought our popcorn and coke (yip more coke) then settled into our seats.We watched a few adverts mainly for fancy phones then the Pearl and Dean tune came on ,its not the pictures really until you've heard that dada dadada dadda and so on .Pat says I am showing my age but hey they're still playing it. Skyfall just one of the most excellent films ever,Danial Craig is just fab in the roll and I think steels the best Bond title from old Seany boy Connery easily.Delighted to see this story line lets you know that Bond was half Swiss and half SCOTTISH and not Roger Moore,or as one radio 1 DJ put it the quintessiential Englishman! Just fab fab fab, its a must see and thats as much as I am  going to say.
As Sunday was remebrance day and we had just been to see James Bond ,I had been remembering my Papa who died 2 yrs ago and a story my uncle told at his funeral which made everyone in the church giggle a little.The story goes and I hope Ive remembered this rightly is that my papa met James Bond,or perhaps I should say Iain Flemming.Near the end of the war my papa was sent to Gibraltar,he had been injured and had missed (thank god) the D day landings.He was put on light duties and was really the officers runner,he would wait on them,serve them and make sure they had their uniforms spick n span stuff like that.He was a  waiter at the officers mess in Gibraltar at the same time as Iain Flemming was there and in the book Casino Royale there is the mention of a waiter named Porterfield (Robert Porterfield is my grandad).The assumption was made that they had met  as they were in the same place at the same time and that Iain Flemming had held onto the waiter and his name to use his novel.My uncle had been in touch with Iain Flemmings grandaughter who had arranged to come out and visit my Papa but sadly he had become to ill for her visit shortly before he died.Whether any of it is true or not ,its a funny wee family story and one that was fitting for our weekend.
Goodness only knows when we will have a kid free evening again but luckly we love doing things with our kids and we don't feel the need for lots of nights out but it was a good wee night and I will look forward to doing it again sometime.

Strawberry.

Nairne has gone back to school today,all peachy and healthy again.I was looking over some photos of her during the summer .These were taken on her 11th birthday at Briarlands Farm.Its a great place for a day out with the kids.They have donkeys,pigs and cattle along with a petting corner that houses rabbits,guinea pigs and the occasional lamb.They also have these amazing large inflated pillows for bouncing on,I'll do another post with pictures of them someday.The kids love these along with the zip slide and go carts. We normally take a picnic which is lovely  although the last time we went the farm had opened a cafe and a wee gift shop which sell lovely hot drinks and homebaking including  pots of jam made with their own home grown strawberries For ages Nairne and I had wanted to pick our own strawberries and this is another activity the farm has up its sleeve.On previous visits the poly tunnels have been closed but on this day we were in luck,we even had a whole tunnel to ourselves.We had a great time filling up our wee plastic troggs.Sweet and juicy were the  strawberries, we took them home to add to the party food for Nairnes wee birthday doo that evening, of course we had to test sample a few along the way, its an unwritten rule!

On the mend ♥

I compleatly love her.

Fireworks&Flu

Don't you think he looks like one of those handsome formula 1 race car drivers from the 70s?

We ususally really enjoy Halloween and fireworks night but this year life just seemed to get in the way (Boo). Paul did manage to go along to a fancy dress party dressed as a raceing car driver the Saturday before Halloween which suited him just fine. Paul finds the finger clicking Addams Family theme tune really funny,he had them all doing it at the party apparently! He has a thing for pumpkins ,we've drawn,painted them and carved one,he loves watching them on You tube and signs for them using the signs for monkey! Don't ask I have no idea why. My poor wee Nairne came down with the lurgy,a nasty throat and cough so she missed dressing up and trick or treating this year.We had plans too for making witches brew and jelly worms,maybe next year.Halloween its self was swallowed up by a visit to Yorkhill Childrens Hospital for Paul.He was having a general anasthetic and a MRI scan.I was up the pole about the GA and for days maybe weeks before I could not think about much else.There is nothing anyone is really looking for an his MRI only that he has a new consultant who wants some baseline tests done incase of futrure need.Paul is doing fab right now, long may it continue. Nairne went back to school on the Wednesday but by Saturday was laid low again by a gastric flu,she is usually such a healthy kid ,its not good seeing her wiped out.Lots of cuddles,drinks,sleep and soup seem to be working their magic so this morning she looks a bit more chirpy.Never the less it meant that we did't make it to the big fireworks display at the park.Instead Paul watched the neighbours fireworks from the back garden.He went over to where I keep my joss sticks and said "fifis,fifis" this is Pauls word for flowers but I remembered he used it last year for sparklers.I hadn't been out to buy any  as I had been in with Nairne.I thought "oh no all hell is going to break loose", as Paul wouldn't be able to understand the joss sticks were different from sparklers, but then Daddy came to the rescue remembering he had some in his cupboard from last years Guy Fawkes.Phew...everyone happy.