A Day Out in Dundee

It's taken  me a whole week to come back and post these photos - I thought I would have done it sooner! ;-) Last week we took the kids for a day out near Dundee - we went to Camperdown Wildlife Centre, which they ALL loved! It was beautiful and sunny, and quite warm too - so perfect for a day like this. As you might expect, there are lots of photos here!

Heading for Dundee - in the sunshine! :-)

A tortoise

Beautiful Scottish wildcat coming to say hello to Elijah! :-)

Sleeping wolf

Deborah

Snowy owl

Beautiful birds - lilac-breasted roller

Picnic time!

Picnic in the sun! :-)

European brown bear

Abigail with the bears behind her

One of the bears walking

Otters - Elijah *loved* to watch them wrestle each other!

Watching otters

Enjoying everything around him - he *loved* it!

Benjamin & Clement doing the animal quiz

Clement - since his face was hiding in the other photo! :-)

Benjamin following a peacock

golden eagle

Benjamin, Deborah and me

Huge rabbits

Elijah chasing a peacock

"I'm gonna get you!" - he loved being able to follow these big birds around! :-)

Getting a better view of the rhea

Rhea

peacock with full feathers

Climbing out the window

Too cute! ;-)

Having fun in the small houses

My biggest boys :-)

Abigail, Clement, Peter, Benjamin, Elijah, and Deborah

Abigail, Clement, Deborah, me, Peter, and Elijah

And before we left Dundee, we drove past this - Discovery!

ABCs of April: Archeology, Baby #6, and Clement's Birthday!

April has felt slightly more busy compared to the quiet winter months - or perhaps the milder weather means there are more things to do. We're nearly at the end of 2 weeks of "spring break" from homeschooling, which I have enjoyed! ;-) I think of "school holidays" as a break for me! lol The first week we spent a number of days over in Edderton, to do spring cleaning at the holiday house and get it all ready for the first guests this year. It's been occupied since Saturday last week. And once that was done, then I felt able to "relax" and think of jobs and spring cleaning to do at home. I try to catch up on extra housework and deep cleaning during holidays.

Last Saturday there was an "open day" at Tarlogie Dun, which is an excavation of an iron age round house. It's students from Aberdeen University who are doing the dig, together with volunteers. The kids really enjoyed getting to see archaeology in action - Abigail thinks it would be great fun to do this at university! :-) And it was great being able to visit a dig that is only just down the road from where we live!

What a view these people would have had who lived in this round house! :-) This is only about 1/4 of it uncovered - it was unusually large.

Looking at part of the outer walls - they were very thick.

The 3 students at the dig, who were telling us about the work there.

Part of a wall

A trench they've dug

It was lovely & sunny, but cold and VERY windy! Elijah had the best place - snuggled in the sling next to his mama! :-)

Deborah didn't know WHY she couldn't grab a bucket and trowel and help with the digging - she *really* wanted to help!

Biggest four watching and listening!

Looking at the few things they've found so far - including a few partial grinding stones.

Looking at the dig site from down below on the A9.

Since I've done this blog post in alphabetical order, next come Baby no 6! Or should that really be Baby F (since we have A to E so far?!) LOL :-) Not making any firm decisions on a name yet - so will have to keep everyone guessing until sometime in October if the alphabetical names continue! Anyway, I'm nearly 14 weeks pregnant with our sixth baby! They kids are all SOOO delighted with the idea of a baby - they can't wait!

A week ago it was Clement's 5th birthday! Here he is opening presents.

Showing me his new Lego, but not looking at me! lol

Plenty of Lego presents!

And another present!

Deborah with frizzy hair from a balloon!

Clement feeling pleased with himself - he built the truck all by himself!

An excited boy about a cake with Lego on it!

It was TOOOO blue, and too boring in my opinion, but Clement had no complaints!

This is what Benjamin does in the school holidays - gets out the history text book so he can find out what we'll be learning about when we start again! ;-) :-P

Best friends! I found them like this when I went to see if they were up to any mischief, as they were so quiet! lol

Cuddle of 3!

 And before I forget, when I blogged last time I meant to include a photo of my adorable little niece Ashley - Leah & Caleb's newest addition! Isn't she so cute?! I just wish she wasn't so far away and I could have a cuddle!

And that's all for this blog post. But maybe later today - or tomorrow - I've got a bunch of photos from a day out we had in Dundee this week! :-) So hopefully there will be a 2nd post from me very soon.

A Day Out and Benjamin's 7th Birthday, etc.

I realised that I've only posted on here once this year, and it will soon be April! So time for a brief update.

The days are getting longer and there's more sunshine - always welcome after winter! And the big windows in the lounge mean they can enjoy the sunshine even when indoors, though they *have* been spending a lot more time outside too, which is great! :-)

One sunny day last month we decided to have a spur of the moment "day out" - like when you only come up with the idea half way through the morning and then quickly make a packed lunch and get everyone in the car and go! I couldn't really find anything actually "open" (as in, museums or castles, etc) at this time of year, but the grounds of Brodie Castle are open year round, so we headed over there (near Forres).

The kids look tiny next to the tall tower! ;-)

Elijah had lots of fun at the play park behind the castle.

Deborah enjoyed it too! It was just us parents who were freezing from standing there watching them! ;-)

Lunch!

I wonder if this is Scotland's only 24 hour bookshop? And it's outdoors too!

Bookshelves outdoors and you just put the money through the door if you want to buy something! :-)

In early March we were at Rebekah's birthday party, which the kids all enjoyed! Abigail's odd face is a result of me telling her to smile, ;-) she doesn't like me making comments about how she's looking for a camera. [oops]

Then a few days later (last week) it was Benjamin's 7th birthday!

A very excited Benjamin when he found a "Moshi Monsters" collector's guide book inside one of his presents. He usually knows what he is getting for his birthday. He doesn't like the "unknown", so telling him what presents he is getting helps him cope better in the weeks before his birthday. :-) But I always try to include a couple of things which he *doesn't* know about, and he actually quite likes the surprise, as you can tell here! :-D

Birthday boy and presents

The cake!

The creatures on the cake are "Moshlings", which Benjamin likes to collect and is quite "into" - even more than Lego at the moment!

My big 7 year old boy and his cake! :-)

Deborah and her new doll

And here it looks like dolls aren't needed - little brothers are a lot more fun to put in doll prams! ;-)

I think they both agree here!

Smallest boy with a very big book!

Pulling books off the shelf yesterday and trying to pick out a "school book" to do.

This little guy loves to hang out in the kitchen with me - ALL the time!

And he *loves* to put all sorts of things in the microwave! ;-) One of Benjamin's birthday presents vanished for a day - I found it in there late at night! lol