this and that

It is ever so quiet in the house, all I can hear is the tick tock of grandfather clock in the hallway. Just the way I like it after two noisy weeks with four children running wild from morning to evening. The house is reasonably tidy, the washing folded and I am enjoying breakfast

The spring holiday passed quickly. Some of the plans and wishes for the holiday (see here) were turned into reality, others weren't. Some were modified and combined. Some I have shared here and here.

The weather turned from terrible to ok to absolutely wonderful during the holidays. Our activities were mostly guided by the weather.

Some other things we did:

My mum treated us to lunch at Ikea and she bought the children a denim covered Klippan sofa for their own space in the room we call the study but is more of an all purpose place to hang out, watch a spot of telly (which only plays BBC iPlayer, no aerial), use the family computer, fold the washing and put up guests. Ikea may not be a place to enjoy Haute Cuisine but it is family friendly, cheap and cheerful and best of all, it has a free crèche for little creatures.

We went on a long walk around Mugdock Loch in Mugdock Country Park with my friend Christine and her two children. The weather was only just ok but we enjoyed our first picnic of the year in the relative shelter of the ruined Mugdock Castle. We played hide and seek and threw stones into the loch and treated ourselves to warm drinks in the café afterwards.

We spent a day on Glasgow Green, once again with Christine and her two children. We were climbing to the top of dangerously high shoots and ropey structures (I didn't, I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to shoots). We played UNO in the grass and used the bike circuit for a wee while and warmed up inside People's Palace.

We went of another picnic in Mugdock just because we could.
 

We pottered in the garden, planting things, jumping on the trampoline, laying in the grass and hanging out many loads of washing.

We ventured out to Blair Drummond Country Park, a safari park that is fun for the children. We took a single used BBQ and cooked the first batch of sausages over hot coals, whizzed across the pond on the zip wire, visited chimpanzee island on a boat, explored lemur island, the African Plains enclosure and the pirate adventure playground.

 

We drove over the top of the world and enjoyed the stunning views.

We spent many hours on the local playground, which is 5 minutes walk from home and fun.

We had a low key Easter weekend with an egg hunt organised by Sam who is too cool to participate in the search for chocolate eggs.

We frantically ran around the house on Monday evening to put together gym kits, empty school bags, clean water bottles and find school shoes.

We are now checking the weather forecast daily to see if a camping weekend is possible soon.

Have a great week! Cx