Happy New Year!

Hello again after a festive blogging break!  We had a mostly lovely Christmas and K & M were very happy with their presents.  We bought K & M one thing each that they had specifically asked for (a wolf hat-scarf for K and a bow and arrows for M) and one surprise (a new scooter for M, as she's grown out of her old one and a Lego set for K), some things (mostly clothing) that they needed anyway and a few joint presents (mostly books).

M's favourite was the bow & arrows, which she has been practising with regularly, both against the front door and onto the whiteboard side of our easel.  K was really pleased with the Lego (which I was really glad about, as I really wasn't sure what to get her for the surprise).  She has now built and taken apart all three designs in the instructions at least once, and that's with us having been away for most of the time between Christmas and New Year at my parents'!

Design #1

Design #2

Design #3

After a quiet (well as quiet as you can have with two excitable young children in the house!) Christmas, we went down to stay with Granny and Big Grandad for a few days on the day after Boxing Day.  K, M & I went swimming with Granny one day, we visited Great Grandma and also Great Grandad.  We saw Uncle M again (he'd spent Christmas with us) and then Uncle S & Aunty P came and stayed overnight too, bringing their lovely dog (the girls' only 'first cousin') Megan with them.  A, K & M went for a long walk through the woods with Big Grandad, the Uncles, Megan and another dog.  I'd been a bit unsure whether it was a good idea for M in particular to go, as she's been a bit under the weather and not sleeping particularly well, but she was fine and kept up very well indeed.  Dogs, especially Megan, are a big help in keeping K & M going on walks I find.

Cousin Megan

I mentioned previously that A had found some things at Nana and Little Grandad's from his youth, I don't think that I mentioned that one of those things is their Monopoly set.  We've played a couple of times now and both girls have really enjoyed it (and we've found a real-life reason for knowing your 4 times table with the water and electricity properties!), with only a little bit of upset from M when she went bankrupt (not something that K has had to worry about yet, as she won on both occasions we've played!).

Today we went on our regular New Year's Day walk, organised by one of our neighbours.  M had been adamant that she didn't want to go and wasn't going to go.  We didn't push it, but reminded her that she has enjoyed previous walks and eventually sighed, apropos of nothing, 'Okaay, I'll go' and then decided to wear a false moustache from a set that she and K had been given them by a teenage neighbour who has babysat them a couple of times (sorry no photo unfortunately).  She ended up storming off ahead for most of the way with E, the granddaughter of the organisers, who she got on with like a house on fire and who is a day younger than her.  It was rather muddy and the weather did threaten for a while, but good fun.  We quite often find that if the four of us go for a walk, it can sometimes end in rather a lot of moaning (not always to be fair), but add in some other people especially other children or a dog and they seem to be able to walk much further without flagging with ease.