24/10/2021
Our first morning no longer having two under two started off with more baking for Eloise’s mini friends coming over tomorrow. She was excited to use her new baking apron and baking kit.
Eloise was eager to try her new birthday bike. Dad knew just the place and we headed back to Balloch Castle & Country Park for a picnic. The unicorn was ready to go.
We entered through the gates where there is a long smooth wide footpath all the way to the castle. The perfect place to learn how to ride a bike. Unfortunately, we had not accounted for the fact that there were lots of leaves on the ground and Eloise neat freak Fensom could not possibly cycle over the leaves, that would be crazy, “no, leaves, leaves, leaves”. Liam had to carry the bike while Eloise started picking up the leaves one by one.
After some carrying, shoulder riding and not much cycling we arrived at the picnic tables near Balloch Castle. It was a bit cool but we kept warm with a big thermos of hot chocolate, Lachlan was wrapped up nice and warm. Darryl checked out the view from above.
Full of food and now with plenty of energy Eloise was a bit more adventurous on her bike. She was still not happy about all the leaves on the path but warmed up to it. After being a bit wobbly at the start she got distracted every time a dog walked past and funnily enough could ride solo only when she was focused on the dogs. In the end, she cycled all the way back to the car park, the best part of a kilometre.
When we got home it was time to finish off the baked goods. The girls were waiting for their cake pop sticks to be delivered. With Amazon Prime, you receive a notification when it is eight stops away and you can live track the delivery. Eloise was balancing on the bay window ledge watching it get closer when she cancelled the order at the last second, Sophie could not believe it. The van drove past and Sophie whisked Eloise up under her arm and bolted through the front door and down the street, chasing the Amazon Prime van. The boys had a good chuckle. Luckily, Sophie and Eloise were able to catch the van and retrieve the goods.
After another nice sleep in (two in a row), the two-year-old was up and straight downstairs to her Mega Bloks. It was a lazy morning playing with toys and cleaning the house ready for her playdate. Liam had to rescue Curious George from the city and they stopped in at his cousin’s new cafe on the way home for a quick coffee.
In the afternoon Eloise’s bestie came over to play with all her new toys. It was such a fun afternoon and she got spoilt with an Elsa costume. They looked adorable playing together.
We tackled a bit more of the Koala and after realising just how much we had left, the kids were happy to take some home for lunch box treats.
We then sat down to watch Liverpool’s training session at Old Trafford.
[…] although there were some crazy swimmers, we were not brave enough this time. You could see Balloch Castle from across Loch Lomond. Eloise was getting a bit too much in the spirit of Halloween so we figured […]