Day 348: Mugdock mates

08/07/2022

Monday morning, we were all up early, Super Mum and Eloise were working their magic while Dad tried to find where Lachnado had gone.

We had special guests coming today, Lachnado stopped throwing his books all over the room for a few seconds to help with the tidying up.

Ta-da, the girls had pulled together an incredible Victoria sponge cake with the fresh strawberries that Eloise, Emma and Lachlan had picked last weekend. Liam could not wait to try it, Eloise was keeping a close eye on him, “no Dad, no, no cake for you, no, OUTTT”. They had even made a wee dairy-free cake for Lachlan.

The kids then jumped into the car with Liam to pickup our special visitors from the airport, best friends of the blog Tom and Hazel were back! Eloise was stuck at a crossroads, she was not sure who she wanted sitting next to her in the back seats. After much internal debate Eloise had chosen Haz, “Dad, Dad, Dad!!! I think Haz, yeah, Haz, Daddy, Haz will sit in back with me please”. It was a bit of a rough start for Lachlan, he was not sure about Hazel being in his comfort bubble. Eloise was having a ball though, the Hazel signature “bop” had returned for another day. Eloise’s day got even better, they had come bearing gifts. Eloise was confused as it was not her birthday. The amount of T Moore signature art has doubled, with his latest piece ‘The Big Apple’.

The kids lucked out with an incredible dominos set. Thank you Tom, Hazel and Linda… It made one little girl very happy. Lachlan enjoyed throwing the dominos into each corner of the room. We had to watch Liam’s favourite dominos video, the kids have their work cut out for them.

When we told Eloise that Tom and Hazel had not come all the way up here just to play dominos she was caught off guard. However, she quickly moved on with the mention of “cake”, which Lachlan and Hazel demolished.

After a couple of unfortunate flight delays on the way up the day was starting to get away from us. With a couple of car shuffles, we all made our way to Mugdock Country Park. It was a lovely stroll through the vast country park, it was not triggering any memories for the Glaswegian, Hazel.

Eloise led the way, taking her new besties the cross-country route to Mugdock Castle.

After zipping about with Tom and Hazel, Eloise was crashing and kicked Lachlan out of the pram. Lachlan did not mind though riding up top.

It was almost 15:00 by the time we cracked into some lunch. The pizzas down the road hit the spot. Of course, Eloise brought her new favourite dominos. Pasta Boy was happy to be back doing what he loves best.

Thank you for coming up Tom and Hazel, the kids loved seeing you. Lachlan certainly warmed up to you both. Eloise was disappointed that you did not share her room that night, she was only getting started. Glad you survived the bomb scare. Crazy to think we will next see you in Radelaide.

Meanwhile on Monday, “a new species of giant water lily has been discovered – and it’s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years”. To be fair, they do look impressive. Worryingly on the East Coast of Australia, “flood-affected residents ponder future after third flooding event in a year”.

Tuesday, Liam was back to work, just when the fantastic weather had returned. Definitely a Play-Doh outside near the wheat crops kind of day. Lachlan was having even more fun scooting about on his Batmobile, he made sure that the whole neighbourhood knew he had their back.

After a morning out in the sun, Eloise wanted an inside picnic for lunch with all her “babies”.

After cleaning up, Eloise tried to come downstairs. However, Lachlan always misses his Big Sister when she leaves him and waits attentively for her to return.

We missed our outside dining table last week. It was good to be back out making a mess again.

Tuesday evening Fensoms in Kilts also hit 10,000 all-time views. We hope you all have been enjoying this wild ride with us.  

Wednesday morning we had to restock the cupboards before Jennine’s visit. It is always a highlight of the week. The kids enjoy crawling all over her while she tries to read them a book.

After last week’s rain, and T Moore’s inspiration the kids had a blank canvas to start their new work.

Lachlan is super keen for his own bed, cheekily climbing into Eloise’s each night before book time.

On Wednesday in the UK, “beleaguered Boris Johnson rejects Nicola Sturgeon’s indyref2 call”. The airports go from bad to worse to the worst as “British Airways is to cut 10,300 more short-haul flights due to feature in its schedule between August and the end of October”. In Australia, where everybody we know seems to be recovering from COVID-19 “fourth-dose boosters [are being] offered for all people over 30”.

Eloise is taking right after Super Mum, Thursday morning she wizzed downstairs to put pancakes on for the family, although she made more for Foxie than Dad.

It must have been hard work, she was then back up and into bed with her babies because she said they needed her.

Sadly she could not stay in bed all day, so was off to work for the day.

There was no Gymboree this week as Eloise finished up last week. However, Emma had her final Gimbo sesh. The girls are sad to see it go, but looking forward to one last Gymbo-themed birthday party hoorah next week.

Thursday afternoon, Lachnado had a quick peep out the backyard and decided it was time to harvest his crops. They were a bit green, it has been a tough season for Scottish farmers. After some quick lunch, it was off to pick up Emma’s combine harvester. Thanks for that Emma, you can see how desperate we were.

On his way, Lachlan could not resist a cheeky jump into Emma’s sandpit.

We returned home to handle the crops. Eloise did her best to convince Liam that Jo said that she could do it. We were not convinced, nice try Eloise. These electric lawnmowers are growing on me.

A successful yield from the crops and some intensive grazing of the neighbourhood cats, farmer Lachnado was all done for the season and could put up his legs and enjoy some well-deserved sweet corn.

This morning Liam was slaving away when you guessed it, Lachnado just popped up on two legs, pushed open the door and trotted on it to take Liam’s breakfast.

After a quick lunch, we always seem to be in a rush. We rushed off to Kelvin Hall. We arrived a bit early and enjoyed a stroll through Kelvingrove Park. Eloise was on the lookout for the elusive daytime city badger. Liam was hesitant as he had been crying non-stop from Hayfever the past two weeks, but came along kicking and screaming.

It was only a short dawdle, we will have to explore more soon, a great place to walk around aimlessly with the kids. We headed back up to Kelvin Hall, Eloise was excited.

Eloise, charged on in, “where is she?”

Not before long, Emma appeared, they did their cute funny awkward hug before we loaded them up on snacks and were on our way.

This gymnastics centre was incredible, a big step up from Gymboree or Head Over Heels. Lachlan’s eyes instantly lit up. Liam was excited too but thought it was best he did not scorpion himself on another trampoline.

Eloise impressed us on the gymnastic rings.

Meanwhile, Lachlan had got himself in a sticky situation crossing the river of sharks backwards.

When we left, we were all exhausted. As soon as we got home, Lachlan was quick to find his scuttlebug and resume where he left off with Cocomelon.

Finally after a longgggg week of waiting and asking Liam “why is it not here yet?” As if he has any control over the Royal Mail, Sophie’s highly anticipated fabric had arrived. We had been speaking so much about this that Eloise’s heart rate went through the roof, she stripped off and requested new clothes.

Sophie started off basic, learning to walk before she backflipped, unlike Lachnado. Eloise had also requested a pillow for Baby.

Eloise went to bed tonight with the peace of mind that her Baby would also get a good night’s sleep.

Two kids in bed, Super Mum armed with her Janome HC1200, it was action stations.

Tomorrow we have our biggest challenge lined up, we had to get some rest, we could not continue sewing and making videos about Sophie sewing all night.

Now onto today’s world news…