IY5 Science Museum Trip

I went, with Jacob's class , to a local Science Museum. We had been there before, as a family, and it's a great hands on place. When we went Abi burnt her hand on a coffee bean roasting activity. This time I steered the group I had away from that one! Well actually I had 3 boys so they were interested in the building activities. Their favourite was making a boat and building a dam, so these are the ones I have included in the photos. My favourite was the making crisps one. The afternoon flew past. Jacob had been off school sick the day before, he had a chest infection. He's been on antibiotics and is a lot better, still coughing a little. The doctor wants to see him again on Monday if he's still chesty.

Abi bits and pieces

Abi's been busy over the past couple of weeks. She had a project at school to build a simple machine that had to have at least 2 working machines in the design. She decided to do a rescue truck. After quite a few arguements it did get built. Abi always thinks she is correct - I'm not sure who she gets this from in the family?! Anyway it was a good truck and hopefully she'll get a good score for this project. So there's a photo from school of her in her pod showing her machine.

Abi has also joined the cheer team. She had her first game to cheer at on Wednesday. The whole team were great. They were so enthusiastic although I don't think they watched the basketball team what so ever - neither did I! She is entering a talent show at school as part of the team too, she's also being a magician's assistant - I'll let you know how she does.

Abi has also been busy with Girl Scout cookie sales, we really need to get rid of all of the cookies from our house as they are not helping my healthy eating campaign at all!

Allen's Birthday

We celebrated Allen's birthday a day early so he could enjoy a whole day skiing with the family as, on his actual birthday, we were in the car for 12 hours driving back from skiing in France!

We had a lovely meal out in the evening, I shared fondue with Louise, Allen and Stuart had a set meal and Grandma and Cameron had raclette - the meal on a hot stone thing. I have included a variety of photos from the night.

During the day we enjoyed the skiing, meeting at the top of one mountain for lunch so as to include Marion - lovely food again. From all this food talk you can probably guess we are now on a healthy eating stint. I've been to aqua fit and pilates this past week - not bad after a 3 year break!

Rachael.

Christmas 2011

A little late, I know! We were lucky enough to have 2 Christmases. The first one was the weekend before Christmas. We went back to the UK on a flying visit to my parents. It was our first opportunity to see the new house they have had built. They knocked down the bungalow I grew up in way back in April 2011 and started work on a new 5 bed house. They have sent us regular photos but we did not go and visit during the build as Mum and Dad lived on site in a caravan. So driving up and seeing this huge house was a bit of a shock!

The house is beautiful. Katharine and co moved in early December and it is nearly all complete. The next time we go back I'm sure it will look different again. I've included a photo of us on arrival night by the Christmas tree. We spent the weekend with the family, having Christmas dinner and a brunch the next day. We got to meet Tiami, a new cousin and to also catch up with our other cousins too, plus Annette and Joe. It was great to see everyone and, of course see the house. Also did a little shopping!

We got back here on the Sunday, so it was a quick trip back. We then had to get ready for Christmas for real down in France with Grandma Melrose and the Turners. We drove down on the Thursday, stopping on the German Swiss border. We stayed in a lovely hotel with an excellent restaurant. We arrived at our appartment, just outside La Plagne 1800, Friday afternoon. It was a 3 story wooden house, very modern with a great view. Our Scotish family were out so it gave us time to get unpacked and go and rent skis for the kids. We had a wonderful week, Jacob and Abi loved having Finn and Cameron around 24 7. We enjoyed good food, skiing and great company. Abi really got into rummy, the card game, and has continued playing it back here! We generally had blue skies and excellent snow. I still prefer skiing in America but it was excellent being with the family, just need to all go to America next time! The food was very good, I'll do another post of Allen's birthday - we went out for a meal.

So both Christmases were good fun.

Rachael.