Gala Day Success

On Saturday it was our local Gala day.

The boys were taking part in the Gala on the Boy's Brigade float.

The Boy's Brigade put a lot of work into their float every year, and since James started 6 years ago there has only been one year they haven't won Best Float. There was quite a reputation to keep!

Every year the organising commitee of the Gala Day set a theme for the floats. This year's theme was The Circus.

The Boy's Brigade have been working on their float every week since the Easter Holidays. They built little cages on wheels to pull along. Some of the boys were strong men, others were clowns and there was one human canon-ball (who wasn't ever fired!).

James was the strong man at the front of their parade, pulling Nellie the Elephant.

Calum and David were at the back, pulling the canon for the human canon-ball!

This was David's first year in the Gala, and I had been telling all the boys that they probably wouldn't win this year so that it would be fair for some of the other entrants.

We followed the parade along to the parade ground, taking a wee shortcut so that we were there to see them arrive.

The pipe band came first...

....then the Boy's Brigade...

....and when everyone had arrived we found out that the Boy's Brigade were the winners again!

Four years in a row, their happy leader/ring--master shows off the shield!

Here are a couple of pictures of their previous wins:

2010 - Those magnificent men in their flying machines

2009 Anniversary of the lunar landing 

(That year's Gala was Alasdair's first ever day out, aged 3 days old!)

2008 - Gala theme - Christmas

Boy's Brigade made a wonderful Polar Express,

complete with cute little toy soldiers.

Gaelic word of the day:

neach-buannachaidh (nee-yach boo-ann-a-chee) - winner

all ch's are as in a Scottish loch.

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Little Baba turns 2!

Two years ago today our littlest man made his rather speedy arrival into the world.

He had kept us waiting for 11 days past his official due date. His older brothers were also all 'late' but he was the latest, beating his oldest brother by one day.

The morning he was born, I woke up at 4.30am to go to the bathroom - I'm sure all those who are mothers will be familiar with this as part of the routine of late pregnancy!

Only, when I got there, with no warning, my waters broke. Not being the panicking type, I calmly woke my beloved up to let him know things were finally happening, but inside I was clearly remembering that with the previous three births the baby had followed almost immediately after the waters breaking! However, with them, there had been regular contractions beforehand and this time they were only just starting, and although strong, not in a particularly regular pattern.

The hospital advised us to go in as soon as we wanted since the previous births had been quite quick, so we waited for my brother's wife to come over and stay with the other boys. I was pretty sure that baby wasn't far off, even though there still hadn't been many contractions, so we also asked a neighbour to come round until she got here. My SIL was super quick though, and our neighbour got to go back to bed :0) 

We left the house just before 5am and the hospital is only a 5 minute drive away. We got into the labour ward at about 5.10am. The midwife was lovely and sorting out the admissions, when I said I thought she should maybe examine me. She did, and seemed as shocked as I was when she said, 'I think the baby will be here with the next contraction!'

She was right.

At 5.15am Alasdair Kenneth was born weighing 8lb 5oz (the same as his oldest brother) and 21 inches long (the same as all of his brothers!)

As we were going home as soon as we could, there was no need for us to go up to the post natal ward. We were able to stay in the quiet little room until all the official bits were over. 

We got home at lunchtime when Alasdair met his very excited older brothers.

My husband still has cold sweats about how closely he came to nearly having to deliver this one himself!

One day old.

Oh, 'baba' is what he calls himself, as well as 'ya-yee' (Ally).

After a miserable month of weather in May, the sun finally shone today for his birthday, and boy did it shine! It was hot, hot, hot, and the boys finally got the paddling pool out. 

Baba had a busy and fun filled birthday, but more about that another day.

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A council with a sense of humour!

One day last week my husband had some meetings in Dundee. 

I don't know what you think of when you think of Dundee, but I'm afraid I come up with every stereotype under the sun. I shan't list them here as I'm sure they are untrue, I've just never had the chance to find out.

 Sorry, to any Dundonians who might be reading this!

It's the last place I would have expected to see such a funny sign as this....

This is why I will never have a dog unless we ever live in a large croft where he can run free. 

Dirty nappies and baby sick - no problem.

Doggy mess - no thanks!

(Oh, and the fact that most of the men in my life are allergic to dogs should help too!)

Gaelic word of the day:

cù  (coo) - dog

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Miscellaneous Monday

Today's post is basically a selection of random images from the last week.

On Saturday there was a military parade through town.

This regiment, who have recently returned from Afghanistan, were granted the freedom of West Lothian, and that's what the parade was in honour of.

Here are the older boys, two of their cousins and the Lord Provost.

Another day last week we visited the garden centre to find a local petting zoo there.

Since James and Calum are allergic to furry things, this meant they could only hold the reptiles - no complaints from them! 

Now, some art-work to finish.

David has really begun to show an interest in his drawings. He never had any time for it before now.

This is his self portrait.

The sign reads, this is David (sho da-ee-vee)

Here are Prince William & Kate Middleton on their wedding day.

And so as not to leave Alasdair out, here is the sheep we made together last week.

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Things I'm loving Friday ♥ - on a Saturday!

There have been a few things to love about this special Assembly week.

Monday night.

Then lunch in a posh hotel on Thursday, followed by a ladies mission meeting for the assembly. Not only did I get to catch up with one of my cousins at both the lunch and the ladies meeting, but I also met some older ladies I haven't seen for over 10 years at the tea & cakes that followed the meeting.

My cousin and I also had the delight of finishing off the home-made ice cream at the posh lunch. The staff put all the plates of food in the middle of our big table and you had to help yourself. However, lunch was over-running slightly and so all the others had to get back to the Assembly. We were the only two who didn't and so it seemed a shame to let the ice-creams go to waste!

Now, I can see a pattern developing here, as it's time to move on to last night's meal and my two puddings!

The food last night was excellent. Really, really tasty and good sized portions.

For pudding I had chocolate and orange cheesecake. So did my brother's wife. As I put my spoon down on my clean plate I looked over at her almost full plate. She couldn't finish it as she said it was too rich for her. Everyone else cleared their plates (the other pudding was a huge slab of sticky toffee pudding) and I asked her, 'Are you really not going to finish that?' She answered, 'I'm really not. Take it!' So what could I say?!

I should also add that my philosophy is a treat now and again does you no harm. Ok, so I had two big treats, two days in a row, but it's not like I over-indulge every day! Still, it might explain why my SIL is thinner than me!

Here she is, pretending not to notice I'm taking the photo. The slightly blurry man next to her (who moved at the wrong time) is a lovely gentleman who used to be out at the church's school in Lima, Peru.

I said yesterday how much fun our table was.

The other people at it were two couples from my dad's church back in Lewis.  

The man closest to me is married to the lady on the left. He is one of my dad's elders but I have known them for as long as I can remember, long before my dad became minister there, as they stay right across the road from my granny.

The other man is a deacon in the church. His wife is in pink. She was very helpful to me when I was at University and wanting to gain experience to put on my CV for applying to teacher training college. She was a head-teacher of a school back home (now retired) and allowed me to come into her school and work with the music teacher there in my summer holidays from Uni.Uni summer holidays are much longer than school ones! 

Meanwhile, my granny seemed to be having an equally good time at another table!

That's her on the right.

Finally, the hotel had some lovely views over Edinburgh and I'll leave you with this one.

This is the Balmoral hotel on the left, North Bridge running through the middle, and Waverley Station at the bottom right with all the glass and going right under the bridges.

Gaelic word of the day:
Dùn Èideann (doon ai-chen) - Edinburgh

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Late Night....

....so I'm off to bed.

I don't usually post on a Saturday, but I'll put my usual Friday 'Things I'm loving' post up tomorrow instead of tonight.

We were out for dinner at a hotel in the city to celebrate (if that's the right word) the end of the General Assembly with my parents and about 30 other guests invited by my dad. 

It was a little boy-free night, so ourselves and my brother and sister in law were able to enjoy a relaxed dinner.

Our table was by far the most fun, and involved two puddings for me!

But I really must get off to bed.

I'll tell all tomorrow :0)

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Great Granny and the shopping trip (and a completed WIP)

This afternoon myself and the boys took my brother and my granny down to the shopping centre.

My granny was very keen to get to Marks & Spencer while she was here so that's where we headed.

After a little walk round the store we stopped for tea and cake.

Mine was a lovely Earl Grey and an even lovelier Caramel Slice.

Then we hit the shopping trail again and granny got what she was after.

My granny is in her 80s, so walking was a lot slower than the breakneck speed the boys usually like to take, but they were very patient.

I also finally got round to sewing the little faces on the baby blankie toys.

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Great Granny and the General Assembly

We have had another busy couple of days here.

My parents, other brother and my granny (my mum's mum) all came down on Saturday. It is the first time my granny has been off the island in nearly 6 years!

Here she is with my younger brother (standing) and her seven great-grandsons. (She has two great grand-daughters too, my cousin's girls, who live down south)

The reason she has made the momentous journey is that the church's annual General Assembly is on all this week down here, and my dad has been elected to be the Moderator. The Moderator changes each year, is chosen by the other ministers and has usually been in the ministry for around 25 years or so. He is the chairman for the Assembly, where various reports are given of work done in the church over the last year, mission reports and  other sorts of minutae of business. 

The Assembly starts on Monday evening with an address given by the previous year's Moderator, and then the new Moderator takes the chair. The Moderator's family have a reserved seat right at the front of the church. Not ideal when you have four boys to keep still! Plus my brother's three boys! They all behaved impeccably, thankfully.

After all this there is a reception for those taking part in the Assembly and the guests of the Moderator. It was lovely to see a good number of people from my dad's congregation had made the journey down to share the occasion with him.

The reception was held in the rather grand Edinburgh City Chambers.

After some food there were a few speeches given by people chosen by my dad. Once again, all the boys behaved well, despite their late night.

James did his usual expert job of keeping Alasdair entertained....

...and I think they may have broken a few hearts with how handsome they looked!

More information about the Assembly can be found here.

I've been forgetting to add this the last week or two....

Gaelic word of the day:

eaglais (egg-leesh) - church

an Eaglais Shaor na h-Alba (an egg-leesh hiir na h-alaba) - the Free Church of Scotland 

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Recipe of the Week - Cappuccino Cupcakes

It's been a hectic couple of days here, with various check-ups at the hospital amongst other things, hence the neglecting of the little blog this week. So, the best way I can apologise  is with cupcakes!

Technically these should be called Mochaccino cupcakes, as there is chocolate in them too, but they look like little cups of cappuccino. Plus, I always think that Mochaccino sounds a bit pretentious, so Cappuccino it is.

These are Calum's favourite flavour of cupcake at the moment.

You will need:

6oz Doves Farm Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

2oz drinking chocolate or cocoa powder

8oz light brown sugar

6oz melted dairy-free margarine

4 eggs, separated

about 100ml very strong coffee

for the icing:

4oz dairy-free margarine

12oz icing sugar

left over strong coffee

~Mix the flour and cocoa together in a bowl and add the sugar.

~Just using a hand held whisk, beat in the melted butter, egg yolks, and about 60ml of the coffee. Mix until smooth.

~Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with a mixer until stiff peaks form.

~Carefully fold these into the rest of the mixture. Don't add them all at once but in two or three batches.

~Share the mixture between cupcake cases. I usually get about 2 dozen from this mix.

~Bake for about 20 minutes at 180C.

~While they are cooling beat together the icing ingredients. You might not need all of the left over coffee. Just add as much as you want to get your own desired flavour, and without making the icing go runny.

~Ice the cupcakes and then dust with a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

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