Can you feel it?

As this series of photos shows, John has designed pre-Christmas fitness regimes for all of us. At least the girls get to boogie to Motown. The soundtrack to my supposed regime is the roar of traffic. I am subverting his attempts with triple chocolate cookies.

Get on the Pre-school bus!















Ein swei drei for the Uber-cycling mum.

Yes the trailer is up and running and the pre-Christmas fitness campaign I've designed for Sharon has started. Ailsa and Heather love going in this thing and other road users give them special attention.
JR

I travel in PINK


The rain has finally let up in sunny Glasgow.
We took to the cycle paths with a vengeance but forgot to take a photo of our uber-parent cycle trailer we purchased from Germany (will appear later). Ailsa was practising how to use her breaks going downhill - a couple of falls helps the learning process.
JR

Temper Tantrums

You do not want a picture of this.
Ailsa had a screaming hissy fit in a so-called "child-friendly" cafe this afternoon. I think the management may be reconsidering this policy as we speak. I had to haul her out of there. Even after we got on to the street she went tearing back through the door screaming, "I wasn't finished my milk!!!" Why did this happen to my normally sweet daughter? Was it the sugary cupcakes? Not likely. Was she very tired? Possibly. Was it because last week I said to Jennifer that my girls have never had temper tantrums in public places? Yes. Keep your mouth shut Sharon.

What's with the grocery store shots?

PJ and BB seem to be interested in food and photos of themselves shopping for food, so I'm hopping on the bandwagon. Heather's got bunny in one hand and Philadelphia cream cheese in the other and she ain't letting go of either of them.
Ailsa had her first Glasgow eye clinic appointment today. Apparently her vision is really good, but her right eye does still go in a bit. They might change her prescription to see if they can correct that. She was full of life at the appointment, telling the lady about her birthday and laughing. She's changed a lot compared with a year ago when the orthoptist had to strain to hear her whispered answers. "What letter is this?" "e".
Sharon

There's so much to do on the south side of Glasgow - like climbing Crookston Castle.

It was closed on previous attempts- but on this occasion we climbed up 3 scary flight of stairs. Jake Tee and his parents were visiting from balmy Southampton.

A good time was had by all until the rain set in........

John

I don't want to make a habit of this, but an un-named person gave Ailsa a Fairy outfit for her birthday, and this prompted a sponatneous Fairy dance. There's no sound but you can use your imagination (go to link Fairy dance).
John

Birthday Business





Ailsa is now 4!! The party was great with 8 children, only a few tears, little ladybugs on the cake, a new bike, cosy new pajamas, lots of fun toys and a fairy costume that she will probably wear 14 hours a day.

Wednesday Night Supper Club



Every Wednesday evening we are hosting a supper club in our house. This is an open invitation to anyone who would like to come. Last night's guest bored us to tears with these dull pictures of his run-of-the-mill holiday hiking to Machu Pichu at dawn. Yawn.

Pipe Dance

Technology advances. Checkout the video of Ailsa and Heather dancing to Bruno's low pipes (click on pipe dance).
?What is the name of the tune.
Apologies about the youtube - we couldn't get it to only show our video

Guess the Houseguest

Prizes if you can identify my lovely friend who is here for the weekend to regale me with stories of her life in London this past year and her thoughts on British buses and bureaucrats, structuralism, cultural constructs, recipes for leftover rice, whether art is elitist or should be populist, good films I should see and the lives of people we knew once upon a time.
Bonus prize if you can find her missing black and silver earring.

These boots are made for walkin'


No, these boots are made for Mom. That's why you fell over just after I took the picture.

The Seat of Success

Toilet training has started.

Plimsoles and touching the soul




Well I thought I would just advertise the upcoming celitic connections (www.celticconnections.com) where an up and coming singer Kate Rusby will be playing. She has sweet dulcet tones. The festival runs from 21st Jan for about 3 weeks so check it out. Ailsa is being gently prepared for Nursery this week, a 15 min visit today, a 1 hour visit tomorrow etc. We had to get plimsoles - Canadians might not understand the cultural significance of these - it's obligatory school gym wear when you're wee. Ailsa was excited to get her first pair.

Please send recipes, or partridges



This is the view from our kitchen. The pears are ripe and ready to drop. I have a bad headache. I was blaming the curry, but that has never given me a headache before. My new theory is that it is a sympton of Belgian chocolate withdrawal.

Salut bloggers. This is my first attempt
at this malarky and so far no editorial restrictions! Well it was an exciting final day 'chez-les-Couttolds'. Beginning with multiple pains aux chocolat, making chocolate ice cream with the Queen of chocolate' madame Coutty d'Or, climbing at the most amazing children's park in Luxembourg, more cheese and wine, finished off with some wonder music from Bruno and improv dancing (video to arrive when we figure out the technology).
Some photo info- #2 Heather giving bunny's hair a blow-dry, #3Bethanne +Bruno detoxifying their loft from foreign infestations, #4 Sharon and Ailsa play at Woodstock after the ice-cream fest.

John

Splish splash

The fun never stops chez B&B. Today's fun included pains au chocolat for breakfast, swimming dans la piscine, making pizzas for lunch, riding bicycles, making and eating chocolate chip cookies, and a bit of "Hips don't lie" bellydancing.

Do we crumble under pressure? Yes we do.
















After 4 days of being treated to the gastronomical extravaganza provided by the residents of 16 rue de la Dime, it was our turn to cook.
Heather is Bruno's new number 1 fan. She kissed him goodnight and swooned, "I LOVE youuuu".
See Bethanne's blog for what else happened today. (bethannereynolds.blogspot.com)

Day 1
Learning to blog with Bethanne who has a terrible cold and is hocking up green blogs as we speak.
One of our smaller family members truly thinks that if cows can give you milk then sheep can bring bread to your house. She thinks this is only a small logical step, rather than a leap.
Hopefully, if we are going to be any good at this blogging, you will be regularly updated with more of our views of how the world works.
We will try to post some pictures on this blog as well, but we've yet to catch the sheep in action.