Mhairi's report!!!!

Mhairi just told me off for not updating our blog often enough so here's her report.


On the 4th of March Mhairi,Joe and a couple of their friends competed in the Ross-Shire chamionships run at Alness Academy. They did really well and got some good results:

20 Joe Crook 40 Mhairi Crook

There was a girls race and a boys race and they were split into teams. The girls did really well and came first out of their group and managed to get a nice big shield!!!!! The boys however did not do as well as us speedy girls although they came second in their group!!!

Confessions of a proscratinator

My family are having a reunion in St. George this weekend with everyone except me and my family; we were invited but couldn't go for various reasons. My sister-in-law asked me over a month ago for some photos for a project she was working on and i'm sure has already given up on me ever "getting round to it". I'm afraid procrastination should be my middle name. At the time when the pressure is on i often wonder why i procrastinate over and over again and give myself stress that i don't want or need which could be eliminated if i'd just done it as soon as i was able to. This morning as i realised time was up and felt that desperate feeling to get it done Joe asked me "why are you acting all grumpy mum?" and 5 minutes later found myself loosing my temper at my 5 year old son Fin, when he touched the camera which was delicately balanced on the car door so we could take a family picture where we pretend to the world that those things hadn't just happened, i realised it's not what i want to do anymore. Not that i ever consciously chose to do it but by not doing it when i had time i suppose in a subconscious way i did chose. This year "stop proscratinating" was one of my new years resolutions which i'm embarrased to admit lasted until the pile of white school shirts arrived in the ironing pile a few days later. I decided this morning I won't do put myself or my family through that unnecessary stress any more. Hopefully this time it will last longer than 20 white shirts. Sorry Tiff, i hope my procrasination won't cause you too much stress.

- Mhairi -

- Joe -

- Fin -

- Family photo -

- Family photo with letter A -

Fin's fifth

The birthday boy


Half the party pals posing in the garden


Chocolate finger & crisps pizza

Tree climbing

Joe's 8th birthday

Joe turned 8 on June 6th and celebrated by going along to Urquhart Castle with his grandparents and best friend and his family. They were re-enacting a siege on the castle which Joe and his friend loved then we went to a great forest to play at the park and have his birthday cake. When we got home after a very long day the pizza dough had leaked all over the breadmaker and couldn't be used so I had to go out and buy some yucky pizza from the supermarket to keep the birthday boy happy. Today he was baptised at Inverness chapel so was thrilled to be able to do that.

Happy 10th Birthday Mhairi

Mhairi turned 10 on May 31st and decided she wanted to have a party this year so we had 9 girls and Fin running wild round the garden for the longest party ever...we collected the first birthday guest at 10am and she finaly left at 6pm! Fortunately the weather was very kind to us and so it was fun, fun , fun. We opened presents, played a dressing up game where i was forced to join in, played the mars bar game and did a photo treasure hunt.

Easter Fun

We had a great Easter weekend with Dave's sister Grace. We made Easter nests, an Easter tree (which I have wanted to do for a few years but never known how...until now), rolled our hard boiled Easter eggs, had a chocolate Easter egg hunt, played lots and lots of tennis on the drive with the kids (even in our pjamas!), went for some nice walks and ate lots of delicious chocolate (including a giant chocolate bunny which Grace brought up for the kids). The weather was very kind to us over the whole 2 1/2 week period and so Easter weekend was a great end to the happy holiday.

Goodbye old friend

We recently put our old Peugeot 806 in for it's annual MOT and was told by our mechanic that it was no longer road worthy and we should scrap it. We were a bit shocked at the time and even more shocked to be told we'd only get £60 for it! We've since been looking for a 2 year old car but have had no luck so far, we reckon people must be holding on to their cars longer than normal due to the financial crisis which is affecting all of us. We hope to find something soon. In the meantime we've downsized to an estate car which feels dinky compared to our old faithful roomy Peugeot 806.

Sleepover fun

Mum, Mhairi and Elena

Dad, Finlay and Elena

Mhairi had a sleepover on Friday with her friend Elena. It was a lovely evening so we took our canoe to the beach and had a wee paddle around for some fun sleepover memories. I hope word doesn't get round that that's the usual sleepover pattern now...otherwise there'll be a few unhappy girls!

Finlay decided to do some surfing too--water temperature 7 degrees.

He kept at it for about 45 minutes

Summer's on the way

My friend Jeni and I are the only mums in the village who wear Teva sandals. We always joke to each other about who'll be the first to get their sandals on and this year it was me. Usually once the Tevas are on they don't come off until the autumn but since it's meant to be snowing this coming week i'm not sure that will hold true this year...unless she's tougher than me! I always feel brighter when the sun appears with a little warmth in it and I can get my Tevas on again. This year I decided to take a photo of our feet to mark the occasion (you'll see from the photo that she managed to get her shorts out before me though).

Homecoming 2009

- 6 out of 6 cousins -

My little sister Missy recently visited Scotland with her family for 10 days, it was great to see them and watch the cousins interacting together. Here's a few pictures to remind us of our happy times together.

- 5 out of 6 cousins all in a row -

- Preston, Joe, Fin and Dave riding the canons at Stirling Castle -

- A line of cousins at Stirling castle -

- Addison looking after Mhairi's teeth -

- A rare cuddle with Addison -

- Addison trying out Mhairi's glasses for size -

- Missy, mum and me in our dining room -

Twister

Last Sunday we never made it to church because the road was too snowy so instead we finally got round to writing some of our Christmas thank you cards and playing twister. We had a great time, no injuries (although I'm not convinced Dave was trying very hard) and we all ended up with smiles on our faces. I was glad of my yoga stretches which I used to do each week!

- Joe -

- Fin -

- Mhairi (must have her mothers flexibility) -

- Me -

- Dave -