Yesterday the cashier at The Sheep Shop in Pitlochry told us that it’s a lovely walk to Strathtay, a village to the southwest of Pitlochry. He also mentioned that there’s a chocolatier there. That was all I needed to hear. We set out. Sam’s magic boots required an adjustment early on. And then we came to this neat …

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And run! We did a 2-2.5 mile circuit walk today from Pitlochry to Edradour distillery through the Black Spout forest, past a 150 foot waterfall (pictures coming soon) and then down through Moulin. Unfortunately the distillery was just closing by the time we got there, so no wee dram for us today. But we enjoyed our …

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Paper bag stuffed with newspaper, cardboard paper towel tube, and lots of tape. The blow pipe, chanter and drones don’t actually work, of course, but Sam makes a capable bagpipe hum. (And yes, thanks to this craft I now know the anatomy of the bagpipe.) Craft idea courtesy of Crayola. I think now we’re ready for our …

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Molly Bear sports her new kilt and tam o’shanter, just in time for our trip to Scotland next week. Scotland is also our Country Club country this month. (That does feel like a bit of a cheat, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Besides, this way I don’t have to cook anything like haggis.) Trip preparations and …

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“Mom, why is my name up there?!” “Because they really want you to try out this ballet class?” Sam did her first ballet class at the Wendy Whatling School of Dance today. I just love the name. The combination of alliteration and the way the English pronounce the short vowel A in the last name makes it sound so… proper. …

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_Since it’s National Poetry month I’ve been reading Sam the poem of the day posted to Poets.org, and the poems that children’s book reviewer/blogger Tanya is posting to her website at books4yourkids.com. Today Sam asked to dictate a poem to me and after I’d taken it all down she said, “Now how can we make it so other …

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Today we went to the Mask Making Workshop at the Brighton Museum, courtesy of the Brighton and Hove Children’s Festival that is on this week. Sam made three masks: the rabbit pictured above, a cat, and a “Dad” mask that she plans to give to her father for his birthday this weekend. Shh, don’t tell! 🙂

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We live on the seventh floor of our building. We ride the lift a lot. And yet just today I realized that because it is mirrored, I could snap a family picture of the three of us. Sam was busy counting down the floors, but AC obliged me with a suitably gobsmacked look.

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That’s what a man called out to me when he saw me jogging after Sam to keep her in my sights. She goes nearly everywhere on scooter now, which is the mode of transportation for kids her age, who are too big to ride in a buggy or pushchair, and too short to keep up with adult strides. Over the past few weeks Sam has …

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