**2008 Scottie highlights**

As we entered 2008 we were hoping for a slightly quieter and less eventful year - no new babies or new jobs, no moving house, no major changes! We have enjoyed a year of being settled but looking back now, it has been a busy and eventful year. Read on to find out why!!!

In January we traded in our old red Rover for a jazzy Mazda Bongo - a cross between a car and a campervan. The roof goes up so you can sleep in it. We hope that, as well as getting us from A to B, it will be a source of cheap holidays!

Our new wheels!

Emilia turned three in February. She had a weekend of birthday celebrations, including a trip on the Severn Valley Railway and a fairly ambitious Princess Castle cake!

Birthday tea

We braved the cold (and snow) in March to take our first holiday in the Bongo. Northumberland has long been on our list of places to visit, and we very much enjoyed it. We packed a lot into four days, visiting Lindisfarne, Bamburgh Castle, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Edinburgh and the Alnwick Garden, which is highly recommended by the Scott family as an excellent day out!

Excited at sleeping in the car!!

Esther celebrated her first birthday in April, with a trip to the World famous Red House Glass Cone in Stourbridge, and a lion birthday cake. Big sister was very helpful in showing her how to open her presents and blow out her candles!

Birthday girl with a love of shoes!

In May we took the Bongo to Blackpool for the annual Baptist Assembly. It was a very enjoyable gathering where we were able to catch up with many old friends and acquaintances. It was a little cold for going to the beach and we didn't venture up the tower (what a rip off!) or to the pleasure beach, and we won't be returning to Blackpool for a holiday!

Camping in the sunshine!

Shona, Emilia and Esther visited the West Midlands Safari Park in June on a coach trip with Emilia's pre-school. It was good fun, especially the rides at the end, well Emilia enjoyed them, poor Esther had to sit and watch as she was too small!

Emilia enjoying the Theme Park

Stourbridge carnival takes place in July, and this was our first experience. The Church has always been very involved, organising a float and stalls along the High Street. We had a great day, and were really pleased to have been a part of the winning float - an Olympic theme, with representatives from every continent!

Emilia representing Japan

We took the girls abroad for the first time in August. We spent a pleasant fortnight camping in Picardie, enjoying the outdoor life, and even enjoying a few days of sunshine!

A sunny day at the seaside!

At the end of September we celebrated with Steve and Eileen (Andy's brother and his wife) at their wedding. Despite all the rain at the beginning of the month, it was a glorious day in every respect.

Mr & Mrs Scott

During October half-term we travelled to the east of England, and spent some enjoyable but chilly days exploring Peterborough, Norfolk and Cambridge. For 5th November the girls were allowed their first experiences of sparklers and toffee apples, both of which went down well, although Emilia was initially hesitant to eat the 'glass' on the outside of her apple!

Wrapped up, ready for bed!

December is always a busy month! We are enjoying the advent season and the girls have been busy creating all sorts of things - cards, tree decorations, paper chains and mince pies. We are looking forward to Emilia's Pre-School concert and she is excited to be playing Mary in the Sunday School play! Let the festivities commence!

Emilia making the Christmas cards!

Thanks for reading our message! We hope you have a fabulous, fun-filled Christmas season and a peaceful New Year.

Cooking with chocolate!

We had the idea of making Krispie cakes last week. More of the mixture got eaten than made it into the cake cases, but isn't that what cooking is about when you're 3 and 1?

Adventures in our Bongo - East of England

For half-term this year we took a trip to the eastern side of England. It was cold (we had snow in Stourbridge the day before we left), but we were well prepared for the weather and slept in hats and gloves.
We stopped first in Ferry Meadows, near Peterbrough and enjoyed exploring the country park and also taking a trip on the Nene Valley railway, where we had to pay with a credit card on one of the old manual swiping devices (you know, put the card on then a slip of paper then swipe over it, and fill in the rest by hand!) talk about stepping back in time! We also managed a glimpse of Thomas.Next stop was Norfolk, and a trip to Cromer to meet with friends. We had a lovely day catching up with the Lindners, playing (err learning ..) in the lifeboat museum and lunching in a cafe.

Finally, we drove down to Cambridge, slept in a service station and wandered around the colleges early on Sunday morning, and arrived home in time for lunch!

Caught in the act!

She doesn't seem too concerned about it though!!

Uncle Steve and Auntie Eileen's wedding!

Just incase anyone hasn't seen the scrapbook or the facebook album, here is a selection of photos from Uncle Steve and Auntie Eileen's wedding. We had great fun dressing up and pretending to be princesses!

A good time was had by all!

Our new 'pets'

When we recieved a new book in the post this week, filled with ideas of things to make and do, it was a hard job to decide what to do first. In the end we chose caterpillars made out of egg boxes and straws. Since it was a sunny day, all the mess stayed outside!

It was Esther's first real turn at painting, and she had great fun. Emilia enjoyed showing her what to do, in typically bossy big sister fashion! So we now have two caterpillars, which keep appearing in different place around the house. They were named by Emilia.

Goggle the swimming pool caterpillar

Rover the caterpillar

A Sunflower at last!

Finally one of our sunflowers has a flower!! Don't know what's happened to the leaves though!

New School

Emilia started her new Pre-School last week. She has enjoyed herself a lot and has adjusted to the change of location/teachers/friends very well. So far she's earned herself two stars, one for being helpful and one for writing her name. She enjoys the 'cafe' they have at snack time, where she is allowed to pour her own drink, and has been very productive with painting, sticking and drawing!

She's also very proud of her uniform, particularly the long socks, and she hopes to be able to wear her new pumps for doing PE in the school hall very soon!

Long may it continue!

She walks!

After months of being almost there, several pairs of ruined trousers (at the knees) and a few days of hesitant practice, we are now confident to say that Esther is walking. She took some tentative steps on the ferry home from France, and has done a little more each day since then. She is very proud of her achievement, and we are pleased to not have aching backs anymore!!

In the end, she did go earlier than Emilia, but only by a month. They both seem to prefer talking to walking!!

I was going to post a video, but it came out sideways, and I haven't worked out how to rotate it, so it may follow in due course ...

15 minutes of fame!

BBC West Midlands' newest recruits! Not appearing on a screen near you anytime soon!

Post holiday fun!

Classic! What child has never done this?!

Adventures (not) in our Bongo, part 3

Owing to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to take the Bongo to France this summer. We are grateful to Parents Scott for the loan of their car, so we were still able to go away, and spend a fortnight under canvas instead!

A good time had by all! Esther enjoyed the laid back, outdoor way of life, and has ruined several pairs of trousers by crawling in the mud. Emilia enjoyed meeting some other little boys and girls on the campsite, and was undeterred by the fact that many of them were foreign and couldn't understand what she was saying. She also liked the swimming pool, bouncy castle and trampoline, but when we asked her what her favourite thing about the holiday was, she answered without a moment's thought or hesitation; the little trollies at the supermarkets! (Just the right size for her to push around!). We enjoyed some time to chill out, read books, visit some interesting places, like the World War 1 Historial Museum and the catherdral in Amiens. Shona was surprised to discover that a French cappucino is not the same as an English one, but is still nice.

Emilia disliked the smell of seafood stalls, the chocolate in the pain au chocolat and the cheese in a croque monsieur, but she did enjoy learning some new words in French and paying with French money.

We enjoyed varied weather, as you can see from the photos, and also varied cuisine, including one successful and one semi-successful barbecue!

Sunshine in Le Crotoy

Gardening success

In all our attempts to grow things in the garden, the things that have done best have been the sunflowers. We planted them in plastic cups at the toddler group at Church and successfully transplanted them in to the garden. One is now even bigger than me! They still haven't flowered and we hope they don't choose to do so while we are away!

How annoying: on the morning we were leaving for our holiday, we looked out of the window to see the biggest sunflower had broken and fallen over! No flowers yet, but we did eat a tomato from our plant this afternoon!

Girls can never have too many clothes!

I continue with my new hobby of dress-making. The girls are modeling my two favourites. In the top photo Emilia is wearing a skirt I made, although it can't be seen too well. It's green with small flowers on and has 3 tiers (sounds impressive??!). In the bottom photo Esther is wearing a blue top with white spots, it suits her!

They are also embracing my hobby and Emilia regularly asks me to make her something when she's going to bed!

I haven't made anything for Andy yet, any suggestions?

School Trip

We went on Emilia's Pre-School trip to the West Midlands Safari Park last week. It was a fun day out with a coach load of excited children plus a couple of cars with the teachers. (Why ever didn't they want to go on the coach??)

We saw lots of animals, including lions, tigers, giraffes, cheetahs, wolves and wallabys. If you ask Emilia what she saw there, she will reply; 'We didn't see any monkeys'. Esther would have liked to get out of the caoch among the animals, Emilia was more interested in trying to spot her teachers in their cars.

After the animals came the funfair. There were plenty of rides for the younger children to enjoy. Emilia and her friends had lots of fun. The trip ended with the obligatory ice-creams and a very tired journey home!

Weekend walking

So, we took a walk on Saturday, to Kinver Edge, not far from where we live. It was nice apart from the showers. Emilia stood (carefully) on the roof of an old brick shelter to have her photo taken. Andy has cleverly remastered it to make it look brighter!

On Sunday Esther impressed the congregation at church by taking her very first unaided steps infront of everyone, earning herself a round of applause. She hasn't done it again though, so everyone who thought she was going to walk well before Emilia did (17.5 months) may be forced to eat their words, watch this space!

Finally, drawing has become a favourite activity for both girls recently. They like to sit at their little table in the dining room and scribble away to their hearts' content.

Hope '08

This week is a week of hope in Stourbridge. Organised by Andy and others from the Churches Together in Stourbridge group. It began at the carnival on Sunday, yesterday was a day of prayer for the town and today we have been cleaning up the streets ready for 'Stourbridge in Bloom'. Even little people helped!