Edinburgh half term

Half term sent us speeding in the car up the motorway to Edinburgh and reliable adult company - much better odds of one to one as opposed to the three to one ratio at home this week.
A busy week was kicked off by Maddie's birthday, swiftly followed on Wednesday by a trip to Great Granny. We exercised the boys at Callendar Park before lunch at my Granny's house and they certainly behaved really well so perhaps we'll be calling at the park more often. Bizarrely, Mum had never been there before. Alan and I, on the other hand used to go there oodles of times when staying at Granny and Grandpa's. Our favourite thing was the boating lake but the excellent tower slide pictured below was enough to entertain Dominic and Max on their first visit. On Thursday, Dad and I went swimming with the troops at the Commonwealth Pool - another nostalgic one for me. And there was some real, actual, non-arm band swimming from Dominic and lots of pretend swimming from Max. Madeleine loved it and floated about in a floaty thing very happily. We also watched Nanny McPhee (again) and all really enjoyed that too.

On Friday, the kids had a real treat as Mum and Dad's friends Dick and Maggie entertained us royally and Dick constructed a fantastic pirate ship in their back garden, complete with flags from the coronation and a naval telescope given to his great uncle Dick by a captain that lived next door. Saturday was taken up with Ewan and Hiromi's wedding for me, while Chris took Dominic and Max to see cousins Aidan and Francis. All the children also enjoyed catching up with Uncles Alan and Scott. I took this gorgeous snap of a cafe in Victoria Street while dithering about waiting for the aforementioned wedding. More on that later.
Oh, and the picture of dad on the kitchen floor? A typical example of ill-timed mechanical failure as the dishwasher packed up just as we arrived and Mum and Dad were also hosting Alan and Scott and the post-wedding party on the Saturday.