april in one post

How do I squeeze a whole months worth of work and play into one blog post, without it being so long that my fingers drop off from too much typing?

(I wish I was the kind of disciplined blogger who sets aside time each evening to recap on the days events.  Alas, I am not that kind of blogger....my evening time is mostly set aside for sleeping at the moment.)

To start with, the days are lengthening, and it is getting eversoslightly warmer each day.  As I sit here and type I can hear a neighbours lawnmower, which is a welcome sound as it means we've finally dried out enough to mow again.

The month started with some disappointment as Od had planned to go to a cross country rally with the pony club, but with snow still lying on the ground it wasn't to be.

We had a the dentist, always a fraught experience when we go en masse.  All fine and back in six months.  The dentist is very young looking, which I am informed by my Grandmother, is the first sign of ageing. 

The middle boys both got to do their promises at Cubs, although Mb had a bit of a brain fart and couldn't quite remember it at the time.  No one noticed as they say it all together so he just mumbled along, but I could tell by the way his eyes slid to the side that his mind had gone blank.

Mb also had a hospital appointment for his hearing, and was told by the most uppity nurse I've ever met that he doesn't have a hearing problem, he has a listening problem.  He is dyslexic, which I did explain to the nurse, but she thinks dyslexia is a new fangled made up thing, so no hope there. 

We went to the Science centre, twice.  Once to play with states of matter and once to play with magnets. 

There was a trip to the theatre, to watch Zorro.  It was a great production, put on by these people.  Lots of Zorro play followed on from this experience.

We had more relatives come and stay, which meant more visits to the glens, the beach and the ice cream shop.  I even managed to take some pictures:

This is the smalls learning about gravity, which entails being spun so fast you fall off.  No one was hurt in this experiment. 

There are other pictures, but blogger is being funny about uploading them.  In truth, it could be me, as we have recently bought a new computer and I am still trying to learn how to use it.  Eb is my guide, although he is running out of patience with me.

Eb has been playing a new game that he bought for himself, it's Romans one, this one is so complicated I can't even begin to play it myself, so I've spent a lot of time watching him and asking him what he is doing and why.  It's a strategy game, called Region of Rome, Gold edition.  I can't find a link for it any where, he bought it from a shop.  It follows on from playing Settlers and Jurassic Park so I'm told.  He has learnt a huge amount from it, from the names of roman buildings, to making sure his settlement doesn't starve or face financial ruin,  to developing the delicate balance of power and diplomacy needed to negotiate with the local barbarians.  It is daft that I am pleased he always tries the peaceful route first? 

I think I should stop now.  There are plenty of other things I could witter on about - we made a scale model of the solar system, visited another local museum with the best taxidermy display I've seen in a long time, eaten in a very old harbour pub where the kids all tried haggis eggs, ice skated with home ed friends, planned camping trips and read an awful lot of books. 

Next week we are out and about visiting a Pictish site, a local nature reserve and taking part in an OPAL survey.  I'm also going to try and get on here more frequently.  (Yes, I've said that before....but with the new all singing all dancing computer I really have no excuse not to.)

I'm also needing to find a new reader as google is closing it's one down, so any recommendations?
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