William's vacation, Day 4

Thursday

The boys were awake very early. They looked around and asked about all the things they saw and found interesting. For example: we had to take the babushka nesting doll apart into all 10 dolls. Caleb kept calling there is another one in there! Then they found Papa's team photos from the rowing teams and the rugby teams. They searched until they found him in each of the photos.

The boys helped taking cuttings from our hydrangeas to make a nice bouquet for Sarah.

I forgot to take a photo of the flower arrangement but Sarah loved it. And soon we were on our way to Mid-Lothian Mines Park. Sarah knew her way and James had been there before too. It was an overcast day but perfect for hiking.

The Canadian geese were a bit of a challenge when they were on a walkway which happened several times. They had young ones and hissed at us when we got too close. Excuse me!

The boys had to investigate every side trail. Here they had to go steep up. I kept Stella the dog.

I think their intent was to slide down this hill but that was discouraged.

Remnants of the former coal mines were seen here and there but all fenced.

Oh, and then we came to THIS! Obviously other children had slid down here. I don't think Sarah's children had done it before but they immediately went for it and loved it.

VIDEO! A     (0:38)

VIDEO! B     (0:42)

This was a lot of fun.

There was a casualty though. Owen's pants. Of course Owen's.

One can enjoy simple things. Coming and going we had to go through this tunnel. Oh, the noise making. Again I wasn't fast enough to record it.

Lunch in Sarah's back yard.

At 2 pm we were on a ZOOM call. It was the birthdays of James's older sister and younger brother. Since Jane turned 80 a family chat was arranged. We all sang of course. James and I used Sarah's computer. Sarah was on her iPhone in another room. The boys popped in and out of the picture. Helen of course was in Nashville, other family members in Spain and all over England/Scotland. Technology can be really nice.

And then it was time for William's hair cut. He too had not had one in quite a while like most of us. The parents gave permission of course. And he was eager. A "before photo".

The twins woke up from their nap and found us outside ... and watched.

Good job by Sarah as always. Ha-ha, by now she had enough practice. 

As soon as I had taken this last photo the sky opened and we had to rush inside. It was a major downpour which we watched from the screened porch. The gutters were overflowing.

Before going home I shared the hard-boiled quail eggs as promised. Consensus was: taste just like regular eggs.

Amazing how fast each day is over especially when you have fun.

William's vacation, Day 3

Wednesday. 

1 month and 10 days late. Today will be exciting! But about that later.

The day started out well with a fat envelope being delivered for William. His Mom had ordered a book for him. William is an avid reader. Of course that needs to be encouraged. Our library didn't have the book he is currently "into". They can't be visited right now. Only curbside pickup. What did we do before Amazon?

Omi had bought herself a new toy, a digital microscope. It connects with the iPhone or computer and can magnify 1000x. It came just before William arrived and I had no time to play with it but managed to download the necessary app and found out how to turn it on. 

I had found a dead fly and asked William whether he wanted to find out with me how the new toy works. We had a grand time with it. We should have moved into an area where there was better light but here are just two of the photos we took. There is potential. 

There was still time before lunch and James took William to Meadow Farm Park again. There is that huge grass area in the middle. William had brought his bike too and we had never seen him ride it. Ben had just recently taught him how to do it.

VIDEO     (0:18)     So proud of him being willing to give it a try.

The pre-virus plan had been that William visits us shortly after his birthday. We had hired the Magician/Juggler Jonathan as a birthday treat and the event should have taken place at our church because William knows some of our friends there.

Plan B: Sarah and Wade volunteered their place with social distancing in mind of course. It started at 5pm. Sarah invited a few of her friends but it was not really a party because no food or drink was offered. She designated 5 different areas for the 5 families besides us with space in-between. They came with blankets or camping chairs and everybody had a grand time. 

I had not expected Jonathan the Magician to call William forward but was very pleasantly surprised how comfortable William was with it. He was a very good sport.

VIDEO!     (0:30)

More videos:

Juggling with fire     (0:33)

On uni-cycle     (from Sarah 0:55)

At the end William was called up again. This time because he was the guest of honor. He was turned into a rabbit. VIDEO!     (1:00)

And it led right into the last act. Caleb, Colin and Owen were waiting for it because they remembered it from Caleb's 5th birthday party.

VIDEO!     (0:46)

Yes, it was the highlight again. 

After everybody was gone we had dinner.

And then we went for a little walk in the neighborhood. William was eager to use Caleb's bicycle which is a little larger than his. He did a great job.

VIDEO!     (0:15)

Back to the house for "special" dessert:

VIDEO!     (0:17)

Time to go home. William and Caleb were very excited because Caleb was spending the night with us. The boys were so cute. It did take a little while to settle them though. 

Altogether another wonderful day.

William's vacation, Day 2

Tuesday. We had to get up early because we had an hour drive. We had tickets reserved at the Red Barn Farm for a tour at 9 am and had arranged with Sally (the boys' nanny) to meet them there. Sarah had been there before with her boys and had said that William surely would like to see it and her boys would too. By pure chance Sarah's neighbor/friend Hanna with her three boys were the other people in our group and that was totally ok in this social distancing time.

Dennita, the owner, was a fun person. No question about it. She loves her animals. The animals all seem to have personalities. Ben Franklin, the turkey and his wife Martha Washington and the unmarried other lady turkey greeted us, begging for some food. Bacon Bits, the pig, were in the middle of steeling the geese's food until she got a treat herself. But she had to sit for it, which she did.

I can't possibly name all of the animals but here are some highlights. The 6month old emu was very nice and very soft to the touch. She children loved petting it.

Waiting for what might come.

Strange looking chickens.

And baby rabbits so very soft.

Outside were miniature horses, donkeys, goats and sheep, different kind of chickens, a big turtle, cows, peacocks, another emu ...

... and quails and their eggs. 

All were happy to get food. We had buckets with food for them.

When I had reserved the tickets I had made sure that we also would see the python. Sarah had made me aware of it that they didn't see it the first time and the boys were very eager. Dennita kept her promise and the boys were happy.

The snake belonged to her son and she took care of it for him while he was gone. She was not very fond of the snake and only showed us because we had asked. But she also sent me home with some of the quail eggs and about that later.

The tour took about one hour. Afterwards we drove to Sarah's house. We knew it was going to be a hot day. Sarah had set up the little splash pool for the children. Sally prepared some food for lunch which we ate outside.

The adults sat in the shade watching the boys splashing mightily. Wonder how the neighbors felt about the screaming with laughter. And yes, there is a VIDEO  (0:35)

We left when it was time for the little ones to take a nap. Caleb was very upset because he didn't want William and us to leave which was bittersweet.

I hardboiled the quail eggs. I have to wait to taste because I had promised all the boys that I would share. Only one had broken during the cooking. James ate it and said it was awful. May be it was bad and broken before cooking? We will never know.

At bedtime William said that he liked the day and especially spending time with his cousins.