Busy active kids

 On our short weekends we enjoy a quick morning of gentle canoe trips.

 short local hikes,

 spending time with friends outdoors.

 Choosing what to do and where to go!!!

and enjoying time in the mountains.

and there is always time for ice cream at the ice cream school bus.

dancing,

dancing

more dancing

You would think my kids would be exhausted and happy to go to bed at night...but that is another story.

Heather loves lots of stories and songs and chats about the best part of the day. Then when we are about to leave the room she asks to read a book to me. She has little 8 page one sentence books which she likes to look at and read, and knows that if she asks to read then I am more than happy to encourage it. I then have to leave her light on while she flicks through books herself. I am not quite sure what goes on up in her room after I leave as sometimes there is a lot of banging and stomping and there are times when she doesn't settle til 10pm.

Finlay on the other hand does not need as much singing and reading, but loves you just to be with him in his own room. Believe it or not that is a step forward as he used to go to sleep in our bed. He goes to sleep in his own bed, but inevitably ends up in our room. This has been going on and off for two years now and we have tried various strategies to get him to stay in his room, they all work for a while and eventually reverts to the same old situation. This is what he seems to need and we have accepted that this is what life will be like for a while.

I wasn't quite prepared for what James would tell me one day ,while I had been a work, James had put Finlay to bed and around 11pm just before I get home from work, James had heard Finlay calling for him. James went into his room, but no Finlay to be found, not in the bathroom or on the landing...James found him after walking down the stairs, through the living room, through the kitchen and in the boot room at the back door!! He had been sleep walking. We have a stair gate and had just been thinking of removing it as we have never really needed it for that purpose, but now that might have to change.