Thursday 26 June 2014

Milestones for Angus and Sean

A big day for Angus today as he graduated from pre-school nursery at Pentland then went on to spend the rest of the day at Fairmile Nursery, which was also his final day. He said he felt proud to be going on to P1 and certainly didn't seem in the least bit sad. He's enjoyed his time at Fairmile and made lots of friends there, as well as been very popular with the staff. Only last week though, he was climbing over the safety gate from the back garden when I went to collect him so it's fair to say he's outgrown Fairmile!

At Pentland he'll only be moving a short distance into the P1 corridor. There's a big intake this year and he'll be part of a "tag team" class of 40 which will have two teachers. His graduation today was attended by Sharon and Linda and Angus was reportedly very pleased with himself, his chest puffed out as he received his certificate dressed in his robe and mortar board. Sean saw him too outside, so the biggest and the smallest got to pose together before one leaves Pentland and the other starts.

Last week Sean had his three transition days up at Firrhill High School and loved it (apart from the one or two disruptive influences in his class, trying it on even in the three days they were attending). There's not many from Pentland in his class, 1A2, but he said he made friends with someone from Bonaly and someone from Craiglockhart so I'm sure he'll find peers of a similar mindset to his soon enough. He enjoyed the classes, especially making pizza in Home Economics! The earlier start is going to be a challenge however, and he's going to be tired after the later finish. He also had a busy Tuesday this week, with his P7 leavers' trip to bowling and to the cinema to see Godzilla, then to Mhairi's for an after-school party, then back to the schhol for the P7 leavers' disco and finally over to Portobello to join Finn for the last half hour of the gymnastics class. Finn was showing off his "front summies" into the foam pit while Sean was doing back somersaults off the vault and practising his walkovers. "Why walk when you can cartwheel?" seems to be Sean's motto at the moment.

Rowan got his 15m badge at swimming last Saturday (and was a bit miffed because the rest of his class got their 25m badges, but he doesn't work hard enough to be hones, he's more interested in mucking about) and Angus was delighted to get his 5m badge as he powered his way along the pool with no armbands. He's very close to being able to swim all the time without them. We did more swimming in the afternoon, as I took the four lads to Dunbar swimming pool where the slide (with timer) and wave machine are big favourites. Sitting in the shallow end where the waves were breaking was adjudged to be the best option. We picked Sharon up from doing a show in Ballencrieff and headed to the East Sands at North Berwick for the midsummer evening. It was dry but a little cloudy, but that didn't stop us having a fab time on the rocks, cooking up a barbecue tea and watching the tide come in and the sun slide down. It's great being able to take the whole family out later now that Angus is five and less reliant on an early bedtime (though he did have a nap to sustain him earlier in the day). The boys found a new sweetshop in Dunbar to rival Sugar Mountain in North Berwick and were pleased with a rare haul of sweets - as a rule Sharon and I don't buy them and to the boys' credit they don't usually pester us to. Sean does have a sweet tooth though!

So it's been a busy end to the summer term. I golfed with Scott and Steve at Braids last night, a definite blast from the past, before we had a drink in the rarified atmosphere of the (jacket and tie) New Club on Princes St. Steve is now a member. Far removed from when we first met at St. Andrews thirty years ago, but Caldwell always had the social-climbing pretensions!

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