Some random photos of the Shan kids to "celebrate" the bank holiday weekend.

(The quotation marks are sarcastic. Mrs Shan and I didn't realise until the middle of last week that Dante's school was breaking up on holidays for 6 days, to stretch out the bank holiday weekend. Cue the pair of us running around in a panic and screaming like Macauly Culkin in Home Away -- "What are we going to do with him for SIX WHOLE DAYS?!?")

In the first, Dante and Gaia work together beautifully while painting a couple of masterpieces. They actually do get on very well most of the time, which is a relief, as you never know how an older sibling is going to take to a new arrival...

In the second, they get waterlogged at the bottom of our field a while back, when it flooded after some heavy rains.

In the third, I train Gaia for when she must duel on the bars in Vampire Mountain. Let's just call her... Gaia Sails!!!

The fourth... before he got Fortnite (I know, I know, he's 6 years old, he shouldn't be playing Fortnite, but hey, rather than admit to being a bad parent, I'm gonna claim he's a child prodigy, so nyah!!) Dante's favourite game was Minecraft, so Mrs Shan and he decided to build a giant Minecraft figure. As you do. I must admit it came in handy one day when we were playing hide and seek -- I hid behind it and he couldn't find me -- I had a lovely long nap!!!! :-)

In the May issue of the Shanville Monthly -- three new Archibald Lox books, a Cirque Du Freak "album", plus updates about the Cirque Du Freak manga and movie. https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly