Monthly Archives: April 2008

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

i am reading this version to SB, and I just had to state how absolutely beautiful this book is. the wordsmithing is absolutely spellbinding. it is a joy to read aloud to her. the  illustration is also fabulous. Really, really enjoyable. However, having said that, the bit about the lords wife getting into bed with gawain is slightly baffling SB, so i am toning down the swooning going on there! She can’t see what the problem might be! Hmm!! Bless her innocence. we did therefore have a brief discussion on who it might be acceptable to kiss!!

But, can’t recommend this book enough. we got it from the library, but its def one to try and fit on a bookcase!

A camping we will go.

Well, new tent arrived today – the delivery driver had come in the morning when we were out, he came back around 4pm to get rid of the 2 big packages off of his van.The main unit is sitting pitched on the lawn at the moment.
Anyway, we of course need to give it a test run, and anyway, itching to get going with the first camp of the year.  We are planning to go away over the Mayday Bank holiday weekend, probably up to the North Norfolk coast. Maybe stay at Stiffkey (where we camped last year) – on the coast, but right by the salt marsh  – fun for exploring though, so quite  a walk from the sea, esp. when the tide is out. Nice smallish, quiet site, nothing fancy but decent washing facilities. . Or maybe  Deepdale.

Anyone wants to join us, that’d be nice :-)

Honey, I Set Fire to the Cake

While i was at Rainbows, H was at home with BB making her birthday cake (me and the girls were going to make it this morning, but it didn’t happen) we were going to make a marble cake, which after BB saying she wanted to make two cakes, they ended up doing.

Looks rather like a volcano to me.

Anyway, after dinner me and the girls were doing the candles etc. on the cake. we were going to make the digits 39, but BB was helping, so we decided just to put as many candles as we had on.

35 Candles

I lit them, it all looked good:

All Alight

and then the of half the candles which we had lit first had ot so hot from all the candles being together they were melting and collapsing, which ten set fie to the ruff round the cake :lol: all rather entertaining.

Opps, too hot.

So, we had cake with added wax decorations

A bit of extra decoration

i am 39

my daughters woke me up with their giggling and wiggling, and went downstairs with dad. good, i thought, brekkie in bed. BB came back up and we played loads of silly games in bed, and i got up. SB and BB had made lovely cards for me, and bought me some snazzy new wellies. [as heavilly hinted!]

migraine had luckily gone

chris cooked a breakfast and we tried to get out! happy birthday family phone calls, and herding children, we set of to ely , to see cathedral, city etc. we mostly saw cathedral, did a lot of talking round the outside looking at architecture, different styles, spotting where bits have ‘gone’. we had a lovely lunch and went into cathedral, and SB – as always – was most impressed. the girls did HE proud with looking up at ceilings and windows etc, with various sagagroups going ahh at them! we enjoyed the stained glass window museum. both girls got quite a lot out of it. lady selling tickets obviously not seen a child for a while!

A jolly wander through the town with a cake stop, and back in time to deposit SB and chris at rainbows. BB and i made a rather fab pink and choc marble cake. took a piccie which to me looks like convection in action. chris denies convection currents happen in cake making?? we read some lovely books, and all then enjoyed teatime. SB and BB got the final bit of the playmerrily order, and SB ecstatic with elves, and BB with dinodors . i love the idea of leg warminators by the way!!

SB and i now reading sir gawain and green knight by morpurgo as bedtime story, and really enjoying it. giggled through the apprentice! HONESTLY!

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Just another Tuesday

Morning, off to the Library. SB on her inline skates, BB on scooter. So took much longer given SB’s skating speed at the moment. BB very funny, she is very much into mad scootering at the moment. Zooming along shouting madly, she was scootering along, going ‘look I can steer’ when she crashed straight into a telegraph pole :lol:

Library, storytime for BB – SB sits and reads other things now, a bit of craft sticking making tulip pictures. which BB insisted we bring home and put up over the cooker taking down old artwork. Finding some more books – SB brought home 9!! Mr Men books. I told her she would have to read them all herself as i wasn’t going to read them (really dislike the Mr Men books), a bit of nattering and home.

Met Trish, other HE mum and child C in library, and they came back a bit later for coffee/lunch and playing. Trying to play indoors didn’t quite work, but decamping to the garden and the sun was much more successful.

After they’d departed they made birthday cards for Helen, and wrapped presents. SB had to go over the road and buy some more wrapping paper. except for crossing the road (which she can do fine at the zebra crossing, but just likes you to watch her in case she isn’t sure about it) she manages such shopping trips OK. BB stuck a strip of paper together and wrapped it up to make what was apparently a fish for Mummy.

SB got on with some more Getty and Dubay handwriting, followed by some maths. Stuff on money (Dollars and Cents – it’s Singapore maths, but it’s all decimal so she’s happy with that) all pretty easy stuff. Was a litle stuck on what writing say 65c in Dollars meant and why it was $0.65 – she got the hang of it though. Though I mad a bad job of trying to explain decimal points. which reminded me we need to do stuff stuff on fractions reallys.
Meanwhile BB played one of those impenetrable 3yo kiddie games with a seemingly random selection of objects, in this case something like a teaspoon, a plastic dinosaur, a plastic tub, a pair of nail clippers and wooden lolly stick.

I did stuff like get dinner going, hanging up washing etc.

Sat and read a bit (of one of the numerous new Book People books) of a book about Rainforests, which some how involved a conversation on rabbits eating their own poo :? They then sat and read some of their library books before dinner.

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like the manor born

SB

HE group sports session [which she always enjoys]

ello

violin practice

swimming [when i had a dizzy moment and wondered whether i had come home from one workplace, but should have gone instead to the other, so had to ring them to see if i was late [i wasn't!]] oh, and her front crawl now recognisable, but breast dtroke still makes me giglle, and feet first sculling totally creases me up – and I am sure i saw the instructor giggle too.
finished the worst witch, played chess

oh, and we must take her to optician – she has gone yearly – because think there is a definite reduction in vision!

BB

magic school bus. i do hope chris did something fun with her at some point!

read a dinosaur book from DK, which actually has lots of tiny books stuffed in it, so we will lose them all [already anal - not a good gift for BB, but cheap at the book people!]

fell asleep in the sling whilst i was feeding her tea.

Musical monday – Handel Xerxes

i love the sound of a counter tenor. SO I have chose this, as one of my favourite counter tenor arias from Handel’s opera Xerxes. I saw this once at the ENO – really fab production. Actually, i think this version better!