Rabbit Robbed!

well, ok we weren’t, we did give them away, but we are feeling bunny depleted!

Friday

as You have read, SB worked really hard on thurs so she could have a day of crafting etc on friday. unfortunately my failure to blog on friday has made me forget some of what we did :blush: but i know she did a piano practice and i am sure she did another something home-ed like! But the key thing she wanted to do was a papier mache head [i remember she did clarinet! did it before papier mache so as not to make clarinet sticky!]. She plans to be a headless something on halloween – must find the felt we have to make a very high collar cloak to hide her head [mostly!] anyway, we had balloon, paper and flour water, so the standard amount of mess was created

We then all moved on to baking. SB made a rather fab smoothy with honey, yoghurt and pears – mm mmmm! BB made some choc cookies – also lovely, and I made some choc rice crispie cakes. we even tidied up some of the mess

Chris, meanwhile, was scaring the living daylights out of me by clambering all over the roof to clear moss of places we think are leaking, and try and determine why. one is prob moss leading to spill over from the gutter, but another is uncertain still

Following that we did some more snuggling up together whilst drinking the smoothy, and then some fimo. i started reading SoTW 1, but due to phone call, SB took over and did the hammurabi rules with BB [giggle, BB signif scary!] and then before we knew it tbird and aprillia had arrived – woohoo!!

SO instantly bunny rules and were all out to adore the buns, Aprillia and tbird agreeing how gorgeous flopsy and fudge were, and all v happy so rabbit adoration, tea, more fimo-ing, and then girls made their own pizzas for tea. A fair bit more rampaging around before they were all confined to the bedroom – tho that didn’t mean sleep! we grown ups chatted and then also went to bed.

I was briefly diverted by reading a ‘mummy bloggers’ spat shock. Honestly, i am really not keen on the mummy blogger moniker, a bit eww and saccharine for me. most of the blogs i skimmed thro – linking from a good friend of mine – i found were just full of adverts and reviews or what seems to me very forced play ideas. not really a representation of being a mum or family life! And a quick peek thro the blogs just seemed too catty or too patty at the school gate when not being adverts are us. obviously these are the ‘big names’ in ‘mummy blogging’, are those making a living, which i don’t have a problem with, which are why all reviews and pretense and i am sure there are actually loads of real life blogs out there with the rather sugar coated mummy blogger moniker. But i think i will stick to being a little home ed blog of our days with the nice cosy home ed ring. I get plenty of ideas of reality from them and i will leave the paid blog world alone, well apart from harmony art mom, who i think combines income generation and real life in a very happy mix.

Saturday

we got up, got sarnies ready and were about to go out when rang by a work colleague about my return next week. I won’t say that i am looking forward to it, and have had nightmares last 3 nights, but feel i have been self indulgent taking time off – tho admit i had no real choice – and have to go back. he is a v supportive colleague and never knowingly makes me feel bad! but is a good barometer to measure what i should do against, and go back is right. lots of political changes afoot – never a good thing. i always wonder why we can’t just do the job we are good at – sigh – rather than have to defend and propose in areas that aren’t our forte. oh well! made us late out. I also had a migraine, so essentially quite seriously drugged up

We went to an egyptian festival of ideas event at girton college. we missed the start of the talk, otherwise i would have been a bit more insistant on it, so instead we went in the Lawrence museum, looked at the real mummy and the shabtis and a variety of anglo saxon grave goods. SB did a worksheet with aprillia, but BB had enough more quickly, so we went to the crafting area and she made her own air drying clay shabti and then got stuck into pot decorating. SB joined us with the pot, and then we rejoined tbird and aprillia with going out to the gardens to mark out where the ancient burial site was. SB got to wield a tapemeasure to triangulate to the roman grave, and both girls popped on pics of the grave goods, and then we went to a saxon grave of a man with his head between his legs – oops! the chap doing all the talking was v knowledgeable, v enthusiastic and had a way with children. I liked it . A final return to do some more, and i think aprillia did a shabti whilst the girls both did the skeleton drawing. there was a real life medical skeleton there and the girls drew round each others bodies with chris’s help, and then had to fill in the bones. Both did a fab job. BB was v careful to try and get accuracy, and i was impressed partic with her handbones [as was one of the facilitators - not really believing a 5 year old could show such care] and SB particularly enjoyed extending the brief by adding grave goods, and getting praise for originality made her beam from ear to ear i do love my girls getting stuck into things.

It was lunchtime, and all the girls giggled in the back of tbirds car, and we got slightly rained on. good thing we had lunch. walking past the girton refectory on the way out was a hardship! SB thought she might like to go there someday! [she had better work jolly hard then!]

ANyway, the next bit was the prehistory demonstration, where we met up with some other homeeducators [not organised, but not a surprise either!] chris turned out to be rather skilled at spear throwing [eek!], and BB and SB also had a go. I am not overly sure of the wisdom of teaching BB to throw a spear… SB and i most impressed by the smelters, and I was VERY impressed when i asked her what bronze was made out of that she knew the answer and then deduced the greenish rock in her hand [malachite] must have copper in it to be extracted. Well done that girl! [beaming with pride!]. i wonder how feasible smelting is???? All the girls made some soda bread and had it cooked in an earth oven – v yummy! SB painted a mammoth on the cave painting wall, BB made an excellent coil pot, with then a snake pic and her name on it, and we also chatted to the flint knapper and the skin preparer. All v enjoyable. All the girls had a flake earlier than expected – due to late night the night before i suspect! SO home and immed they had a pretend disco upstairs! The day did fit well with our Story of the World activities tho

We grown ups chatted, got dinner going [i had more tablets and reclined!] then girls joined us to watch the golden compass, which they all enjoyed, after i reassured t-bird that it was the book ‘reimagined’ with less angst, fear and the ending missing… i am afraid i fell asleep tho, as girls insisted on lights out :blush: Dinner and girls into bed we followed a fair bit later as i had had a second wind and enjoyed chatting with t-bird.

Sunday

next day all the girls got up FAR too early! so we parents trailed down with a bit of a yawn, directed them out to adore rabbits [grin] and then had fimo ready! We were waiting for some more friends to drop by to pick up a rabbit to have pancakes [the kids had first breakfast!] they arrived, total rabbit adoration ensued – awwww. pancakes were scoffed, with SB eating a few too many causing her to not eat until nearly bedtime [giggle!] some more playing and then bye bye to all guests and all the big babies they are all now in fab homes and will be v happy, but it certainly was a sad moment!

the girls did some more fimo – SB finishing the sarcophagus decoration, as well as a keyring etc. BB has made a snail, a teddy magnet and a girl with plaited hair. All happy with all makings. i read SoTW 1 [assyrians] and 3[prussia] whilst they did that, and then we gave all the rabbit hutches a through scrubbing and rebedding. the teen hutch is removed, and snowy looked a bit lonely. the little babies tho are bigger, and we added an additional step, so they were hoppiting in and out of hutch, v happy with their new space

the girls and i then all snuggled in front of the fire to watch the v retro voyages of sinbad dvds and have a pasta tea. I am reading sirens of surrentum to SB, toning down a bit the lovidoviness off it, as she isn’t really fond of kissing yet. I do think tho it is nicely written for a just preteen. it will be the last one we read for a while, as the plotline of the next is more challenging :(. she is now reading the magicians nephew as her bedtime book [i expect she will race thro it] as it is her fav one.

It has been a lovely weekend. I have loved having more time with my gorgeous girls, and going back to work a wrench – partic as still on the emotional wobble side. but it is time to go back. mortgages to pay etc etc. Just have to remember to live and enjoy each day whilst we have them.