Author Archives: HHaricot

A classic area needling tidying! Flat surfaces accumulating bb clutter. Protracted negotiations and a bin bag of scrap paper and packaging gone, sorting and tidying done
And then she refills space with advent calendar and cards!!! Oh we’ll . Need to Hoover , and when I sort Lego find a home for the plane, but I have broken the back of that task!

She very much wanted to play the piano for xmas camp carols, and learnt 2 for people to sing along to, at singing speed. I did nearly cry!! But also, so very proud of her lovely friends for pausing when needed, and cheering her on we have a great group of friends, and a very happy and wonderful BB

Had a tearful hug as we said goodbyes at the youth hostel as it is the last time for some people who really are the ‘last men standing’ pretty much of the original muddlepuddle. deserved pipers and drums and leaving under crossed swords . So we cheered up our journey home with SOTP at RAF Cosford which was very close.

It is free, though the parking isn’t, and is a remarkably interesting museum. It has the usual planes and nice displays and info boards, with a little ‘science of planes’ area which BB very much enjoyed. But for me, it was the cold war zone where it really grabbed and shone. We sat through a mini cuban war crisis, reviewed MAD, the berlin wall, CND and lots of interesting things to look at. Definitely well worth a visit on all sorts of levels. BB loved actually having money to spend in the shop.

this year again in Coalbrookdale Youth Hostel. We have gone to home ed camps since 2005, when we attended the muddlepuddle winter camp in feb at Melrose. That was our first ever home ed camp, and I was pretty nervous. It worked out well though, and so we attended the summer camp – Kessingland, and then all the Melrose camps until the hostel closed as going up for sale, and the summer camps until the atrocious kessingland weather one year put us off doing it again – which was a real shame! Before these things quite happened, another camp had come on the scene, NicCamp – a group of friends who holiday together, rather than an open home ed camp. This turned into christmas camp, organised and run by Nic until she decamped off to Rum! This is the second year since then, and the number of friends has reduced as the number of children going to school has gone up. I am hoping that this wasn’t the final year! But it was decided to definately make it a ‘last hurrah’ and then see whether we can have a phoenix next year

We had a great time. We recreated the iconic photo of all the children on the stairs

with a new one, and then by popular demand, one of the parents!

we adults did a lot of chatting and crotcheting and some crafting – i managed to crochet and ammonite and felt 2 marbles , and was inordinately proud of both

I got some kids to do a craft with me – acrylic painting [please remember to iron before you wash!] . the teens on the whole did theirs later!

I played some board games [not quite enough] and did some cooking [enough, tho v happy to do so and with some lovely co chefs to chat with]

there was quite a lot of cake

BB spent a lot of time racing around in a group of 5 being a spy and other such games. She had a fab time and didn’t miss minecraft/computers at all. SHe loved it. I chatted to loads of lovely friends that I have known for years. We both felt v v lucky. DH was also v lucky, in that having elected to miss the beginning to try and do some more bathroom, one of our lovely friends came down to join him, also missing some of camp. Thankyou x x x x

And we did go to a museum! we had a great time at enginuity [and I am borrowing tbird pics] where the kids mixed in all age flexible groups and shew what a wonderful group we are part of.

And there was christmas day. fab friends, [nearly are family now], fab food, afterdinner entertainment and then wonderful christmas secret santa before a carol singalong and BB breaking my heart. SO very lucky thankyou very much everyone.

this is the state of play before our holiday. thankyou to SOTP for lending a hand there is most of the stud wall and the shower tray in

Not so much to update, a nice chat with SB. She is sad to be missing Xmas camp but approved of the pressie bb did in her name . She had a half say on Friday as she went with the choir to another school for choir rehearsal, which she enjoyed. Still snowing on and off. I miss her, but I am glad she seems settled and happy. Her eldest French sister A celebrated her 18 birthday, so that was fun. Hoping she will take/post a few photos soon!

she made a fab reindeer at cubs

she made her secret santa [now given, so not so secret]

she started her new piano book [which has been resisting for a LONG time] and found it easy

and we had a lot of stretching type behaviour as it was a difficult week as following exciting birthday and before exciting christmas camp, so difficult to control the emotional roller coaster.
I completed my secret santa [now not secret] of ginger liquer [home made] in repurposed diet coke bottle

this is how english works [sometimes] in our house. nearby are other videos. abandon hope?? nope it is just a different way

english grammar