Category Archives: General

where has the week gone?

for me mostly lost in la la migraine land. and for chris some vomiting thing. bb pretended to have a migraine today – v cute, if somewhat worrying for the tendency to migraine is familial here. please let both of mine not be affected.

yesterday was therefore a bit of a laidback day. actually bb wasn’t laid back, she decided to learn french. i read 3 books with her, and she did poisson rouge – she can count to 10 happily in french and knows some of the colours – although still insistant that blanc is black. i can see her point… SB also did the french books with me, and so i think we are starting to get somewhere in our rhythm of french, so am pleased with that. SB and bB also did some piano practice and handwriting. sb mostly wrote reminder notices to stick all round the house for daddy to take her to the hairdressers!!

we had got a new book from amazon about tectonic plates etc, which we have also enjoyed reading and – drum roll please – we have read some more story of the world!! about clovis the ex barbarian. mUST do more SoTW!! [though i liked the look of that galore park junior history. discussed it with sb, and she prefers me to read stories to her at the mo.

today they did some piano, and played alot, and SB has been sewing – it might be a cloak for A? oh, and sb has had her hair cut! [photo will eventually follow, but i have to do them in order - chris might not be so fussy!!]

wearing her glasses



wearing her glasses

Originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious

did we say that SB now needs to wear glasses??

home again

after our fably sociable weekend [did i mention max as being a particularly good tent taker downerer??] we came home with a stop at little chef on the way. bb couldn’t bring herself to wake up – bless – so sb, big and small [from making it up] were able to sit on their own table, and us grownups at another. they were really beautifully behaved [mostly] and we all ate well. even better, the lovely waitress and new chef made such a pigs ear of the order [but without ruining the meal] that we barely paid for any of it!! our girls fell asleep in the car and jax’s followed a bit later, leaving us with some gossip time.

whilst i was at work on monday the girls and big and small had a lot of fun as it was a glorious day, and i got home from work early, so had more chatting time with jax and she finally left after tea.

i liked the way the tents worked at the weekend in a cross, leaving a good sociable central zone, particularly well for sitting and chatting into the night. most nights not too cold, but the last a bit parky, so jo was well wrapped in a duvet – which seemed v sensible! it was good actually to have such a good show up of husbands too. it was just what i needed! must do it more often! it almost made up for no kessingland or alternative! august looks set for being pretty sociable too…

festival of history!

i have got there!!

it was lovely meeting up with so many people, we loved it again. it was trickier this year due to sb’s foot – first day we walked too much and she was really pained so we left earlier than planned.

we loved – punch and judy show; bzents – sb in horatios last hurrah, totally fab childrens hysterical historical plays; the roman legions; the kinghts fighting and jousting; the fire eating stilt walking fool; d day re-enactment – firing sb’s enthusiasm for a subject not really thought of here yet. also just walking around the re-enactors a lot of them took a lot of time to talk to us and answer questions. sb is getting more and more confident at asking and we went round pretty much all the areas chatting and seeing what was going on, sb mostly taking the lead with who to talk to and what she wanted to know. the living history tent also excellent with a go at all the archaeological techniques and easy hands on for both girls. bb particularly loved the skeletons. we impressed the display girl as me and sb using ‘proper’ bone words. not hard really for me though is it!! the head of saxon finds who was manning the metal detector finds was also a treasure himself, and they all had oodles of time. the family zone with the ever popular sandpit, games, morris dancers, bands etc. sb loved actually one stand that had a travelling show theme with pretend animals etc. sb and i also popped into one of the more ‘adult’ talks on dressing mr darcy, and had a look at costumes. not for long, but she thought she would like to go to more of those next year!
i think that one of the most impressive things is that english heritage are so obviously very keen to give a hugely satisfying day out and have put lots of thought and effort in. we will hopefully be doing it again next year, and hope people might again join us. tent sharing is fine and easy for a weekend, and saves a lot of tent taking down effort!!

now i have thousands of flickr photos to do.

slightly terrifying was doing a wee in the cubicles by the main arena whilst the parlimentarian big guns were going off.

playing at wicksteed

i could have done this in th last blog post, but that was about tents – something i am rather keen on! so this is about the adventure day. having taken bb to a similar park on our family holiday, we were aware that she is something of a delicate daisy about rides. it is a bit of a shock, as her general personality isn’t that delicate, and i always thought her fearless! so we bought chris and sb a band, and me and bb a run of tickets. good thing too!

chris and sb had a ball, they went on loads of things and had a great laugh. def got their money’s worth. i would have loved a go at the water ones… oh well, plenty of time in the future. sb loved the big roller coaster particularly and the wavy slide [i would have liked that too!]. bb loved the bouncy castle and teeny tinies  vehicle ride, and for both of these, she didn’t get asked for a ticket as she is on the 90cm borderline. so she had 4 free rides. she also loved the playpark, so actually had a fab time. bUT she hated the ladybird ride and wailed for some considerable time over it!

when i have flickered i will add some pics. the only neg was later on that day when sb had a recurrence of her low mood blogged previously. i think she had been feeling a bit left out, and her foot was playing up by then, and a week of late nights got her to sob herself to sleep. luckilly i was on holiday with great friends who i can talk to about these things, and they had a chat to their kids, and the next day sb had a ball with her friends again. it is good to have such lovely friends that you can talk about these things with, even though i felt bad about it. i also gave sb a v long talk [again!] about give and take, and working out what you actually want. i am hoping that she will get this social thing earlier than i did [about 30!!]. i know i over empathise with it in some respects, cos i know how it has affected my whole life, and i am glad i can bounce this off the friends there, and know they aren’t judging me too much as a psycho neurotic parent!!

more wine, jax and family arrived [unfortunately pretty much at the point i frogmarched an overwrought sb off to bed!]

wicksteed!

whilst at the sports day we had a number of twitters suggesting that the planned camping weekend was not going to be quite so easy as planned, as it had run out of pitches for some late able to come families! a quick conflab with k and we decided to lend kirsty and jax our frontier to share and we would share with merry our ridgipod, whilst joanna was in our vango. we have never attempted to take tents with us, but 2 1/2 in our car an 1/2 in kirsty’s with the tent she had been planning to use, and eventually we were all packed, including all poles. [and lithuanians] much helped by kirsty on kid duty whilst chris and i wished we hadn’t stayed up till 2 am – rofl!

a quick drive and we got there. the khyam ridgipod went up in double quick time, and sb was fab at setting up the inner. both girls are getting good at helping the tent up process. kirsty came and we turned our attention to the frontier. unfortuately we snapped a joint and i got grumpy! possibly as i was tired, the kids were shrieking [needed diluting i think!] and the frontier isn’t as quick as the ridgipod. so sorry kirsty and family again. anyway, it went up. i like kirsty’s plan of not guying everything, leaving you with a bit more pegging if the weather looks bad for a psychological lift. left chris and kirsty at it to pop a few things in our tent and read a bit more riot act. it was drizzling and matter and antimatter were doing their thing… and then helped rejig the frontier so it stood right! we are def going to sell the frontier, so any interested parties email me before it goes on ebay.

frontier – sleeps 8 comfortably [had 7 all weekend] with a vis a vis style 4 berths each side and huge middle space. v tall, so no probs with stooping, v weather proof, so no leaking or worries in wind. negs, is that putting up in wind a pain as it is a bit sail like, but once central square pegged is v straightforward.

joanna and nic shortly followed, and i got the third tent going. this being our weekender vango venture 500 was a cinch, and prob took under 15 mins. left jo and bill to finish the pegging and got our tent porch up. phew, all tents done!! def wine time and relax!! and thats how we spent a lovely evening!

sports day!

we love the home ed sports day. it isn’t really anything like the sports days of my youth! chris – a rather nice chap that does the monday sports sessions – does it. he gets them all to warm up, and then is v inventive in the sporty games they play. he is fab at encouraging and cheering on the kids, so that all abilities feel happy and enthusiastic. he isn’t at all phased by drop outs, or drop back ins. he really seems to want all to enjoy sport and have fun with it rather than following any rules of games. its also a rather good gathering of a spread out group, and time for a good natter.

SB and A got right to joining in and racing about having fun. M was rather pleased to see J of the deependers so that he could have ‘boy play’ – rofl! BB joined in a bit, and then we went to the play area and bb mostly went into the pool there. we picniced, watched and kids had fun. eventually we went home with a variety of shattered children to shepherd into bed. we adults went to bed way to late, especially since we were supposed to pack.

visitors!

ok, i am going to alter the time stamp so they all appear right. amd i am prob going to add things, as TBH, my memory is a bit affected by the quantity of bloody migraine drugs ingested. i hate migraines. i hate their ability to suck away my life.

anyway, we tidied manically so kirsty and her family could see their way into the house. it still wasn’t actually tidy mind you! saturday was spent in eager anticipation of their arrival, so we did some home ed stuff to take away the constant are they nearly here yet chorus. SB and BB both eagerly did maths and handwriting – i think they thought if they did it quickly it would speed K’s car! SB also did a violin practice. no further memory of the day!! K and co arrived, so lots of playing and ds-ing! we had tea and wine. a v late night for the kids too!

the next day we went out to an rspb event to celebrate the opening of a new reserve. the worst thing about it was the prickles. they had just strimmed/mowed the field, and it was obviously v thistly, and k and i – and to a lesser extent the girls – kept getting prickles in our feet as crocs were really not the best footwear for us to have chosen! SB and A got facepainted. BB and M moaned at the lack of cake. we had fed the troupes before leaving, but obviously should have taken cake with us [we had loads at home!] as it was too temptingly on display, but ridiculously expensive. after a bit of discussion, we went towards the pond dipping and owl pellet zone. SB said it was owl puke, but he insisted it was not as the pellets were coughed up. i am sorry, but they still must be coughed up from some stomach affair rather than lungs! Anyway, SB and A were transfixed by the owl pellets, and found loads of bones in them. SB in particular found loads of skulls, and learnt the difference between field mouse and vole. the man was really friendly and knowledgeable so a great HE moment! we joined M and an extremely grumpy BB ponddipping, and found lots of damsel fly larvae,water beetles, water boatmen and a few fish. ALso a blood sucker – yuk!! We then played in some sand to find things, but most had been found already as it was getting to the end of the day, and then looked at loads of moths that had been temporarily captured the night before.

the mon i went to work, and BB and M got firmly fixed in matter/antimatter mode. mostly after rowing over the didicar we have. BB would try the patience of a saint at times, and M and her seemed to gravitate towards each other to shriek. not so restful! they also did lots of fab fimo-ing. i was so impressed by BB’s snowman – well, for a bit anyway, as she then overdecorated it into a blob! BB does seem to be v dextrous for these things. luckilly on the tues – when again i was at work – merry and girls came across, and all had a great time playing and bindeezing,

such a lot of blogging to catch up on!

never mind flickring!

so i have to blog:

Kirsty  and family visiting, which was great, thankyou for coming.

matter and antimatter

owlpellets, pond dipping and face painting

chef sports day

wicksteed park with friends

festival of history

musical monday – beethoven emperor

i love this particular piano concerto. one day i need to practice enough to consider playing perhaps the slow mvt… ihave a lovely recording of barenboim playing them in one take, mistakes and musicality and totally brilliant. here is barenboim playing the ‘moonlight’ sonata which i do love playing, but obviously with less skill!