Category Archives: Out and About

Spooky Spoon Bread

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Daddybean | 2 comments

Thursday.

Off to Tots and Nots groups in the morning. Just in time for SB to take part in a French game with Katy. I sat with BB and did a picture with her made from different shapes cut out of paper. Bit of general playing and snack eating. SB did a picture as well. Drew a portrait of Helen. Gina whose does various music teaching there brought along some flutes. so they got to have a go with those. BB was interested, but didn’t want to try. SB managed to get some sound out of it without to much effort. Bit of singing of songs, then SB had her first recorders session with Gina. said she enjoyed it and wants to do some more. It should be becoming a regular thing.

By now BB was pretty grumpy – she wanted to go and watch SB playing, said she was hungry but didn’t want to eat any of the things I had in the bag. Didn’t want to do anything I suggested etc. – probably tired (had woke me up before 5 am, though went back to sleep later) and hungry (only had eaten half a slice of toast and a modicum of yoghurt ).

Headed off home via Tesco’s for a few things – which was a bad idea – it’s a big Tesco Extra store and buying just a few things seems to involve walking miles. BB was amusing by the bakery counter. I was with SB a bit further along whilst she chose her bread, BB was sat in the trolley shouting out ‘ I want Spooky Spoon bread’ ! :-) Spooky spoon (from the character in Numberjacks) bread being her name for a French stick – ever since we had one that was vaguely spoon shaped at the end and they kids dubbed it Spooky Spoon.

They both amused a mother at the veg bit. They were both begging me to buy a bag of Peas in their pods because they love eating them straight from the pods – but they were imported and rather expensive so I didn’t. Good to have kids who like consider buying bread and vegetables a treat though

Escaped Tesco and got home to a late lunch of mostly Spooky spoon bread accompanied by a dose of Magic School Bus. SB did piano practice, and handwriting. BB got out her violin and played with that, couldn’t find her maths book which she wanted, so did some leap-padding. then they both got out the Geomags. BB got upset because they kept on sticking to each other and they bickered and argued over which Geomags they each had, could do with more really. I cooked some soup, which neither of the kids seem to like much – probably a tad too spicy for them. Helen came home and read some books with them – I caught one about Alexander Graham Bell.

Then off to bed.

2 Comments

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, language, music, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE, writing

ooh, forgot to blog yesterday – v remiss!!

Posted on May 12, 2008 by HHaricot | 3 comments

was RSPB walk day. we got there bright and early, which was nice, so all set off in the warmth rather than the heat. What a change a few weeks makes! def a nature walk, we looked at oak apples, saw how ‘the photo tree’ had suddenly become covered in leaves, listened to birds, saw the bracken growing, the bluebells fading, and actually saw a greater spotted woodpecker!

was a lovely walk, and we all really enjoyed it. bB wore herslef out a bit with all the running up and down the steps [her absolute favourite bit!] and we stopped just in time for a picnic on what shall henceforth be called Michelle’s bench! a gentle meander back to the car, and then to the manor house. girls didn’t quite gel. i think late nights, having seen quite a bit of each other and the heat. however, bit of stage-manageing here and there, and a number of apologies from my girls and it was OK. SB a bit all legs and arms though, and had hurt C a number of times, so went home wailing because she had upset her, and now worried about visiting again

oh, and BB calls ants and woodlice ‘antistons’ at the moment. not sure why! she does seem to have a thing for squishing them.

3 Comments

Posted in General, Out and About

Felting Fun

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Daddybean | Leave a comment

We had a sparkly start to the day, Butterbean found the glitter left from Thursday and decided she needed to make a glittery picture first thing. sauffice to say we have a nice pot of mixed glitter colours for xmas and the Dyson looks very sparkly inside…….. She had fun though.

Rousted around a bit after that to get out for a HE group felting session, managed to get there on time, which we often don’t manage. Since we did needle felting a couple of years ago at Kessingland this was a nice compliment to that. Helen who was organising the session had a nice simple technique for younger kids that worked well.

You use a Ziploc bag and a piece of bubble wrap in a rectangle about twice the size of the bag
1. Lay out 3 thin layers of wool in alternating directions for the background on top of the bubblewrap.

2. make your design on top.

3. Pour warm soapy water over the top to carefully to wet the wool.

4. Flatten down the wool to ensure it is all wet, re-arranging the design if necessary.

5. fold over the bubblewrap and slide into the ziploc bag. Squeeze out the air and seal.

6. Agitate – rub gently , roll up, throw from hand to hand – whatever. You basically need to move the wool fibres around to get them to felt together, but not so much so that you mess up the desing to much. The longer you do it the more felted it gets.
7. Remove, rinse out soap and allow to dry.

Both girls enjoyed it, though BB did get me to to the felting process and I helped her a bit lay out the design, though the ideas where all her’s. SB did hers all by herlself, tthough it could have done with a bit more felting.

After group we stopped at various shops for various things, got too hot (must get car air con fixed before we go away on hols) got home and all hid the playroom to cool off, Helen came home, had dinner etc. She did some French reading some of the Lucie Chat books I think.
Other than that, what else has been going on?

Thursday we went to Merry’s for Amilies 6th birthday. Made cards first, which took up most of the remaining time in the morning, SB put so much Pritt stick glue on heres that she tend had to stick lots of glitter and etc. to cover up the glue. ended up looking like a house in a snow storm !! Did a bit of maths, Made picnic. Off to Merrys, picnbic turned into lunch on the table, off to the park where grownups lounged under a tree whilst kids got hot in the playground.

Home later than intended, BB fell asleep in the car then couldn’t quite decide if she was asleep or awake for the next hour or so when I put her into bed.

H and me caught up with this weeks Apprentice – excellent stuff. do wonder if sacking 2 for one of the weeks is part of the program design – otherwise surely it’d be a week longer run? but hey, it’s entertainment not real Life.

There was also Tuesday, but nothing exciting happened – library, unloading car of all the camping gear, lots of washing, handwriting, music practice, my parents came round.

Now it’s the weekend and so many things want doing around the house and garden esp. and we are going out tomorrow for our monthly woodland/bird walk with the Old Manor family. Want to go camping again though really.

Leave a comment

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, language, Out and About, photos, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

must reclaim my wednesdays!!

Posted on May 7, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

SB loves the drama group, but she leaves by 9.30 and returns at 12.30. at 15.20 she goes to rainbows and returns at 17.00, at 18.20 she goes to judo and returns at 19.40. ie, I get to see v little of her on my day free, and I MISS HER! especially today when crappy with migraine, and the heat really hit me just as she was about. we played castle keep and did violin practice, but that was about it. bleurgh. at bedtime we have nearly finished the orchard book of arthur and the round table [a good book, but it couldn't really follow on to michael morpurgo's fab gawain and seem fab]

BB and I have had plenty of time together, and BB is also a delight more often than a tantrum throwing stroppy 3 year old! today we sowed loads of seeds together, watered and potted on [some things might not survive!], she then chose to play with pattern blocks with me for ages [and i had to be careful to only do the allowed bits!] and then we made towers and walls with the wooden bricks. being still dirty from the seeds, we had a bath.
She started getting a bit, well, 3 so we went outside for a run, and read a book all about tigers. i made lunch in time for SB’s return home, but i think the outside bit was the last straw for the migraine i was desperately pretending wasn;t there, so i had to lie down for a bit – grr – in a cool room. cue much wailing and jumping on me to see if better yet. however, chris got out paddling pool and as the temp in the shade became more bearable, i sat out and we narrated stories for each other – BB mostly being a crocodile!

sorted tea and BB then watched a MSB and to bed, SB returned and watched MSB and to bed, and chris has gone out. SB not settling v well, as not used to daddy out.

Leave a comment

Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, early maths skills, gardening, General, music, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation

bank holiday camping!

Posted on May 6, 2008 by HHaricot | 8 comments

i am going to ignore the fact that i have a migraine, and that we are behind on blogging to say that we had a really fab ban holiday camping.

weather was excellent, camp site fab – with sea views and no midges!. great company. we loved our new tent, and the porch addition worked really well. we had a porch inner for our proper tent bit, and i noticed although it was a khyam ridgipod classic porch, it also had motordome classic badging, so poss good for both – for anyone else with a khyam! BTW the porch addition isn’t made for our tent, so a wind vent space – pics to follow – but worked v well and easy to put up!

our neighbours seemed v happy with their new tent, and certainly the outwell brand in general but i’ll let them say all that when they return on their blog! my new sleeping bag was truly fab, i never felt cold, and was in fact too warm on the last night ad de-layered!

we got there fri eve, and managed to pitch v quickly. SB placed and pegged out the groundsheet, put poles together and cliped them in, and was generally v helpful. bB handed out pegs and poles, and was potentially v helpful, though not quite if we didn’t actually immediately take them and use them! anyway, 30 mins saw tent up, and sleeping stuff allready, and since it was nearly 9pm… quick pasta tea then bed. next morning saw us adjust a few bits in the light…

we went to east runton beach. sunny but v blowy. SB got herself drenched in the sea after saying she wouldn’t so no need to swap skirt for sunsuit… chris made numerous runs across the pebbly/stony bit and up cliff on toilet runs. and we finally went back to campsite for lunch and arrival of the manor borns. As said, we were impressed with their new tent, it looks great. girls all played, including an ‘extra’ girl from a tent a space or 2 away [that is what i like about camping!]. BB is getting v proficient at like-a-biking. and the campsite had a handy concrete track bit on the nearly flat for her to whizz along just by our tent. also appreciated by the 3 bigger girls who all had scooters. the dynamics needed some tweaking, and unfortunately we hadn’t packed craft stuff for me to do with BB, and she wouldn’t be interested in any of the games, but the older ones were pretty good at including her, and i tried to give them breaks as well!

SB has restarted animal crossing – we wiped the last town!

nice curry tea and chatting till late. girls all dropped off successfully. perfect camping

next day weather was more variable. we got v blown about at the beach and abandoned. then went to cromer in pm, which the girls all loved as they got to go on some fairground rides. BB in particular was ecstatic by both bouncy castle and teacup rides. SB got far more bouncy castle opportunities when that age – must do better!! SB waited for ages for bb to stop bouncy castling so that they could both teacup together – aw what a fab big sis!

we goy blown around the pier, saw the crabbers and went back for another fab meal.

final day for us, and we went into sheringham for lunch out [at a v quaint local restaurant stuck in basil fawlty timewarp, but good food!] and then a ride on the steam train. scorching weather, so we should really have done the days the other way round, but we were sort of going with the fact that bbc and metcheck might be vaguely right weather wise! we all got hot and bothered. i in particular, as taking tent down in heat does not suit my constitution! final meal chez manorborn tent – yummy stirfry, and home.

i love camping. looking forward to festival of history, and must organise another weekend jaunt to norfolk coast – well, maybe more than one! other attendees more than welcome!

8 Comments

Posted in Butterbean, General, Out and About, Stringbean

blogchen

Posted on April 24, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

just a little one as i am seriously on edge – management meetings. i am just not the right type!

Anyway, the girls had a busy day, going to nots and tots, with a bit of french and a bit of latin amongst other things. SB did a piano practice as well.

when i got home they both wanted to do a craft, so some cards for fran are half made! Sb has used a stamping kit, and bB and i have done wax splodges so far. we had candles out for a bit of demonstrating that there was air and you can use it up.[bb is particularly keen on speriments] SB also did some maths. we all read a bit more of these baby french books [they are v much for 2's but they are quick, and we try and do a sentence with the words, today we were eating or not eating various foods!] SB and BB watched some how things work based on the DK books, which they both enjoyed [and yes, some MSB] . Sb playd some chess, and read some 3rd grade detectives books.

Leave a comment

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, language, literacy, music, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation

aargh, bb awake only 90 mins after SB to bed

Posted on April 23, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

hmm, i am trying to back flickr, blog, think about important meeting tomorrow at work etc etc, and multitasking is not compatible with BB awake. gorgeous though she is.

Anyway, we all got up, CHris to SB to drama, unfortunately he was running late and they went to the wrong venue. it is far enough away that there was much sighing! she got to half of it anyway.

meanwhile BB and I were having a much more satisfactory time. we started off playing silly games – hide and seek frog etc, then did some seed sowing. BB quite keen to do more experiments with seeds, so we have put some different ones to chit and we will see which one germinates first. [more details on gardening blog] after we had done that we did some ‘match and sort’ with singapore 1a. she enjoys this as v easy!! [though she did say she wanted to do SB's book...] and we read one of the very starter french books on colours again.

Still desperately keen to do ‘speriments, i got out an air book, so we saw how we could blow air on each other [degenerated a bit!] and then [b******, FORGOT ABOUT THE LINK THING AND JUST PUBLISHED. THIS IS WHERE I LAST SAVED!] i impressed myself with making some really good aeroplanes.

lunch and SB home. she wanted me to show her her piano hands afterwards, so we did a piano practce, then a violin. BB joined in the violin practice – always tricky! Both girls did afrench book with me on clothes and then ordered crystal experiments, so we set them up – very brave of me to handle chemicals with BB! SB read all the safety warnings v carefully. she remembered that we had hung the rock from string before, and wanted to repeat that, so we did.

Rainbows for SB – feels that there is no time for me in her current wed timetable, so will have to change that. A surprise visit by chris parents, so i made tea and dinner at the same time [grin] and got them to read [and i won't link this time!] Katie and the dinosaurs and Digging up dinosaurs. we then read a red nose reader together before she wanted to bake pink cupcakes with smarty eyes. so we did. SB returned in time for the lickings, and we said goodbye to grandparents.

Bath, tea, BB bed, SB playing in garden, me potting up seedlings. SB bed. Apprentice, apprentice you’re fired and BB awake. playing drawing birds and dinosaurs with BB and looking at flickr pics of her as a baby. the end!!

Leave a comment

Posted in Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, early maths skills, General, language, music, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation

wondrous weekend

Posted on April 21, 2008 by HHaricot | 1 comment

its the musical monday thing, it makes me feel all alliterative!

we did have a wonderful weekend though, as we went and stayed with the manor borns, went to st georges day at wrest park on the sat and geocaching and bird walk on the sun. i would link, but blog being awkward on those kind of things! so thanks to our host family
so, st georges day [actually don't even dare a bold!]. we were eonly 30 mins behind schedule, and although later than the manorborns, we were still one of the first arrivals. and no surprise because it was COLD. I felt v sorry for re-enactors and EH, as they must have made a massive loss. we still had fun though. SB and Chloe were actors in all 3 performances from rosie bottom and the variously named male actor [will ilink to their company eventually!]. they were excellent as usual, and the children all had great fun. SB giggled her way being lots of diff roles, and Chloe was a v proud horatio. I think they were the best bit of the day! Though actually the fire jugglers were great. SB had some fun dancing with some re-enactors, and also messing about with pikes etc. We watched some displays, and did some sheltering from cold and wet in the orangery. EH did a roaring trade in gloves and hats, and sold out! BB not so enthusiastic, so we spent quite a bit of time playing races around the rather beautiful gardens. kept me nice and warm anyway!

went back for dinner, cheffed in style by marcus. the girls played loads of games, and mostly kept themselves happy. following their bedtime, we played carcasonne with river, and really enjoyed that until 2!

so we were all rather subdued the next day! but did geocache walk – and found it! so our faith in marcus’s gadget using is undimmed. we then were going to do a customary walk around bird place, but decided to make it a bit shorter, like parental tempers! [i improved after flapjack]. lovely walk though, bluebells nearly out, lots of discussion on growing things etc, lots of bird sounds and some nice photos. we also eventually figured how to do that one game 2 ds thing [shame they have such hopeless parents, we did twitter, but none of the obvious experts twittered back, and we eventually had to be resourceful!]
home our separate ways, so we collapsed into a little chef as thought girls would keel over, and met the deependers having a similar thought following their warmer version of st georges day. car games there and back were in french – shouting out colours of cars!

1 Comment

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Just another Tuesday

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Daddybean | Leave a comment

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

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean, Daft Stuff, daubing and making, geography, literacy, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

i cheated, well, obviously i did!!

Posted on March 17, 2008 by HHaricot | 4 comments

musical mondays was written on sat and the timestamp editied so it posted today!

i certainly didn’t have time to blog yesterday – leaving the house at 9:30 and returning at midnight! it was a wildlife walk day with the people over at the manor born. we went specially early this time, as last time the carpark was full, and it was busy when we got there. needn’t have worried, the blustery rain had put off all but the hardy and foolish…

So we all met up, and set out. Marcus and I doing that couple thing of wearing the same [and it is!] waterproofs, and michelle and chris looked v fetching in their matching trews!! [yep, michelle went a la daddybean!] . girls togged in their muddypuddles [fab waterproofs!] and i need some new wellies.

both girls decided sensibly that they didn’t want to take pictures in the rain, so marcus and I took a minimal number for the seasonal changes thing we plan to do at the end of the year, Jaffa cakes and choc bikkies helped keep the sprits going – but actually it was v enjoyable, i like blustery, and the drizzle cleared. Marcus won the choc bikkie race – which he was v happy with.

the girls played and raced and generally very happy with the 0 birdwatching. i did insist that they look at the daffodils and the cherry blossom – rofl, and we were all a bit deflated by the plantation pond. BB thought it a puddle. these walks are such a fab idea – thanks michelle.

back to there house for yummy lunch [thankyou v much!], and lots of games, the girls, the adults , everyone with a board game and other game fun filled afternoon and evening – finishing at 10.30 when it became apparent that the children were officially tired, so we went home! before tht, numerous games of blokus, yahtzee [which chloe won! - SB and I enjoyed, and we made the girls tot up and multiply themselves - so education too!], really enjoyed carcassonne, cluedo for the kids.

i’ve taken so long to blog, that michelle has beaten me to it, so she has a great pic of BB on blog!