Category Archives: Out and About

rolling back the years

Posted on August 23, 2009 by | 4 comments

here is some background music for you… my dad had a dansette [which my sister blew up in our childhood] and we listened to this. aw, feeling sentimental and nostalgic again for lost times.

anyway, the morning start was rough. bb woke up just before 12, and so i took her and me into the spare room for what turned out to be 3 hours of not sleeping. aargh. i got up at 10, very slowly! but bless them, sb and bb made me breakfast in bed [i chose weetabix as a v simple choice!]. Actually, i will say here that sb has been trying v hard to be polite and considerate all day, and it is really lovely. please, thankyous and consideration make such a huge boost to the mood! i did get up, we let monsterrabs out, SB did some music theory, we got ready, and at 1 !! managed to leave the house!

we went to a 1940′s weekend and met up with merry. i did enjoy it, it had some really good bits to it. i loved the lindyhop tuition session, the jam sandwiches cafe, the various enactors – specific gold stars to the field nurse/red cross woman and also to the german telephonist for the patience, question answering and general enthusiasm for subject when being interrogated by us all! i loved the recon 40′s caravan too. there was a fab singer or 3 that i remember, singing lots of the classics my dad tried to tempt us over to the jazz dark side with [light swing things] , and some marching scots with bagpipes. we had a general wander, poked our noses at various things, oohed at some really ground hugging flying and aerial displays. the girls got 2 icecreams due to the baking heat, and we bought extra water out. I also loved the fact that so many visitors dressed to era as well. I wondered what my grandparents would have made of it really.

there were a few negatives – it is expensive, you can’t check on the website what is happening when, and the entrance is a bit, well, derelict! but a good day out was had! we finished off with a go on the minature fair. sb had a chair carousel ride – which was hand powered! BB hooked a duck, and they both hammered to hit the bell. so home with goodies too. fab!

chris under the weather, so went to bed on getting home. me and the girls cooled off in the pool, had some pasta and then failed to get bb to bed, and played the bean game with sb. still have migraine from overheating, and AM going to have an earlier night!

SB has been impressing me recently with coming out with lots of facts. obviously lots of things do sink in! she said its because she loves reading…

4 Comments

Posted in General, history, Out and About, vivien

SO, trying the new leaf

Posted on August 17, 2009 by | 5 comments

BB again had swimming, and was doing backstroke happily [with buoyancy aids]. Chris took SB to GP as cough doesn’t seem to be improving at all. only a nuisance when she laughs or lies flat, but last night i found a stethoscope and listened, and heard a number of creps! SO has antibiotics. she is well though, so ‘pneumonia’ conjures up a bit more of an alarmist position, so i am going to call it a chest infection…

Anyway, this didn’t stop her doing things, and when i got home from work she was finishing some maths and had done piano practice. BB did some maths with me, and we all went outside. monsterrabs was petted and made a fuss of, i read about the black death from SoTW2, and we all declared interesting. think i have some other books around this to pull out for SB. also read the first chapter from

which seems to have a bit of crossover with our island story with some of the alfred the great bits, and SB loved it. and we also did read together the first few pages of Handa’s Hen, a bilingual french book from little linguist [link in sidebar to fabulous language resource shop!!] and have added morning, afternoon, evening and night to our vocab. the one prob with these french books is the past historic tense they are written in! this is as we are really after learning vocab for conversation!, but as we are not in the position of declining verbs or anything, when we look at the french, i tend to pick out nouns and then transfer the verb to present tense as we would us it to talk so that hopefully the girls get used to the stem meaning something. BB is doing some decoding of cvc words at present, but as yet refuses to remember all the alphabet, so a bit hit and miss!!

much playing on the swings and in the garden whilst this going on, honestly SB is well!!

5 Comments

Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, language, little languages, music, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading

pah, a weekly blogger!

Posted on August 17, 2009 by | 1 comment

OK, so a new term is coming, and with that fresh leaf HE feel sweeping around parts of the blogring, not only will we try and do some HE and blog it [and chris, this means you too!] but also be positive and invigorating!

We have actually done some stuff this last week! SB has been on a level 2 sailing course. This wasn;t an unqualified success, as she had some major wobbles with swapping from side to side brought on by a head dunking on falling in. She has had a dreadful barking cough, and this made it worse. Anyway, the brave lass did carry on with the course, going back out onto the water to try some more, but on the last day just did fun sailing, so didn’t get her level 2. she knew she wouldn’t, but was still disappointed.

Meanwhile BB has been on a 2week learning to swim course [well, she is still on it] and is really enjoying it. they have even been in the deep end! This was obviously with a number of flotation aids! She is very proud

other excitements were visiting merry – always lovely, but this time with the added bonus of picking up a rabbit called monster. we will be calling it monsterrabs or mr to differentiate from friends’ child’s blog name! it has settled into life here, and is rather fetching!! as bb puts it, ‘i am rather keen on rabbits!’

We have done some arts and crafts – mostly with a space theme for the upcoming party, and some baking. Unfortunately, with SB under the weather, we have done far too much vegging in front of the tv watching dr who, narnia and assorted rubbish!! My general feeling of only just holding things together, and then not always quite is not really helping. Not quite sure how to improve this as surviving on willpower only really. hmm.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, Out and About, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Festival of History Camping Jolly

Posted on July 28, 2009 by | 4 comments

i love this, and think it is such a fab idea. really more people should join us!! the site has upped its shower and portaloo numbers further, and they were immaculate. we went camping at wicksteed park, joined by nic etc, jax etc and a brief portico. we got there in good time to tent up, eat, settle and get that holiday vibe. i was still migrainous, but standing – as it were! and SB – bless her – was really helpful putting up the tent. none of my children are perfect [just like their parents!] but i have to say how impressed i can be with SB’s thoughtfulness and helpfulness. nic was late, so got to stay in the guest wing of our tent – :lol:

Friday chris and girls went out to the park to have a go on some rides, and i joined them after a particularly bad shower when the migraine tabs kicked in – you know i really hate migraines. work takes loads of days out of my life, and then migraine attempts to decimate the rest. i just refuse to be ground down. i arrived to see them all on the carousel with rain pouring off the sides and just roared with laughter for the duration of the ride. i took BB, as neither of us are particularly keen riders!! and SB and chris gallivanted off. this tends to work well, with a few moments joined together, so i could watch SB and teeny be scary on the umbrella ride, but mostly BB wanted to play in the free park. we still have some of the ride tickets left from last year! i do love that wicksteed lets you carry these on. meant bb and i were ‘free’ effectively this year.

eventually we slumped off back to the tent, and jax and kids joined a bit later. SB demonstrated her helpfulness again putting the tent up [well, a bit of pegging anyway!] before all children ran amok. i got dinner started and had all 4 kids in the tent whilst jax and chris went off shopping. unfortunately the petrol ran out, and chris had the spare in the boot. darn! i earned my brownie helpfulness badge by rescuing a family [and their dog!!] and letting them wait in our tent for torrential rain to pass before they could put up their own. dinner did get cooked, friendly chit chat evening and then all up bright and early for kelmarsh

Saturday i was v excited this year, as noticed that instead of the trenches was an agincourt re-enactment. something a bit different hey! and so had planned to start the day with the siege of harfleur part 1. unfortunately an hour on the slip road scuppered that! but part 2 was fab, and i LOVED the raining arrows. thankyou thankyou the english bowmen! SB heckled harry, king of england AND FRANCE by suggesting he should, after all, hang the citizens of harfleur – where do they get this bloodthirtiness from?? thought he did v well with his speech and prancing on horse etc. once more into the breach indeed! so we chatted then to various re-enactors and then met up at the victorian beach and punch and judy. BB v happy with beach, SB with punch and judy, me with meeting up with friends, including unexpected ones from wales! SB wandered off to BZents – always a firm fav. we had already watched the robin hood one, and she went for what ho henry, with chris whilst i supervised BB jumping and playing with Shannon from going against the flow. they had a whale of a time.

SB specifically wanted to talk to people in tents and watch the jousting, so that is what we did, but she got taken by the boer war commentary, so we sat and watched that too. shame we didn’t get to see the balloon up, and we were all on the side of the plucky bitterienders, and discussed the meaning of concentration camp. one of the things i like about lifelong learning and wikipedia are the fact that i have just been whizzling around boer war sites for about an hour, and now know much more than before! it was not something that i had planned to watch, imagining it to be a bit jingoistic [it was], but have been glad that i did, as now have an increased understanding of that bit of history – something i guess festival of history wants to encourage!

anyway, we then hotfooted to the jousting arena, were entertained by peterkin the fool [very funny man] watched our french knight dress, and then really loved the joust. v different from previous jousts we have watched. SB entertained by the idea that there were 2 king henry’s on the field! BB was a grumpalump of immense proportions by this stage, but turning the buggy into a den kept her v entertained. after the joust i called it a day. it was very hot, and it was my first post migraine day, and i really didn’t want migraine to return! so back to wicksteed for dinner and children playing – not quite as smoothly, prob because all tired. Poor SB ended up on the wrong end of some of the fall out, and so i hugged her to sleep as she was all upset and washed out. She hadn’t been perfect to start with, but had had a fright. so she chose the secret garden for me to read to her to calm her down. i did point out that this book starts quite badly, and she said she knew, as listened to story cd. so we had more trauma, because she ‘needed’ to know who would look after her and BB, and would we ever forget they were there etc – i think not! just as i popped out to relax, became aware jax’s big unwell, so a mad dash to get them all packed and in car to drive off home. life is all go here!! did i say the portico’s had arrived?? they had guest wing facilities. :lol:

Sunday morning tent went down fine, the bigger kids went to park on their own – cue MASSIVE meltdown from BB. luckilly portico parent took pity on her and took her off to the park. we all finished detenting and set off for kelmarsh. no traffic at all, so got there pretty much at the same time. I was determined to bring back the legions, so singing the terry deary song we parked ourself infront of the excellent ermine street guard. we were initially with porticos, but ernest immed got stung by wasp – aargh! but ability to swallow nurofen helped. we loved the romans. sb again enthralled, bb not so. since bb so obviously not really wanting to re-enact, we often divided and conquered. we all mosied up to agincourt, talking to redcross and russians on the way. SB being pegged as a lad got offered far more guns to hold than she ever does as a girl :roll: . the weaponsmaster v patiently took them through 1 1/2 swords etc and both girls signed up for childrens drill. we admired the calligraphy.

children’s drill saw BB looking cute. she knew she didn’t have to do it, and just as i said to chris, i think that BB’s had enough and moved forwards, she burst into tears and ran into my arms. awww. i took her off to the craft tent whilst chris watched the rest of the drill, which sb enjoyed. was v impressed by the kaleidoscope craft. it was easy and it worked. on being joined by other family members we said hello to the deependers and then bought icecream and went to the beach~! BB had more fun in the sand, but SB was tempted by the dancers to join in georgian dancing. SB elected to watch another punch and judy, and BB to bob between that and the sand. our final plea from SB was to watch the parachute drop event, so we went down and did that whilst chris and BB stayed in the family zone. we had a good spot, and were impressed, as always, with the parachutes. from this vantage point also watched the grand parade, when the rain started. met up with chris and went via shop [pretty much all gone to bb's disgust] and finally home.

things i missed – the actual agincourt battle. the roman charioteers, the victorian gymkhana, the whole of the parade ground stuff and the archaeol tents. but i think we got loads out of it, again!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, noises and sounds, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

better day.

Posted on July 1, 2009 by | 2 comments

i worked hard today at trying not to let my total lack of tolerance be so obvious. was tricky in parts, but pretty much managed, and only suspected of nipping off for a breath/sob once. and we did loads of happy things together. starting with me having to get up way too early as chris dropped mondeo in for aircon refurb. after brekkie, we tidied up the playroom, sb read Cinderella: Level 1: Learn French Through Fairy Tales [With CD] (Slangman Kids: Level 1) rather well to BB. it doens’t have a good write up on amazon, and wasn’t what i expected, but sb likes to read it, and although it has perhaps 10 words in french in it, we count it!!! SB then did some maths, where it appears she has suddenly completely lost the plot wrt to long multip and division. it took her ages!!!

BB chose to do some art out of First Book of Art she started with the fingerprint dragon – which looked really fab when she had finished, and then moved onto the paper elephant. this was incredibly over the top, with glued jewels and feathers. she had a great time. when sb finished her maths, she moved onto this art book Art Treasury and chose the project to emulate the great wave at kanagawa by hokusai, which i think worked really well. she drew waves onto polystyrene, then when happy with design, she the dug out channels in the polystyrene. she mixed up some blues, and then used the polystyrene like relief printing woodcut. obviously it worked so well that BB did it too, so we discussed related ideas of prints/engravings and got messy!! had a great time doing this.

After lunch we went out to an event organised by Michelle, and met some old and new HE people, and the children ran about having great – and noisy – fun! this was the cloth place, and a revisit for the girls, although new to me. i had my map on me in case we got lost, and on the park and ride in, sb was charged with following its route to make sure we got off at the right place [tho the get off is v obvious!!] she really enjoyed following the road names, roundabouts etc and did it v well. training her up as next mapreader in the family. we were early so they got to have an icecream treat. as well as a park and ride treat – which they always like! was a lovely, and v noisy, session!! got to do a bit of chatting, but for quite a while played with bb. loved the sarcophagus and snakes [not maggots]. SB suggested to them an ice exploratory would be fun – ice sculpture, melting and freezing etc! needless to say, bb fell asleep on the way home. we got sb late to brownies, but they were mostly messing about in the sun or sticking pictures – as she was hot and bothered she went for sticking pics. and i collared brown owl who accepted the list of 10 brownie badges, but doesn’t have most of them.

bb came home and bounced and messed about in the paddling pool. i was allowed to stick my feet in and read book, but then my feet took up too much space – !! – and i had to just watch [read book] and then we started to make a fimo copy of a henry moore family group bronze – all bb’s idea, and only in the starting bit – will be v interested to see how it turns out. SB had judo, and we all went along at the end for the certification, as she now has the yellow/white.

so, phew, that is our hot day!

Books!!
oh, i am reading these, on load from merry. i am really enjoying them.

in return i have sent The Other Queen which is ok, tho not the best of her work [nor the worst, i actually threw one of her books away], and this Azincourt , which i really enjoyed and would recommend, i enjoyed his arthur series The Winter King a lot as well. oh and also book 2!The Valley of Horses (Earth’s Children)

2 Comments

Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, language, little languages, numeracy, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

difficult me

Posted on June 30, 2009 by | 2 comments

i had a compassionate leave day again today. work are being rather excellent and i am head in sanding about how much chaos this will cause. i will only have taken 4 days in the end for 2 deaths, so i guess i am not being too bad. but i am finding it hard not to grump and growl quickly. i have no tolerance, and am being crap unpredictable mum. aargh. i could at least use this time to be good mum.

anyhoo, i had a lie in/peace to reflect whilst chris and girls went to the library. bb did the craft thing making suns, and loads of new books. on return i was ready to interact. so we cuddled, bb watched her new vid, sb and i did some french and piano practice. after lunch they both got out their brainbox kits. sb ecstatic to make a mw radio and listen to tennis. also made a microphone. out to bb’s footie. her coach is v gentle with her. however after about 1/3 of lesson she was too hot and bothered and came out. sb did some nvr and read about alexander graham bell -one of her favs. the she taught bb to play duck duck goose, involving her shrieking ‘goose me bb, goose me’!!! giggle :lol: . another soon to be ex-homeducator was there. she home-edded for a temp purpose and it clearly was ace for her daughter, so congrats in order. she did point out there seemed to be huge amounts of fluff and waffle in the taster days! sb swimming – she is v good at backstroke. back home to icecream, ken hom and bed!

2 Comments

Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, investigating, language, music, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE

A Funny Old Week

Posted on June 20, 2009 by | 9 comments

Well, I guess with Helen away most of the week in Italy ata conference it was never going to be a normal week, but still. I had vagur idea that I would try to keep the week fairly empty, have a relaxed time, get some housey jobs done etc. But was not to be.

Funeral

Monday was my Uncle Robert’s funeral, and we were all going.  My Dad has stopped driving now, as it is just too painful for his arm to steer the car. A tad annoying really when you onky functioning arm stops functioning properly. So I hired an MPV to take us all , plus my neice Liana down to the funeral.

I relalised on the Sunday, that I didn’t really have anything to wear, at least in the legwear stakes. So headed to Tesco first thing on the way to get car to find something. Ended up with a suit, which was fine, except that in the shop it just looked black/grey next to all the others. In the daylight when I  it was a more browny colour, nice enough, but not quite what I had intended. Ah well.

Funeral was, in the context of funerals, good. Some affecionate and moving speeches from a Son-in-law and a couple of other people who knew him well. Some proper hymns to have a good sing to (if you are going to go to church I really think you need to have some proper hymns to sing) and a few hugs and tears. SB managed fine. BB mostly sat on the floor of the pew and coloured, but she was tired, and started to complain of being hot etc. in the church. But didn’t want to go outside with Helen, but fell a sleep after a bit.

The coffin was wrapped in a big picture of a steam train, and the organist played the theme tune to Thomas the Tank Engine at the commital at the crematorium – get the theme here :-)

He was a good man, with a strong faith. It does seem sad that after waiting years for a grandchild they probably had given up on getting, he only got to spend a couple of years with her. If you are somewhere else now Uncle Robert, I hope it is as good as you would have hoped it was.

After refreshments I had to take Stringbean over to Birchanger Services where I handed her over to Michelle. She was going to stay with them for 2 nights whilst she did a Sailing training course. I then headed back to my Aunts house for a bit. Took Helen to the tain station so she could go and stay in some posh hotel room at Heathrow. Eventally the remnants of the party headed back to our house, where we all went to bed pretty much straight away.

Tuesday

More driving about.

Took hire car back, did a bit of shopping, had hair cut, sat in cafe and drunk coffee, read The Gruaniad without any children - bliss :-) Home to find Butterbean has been spending Grandads money. Take parents and liana back to their house. stay there until time to take BB to her football class. True to form she did manage to somehow knock her head within the first 10 minutes – so ws of woith an injury having a cuddle.
But did convince her to go back and do some more . She almost finished the rest, but stopped part way through the short game they have at the end. She doesn’t like this bit as she can hardly ever get the ball, and if she does it gets tackled away fro her in no time. So basically runs around a bit and then gets bored :-)

Had dinner at the cafe there, a bit of TV and then bed for her. SB rang up from the Old Manor, upset becuase she had bashed her toe (a classic SB-ism) and wanted to come home. This wasn’t really that practical as they are an hours drive away and there was just me, and anyway I expected her to get over it and she did it sounds like. I guess this is something you need to learn to deal with really.

Wednesday

Out again. via the Park and Ride, where we met the Patch of Puddle gang on the bus, and then were reunited with SB in town. We were going to The Cloth Place, a project by Big wide Talk, the took over 2 floors of a lovely old building, that was a shop. Filled it with all sorts of cloth things – animals, vegtables, food, various props, and the kids get to use it how ever they want as long as they don’t hurt each other and repsect the stuff. I forgot the camera but borowed Michelle’s. She has been more organised than me and posted some piccies.

It was great fun :-) Afterwards we had a picnic in the park, including a good strop by BB as she chose a drink, and then wanted to change it after it had all been paid for and I said no. We then went to the Archaeology museum, which I’ve not been to before. And had an interesting hour there.

Then back on the bus to head home, SB to brownies and general flopping abolut until dinner and bedtime.

Thursday

Yup out again. Kids all tired, and not wanting to get up.  Off to Tots and Nots, only really went becuase it was the 3rd and last of three sessions that SB has done on philosophy. They were finishing early as they were off to the Coth Place again. Then into the car, and the hour or so’s drive to my parents to leave them with BB. A short time there, then off again to take Sb to gym. They have started building work there and there isn’t much space on the balcony anymore so rather than be hot and squashed I popped into town, a little bit of shopping and another peaceful coffee :-)

Home dinner, played a game with SB, a bit of TV and bed.

Friday

Not out :-)

SB has commented that she gets given stuff to do while we do something else (!).  With all the other boring stuff of life that get in the way and never seem finished (housework, washing etc. etc.) I find myself ending up putting stuff off with them, so decided not to spend today tidying the house (sorry H) and spent mucho time with SB whlst BB was awayPottered about in the morning, a modicum of housework, reading and playing a game with SB, plenty of music practice. SB cooked lunch, where she learnt how to cook scrambled egg on toast. Then we spent all afternoon working on a project she has been wnting to do for the last few weeks. I won’t say what as it might give the game away for someone, but involved much sawing and nailing and gluing.

Once we had finished what we could, we needed to get a couple of bits, so off to the DIY shop. Then we decided to find somewhere to ahve dinner for a treat. Realised that we don’t go out in the evening much and din’t really know what was around that would have things SB might like. But found a pleasant Italian place, and a dinner with just the two of us, which was also rather pleaant.

Home, to SB’s bed time and me trying to blog a bit of the week, which I’ve managed just about  – shock!!

Shortly we are off to get BB, then this afternoon it is the carnival procession. SB is on the Brownies float and I think she might be doing a ballet display. Helen should be back homw sometime this afternoon as well :-)

9 Comments

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, General, music, Out and About, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean

riding along on my pushbike

Posted on June 6, 2009 by | 24 comments

well, that was then plan, well, plan B. plan A had been to go camping in derbyshire this weekend and play about on bike rides there. With the death of Uncle Robert, we didn’t really feel right to go on holiday. Mind you, having planned to go camping, i didn’t look at anything else, and now realised we have missed strawberry fair – again! oh well!!

we got up, got ready, got in the car, drove out of the drive, drove back into the drive and then attached the indicator/reg plate thingy. :roll: but we did get going, and went to thetford. TBH, i feel nervous about cycling after all this time. this prob is silly [after all, i survived cycling in london for 7 years!], but i wanted to wibble and wobble off road, where we could stop in the shade, and find something interesting to comment on and do, and no sense that we had to get from a to b or go round something. and where if my unfitness was too dreadful, that i didn’t need to feel mortified!

so, anyway, we got there, nearly died when it seemed that parking was nearly 10 pounds!! shrugged, and got on with it. we had a picnic lunch, twiddled and fiddled with the bikes, and set off on the 6 mile family route. it says this is a really easy family route for beginners etc, but , as you will read, it isn’t exactly.

we identified a problem early on. bb is incapable of going a steady speed, watching where she is going, or even going in a vaguely straight trajctory for any length of time. both sb and i did emergency stops early on. chris didn’t, and was the first cycling accident, obtaining a war wound, which we all decided to ignore. and then we got to the path :lol: it was very sandy, and very sandy means very easy to skid and slip. and so they did! alot! so we did about 50m at a time. no worries that i might look foolish or out of breath there was there! by the time i had got on bike, i was off, hugging a wailing child. SB had got new pedals with clippy bits, and she didn’t like them. BB at least didn’t mind falling into the sand. luckilly chris brought tools with him, as SB managed to turn her wheel right round and wedge it with one fall, and bb managed to push her wheel and handlebar out of alignment with another :roll: finally we had bb on the trailgator – and another stop to sort out the alignment of that and we were really off. i think at this point we had done 15 mins cycle and 40 mins pause! the next stop was a mercy mission as i stopped a dad going past whose trailgator was on so badly that the child was almost sideways. chris fixed that too. lots of kids, and even some adults were skidding/falling in the sandyness. so yes, it was mostly flat, and an easy trail to follow, but not an easy trail to ride.

We had a single hilly bit and stopped at the top for chocolate and refreshment, having actually managed a cycle. sb was being grumpy, so we decided her blood sugar was too low, so fed her and made her drink! it did the job. we saw a couple of despondant families turn back, as this was only a third way round. we looked on the map, found a ‘shortcut’ down a firebreak and forest road, and had the best bit of cycling! not sandy, a bit flinty at times [another sb fall] and even bb came off the trailgator and cycled happily all the rest of the way – about another 2 miles – and we did this bit happily and quickly. so next time would try and avoid the sandy bit!

I got brave enough to adjust the height of the saddle to the correct position, rather than worrying i needed to put feet on the floor. and i also really enjoyed it, and i was right about being crap going uphill – so def more no pressure rides for me first!

we had icecreams back at base. SB was really jealous of those on go ape, and so they played in the adventure park for an hour or so until we left. a chippy pick up since it was late and we were hoping kids might be tired enough to extract from car to bed [nope, slept all the way, woke up at home and now really irritating me!] and had it a carpark which is free, and you can join the cycle trail from after the sandy bit [i guess that will be where we are parking again - though actually we did get the parking free at high lodge anyway due to being so late out and jools holland concert goers arriving.]

so that was our first cycle outing, and we all enjoyed it.

24 Comments

Posted in General, Out and About, SB-PE

bamboozled

Posted on June 1, 2009 by | 2 comments

we went on a jaunt to london today [yes, i took an annual leave day!] to see the LSO in action as they whizzed around the world. we really enjoyed it. early start from the manor instead of ultra-early from ours! got to meet her friend B and R again – which was lovely. and got to chat more this time. the girls played in the water at the barbican, nearly getting drowned, and only not on the promise of being able to play again afterwards.

The concert was really enjoyable, and SB said she really loved it, did wish that we had had Ode to Joy so she could have recordered, as we didn’t – i hadn’t managed to def work out whether we would or wouldn’t. she liked seeing the harry potter music she said, as she could see who made the wind whirl. [lovely way with words]. she was grumpy with me for only playing her winter before :roll: BB wasn’t quite so sure. she enjoyed the first 2, found petroushka a bit harder to deal with [as anticipated] and went out in bamboozled. we might try a family one/key stage 1 and see how she does. me, i just loved the jumping sheep in candide…

glad to see so many friends – when your friends are e-friends more often than not, it is lovely to catch them in the real. and actually, we have had a social may for catching friends in the real – june will seem really weird in comparison! and thanks to the organiser. well done!

2 Comments

Posted in General, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, socialisation

off the path for the weekend

Posted on May 25, 2009 by | 9 comments

i don’t know about off the path, but thinking we might need an off road vehicle for next year!

we had a fabulous weekend off the path with friends, camping in the back field with our new tent. the children all had a fabulous time. SB blending in and out of various girl combinations on the whole [there gets less and less boy/girl crossover as the years go on. i guess this is normal] and BB having a fab time, particularly with J and M hosts and R. we adults also got plenty of time to gossip with our friends, drink pimms and enjoy J’s errr, rather eclectic musical taste :wink: which at one point got me and another parent to jump up to see which child was being murdered!! [tho thanks for the addition of plainchant, and another err to lovely mozart turning into wombles!!].

the children did a variety of outdoorsy activities. SB going on a walk as soon as we arrived, and returning completely drenched – she sat in the stream!! on another stream visit she must have been body surfing down it, the state she was in on return! BB also enjoyed visiting the stream, and also playing with J in the paddling pool. we obviously got through a fair number of clothes changes! neither of them participated in the caberet which i enjoyed compering, and listening to the ever increasing musical talent of friends’ children

the absolutely glorious weather was totally fabulous, though didn’t really give the new tents there much of a testing – as J and J’s are the HE equivalent of a wind tunnel test for tents! We were v pleased with ours though, and think that it will do the expected job. A tight squeeze but poss with all in the inner, chris happy to sleep in the outer, nice and warm, but we are still presuming the stability.

The Babs and I enjoyed playing my birthday game. i know various others thought we were slightly on the weird side, but no change there! and anyway, i can’t knit or crochet! lots of kids interested in the game, and lots of other games going on. good for the brain! i did also get to piano duet with J also, which was excellent fun.

sad to leave such a fab weekend.

we made a break on the way home at Bolsover castle and were pleasantly surprised to find it a re-enactment day. the children initially didn’t seem much interested, as they were v taken by the castle itself, bB declaiming loudly ‘ i LOVE it’ as she walked round. we topped to bottom it before watching the last bit of the re-enactment – a tourney. unfortunately i had read the leaflet quickly and promised a joust, so had to apologise. an icecream seemed to help! though there were a few spots of rain, it mostly held off. On getting back to the car, the girls declared hunger of such levels that perishing was imminent, so we bought a take-away pizza and ate it in the car as the heavens opened.

home and the house still standing – always a bonus. now just to get through the next working week! as a catch up, we did have the joy of my mum visiting briefly friday into saturday, and helping with the pre SOTP baking. i am busily trying to catch up on flickr [feels like a doomed enterprise!] and also blogs.

Many thanks to our hosts for a fab weekend, lovely to see them and loads of friends to relax in the sunshine.

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Posted in history, Out and About, socialisation