Category Archives: art and crafts

Sciency Saturday and Sales Sunday

Posted on March 15, 2009 by | 1 comment

I guess i should do a small sum up of the week before – loads of hama beading! [i mean loads! serious inroads into the stock!] gym for both girls, a ‘big paint’ session at an HE group – which was lobbing paint covered tea bags at paper, which i believe degenerated into a brown splodgy mess!! but great fun was had! A visit to the puddles [forgetting to take Ams lily doll or to pick up our tent pod!!] and then some tidying. SB has been regularly doing her piano practice as well.

SO sat was an early start to get up and out to go to a science festival. we weren’t TOO far behind schedule, and pretty much immediately ran into the manor borns who were off to here some more of george’s adventures George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt which they very kindly got a copy for us too. We had a shorter day planned, suitable for all ages! so we started off in chaos science, and found that so fabulous that we were there for 2 hours!! we looked at bones, and bb was extremely careful with the fragile lizard one, although the student was clearly terrified she would break it! we looked in microscopes, made explosions, looked at dna, yeast, chemicals, electric circuits, light experiments and body stuff. SB was enthralled and loved all of it. by the end she was even voluntarily asking questions! she also had severe lab envy – rofl. BB spent a bit less time in there and then decamped to the zoolology museum, and made a bat mask. SB and i joined them, with sb doing a wildlife trail along the way. what a fab little museum. not been there before! we also did some of the outside things before meeting up with the manor borns. we had a chat about morning so far, chloe made off with SB to the funghi tent, and from there we dragged her off home. we saw grit and gritlets across the tent, but since we were rushing off, it seemed a bit too much like cyberstalking to say hello – even though michelle there to introduce! maybe another time, if more time to actually say hello. there were loads of other places to go on our list of possibilities, and will see more next year!

SO back home, and just in time to welcome our weekend visitors – nattyem, E and R. Girls started off playing games of varying natures and then settled down to make a book, this took quite a while, as an illustrated cat book. then some bookmarks. the played a variety of games after tea. we parents played agricola – always fun, i do like that game – and eventually chased the girls to bed approaching midnight.

the next day, the girls finished another book, and after breakfast set up a stall on our drive to sell the 2 books and various bookmarks. they discussed their selling strategy, and organised their display etc etc and were v dedicated, finally selling 4 bookmarks for 20p each to complete strangers! they bought some sweets with their proceeds and all seemed v happy. lots more playing, mostly outside, including pond dipping and filling up the bird feeders before they set off home. it was lovely seeing you!

BB has been flaking since, watching the clangers, and SB also, ds-ing away. Both are now in bed, and feel they have had a fab weekend

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Posted in art and crafts, General, investigating, music, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

definitely awake!

Posted on March 9, 2009 by | 12 comments

we have had a busy and productive day here chez haricot. i had today off work – yippee!! and having worked the weekend, decided to use it well – ie stay at home. really i should have gone into town and done some fairly urgent banking stuff, but don’t know where the forms are :roll:

SO we thought we would start with a bit of normals. SB keen to show me she had moved onto the next piano piece [i am trying to play this v cool - cf violin!] and she has played it v nicely. BB was a tad jealous, so brought me her maffs to do – so we did that, and SB went onto Junior English Book 1 [we are doing this in tiny bites so on 1.5! but we are at least considering things]. I suggested that for the galore park, that although i am unbothered by her spelling elsewhere, she might want to use the dictionary to spell things for this [cue wails as couldn't find circus]. bb and i did jigsaws and then a marble run and sb did some maths – see we have been productive! then we had lunch :lol:

both girls wanted to do some science, but ‘on their own’ and bb chose to investigate magnets and sb an eino burglar alarm that she has done before. after this they fancied craft. BB chose air drying clay and initially made more fossils. SB looked at a Middle Ages Activity Book (Crafty History)
and chose to play 3 mens merrels. we decided it was a fun game, so she has made a board and counters out of air drying clay too. then they have both spent ages sticking jewels into air drying clay as middle ages treasures!!

Now BB is watching magic school bus and SB is at ballet. plan to make some scones when chris comes back with cheese. actually chris been gone a while – might have forgotten and gone into hayloft. hayloft currently has a dead animal aroma [something of a concern] so he is investigating!

edited to complete! we made cheese scones – yummy – as planning to visit science museum wed unless things go pear shaped! BB did a short nice recorder practice and then a v long hideous one, so banned to the stairs!! SB grumpilly did 5 mins recorder practice, and then decided to make up music for me to copy, and then made up some more etc etc so did about 40 mins in the end!! i love the fact she is so unthinkingly confident about making it up, and also often modal rather than modern tonal. much reading – she is working through the roald dahl books she happily got for her birthday.

BB was particularly spectacularly ‘not tired’ at tea tonight and after screaming and shrieking in the pantry for about 10 minutes while we all pretended she didn’t exist, came back and let me feed her before falling asleep at the table – so not tired! tho she woke up and pretended she had been pretending and was again not tired, so we got the whole rigmarole 2ce!

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, investigating, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

Reminiscence

Posted on March 8, 2009 by | Leave a comment

reading Jax’s brightkites made me peer back into this blogs history, and read our moving story. actually was moving, and i felt all forlorn again over leaving our circle of friends and family up north. we have a new circle here, and i would say we are settled, but it takes me a lONG time to actually feel fixed, and the future of where i work still isn’t certain!

i have been at work, and chris took the girls swimming, which they always love. we would get more of a weekend swimming routine, but seem to fill the weekends up! when i returned, SB was transfixed by the ds, playing super mario bros and then spore for quite a long time. BB and I painted some farm frames, and then bb took some photos and we printed them off. SB managed to drag herself away from the ds to make a flower fairy from the present from BB [Fairies: Petal People You Make Yourself (Klutz)] which she did really carefully and enjoyed. so good present BB!

they did some arguing over sylvanians they want to get next – :roll: i told them that it was even worse hearing them argue over something that wasn’t going to happen then their normal arguements! Chris and i [and bb] watched a really harrowing lion programme where most of the cubs gradually died from starvation… SB chose to do a really long piano practice instead!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, music, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

young anatomists club

Posted on March 4, 2009 by | 4 comments

this is a brief blog [probably!] as i have loads of work related stuff i need to do every evening at the moment. :cry:

but today we had lovely latinetc. SB says the latin was lovely but she wants to do a lot more [i think katy does so much that she is v lucky as it is!] so i suggested that we do a bit in between. not sure that was so well appreciated! she loved the bells with gina [sorry that we hadn't practiced the hand stuff, it only seems 2 seconds since the last one!] and had fun with the anatomy t shirts. i had got felt and body part templates. the littlies had theirs cut out apart from A and K, and it was clear that cutting out took way too long [and BB having a total tantrum melt at the beginning was not entirely helpful for my patience levels!] luckilly, my teaching assistant helped cut out, and we got all the bits stuck on – i think we need to sew them a bit if they want to last though. we also looked at the bones, which were bendy – i left that to my teaching assistant though too [aargh :blush: because i was trying to be quick as their were time constraints, i forgot to go back outside at the end and bin the bones - really sorry]. they would prob be even better if left another fortnight. the t-shirts looked cool though. merry did a lovely fimo dinodoor craft, and BB was ecstatic!

returned to here with Merry and girls, and fran and I practiced her piece, [stress on sight reading accompanying part!] but it went well, we ran through it lots of times, and fran got happier with it each time, so we vidded it for her to refer to in practice. hopefully she will smile more! the other kids played together, BB and J seem to finally be noticing each other in a play possible manner, and SB and M seem to be far more pally recently. we moved onto playing with watercolours, trying to see how they worked and doing brushwork. sort of from Watercolour (Klutz), but a lot from merry, who actually knew how to use them [i cannot believe how little i know about art!!]

evening wobble about sick relatives and work stresses [in the awful mode] and so bailed out of going for an extremely expensive meal in a very very nice restaurant that i have already paid for :roll: at my silliness.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, little languages, music, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

wonderful friend filled weekend

Posted on March 1, 2009 by | 10 comments

i am getting a bit stressy about something work related, so it was wonderful to have such a busy weekend with negligible time to sleep!! Sat SB went to the young astronomers club for the first time, and really enjoyed it. she did point out that they wouldn’t ever get to see the stars because it was in daytime – amazing bit of sense!! it was based around the royal astronomers i think. chris helped out by being the timer, and read his paper.

bB and i had an adventure, and went into town [by bus having found the bus stop eventually] and then wandered around the ‘dinodoor museum’ which she loved. she partic loved spotting fossils with a passing resemblence to ammonites and belemnites and saying v loudly, ooh we have those! there is an elasmosaurus [well i think that is what it is, might be a pleiseosaur] and she thought it looked like a fab jigsaw and she wanted to be a dinodoor bone person when she grew up. The museum has quite a few books in its hands on bit, and so we read a number i have in my amazon basket! The Birth of the Earth (Cartoon History) The Day of the Dinosaurs (Cartoon History) The Rock Factory: A Story About Rocks and Stones (Science Works) Monster Stones: The Story of a Dinosaur Fossil (Science Works). the last 2 i could read to BB as is, but the first i simplified a bit. we went into the shop, and she spent christmas money on a bag of gems and a bouncy ball with a dinosaur pic in it. these have made her overwhelmingly happy, and she has clutched those gems everywhere. Also a haematite ring present for SB.

BB and I totally failed to find the bus stop leading back out of town, so chris picked us up! we went to diff bits [as i had no map] and when finally did meet up, in a blinding something of fate, there was the bus stop! well, i know now!

we bought a picnic lunch and headed off to the RSPB place. BB was cold, as it was colder there, and we didn’t have enough layers, so wrapped her in a blanket while we ate. The manor borns arrived, ate a bit and we set off. bB declined to wear any extra layers, but ran about happily. we did do BB’s favourite walk, which is the quarry one, and prob my favourite too. it is the longest walk, though we did a ‘shortcut’. We started with a talk with the ‘birdman’ who identified the call of a nuthatch for us, and the shew us 2 treecreepers. we climbed the usual climbing tree and scared the birds from the bird hide and then raced around the quarry. actually, we didn’t race at all, there were that many diversions, looking at things and sitting thinkings that i did wonder if we would get round in the daylight!! but we did, and i really enjoyed it.

moved to the manor for tea and conversation. BB pootled reasonably happily on her own, using michelle mercilessly to get her things that she then abandoned! [though did a good geomag twirler] SB and C played lots of games together, finally settling on Ravensburger Labyrinth Game. it was too cloudy to go to a possible astronomy evening, to the disappointment of the older girls. We cheekily did a masterchef critique of both main course and pudding, but i have to say how lovely it i to have effort lovely expended for us.

today the girls did the birthday cards and that actually took all morning :roll: and so we were late to the party :roll: , :roll: but i won’t expand!! was a lovely birthday party at the deependers, and loads of muddlepuddle/blogring friends and local friends. Pah to home educated children not getting to socialise. its stopping them and getting them to do their maths that can be the problem [as g and I giggled to each other]. lots of party games, party food and 4 fabulous cakes!! SB gave the v lovingly made dolly cloak to L. all cut and sewn by her, so truly a labour of love. we went back to the deependers for a spot of tea and cake [more cake!!] before the children got noticeable enough to be shepherded into the car and home!

PS, sorry for nearly making Katy vomit describing BB’s awful book, and also if you think you may have been caught speeding, you can check here

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

read the most dreadful book

Posted on February 28, 2009 by | 1 comment

BB insisted that I read this at bedtime

it made me feel so sick!! all those bogeys! and i had to alter names, as she would have gone on so about fartin martin and tom bum!! hmm!!
but there are some kids i know who would find it v amusing! and it is an easy to read kind of book, unless you are squeamish like me [but not chuckling BB!!]

otherwise today with chris, his parents came round with presents, there was evidence of geomags and games when i got home, and also a spot of painting with the acrylic paints from baker ross!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, investigating, Stringbean's HE

party week!

Posted on February 24, 2009 by | 2 comments

this week does seem a bit busy! there are 3 family birthdays on sequential days, one of which also pancake day, and then a friendly family party at the weekend. we are also having visitors tues and wed – so v sociable. i think i need sociable at the moment. a glass of wine and some opportunity to be not me as it were!!

good news is that the GP has now agreed that i am high risk, and is initially requesting an appt at the geneticists re the various familial breast ca genes, and also, if no joy, would support a request for a bilateral mastectomy – though sounds scarily drastic, so would want to make sure i ponder this rather than knee jerk. A bit weird, because the only thing i think of when i think of a bilat mastectomy is that i couldn’t breastfeed again, and i really enjoyed breastfeeding. :roll: as this is not really likely to be an issue! it was the nice [male] GP rather than the annoying female one that assumes everything is my fault because i am fat!!

hmm, the girls were busy whilst i was at work. SB did some piano and some handwriting, as well as make a fimo present for chris. bB, well, bB’d!! when i got home, BB and chris went out for cycling practice and SB and i looked at her eggsperiment. v weird!! the egg lost its shell and felt quite unnerving. we then looked at a Rainforest Adventure (Code Master) book she has loved in the past, and she really loved it again!! we worked out the code again – i surprised myself by remembering it though :lol:

when BB came back, we decided to see whether our shell-less egg would bounce, unfortunately it went splat!! i think great experiments are remembered by the failures!! anyway, we put the remaining no-shell egg in water and have seen it gradually swell up. so proven that the shell is the waterproof bit.

hmm, I went to gp [see before] Sb and BB cycled off to ballet for SB and park playing for bb and I made SB’s cake. the girls were a bit wild on return, and didn’t manage to settle infront of that salmon documentary. BB ended the day spectacularly with the amazingest tantrum so far of her life wrt to going to bed. she was still tantrumming about being not tired when she fell asleep… horrible. todays sb game was uno.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, geography, investigating, music, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

fossilised daleks

Posted on February 19, 2009 by | 2 comments

what a fab title! today was latinetc, and we should have been on time, but a section of the road we were travelling down was being lifted up, and it was only when we got to the front of a several mile tailback that we found this out. harrumph.

As usuall SB enjoyed the latin – and apparently did know more than one word! and loved the music and bells, and was trying to tell me all about the hand signals – is that the doh a dear stuff? thanks gina for link!] the littlies started with a fimo workshop from Merry, where they made snowmen. BB was most happy, and impressive snowmen turned out by all. we then did science. we have put chicken bones in jars of vinegar and sealed, and in 2 weeks will see what has happened. we discussed the properties of bone, what it might be made out of, and then made wild guesses about what might happen to it in the vinegar. A little segue, and i got out some of our fossils – a lot of belemnites, some gryphea and some ammonites. much impressed by ancientness – though obviously the many stones in the garden they have touched are ancient also!! [could side track into ramble on relativeness of ancientness]. we looked at pictures of what it is imagined they looked like, different ways fossils are made and then we got to work making our own fossils out of air drying clay, real or imagined! when i did the bigger group, pretty much along the same lines, but with more detail J had fossil designers block. I suggested instead he could contemplate what might be fossilised today for the future. so he as done a dalek! rofl!! I had in my head that i would get loads of ammonites, trilobites and a few extras, but i should have known that this group has their imagination always on!!

an interesting aside, is that we always have some free questions and answerings in science, and the biguns surprised me by asking about madeleine mccann, and the evidence her parents killed her. I am of the opinion that they didn’t, and that there is no evidence to say otherwise. we talked about how it focuses minds of parents to keep children safe, and not leaving them completely unsupervised, however ‘free’ it might seem. they then moved onto shannon, it is always an honour to hear a group of children discuss these things with you as an equal. i do wonder whether some of them knowing about the current consultation has perhaps kickstarted some thinking.

some fab playing, some french games for the littlies – bb now doesn’t have a problem with staying glued to me, which is nice! BB found a newt in the garden, which she thought was a toy [like her stretchy lizards!] but C then took charge, and all the children got to hold and have a look before it was released into mud world. BB was quite liberally covered in mudworld…

SB was getting a bit worn though, as she wasn’t at her best [though this has meant lots of bonus cuddles for me, always nice!] but she had a bad night on mon, so i slept with her last night, and she did wake and stir most of the night [so not so good for me! but it did settle her more quickly]. SO for once she asked to go home, and so we did. Some of the group were moving on to a museums thing, and we had considered going, but SB was too fragile really for crowds and tramping about.

Merry and co came back with us, as she had a late pass!! and a bit more fimo-ing was done by the children – another fab snowman by BB. She really has quite an eye for detail, and is keen to get things right. playing around and about. but merry’s girls had loved the music at melrose, and were keen to repeat, so a quick sort out of merrily we row, and off we went! a full house of players. J is obviously another keen glockenspiel player, BB had SB’s violin, she recordered, and Merry, ahh, she brought a viola. it was fab. we will hopefully keep this going, and perhaps this will enthuse and encourage.

BB went to bed without too much wailing [ok, i fib slightly] chris read The Beagle with Charles Darwin (Inside) to SB, and she carried on, having really enjoyed it. we are looking forward to Darwin and Evolution for Kids: With 21 Activities: His Life and Ideas (For Kids Series) and The Evolution Revolution arriving. talking of arrivals, my rspb order arrived with ripped packaging – sigh – so now going to get a replacement. the felt also arrived ready for next latinetc.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

That was then, this is now

Posted on February 16, 2009 by | 9 comments

hmm, have delayed writing this blog post to see if would be uplifting a cheerful! sorry. i feel a bit worse than a ham sandwich – and that is a pretty bad thing for a vegetarian

yesterday my mum and dad brought little nanny to visit. it was lovely to see them, but she has got noticeably frailer in the last month since i saw her. the lump over her breast and collarbone is clearly the start of a fungating cancer, though she doesn’t really want to admit this, or consider any treatment options. i have suggested to her she needs to as it will only get worse. not sure if she will. just had to have a short break there. anyway, the girls were delightful and played games and entertained. I love my Nanny. i guess though, what I am wishing for her, above all else is to maintain the dignity she has always had.

after they left, we finished off the day with doctor who and time team, feeling rather subdued.

today i haven’t felt much better TBH, and realising we had let a few home-ed things slip through our fingers hasn’t helped self esteem much. we could do a lot better really. we neither go out loads, or do ‘normals’ or projects and stuff, and well, blah!

But today, SB has done a lot, and it hasn’t made me feel any more competent! She did some galore park english – we are working through one tiny section at a time, as she really isn’t keen on writing, but is wanting to get better. she wrote a lot, and although the spelling is highly imaginative, she is getting the idea. She spent ages beading – i have a bracelet and some presents have been made, and also playing with Barbies. The birds have been fed again. She also did piano practice. Together we have done some conversational french, and a quick look at chapter 1 and 2 minimus vocab – as she said on the way home from melrose then only latin word she knew was fatigata! Also, whilst she was painting a picture of soap for sketch tuesday, i read something from SotW on the Jewish diaspora – but i don’t really think she listens when she crafts, as she has a ferocious concentration face!

BB has done a bit of her before the code, read with me a level one oxford reading tree – she read mum and dad, and i did the rest, we looked at the piccies and letters etc. SHe has also painted, sang songs, played with her paper castle, and periodically screeched!!

ho hum

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

Melrose 2009

Posted on February 15, 2009 by | 14 comments

well, where do you start? it was utterly fabulous. I have always been greatful to mrs muddlepuddle for starting out the melrose early years winter camp. this year was no exception. and we had snow!

we arrived just in the nick of time to put the pasta sauce on for the starving hordes, and well received! we met and gret [meeted and greeted?] new faces, old faces and firm friends, made from the very first muddlepuddle camp we ever attended 4 years ago [did i mention i was greatful?] then we got down to business, children playing elswhere and parents chatting, wine timing and playing games. the kids might call this ‘the snowy melrose’ but for us adults, it might well be ‘the games melrose’.

snow: oK, i am not going to do a blow by blow account – quite! we all had fun in the snow. the sledges [i got more off as it came to under a tenner for 2!] i bought at the last minute – and nearly sent back :roll: due to colour arguments – were well worth the pennies, and were used a lot every day by our kids and others – was pleased how well the sharing thing worked. the portico also brought sledges – rather cool silicon mat type thingies. so yes, snow was a key part of the melrose experience this year.

Gaming, was a v adult part of the experience! i really REALLY enjoyed stone age and Pandemic, and would be happy to play those lots. others played carcassonne and mission 44 and blokus, but i settled for those 2! lots of the adults got involved, and what with those stitching beside giving helpful commentary, it was all v sociable.

communal food was all delish. thanks to all the other makers. luckilly i didn’t over cater on the cooking front quite so outrageously. things to remember for next time 3kg rice is plenty. 5kg potatoes, 4 tins peas, 12 tins toms, 3 caulis, 1 tube garlic paste, 1 bag red lentils, 1 bag split yellow peas or channa, 10 onions, 1 tube tom paste, 1 spice pot bombay spices, 1 spice pot korma. only need 1 large yoghurt pot! with 1 little bag mint leaves and 1 cucumber.

crafts/activities. three cheers for nattyandplusone [avoiding google hits there!!] for providing felting and a computer gaming workshop. both my 2 got a lot out of them. i particularly loved the care and effort and significant attention bb put into her dinodoor scene [shh, its a secret present for daddybean], and they both worked hard on their ideas and looks for the computer game. finally they, courtesy of bead merrily, fimo-ed for ages, particularly BB as SB was off playing and practicing for the show at the end of the week. i also fimo-ed some aliens, and did a special one to one workshop with Jpie on fimo snowmen.I also did an ad hoc activity, and prepared skye boat song for the instruments available. in the end it was done when none of the guitarrists, or my children, where present. oh well! however, fran did a fab job with the sightreading of a lovelty cello part, various adults held the tune, and various children played d and e at mostly the right time. we heard e’s glock for the first time too.

music: i got to play the violin some more with em. always a joy. we snuck off and remained hidden for a fair while until required to be parents again! next time, if fran there, may simplify the continuo and see if she is interested…

escaping the hostel. well, we didn’t do dynamic earth this year, and though i planned to visit jedburgh and mary queen of scots house, a migraine put paid to that. and somehow – prob due to the snow, we didn’t swim in galashiels either. However, chris, SB and the manor borns walked up to a trig point, and then scudded down on their bottoms in the snow! i had an amble around Melrose with merry and 2 of her girls, and that was about it for us as i failed to persuade SB to walk to trimontium.

playing: well, the girls appeared to do a lot of that. Seemed to be mostly very smooth as well with little flouncing and bouncing – always good. BB also packed in some TV watching. There was a cabaret at the end put on by the kids and compered excellently by gwenny – nice to see the portico holding on to their traditional roles :lol: SB did a fab gym routine and also a leaping lunatics dance, and finally a bit of recordering. after some rather good clowning act moments – including heckling by small – BB also did some recordering. lovely acts from all in it i thought.

challenging moments: well, i thought i had better before BB was outed too!! ‘i’m not tired’ wail shriek and full tantrum. lovely! I saw you all giggle, particularly Marcus! to say that BB was challenged and challenging whenever she didn’t get what she wanted from her parents is an understatement. Luckilly no more than 25% of the time – :roll: but am wondering what she was doing when out of our view…

So there was melrose. do you wish you had gone? you would have enjoyed it!!

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