I didn’t do so well today. firstly, i thought we were having people come to show off their dvd, so had planned to do non-newtonian fluid mess in the garden. they didn’t come, and it was raining! and secondly, i was rather thrown off kilter by a family phone call.
luckilly, Merry came with a basket of fimo, gina with boomwhackers [Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set
Today could have been so difficult, and i did nip off to do some piano practice, and field calls, but having good and understanding friends around was really helpful. snacks and playings took place, and we had a go at extracting dna from kiwi. this was successful in the stuff i whizzed up, but not as visible as i would have liked, so may fiddle with the experiment, and we will do it again at some point. [as an aside, i am watching that human evolution progra,,e on the tv, and am rather impressed at my 6 finger touch typing skills!]
everyone eventually left at 5, and we have maddy on a sleepover. the girls all played some more, initially a variety of imaginative games, then beetle drive and then monopoly. we looked up the lso concert for next monday, and SB and Maddy had a go playing ode to joy on the recorder with me – not bad, but diff to get up to speed, so we have a back up plan of playing an A. SB then got the trumpet out, and they trumpetted, recordered and jingled through the leonard bernstein version. dinner and eventually bedtime, which SB and Maddy seem to have done without any hitches.
and built on that with a bit of conversation and description. also looked at some stone age books 
and i think just generally played in the sun. OOOH I remember!! we went easter egg hunting at ‘the big house’ [which is v lovely!] BB cycled there and back as she is ace now at cycling. she can also get herself going now. she was enjoying skidding on the gravel there, and did come off, unfortunately. the other thing we did was bribe the girls 1p for every dandelion flower they picked. this is chris’s idea to cut down on the seeds floating about. i think 10p per plant with some root might have been a better bet. this has cost us about a fiver so far!! SB did some VR [has finished the NVR book]
. this was about marco polo, and both SB and BB were quite enthusiastic about it, so i read around with 
. both v happy. we did a bit more french with 
, and then put up the play tent, and chris got out his spacepacker, so a fair bit of tenting and general play went on. i finished my book 
. actually will recommend this one 
, that i read whilst away, and also this one 
, but i left this one 
in the travelodge as disliked intensly – and gave me nightmares and an unsettled feeling which is no good if there is no husband to cuddle!! [i think the amazon reviewers are in agreement!]
, and 
[obviously one of BB's books!!] 
being a firm favourite, but also the train game – 
. and then when she was we played rummy and donkey. my B-I-L has decided he loves playing games when here, so that is fab, and we had a go at settlers and at 
] When I got home, read books and played games with BB [don't wake dad and who's who] whilst snuggling SB and she did some maths, then chatted about animal crossing, oh and we watched dr who i think. Chris and I started the latest series of BSG [
, which i have really enjoyed [ although as reading 
to SB at the moment, i have felt a bit over-romaned at times!!]. [small break to get to part 
[
which we were evenly matched for as i was on treble, so finally coming to grips with what the notes actually are. She just had a few counting issues, but even the low D noticeably better, and we both decided that it had def been fun.
and enjoying it. [
and nots and tots tomorrow 
and
books – which she thinks are just fab! since these are the first she has done, i got her the lower of the 2 poss years, but she is finding them v easy. so that’s good as gets her confident, and should race through a bit!! to buy books for one and not the other is daft, so a quickie amazon order, and SB also got 
, which she has taken to bed to read and 
whilst BB got 
and 
etc sets] and was having fun when Merry and girls arrived. they all got straight into investigating gears and making the 
, and SB and Maddy read some french together. merry and i got science ready, as some of the natives were getting restless! we started with talking about building blocks of food, and then looked with iodine at which common foods contained starch. this was pretty good fun! led into the next section with maddy noticing the paper also turned starch a bluey black colour, so we did secret writing with lemon juice. A pause for lunch, and then we iodine washed them to see the pictures underneath. the bigger 4 then played with a fab kit that merry is stocking, 
, which is absolutely fab, and comes with my full recommendation! The big 4 did all but the last bit, and then went outside to play – and used the kits in some convoluted game! the little 2 had been playing beautifully with the gears together, making up a story, and then played together outside happily.
[for a change!] bB keeps getting sore eyes with fimo-ing, and is rubbing them alot at the mo, so i had her a damp cloth to dab her eyes. not sure what else to do, as she loves fimoing.
, so i have bought her a new one, 
, to BB. that girl deserves a gold star!! SHe hama-ed beside me, and we did some chapter 1 and 2 revision of 
, as she is variable in her recall 
but i have to say, when i read our french book, 
, she was excellent, so I do think that french, at the mo, is working for us, even if inefficient, and i wish i knew more words!!
just as i was hoping the earth would open, SB asked a sensible question about the paper with holes in it. phew, exit not too embarrassedly. we really enjoyed the flight section – particularly bB who loved investigating the engines. i realised i had remembered more than i thought about the air traffic simulator i had had a go on as a child [my dad an ATC] and rather liked looking at it, and we searched for him in the relevant photos but didn’t find him.We had a short romp around the boats, and longer look at the ‘firsts’ [most impressed by stevensons rocket and Apollo 11 lander] and a bit of a play for bb in the pod bit. we were all tired then and made a break for home.
and 
and 
] and recordered [more a's and b's] SB wrote BB a recorder piece in a’s and b’s – lovely of her. we read some french alltogether, did a fair bit of playing and reading altogether. watched the second ood thing, read some SOTW [ages since we did that, are reading about gengis khan] and SB currently in bed listing to our island story vol 2. [23:28 - but interruptions from chris - also blogging same days - and SB - can't sleep as windy]